How To Choose A Professional SEO Agency

A successful Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, strategy can improve your company’s online presence, help generate leads and assist in converting those leads into customers. At the heart of an effective SEO strategy lies the integration of industry and company-specific keyword variations through your web content. The keywords increase the search ranking of your website to drive traffic to all its pages and build loyalty to your brand. You can easily harness the power of SEO to the benefit of your marketing program by working with a SEO agency. To get started, utilize this guide to find out why you need this partnership – and how to find the perfect SEO agency for your needs.

Why You Need A Professional SEO Agency

In an average year, Google makes up to 600 algorithm modifications with dozens majorly altering the way the ranking process works. With so many changes happening on a regular basis, staying on top of the leading trends and tactics could dominate your time as you build your SEO marketing program.

To continue to have time to run your business and promote its growth, you may need to partner with a professional SEO agency with a track record of achieving great results. Your SEO experts will help you create keyword-infused content, handle the technical details and quantify the results using precise metrics. SEO agencies also handle elements of the web development process, including the generation of meta data for display on search results pages.

With help from a skilled SEO expert, you can actively boost the results of your marketing program with a focus on optimizing conversion rates across the board.

What You Need To Know Before You Start Your Search

Before you can look for the best agency for your company’s needs, you must identify your goals, learn a bit about SEO and prepare to commit to the process. You can focus on any goals that can help improve your bottom line by using key analytics to measure your results and fine-tune your efforts. Look at your digital marketing program goals to determine if you would like to use SEO to boost traffic, improve conversion rates, increase local store traffic or build brand visibility.

To know what to expect through the SEO marketing process, it is important to read a quick primer on the subject to improve your understanding. Once you have increased your knowledge of SEO, reflect on your marketing program to determine if you are ready to get to work. Prepare to rise up to meet the demands of a successful SEO program to achieve all your marketing goals. From there, you should be ready to begin your search for a professional SEO agency.

Thing To Look For In A Professional SEO Agency

Throughout your search for a talented SEO agency, you must keep the following things in mind to ensure these experts can help you reach your marketing goals.

Case Studies Showing Real SEO ROI

First and foremost, you should always verify that the agency has a strong history of successful SEO results, preferably for companies in your industry. The agencies should have case studies backing up their claims of success available for your review.

Industry Certifications & Awards

You should try to look for agencies that have certifications showcasing their expertise with search engine marketing tactics. The team should show their data-driven approach with Google Analytics and Tag Manager certifications along with the completion of other continuing education programs. Also, look for awards that highlight the industry recognition the SEO team has received over the years.

Comprehensive & Integrated SEO Strategies

After confirming the success of each SEO agency under your consideration, you can look at their service packages to determine if they meet your expectations. The service packages should never just have a la carte options selected by the clients. Instead, the team should offer comprehensive SEO and digital services that are personalized for your company in particular.

Transparency & Clear Communication

An excellent SEO agency should always make transparency and clear communication a priority to best serve the needs of their clients. They should provide updates about your website performance and overall success of your marketing program on a monthly basis at the minimum. The team should focus on achieving great results that can be measured using your ideal key performance indicators. They should measure baseline data and show progress toward the goal through their informative reports

What To Avoid In A SEO Agency

Just as there are good things to watch for in your search for a professional SEO agency, red flags also exist. You can avoid partnering with the wrong team by watching for the following warning signs.

They Promise Top Rankings And Huge Traffic Numbers

Inexperienced or ineffective SEO agencies may only make vague claims of potential improvements from their marketing services. They may claim that you will get increased traffic, top rankings or more backlinks without quantifying those claims with actual data. These companies also tend to leave out key insights into their SEO tactics and procedures, leaving you in the dark about what they actually offer. An absence of transparency can also help indicate when an SEO agency just will not work for your needs.

Content Is Their Only Strategy

A great SEO marketing agency must go beyond simply producing blog content to have an impact on the search ranking of your website. Beware the agencies that only offer short, infrequent blogs as an integral part of their marketing strategy. The company should also create keyword maps, short and longform articles, web pages, meta data and analytics reports to build a truly effective SEO marketing program. The absence of monthly reporting and Google Analytics data is particularly telling, as it indicates that no true results are achieved with their SEO tactics.

Cheap Pricing

Although it is always awesome to get a great deal, cheap SEO service packages indicate that something is off with their procedures and results. Instead, the SEO agency should highlight their quality of service and quantifiable results to encourage their clients to select from their range of full-service personalized SEO marketing plans.

No Clear Point Of Contact

You should always receive an email or phone number of a clear point of contact with the company to ensure they have accountability. If the agency does not have a direct contact available, they should at least have a clear and accessible communication process in place for their clients.

Questions You Should Ask A SEO Agency

Once you narrow down your options, you can verify if the SEO agency will meet your business needs best by asking a series of important questions. Here's a quick list of questions you should ask when vetting SEO agencies:

• What is your client onboarding process?
• How do you approach creating SEO strategies?
• What does your reporting look like? How often?
• How do you leverage Google Analytics in your strategies?
• What industry tools do you use? How do you use them?
• What kind of access do we get to tools and reporting?
• Do we get a point of contact at your agency?
• Who is your SEO team? What's their experience?
• Do you provide regular audits of our website and SEO strategy?
• How are your contracts set up?

When you take the time to search for your ideal professional SEO agency, you can acquire the support you need to maximize the success of your marketing plan. Your efforts can potentially pay off in the form of a long-term partnership with a talented team of helpful SEO experts. Through this partnership, you can increase your site traffic, boost search rankings and improve conversion rates across the board.

Looking For A Professional SEO Agency?

Marcel Digital is a Chicago based digital marketing and web development agency that offers numerous services like SEO, paid media, website development, conversion rate optimization (CRO), Google Analytics management, and more. We staff the world's highest endorsed Moz Oracle (the world's #1 inbound marketing website) and are in the top 3% of Google Certified Partners in the world. Our comprehensive, integrated SEO strategies are focused on driving quality traffic and leads / sales to your website, showing you true SEO ROI. Contact us today if you'd like to learn more - we're always happy to chat!