SEO, or also known as Search Engine Optimization, is the most important form of online marketing today. Reputation building and business promotion depend on a successful SEO campaign. It would be too costly to build an in-house SEO team for many businesses.
Hiring an SEO consultant isn’t different from hiring a new employee for other services. You only need to ask questions to verify his or her suitability for your business. Don’t hire someone just because of how well they deliver their promises to get your page on top. A sound understanding of your goals and locale can be powerful tools in the right hands. Looking for SEO Boise agencies could help you take your strategy to the next level. Know-how, experience, and intuition are crucial for anyone helping you elevate your marketing plan. Be sure to identify where your money will go when you hire an SEO consultant.
Below are 12 critical factors that you need to check before you hire an SEO Consultant.
- Search engine guidelines. For a time now, many SEO companies have gotten away with messy SEO tricks. As a matter of fact, search engines have improved to prevent spamming websites to appear everywhere on the search results. Google Panda and Penguin updates are helpful tools to get rid of those spamming sites.
If your SEO consultant doesn’t follow the search engine guidelines, then your page is most likely to be penalized. It will also cost you a lot eventually. Make sure to check how your consultant is doing, and that he follows the guidelines for webmasters. Do this before you hand your business over to a consultant.
- Case study. You will need to asses the reason why your webpage doesn’t rank well on the search engine results. You can ask the consultant for a full audit and then find out what the drawbacks are. Identify your competitors and then get an idea of the competition.
Doing these will help you get on top of the search results. These will also help you evaluate your current ranking and then track your progress.
- Any changes to the website. An SEO campaign will work properly if you make the necessary changes. These changes may be with the content, designs, navigations, and even more. But first, you need to be sure that your consultant is the right person to make the changes. You should also ask the consultant to inform you of whatever changes need to be made.
To build up trust, you can even sign off the changes, at least for the first couple of weeks. If you need to make big changes with your page, you should ask your developer or the SEO consultant. This will help you determine if they have the skill set needed to handle the issue. You wouldn’t’ want to put your business at risk simply because an amateur handles your website.
- Work Plans. As soon as you have your case study prepared, you’ll need to ask for the work plan. A good SEO consultant should be the one to generate suitable energy. He should discuss every step with you briefly, and should not keep anything hidden from you. If your consultant doesn’t want to discuss the details with you, you should find another one. This kind of consultant may cause harm to your webpage.
- Local Search Results. When people look for keywords, Google will show a list of businesses. Local SEO can help you get to the top of the search results for a specific area. Small and local businesses can benefit from local SEO. It’s quite difficult to get organic results. Besides, you can never be sure. This is why you need to hire a Los Angeles SEO consultant with a lot of experience when it comes to local SEO.
- Success Parameters. A good search results ranking doesn’t always mean a webpage is getting good traffic. You will need to set the right parameter in order to track your progress. Bing and Google analytics show the appearance of your webpage for different traffic and searches from different webpages.
So, ask your consultant how he is going to convert more traffic. Also, ask how he can bring more potential customers to your page.
- Any on-page changes. Your content is the most important factor in the world of SEO. You will need to ask your consultant if he is going to create new content or if he is going to work with your old one.
If new content is needed, you have to check his experience in creating quality content on various topics. You can also check the fluency and quality of the language. You may also want to ask why any on-page changes need to be made.
- Cost. The cost is one of the very important factors in SEO. You don’t want to spend more than you need to. Thus, make sure to get quotes from different SEO consultants, too.
- Content ownership. As a webpage owner, you must ensure that all content and links generated during the SEO project are yours. Even if the contract ends early, you need to have a proper agreement so that they won’t make any changes after it ends.
- Keywords. Your consultant should not use targeted keywords anymore. SEO companies have adapted to new trends so should your consultant. If your consultant suggests targeting 5 or 10 keywords, then you need to choose another one.
- Regular communication. It’s important to have regular communication in order to track your progress. So, you should set how frequently you want to communicate with your consultant. You can do it daily, weekly, or monthly, based on your preferences.
- “No #1 Ranking”. Many companies use this to lure you into their trap. They will guarantee you #1 SERPs. But know that this is just a scam. There really is no guarantee to get the first spot. The goal should be on the top 5 or top 3 at least.
These are the important factors that you need to consider when hiring an SEO consultant. If you want to make sure you get the most out of what you’re paying, you should choose Jimmy Huh. Check out their site and tell us what you think.
