Choosing an SEO company to manage your organic visibility is a big investment step for the marketing of your business or website. It makes sense to work with a digital marketing agency who is both trustworthy and an authority in the field of search engine optimisation. So, how do you find the SEO agency that is the right fit for your business?
If you’re not sure how to pick a good SEO company, weeding out the legitimate companies from the not-so-good companies can be tricky. In such an over-saturated and competitive industry, there are thousands of SEO agencies that claim to be the best of the best.
When it comes to choosing an SEO agency to manage your organic visibility, your focus should be on finding someone who is trustworthy, legitimate and prioritises your core business values. Tangible results cannot be achieved overnight; however, optimising a website does not require knowing “Google’s secrets” and a magic dose of technicalities. While we can’t tell you which agencies to work with and who to avoid, we can provide some simple guidelines on how to choose an SEO company that will ensure the agency that you choose has your business’s best interests at heart.
How to Choose an SEO Company
92% of all search traffic goes to the first page of Google. It’s a scary thought, but one that highlights just how important and valuable an SEO strategy is for the success of a business.
In 2020, search engine optimisation is the key to finding the most profitable opportunities online. Getting started can be tough – if you’re wondering how to choose an SEO company for your business, fret not. We’ve put together 6 of the most basic guidelines to help distinguish which SEO company is best for your business.
In the simplest terms, how to pick a good SEO company for your business comes down to understanding the value of high-quality search engine optimisation. The sooner you consider SEO to be an investment to your entity, the sooner you will understand how much significance to place on choosing an SEO company.
Let’s be clear. Search engine optimisation for your company or website is a business service. If you’re on our website, it goes without saying that SEO is not an overnight project, and partnering with the right SEO company is absolutely fundamental, as SEO is a long-term game. If you want to reap the benefits of working with a good SEO agency, you need to understand that good SEO takes time, investment, and vision.
Without delving any further into the value of SEO in 2020 (you can find more on that here), here are our top six simple rules to follow when choosing an SEO agency:
1. Avoid Companies That Cannot Explain Your SEO Campaign
Sure, the technicalities of search engine optimisation can be confusing. However, it’s not black magic. If an SEO company cannot explain the basics of what an SEO campaign will look like for your business, they are likely just as confused as you.
The concept of SEO is actually straightforward: Users rely on Google Search to find products, services, and information. If you’re ranking well in Google for the right search terms, you will get more traffic to your website. More organic traffic means more calls, enquiries and purchases. An increase in sales means an increase in revenue. Voila.
Every business is entirely different, and so, SEO strategies will vary depending on what will be most beneficial to the business. However, white hat SEO is transferable, and the strategy put in place during an SEO campaign should be able to be easily explained. When choosing an SEO company, find an agency that will ask about your business, and explain how SEO will benefit your company, in layman’s terms. And if they can’t? Look elsewhere.
2. Work Out What Exactly You Want to Achieve With SEO
If you’re wondering how to pick a good SEO company, start with setting some goals. If you have a basic understanding of what SEO can do for your business and what you’re aiming to achieve, you’ll be able to identify with a company who is on the same page as you (hopefully page one).
Before beginning the hiring process, define your business’s goals right away. Is there a specific keyword that you would like to rank for, a revenue goal that you’d like to make, or do you want to increase the visibility of your business in your local area?
Work out exactly what you want to achieve before allowing an SEO company to tell you what you should want to achieve. Then, during your initial consultation, state the goals you’re hoping to achieve: a good SEO company will be able to tell you which are tangible and discuss how you can reach those objectives.
3. Choose an SEO Company That Is Ranking Their Own Website
There is a common misconception that businesses need to find SEO agencies through word-of-mouth or through professional networking. This goes against everything search engine optimisation stands for. Do a quick Google of “SEO + Your Location”. The reason these websites are ranking on the first page of search results is not that they are huge authorisations or have drawn the lucky straw. SEO is one of the most challenging industries to rank well in search results. Businesses ranking well in search results for SEO services are doing so because they know how to do SEO; the proof really is in the pudding.
Choosing an SEO agency through any other means of a Google Search completely undermines the whole concept of using organic search as a marketing channel. If you’re wondering how to choose an SEO company, but don’t believe in trawling Google when making your selections, why do you intend in implementing SEO for your own website?
If an SEO company can’t even be bothered to prove that they are legitimate by means of ranking their own website, they are not going to be dedicated to getting your website to rank well. An SEO company that can implement optimisations to get their own website ranking is one that will diligently do everything they can to provide the same kind of organic visibility for your business.
4. Do Your Homework
When choosing an SEO company to work with, dig a little deeper. Our top tip for choosing an SEO agency or how to choose an SEO company is to get an understanding of the prospective candidates. Ask the company for case studies, look for online reviews and do a little bit of homework to get an idea of the company’s performance and experience in the industry.
The company that you choose to work on your SEO campaign should be trustworthy, knowledgeable, flexible and ideally, have experience in your product or service area. For example, a roofing company looking for an SEO agency should find one that has experience in the service-based industry and has previously worked with plumbers, builders or similar trade service-style websites.
Anyone can provide a smooth sales pitch – online reviews and case studies should give you a clear understanding of how this company performs with real businesses. If an SEO company cannot provide a portfolio of previous campaigns, something fishy is going on.
5. Choose An SEO Company That Measures & Communicates
The beauty of search engine marketing and the digital space is that everything we do is entirely trackable. From Google Analytics to Search Console, keyword trackers and a myriad of third-party user tracking tools, you can measure every aspect of your organic visibility. You can even track every move a user makes once they click through to your website. The moment you start to look into your website’s online presence, you can measure how it performs in search results.
Work with a company that will provide clear, measurable and relevant data for everything they are doing. Regardless of what your SEO objectives are, a business will be able to track your progress and provide analytics for the work they are doing. A good SEO company will not shy away from communication and sharing these tools with you. In fact, if they’re doing good work, they’ll want you to know all about it!
Different businesses will have different goals, KPIs and objectives. All of this data can easily be tracked with Google and third-party tools. If an SEO company refuses to share any data other than a report every couple of months, something is up. Not only should you have access to regular reporting, but choosing a good SEO company will offer active and open communication on how your website is performing.
6. Do Not Choose the Cheapest SEO Package
Finally, if you’re Googling “How to choose an SEO company”, chances are, you’ve considered how much you want to spend on SEO. How much SEO costs and the value of an SEO campaign really comes down to the type of business you operate, and what you’re hoping to achieve with SEO.
We understand how important budgeting is when it comes to marketing your business. As a small business, everything that you invest into your company should be measured with a strict ROI. And while we can all be tempted by an attractive bargain; we strongly advise that businesses steer clear of cheap SEO packages and bundles, and opt for a company that specialises in SEO for small businesses.
There is a strong correlation between low budget SEO services and very, very bad SEO. And we don’t necessarily mean bad to suggest that they will do nothing for your website. Because doing nothing would actually be preferable over the black hat SEO tactics that we so frequently have to clean up after. Cheap SEO companies can afford to offer dirt-cheap services by engaging in spammy, low-quality black hat SEO techniques that put websites directly at risk of a Google penalty. Not only will cheap SEO damage your online reputation, demote the value of your website and be a complete waste of money but reversing the effects of cheap SEO can quickly become very expensive.
Wrapping Up How to Choose an SEO Agency
As an SEO agency, we cannot stress enough how fundamental choosing the right agency is for your business. The difference in good SEO and bad SEO is not merely a matter of a waste of money; bad SEO can be detrimental to the reputation of a company.
Search engine optimisation is a fantastic marketing channel that when executed correctly, can turn small businesses into thriving success stories. If you’re not sure how to choose an SEO company to optimise your website, follow these guidelines to lead you to a specialist that you can confidently invest in. Your SEO agency should be transparent, communicative and ready to find your most lucrative options online: because that’s what your business deserves.
At Safari Digital SEO Agency, we are a team of dedicated search engine optimisation specialists who are passionate about helping small, large, and enterprise level businesses in Australia grow online. We don’t do paid advertising, and we don’t do social media. We do SEO, and we do it really well.
With so many agencies promising “first page results”, our philosophy centres on finding your best opportunities online. We’re not just interested in putting our clients on the first page of Google – we focus on lucrative keywords that are going to increase visibility, organic traffic and generate high-quality leads for your business.
Get in touch with one of our friendly specialists today to discuss your SEO consultation with Safari Digital SEO. We’ll examine your current position and show you exactly how we can get you to where you want to be with a customised Australian SEO campaign.