10 Factors to Consider When Cooperating with an SEO Agency
If you are a business owner and have a website, you will probably need search engine optimization, also known as SEO, at some point to increase your page’s visibility.
The website is a big investment; But if no one sees your site except your family and friends, it won’t be of much use. Companies with limited budgets often do research and try to solve this problem on their own. While some succeed, others start looking for an affordable SEO company.
Although there are many successful SEO agencies in the industry, companies generally turn to the agency that currently ranks first on Google. If they can make themselves number one, it seems likely that they can do the same for the company they work for.
But that doesn’t always have to be the case. As with any inter-institutional service, a single Google search may not be enough. SEO is not a one size fits all solution and not everyone does it the same way. Quality SEO agencies are aware of this. If you are also an SEO agency you are looking for one, there are questions you need to ask to secure your job and logical reasons to be skeptical of promises made.
Here are 10 things to be careful about when looking for an SEO company. A quality SEO company does not have the following features.
Buying Links
In your SEO research, you may have noticed that links are good for websites. Although this is largely true, it can also be sent to your website if links are provided carelessly.
If an SEO company says it will get you hundreds or even thousands of links quickly, there’s only one thing you need to do: run away quickly.
The fastest way to get backlinks is to buy them. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to buy long-term and useful links to your site. Google cares more about the quality of those links than the number of links on your site. For this, it has advanced algorithms that can distinguish between useful and poor-quality links. SEO companies often carry out this wrong practice out of laziness.
The backlink black market is full of harmful, low-quality links and puts your site’s link on a page with completely irrelevant links. Generating quality backlinks takes time and effort. The best links are those that come naturally because of offline efforts. If you’re a restaurant owner, getting your name mentioned in a well-known online magazine is a thousand times better than a million links that no one has read before.
Find out your SEO company’s stance on link building and ask questions about it.
Promising Fast Results
Doing it fast does not mean doing it right. Many harmful SEO practices change rankings quickly.
If we told you that we would take your page, which is not visited outside your immediate circle and has a three-month domain, to the first page of Google searches in less than a week with zero backlinks, you would be impressed, right?
Isn’t this what an SEO company should do? Why spend money if you’re not going to come first in line?
However, fast SEO is poor-quality SEO. Link buying, keyword compression, and using invisible text can get your site ranked quickly, but Google will likely detect this and penalize your site for trying to manipulate the system.
A quality SEO company makes monthly and annual plans to achieve goals. You will still see positive results, but it won’t happen overnight.
One Person Companies
Many people think they can do SEO work. There are a lot of entrepreneurial people who left SEO companies and started their SEO agencies. If they do their job well, there is no harm in that; But one person can’t give your site the attention it deserves, especially if they’re ambitious enough to deal with multiple clients at the same time. The best SEO companies have an expert team working for you.
New Entrants to the Sector
Even if it is a single person or a large team, you want to agree with a company that has become a leader in the industry and has solid references. A good SEO company has experience working with industries of all sizes, from a doctor’s clinic to a large retailer.
Not Making Comprehensive Reporting
When you write a check, you want to know where the money is going. Anyone can go into Google Analytics and get some statistics over a certain period. The “what” question is important in SEO, but the “why” and “how” provide a big return on investment (ROI).
You need to know if your traffic is increasing or decreasing. But do you know “why” it is increasing? Do you double-check the numbers in reports? Are you getting a lot of “referral traffic” but not sure of the source? Did you know that analytics numbers can be artificially inflated with crawler bots and that few people check them?
The best SEO companies look at the numbers and then evaluate how your campaigns can be improved. Maybe you need a new page for a certain product or service, or your site’s exit rate is very high because your content is not good. Maybe 45% of your site’s traffic comes from mobile devices, but your site does not have a mobile-responsive design and that’s why your target audience does not like it. Or maybe your site is in bad shape for reasons you can’t see, like duplicate content or fewer backlinks than it should be. Everything could be very bad, but you may never realize it.
Saying the Way to the Heart of Google Is Through Keywords
Of course, your content needs to be optimized. But this should be done unobtrusively and not distract potential customers.
Compressing keywords too much will not lead to good results. This is one of the harmful SEO practices that companies use to try to mislead Google.
Google defines keyword compression as follows:
“Filling a website with keywords and numbers to manipulate ranking results. These terms frequently show up in lists, groups, or out of context. Filling a page with keywords and numbers creates a negative user experience and negatively affects page ranking. Key “Focus on creating useful and informative content that will enable the use of words in context.”
Google loves meaningful content. He does not want to use keyword after keyword. Look at the websites of the references of the company you will be contracting with. How does the previous on-site work hold up? By examining in depth and identifying keywords, you can see how naturally they are used.
Hiding Your Apps with the Excuse of “Private”
Nothing should be secret in the SEO industry. You should know the tools the company uses, how they work, what they do, and at least have viewing permission in their Google Analytics account. Secrets lead to a bad operator-customer relationship.
You don’t want to pay money to a new company all over again to avoid the Google penalty caused by your old company’s harmful SEO tactics.
Not Going Back on Your Requests
It’s natural for customers to ask questions about SEO. They wouldn’t hire an SEO company if they didn’t need to ask questions. Whether it’s a simple question about reporting or a big question like implementing a new marketing strategy and where SEO fits in, the SEO firm should lend a helping hand on everything SEO-related.
Making a Lifetime Contract
Although quality SEO companies want to make long-term agreements, they should not commit you to them forever. You need to collaborate with your SEO company long enough to see that results are not just one-night solutions. If you have a deal with someone who doesn’t contact you, doesn’t provide detailed reports, and doesn’t do anything to improve your site, you shouldn’t be paying them every month with a two-year contractual obligation.
Not Taking Time to Get to Know Your Business
Every job is unique. Every contract begins with a consultation process. Thanks to two-way communication, it is better understood what the job is and how it is done. Your website should reflect your general mission and vision and comply with industry regulations and brand initiatives. Additionally, you should have the opportunity to see the changes made by the SEO company to your site’s content before the company publishes it.
