Looking for the right SEO agency can be a real pain.
It’s one thing to find a couple potential candidates that you think would be a good fit, but what’s the best way to determine exactly which one of these finalists is best equipped to suit your company’s needs?
Part OneOpens a new window of this series on Finding The Right SEO Agency For Your Company looks at what you need to think about when starting this process. So start there, if you haven’t already, before reading on.
Now that you have…it’s now time to consider the best practices to zero in on exactly which SEO agency to pick when deliberating among the final few.
Specifically, let’s go over the key types of questions you should be asking and what to look for in the answers.
Ask about their day-to-day communication and reporting process
From the start, it’s important to know what to expect in terms of communication.
However, you’ll want to go deeper than triggering a mere answer to the obvious question of how often you can expect to receive SEO data and feedback.
Find out what specific metrics they report on and what they’ll need from your side. How often will they require you to collect and share that information?
These are especially critical questions as the last thing you want is to sign a contract only to find out your company doesn’t have the resource capabilities to easily provide the agency with what they need to get results.
Once you have those answers, you should then ask the agency why they prioritize those metrics, and ask yourself whether those answers align with your own marketing goals.
On that note, their answers should show that the agency understands this is a two-way relationship. Indeed, you’ll want to be kept in the loop as to how your campaign is performing, but they should also be open to changing and adapting their work as required if and when your business goals shift.
On a technical level, it’s also good to know what level of access you would have to any analytics accounts. For example, will you have access to AdWords, CMS, FTP…?
It could be problematic if they are hesitant to provide you reasonable levels of access because they will maintain so much control over your analytics that it will be very hard to leave them should that time come
Ask about their quoting process
Don’t just ask for a quote and leave it at that.
How did they arrive at that figure? Do they have a set list of contracts they choose from?
Suss out if they have pricing tiers. If they do, that’s a big red flag. SEO shouldn’t have one-size-fits-all solutions.
Generally, what they are charging you should be customized to reflect your brand’s goals by offering SEO work especially designed to meet your needs, and a fixed pricing structure implies they are using a non-tailored approach in their service.
If you are talking to a salesperson, ask to speak to whomever will actually be doing the SEO work before committing. SEO sales representatives often try to oversell potential clients more than they actually need.
While this is less likely to be possible with bigger agencies, smaller, specialized SEO agencies will most likely be happy to comply.
Find out what KPIs they will use to measure success
Be wary of a promise of performance guarantees. The best SEO experts would never make such promises because they know that every company and website is unique – and there is no such thing as guaranteed success. SEO is ever-evolvingOpens a new window and complex.
Sure, they may be able to optimize your website to rank better for some specific search terms and phrases, but does that actually guarantee increased traffic or, more importantly, ROI?
When you ask an agency rep about KPIs, she should tell you about the process the agency thinks would be best for your company and particular ambitions.
A common trick of less reputable SEO agencies is to vow to make your website reach the top of search engine rankings for very specific terms and phrases common to your industry. Crucially, though, they should also tell you why those searches are so important.
Real SEO experts pick keywords that lead to conversions. In other words, those agencies can figure out which searches are made by individuals that actually make purchases.
SEO agencies worth their salt understand that what they are doing is, in large part, in the interest of ROI. That should be clear in the KPIs they say they will use.
A great follow-up after reviewing KPIs is to ask what they do when things aren’t going to plan? How will they react if their process isn’t working? Ask for examples of how they have changed their approach when they weren’t getting the results they expected for their clients.
In conclusion…
Even if you do everything right to find the best and most reputable SEO agency possible, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get the results you want.
SEO, especially when done right, is expensive, and you don’t want to get caught paying for something that just isn’t working. Make sure your contract allows you to opt out without severe penalties, as long as you give several weeks’ or a month’s notice.