A Definitive Guide For Website Owners On How To Choose An SEO Company

Outsourcing your SEO is perhaps the smartest decision you’ll make for your business/eCommerce website. You can take a huge load off your shoulders by letting professional SEO services providers take care of your website SEO while you spend time improving your business protocol and managing other ignored segments. However, many people have no idea of how to find a good SEO consultant when they first decide that they need to hire professional help. Of course, you’d want the best SEO marketing consultant for your website to ensure impressive results, and for that, you need to understand what SEO companies do and how to choose the right one for your needs – in this article, we’ll address both.

What Is An SEO Agency: An Overview

Before we go any further with our discussion on how to choose an SEO agency, it’s important to understand what kinds of website expert services they can offer. So, what is an SEO company? It's all in the name actually, but an SEO service provider will do much more than just suggesting a bunch of keywords for you to add to your content. The whole process is much more meticulous than what it appears to be on the surface, which is exactly why outsourcing your SEO efforts to qualified professionals is always a productive decision. Generally, SEO companies audit their clients' websites, create detailed and layered keyword maps specifically for them, manage their link-building network, and more. All in all, an SEO company manages all things related to a website's online visibility (including the visibility and readability factor) to get you more views and a better ROI.

What Do SEO Companies Do: A Summary

Choosing a good SEO company is only part of your concern, you also need to understand what you can get out of your business relationship with the said company. Search engine optimization may seem quite simple on the surface, but the intricacies of the process necessitate that you understand how to choose the right SEO company so that you can get the best results.

Here’s a brief rundown of what SEO companies do in general:

And more…

How Do Companies Choose An SEO Company?

Generally, when we talk about how to choose the best SEO company, the focus is on what a company "should" see in an SEO agency. However, we do know that certain factors affect hiring rates more than others. Research indicates that the following are the top factors that contribute to the hiring of SEO agencies by companies, you could also see this as a list of what to look for in an SEO company:

• Referrals
• Company’s grasp over the SEO protocol
• Office locations
• Reputation and past performances
• Company culture
• Price vs. value
• Specialization of the company
• Cold calling
• Email/newsletter marketing

Normally, businesses like to compare the services and even spend some time on in-depth analysis of the previous results (offered by the company) to see if they would be reliable enough. Of course, choosing a good SEO company should not be overly complicated, but one must make sure that they're deciding for the right reasons. When it comes to the success of your business website, you can't rely on anyone but the best.

How To Choose SEO Agency For Your Business Website?

Now, on to the more important question: how to find the right SEO company for YOUR website. We’ve already covered what companies generally look for in an SEO agency, but how can you approach the decision so that you get the best results?

Here’s what to look for when choosing an SEO company:

#1 Know What To Look For In An SEO Company

If you’re wondering how to find a good SEO consultant, you first need to start by identifying what YOU need. Identifying your goals with regard to SEO is integral for choosing the best specialists for your site. Your goal should be to set concrete goals (what you want to achieve) for your website and then see if the service provider can help you accomplish those.

Here’s a list of things you could expect from an SEO agency:

• Improving the organic traffic flow coming your way 
• Better lead generation
• More sales/orders for your services
• Enhanced brand impact and outreach
• Keeping users and clients engaged with content
• Targeting potential clients and customers specifically
• Managing your business reputation in a much better way 
• Improving customer service through self-help material

And so on…

If you have a general understanding of what do SEO companies do, you’d know that all of this is doable for any reliable SEO company.

#2 Check And Compare SEO Companies Before You Finalize Your Decision

Next in line for “how to find a good SEO consultant,” would be competitor comparison. You need to see who offers the best service and the best results, and how much does it cost. While you should never go cheap on such things, doling out your hard gotten gains for little value is not a good idea either. If you know what SEO companies do and how much all of it costs, you should be able to make an informed decision.

Referrals are a great way of getting in touch with qualified and reliable service providers. If an SEO company has previously demonstrated good business ethics with someone you know, they are likely to perform well with you as well. You can always do some homework of your own as well here to be sure that you’re getting the best deal. This is important if you’re concerned about how to choose an SEO company as it will give you concrete data to base your final decision on for your business website.

#3 Look For SEO Cases And Examples

This is another important factor on our list. If you’re caught in a state of indecision, you can always make up your mind once you’ve gone through the company’s portfolio. Ask them to present SEO cases so you can see how they manage their projects; this is one of the essentials of “how to find the right SEO company.” Remember, if they hand over an old SEO case, then they are probably not up to date with the latest trends in the SEO arena.

#4 Pay A Visit To SEO Companies

While having a local office is not necessary for an SEO company, it is surely a huge plus point as it allows you to see how they work. Also, you can ask concerning questions from the SEO specialists there so you know that you’re handing your project to someone who can best handle it. This is among the most important things on our list. If after all your research and comparisons, you’re still confused about how to find the right SEO company, perhaps an in-person visit can give you much-needed perspective.

Questions To Ask When Choosing A Good SEO Company

Now that you understand a bit about the process, you should also know what to ask. Based on the responses from your candidates, you will be able to make much better decisions than otherwise possible. If you’re still not fully sure about how to choose an SEO company, asking the following questions can help you make an informed decision:

#1) What’s in my current contract?

Here, the SEO specialist should list down all the features and perks being offered, if you think that the package is competitive for the given price, then all’s good.

#2) What’s the process to cancel?

You must know if there is a way out.

There’s no point dragging a contract on and on even if you’re not satisfied with the way things are working out.

#3) How will we communicate and how often?

Communication is key to the success of your endeavors – you need to be sure that you’ll get to talk to your SEO service provider and constantly exchange ideas and feedback to make things better. Accessibility is one of those areas where there can be no compromise.

#4) Will I own my website?

The answer to this can be nothing but an absolute "yes" – if you want your SEO agency to create a new website from scratch (they would also need to have web developers and designers on board), you should have the ownership rights to the site.

#5) Do you provide performance guarantees?

Guarantees are a reflection of the confidence that the professional has in their work. If they can't guarantee results for their endeavors, it means that their strategies have failed to perform optimally in the past – not a good indicator.

#6) Have you done work like this for companies similar to mine?

There is no substitute for experience, ask your service provider if they've had a similar experience in the past and what were the results of the same.

#7) What contracts, budgets, and options are available?

Having multiple options laid out in front of you will let you see what works best for you – if there are several tiers, you can pick the one that addresses your needs specifically and costs adequately.

#8) What are all your fees and payment options?

Payment options may not seem like a relevant factor here, but clearing up this part can save you lots of trouble down the road.

What To Avoid When Choosing A Good SEO Company?

After carefully going through our explanation on how to find the right SEO company, now you need to know about the pitfalls to avoid. Not all SEO protocols and packages are the same – you need to be able to separate the good from the bad.

Here are two areas where there can be no compromise:

Don't Pick By Cheap Price

We’re not saying that money shouldn’t be an object – of course, you have your budgetary considerations, but don’t let the price tag be the defining factor here. You must consider value vs price if you know what to look for when choosing an SEO company. After all, the goal is to get a decent return on your investment; if you underfund your endeavors and end up with inadequate services, the return won’t be impressive either.

If you want to get the most from our guide on how to find the right SEO company, take this advice: consider it an investment, not an expense.

Black Hat SEO

This is the one prohibited region in the realm of SEO that seems lucrative but is a deadly trap, capable of undoing whatever progress your website has made so far. The key to choosing a good SEO company is understanding whether they know about black hat SEO and will for sure avoid such practices, i.e., keyword stuffing, buying backlinks, and so on. You can get an idea about whether or not your candidate will use black hat SEO by how they present their services.

If they promise the following, you need to back away immediately:

• Instantaneous success with the rankings
• Doubling the number of visitors to your site
• Tons of backlinks out of nowhere

And so on.

If you understand what is an SEO company, you'll know that all of these are unrealistic projections that may only be possible through black hat SEO practices like keyword stuffing. This may give you some level of immediate success, but the long-term ramifications will be bothersome.

Choose the Right SEO Company for Your Business - Choose DLD!

By now, hopefully, you have a much better understanding of how to choose an SEO agency and the merits of choosing a good SEO company. The idea was to acquaint you with the concept of SEO services and to give you a sense of what to expect from your service provider. At Direct Line Development, we make it a point to go through our clients' projects in great detail so we can understand their ultimate goals and then manage our SEO protocol in such a manner as to deliver those kinds of results. We are not just a regular SEO company, but instead have a deep understanding of what SEO is, how it works, and how to get clients for our customers through their websites.Expect premium ROI when you work with us.

At Direct Line Development, we tailor all our SEO protocols to suit the individual needs of our clients. 

Reach out to us now, and we’ll connect you with one of our specialists to discuss your project with you.