
The Six Killer Questions You Have to Ask When Hiring an SEO Company
When researching SEO firms you’ve got to dig through a ton of dirt before you find a diamond. So, how do you know if a company has what it takes to deliver top-notch SEO services?
Why do you need an SEO agency in your corner?
Well, how does over $60 million in revenue from SEO alone sound?
That’s what White Sands Treatment Center got when they worked with me and my team at Over The Top SEO.
It all started with a single treatment center in Fort Myers, Florida.
White Sands came to us to ask for SEO that would get them where they needed to be in their nearest big market — Tampa. Unlike Fort Myers, Tampa is a fairly major location that offers up a ton of competition.
They wanted to get on top in Google Maps and in organic search results.
But our vision extended so much further than that. We wanted them to dominate the whole I-4 corridor. That put 50 locations on our radar!
The end result…
Top 1, 2, or 3 positions in all 50 of the locations we targeted.
White Sands went from 80 natural brand searches per month to 1,200.
And from SEO searches alone, the company has generated $60 million in revenue.
I’m not telling you all this to toot my own horn.
I’m saying that this is what’s possible when you work with a real SEO expert.
So you’re a business owner, looking to improve your SEO…
The problem you face is that so many people out there are claiming to be experts. And the reality is that most of them wouldn’t know good SEO if it slapped them in the face.
And you want an SEO campaign that’s going to drive the sort of revenue White Sands got with us.
To do that, you’ve got to work with the right people from the start. That means digging into what they’re doing by asking the right questions.
Here are the six you need to ask before you hire an SEO company.
Question #1 — What is SEO?
It seems like a basic thing, right?
You’d think so from the standard answers you’re going to get from most companies…
“SEO is about creating an online marketing strategy to get you to the top of Google. It involves content marketing, social media, and blah blah blah…”
Boring stuff you’ve heard before a hundred different times.
You’re looking for an SEO company that takes a different approach to this question. After all, if the same old crap worked for everybody, SEO would be easy.
Here’s what we have to say about SEO…
First, it isn’t the 1990s anymore. SEO has changed so dramatically since then that it’s practically unrecognizable.
Let me tell you what SEO is…
It’s the ability to change and adapt to whatever the search engines throw at you. It’s a deep level of actionable intelligence that’s designed to make sure you dominate your competition.
SEO is EVERYTHING!
It dictates whether your business thrives or dies in the most competitive online landscape we’ve ever seen.
It’s going to determine whether you’re even worthy to attract the attention of the people you’re selling to.
And most importantly, SEO can take any shape it chooses. Your SEO strategy isn’t going to look the same as anybody else’s SEO strategy.
SEO is about adapting to the challenges your business faces in the niche you want to take over.
So the standard answers just aren’t going to cut it. You’re looking for an SEO company that’s going to focus on you rather than the standard SEO garbage.
Question #2 — Do You Have any Case Studies?
If they say “no,” ditch them.
If they say “yes” and then give you a bunch of clients they’ve worked with who haven’t got results, guess what you do…
Ditch them.
Do you know what a good case study shows you?
Results.
That’s the be-all and end-all. If the agency you’re talking to can’t show you that their SEO services get results, they’re wasting your time.
I’ve already shown you the type of results we get — $60 million in revenue from SEO alone sounds pretty good, right?
How does $80 million sound?
That’s what we’ve generated from applying our own SEO expertise to the OTT SEO website. We’re Top 3 in Google in over 900 cities in the United States.
As a two-person startup, we went toe-to-toe with the major players and challenged them to a race to the top.
We won.
And we keep winning all over the world. We’ve got 150 first-page results in the UK, Canada, Israel, Brazil… and New Zealand too.
You’ve got to get the numbers from the company’s clients. But you’ve also got to see that they can do it for themselves. If your SEO company can’t give you a case study showing their own success, they’re not worth anything.
We can, which is why we’ve generated $80 million in revenue. With each case study we share with our new partners, the revenues we generate increase.
And think about it like this…
We’re going up against other SEO firms. These are people who know the game (or claim to) better than anybody else.
And we’re winning.
That’s what you’re looking for when you ask for case studies. You want to see that the SEO team you’re working with can win. Then, you want them to apply their strategies to your website.
Question #3 — What Are Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird?
They’re cute animals, right?
Sure…but they’re also three of the most important algorithms that Google uses to figure out where they should place your website.
And if the company you’re talking to can’t tell you, off the top of their head, why they’re important, you’ve got to ditch them.
Each one’s important if you’re going to rank high in Google.
So, what are the answers you’re looking for?
Panda
Panda is all about the content on your website. Google wants to make sure your customers only see content that’s relevant to them when they search for something.
This algorithm looks at whether your content’s any good or not. It figures out whether the content’s trustworthy edited well, and offers actual value to the reader.
That last part’s the important bit.
If the content doesn’t help the reader with whatever search query they’ve made, it’s garbage. And too much of this garbage on your website will lead to a manual penalty.
What’s a manual penalty?
It’s when Google punches you in the face for breaking its guidelines. You get taken out of the search rankings and told to clean up the crappy content. And even when you get reinstated, you can bet Google’s going to keep a close eye on you.
Penguin
Penguin does to your backlink profile what Panda does to your content.
Back in the 1990s, webmasters just tried to get links from any websites they could. It didn’t matter if the links were relevant or from sites people visited.
More links meant more trust, which meant better results in Google.
Now, what did I say at the top of this article?
It’s not the 1990s anymore and garbage links don’t work. They might give you a short-term boost. But in the long term, they’re going to get you that Google punch I mentioned with Panda.
And after this knockout blow, it’s a damn sight harder to pick yourself up off the canvas. If you get a Penguin-related manual penalty, you’re going to have to clean up your backlink profile. That’s weeks upon weeks of research, requests for link removal, and documenting.
The best remedy is not to put yourself in that position in the first place. That means you want your SEO company to be familiar with all the ins and outs of Penguin. They have to know all the nitty-gritty details, not just enough to say, “Creating backlinks optimizes your site…”
Hummingbird
Hummingbird changed the Google game back in 2013. And like everything else in Google, it’s been evolving constantly since then.
This algorithm change affects semantic search and Google’s Knowledge Graph. And if those terms don’t appear in the answer your SEO company gives you, then they don’t understand Hummingbird.
The whole idea behind semantic search is to understand the intent and context behind what somebody enters into a search engine. If they ask a question, they’re looking for a quick answer. The idea with Hummingbird is to provide that answer without the searcher having to look through a ton of websites.
So, you want your website to answer the questions your customers ask.
As for the Knowledge Graph…
Try entering something like “lasagna recipe” into Google. You’re going to see the usual search results. But you’re also going to see videos, related searches, and maybe even a full recipe on the search results page.
That’s the Knowledge Graph. Google’s delivering a bunch of content to you based on the intent and context of your search. And you’ve got to work with an SEO company that knows how to get your content on the Knowledge Graph.
Here’s the simple truth…
If the agency you’re talking to can’t tell you about any of this, then they’re not good enough for you. No ifs, ands, or buts.
They don’t get it, which means you’re not going to dominate.
Question #4 — What Are the Rules for Working With You?
This might sound like another weird question to ask.
But the success of any SEO strategy depends as much on you playing your part as it does the SEO company.
SEO is everything to you, and if you’re not willing to step up, you’re going to get left in the dust.
I can tell you my rules… I have six of them.
- Listen to everything we say about your website and what you need to do… and listen carefully.
- Don’t be cheap. If you spend nothing, you’re going to get nothing in return. You wouldn’t be cheap with your own business and you shouldn’t be cheap with your SEO partner.
- You show us your cards, not the other way around. We’re the doctors and you’re the patient. We don’t need to waste time on guessing your marketing budget or trying to figure you out. Tell us the truth about your symptoms and we will get better results.
- We only work with people we trust, know, and like. We’re going to be the army that helps you to win your business battles. If we don’t trust you, we’re not going to fight for you.
- You need to have a minimum budget of $5,000 that you’re willing to invest over nine months. We set that timeframe because we know we can show you results within it.
- Please don’t argue with any of our rules. They exist because we know that following them gets results.
Why do we have these rules?
We want you to take your SEO strategy as seriously as we do. We’re not your typical SEO agency and we’re not interested in working with typical clients.
An SEO company that doesn’t have rules is a company that will take on any client.
Are you just any old client?
Of course, you’re not! That’s why you want an agency that screens you just as much as you screen them.
Question #5 — Do You Outsource Your Work?
Outsourcing is rife in the SEO industry. And if I could point to the one thing that leads to the penalties I mentioned earlier, this would be it.
When an SEO company outsources, it means they’re not good enough to do the job. They’re trying to take advantage of cheap labor so they can compete on price. That means what you get in return will be trash.
I mean poorly written content, useless backlinks, and no control at all over the strategy.
At OTT SEO, we have a department for every single one of our SEO services. And if we don’t have one for a service a client needs, we’re going to hire people to create it.
We have departments for design, development, and content.
Off-page and on-page SEO? We have departments for each of those too. Everything required to create a successful campaign — we’ve got it covered.
That’s what you need out of your SEO company. Don’t cheap out and go for the lowest price. Those guys will just ship your website out to somebody else and you’ll get exactly what you paid for.
Question #6 — What is it Like to Work With You?
You want to know what your agency’s going to do on behalf of your website. And again, it’s not enough for them to just rattle off a bunch of services.
The SEO company has to tell you about its systems and processes.
Here’s how it works at OTT SEO.
We analyze you, your website, and your business before we ever take you on as a client. We research your niche and we learn absolutely everything about it.
Why?
We know that every niche has unique challenges a “standard” SEO strategy just isn’t going to cover. If we’re going to work with you, we’re going to give it 100%. That means understanding everything before we develop a strategy.
Now, we’ve got a massive winning streak in SEO for a reason.
We have the expertise and we have the systems. Specifically, we have a proprietary Artificial Intelligence SEO system that will tell us exactly what’s going on with your website.
Losing visitors?
The system’s going to show us what’s happening.
Been slapped with a penalty by Google?
Again, our system’s going to tell us why and what we need to do about it.
When we activate that system, we’re entering the war room. We’re looking at the enemy, whether that’s your competitors or your own website, and we’re formulating a battle strategy.
We’re going to pull our SEO ninjas, developers, and designers together to attack the problems. And by the time we’re done, you won’t have just won the war.
You’ll be the last one standing on the battlefield.
If I’m going to take you on as a client, I’m going to commit everything I have to you. And if you hear anything less than that from an SEO company, they’re not right for you.
Find the Right SEO Company
Finding an awesome SEO company isn’t about price. It’s not even about the services they provide.
It’s about finding out if they have a proven track record of winning battle after battle for their clients. You’re looking for a team with the skills and the battle stories to prove that they’ve got what it takes.
You’re looking for winners.
After all, that’s what you want from your business, isn’t it? You want to crush the competition, dominate your niche, and make yourself the only option for customers.
That’s what a great SEO strategy does for you.
And if you’re really paying attention, these six questions will show you if your SEO company is up to the task.
We are. And we have the winning track record to prove it.
OTT SEO has a 96% client retention rate.
We’ve won 73 different awards for what we do and we’ve generated $970,802,171 for our clients.
It’s time to get on the winning side. But first, we’ve got to find out if you’re as good a fit for us as we know we are for you.
Find out if your business qualifies to work with the real SEO ninjas.
