How to Choose the Best SEO Agency for Small Business?
In the current world, online search marketing has become one of the most critical parts of running a successful business. Each and every company has been trying to outperform others to gain a major share of voice with respect to their competitors in the market.
In order to achieve this, choosing the right SEO firm has become the most important part for a business if they are not doing it on an in-house level.
How can you do that?
How can you find the right Search Engine Optimization company for your business when there are tonnes of SEO companies or SEO agencies with multiple offers available in the market?
In this comprehensive guide, we are going to show you how you can choose the right SEO experts for your business, so make sure that you stick with us and read it till the end.
Why SEO is important for your business?
When we dive into the vast sea of marketing channels, SEO emerges as the true MVP.
Why, you ask? Well, let’s break it down.
Picture this: Google, the almighty search engine, gets around 89.3 billion visits every single month according to Oberlo. That’s right, billions with a “B.” It’s like the digital heartbeat of the world, constantly pulsing with users seeking answers, solutions, or maybe just some good old cat videos.
Now, let’s get a tad wild with imagination. What if a teensy 1% of those billions of Google visitors stumbled upon your website? Can you even fathom it? Your inbox would be lighting up like a Christmas tree, and you’d be swimming in a sea of new opportunities or potential clients while casually watching your favorite movies.
Here’s the scoop: SEO is the secret sauce that can make this dream a reality. It’s your golden ticket to popping up right where your potential customers are looking. It’s like waving at them from the top of the Google search results and saying, “Hey there, we’ve got what you need!”
Why Choosing the right SEO company is important?
The fact that the USA had around 1,91,307 SEO consultants and internet marketing businesses in 2023 (Source: IBIS World) which grew by 17.2% on an average over the past 5 years, tells us that such internet companies are going to keep on popping up even in the future as the Internet is not gonna fade away but just grow even further with AI coming into the picture.
The main questions you should ask yourself here are,
Do you believe that all the agencies or SEO companies are doing their search engine optimization the right way?
Are you sure that all the companies care about your business enough to not use any shady SEO tactics to bring results?
Can you fully trust your SEO company that they are going to bring results for the money you are paying and won’t just fill up their pockets by retaining you with fake SEO reports?
If the answer to all the above questions is yes, then you can proceed with the shortlisted company else, don’t take another step ahead.
The main reason why choosing the right SEO company is so important is because going with a shady agency might impact your website in a negative way and you might even end up getting penalized by Google.
So make sure that you analyze every company you come across in a deeper way to avoid this.
10 Tips for choosing the right SEO company for your small business
1) Case Studies :
Whenever you check any company’s online presence, analyze their track record by checking their case studies section where they will be presenting their previous customer reviews and results.
If you don’t see proper Google Search Console dashboards or Google Analytics screenshots within the case study and everything in the case study is in percentages, move away from them.
Reason?
Imagine that you have a website as of now and you are getting 4 visitors per month. You went to a Digital marketing agency or an SEO company and they grew your website traffic from 4 visitors per month to 12 visitors per month in 8 months of time.
Now, if the agency is not showcasing Google Search Console dashboard screenshots or Google Analytics screenshots, they can easily mislead the potential customers by saying that, they grew their client’s website 3X in a span of 8 months or grew website traffic by 300% and lure people into purchasing their service.
2) Free Consultation :
Many agencies offer free consultations which is basically to improve the number of people putting their data like email addresses on the agency’s website so that they can follow up with them forever with the hopes of converting them into a customer.
Always remember this, free consultations are fine as long as it is not done by the founder himself.
Why?
Now think about this from a business perspective. If a founder is able to run a business and his/her business is working well, do you believe that he/she would have time enough to spend it for free?
So, if an agency is claiming that you can have a call with the founder for free, don’t ever go ahead with them as they definitely lack or don’t have enough business with them and you might end up being just an ATM for them.
On the other hand, if you are being connected with a sales team, that is fine and you can proceed ahead.
3) Guaranteed SEO Results :
If you find an agency that guarantees you Moon and that too in the field of SEO, move away from them as the field of SEO is uncertain and nobody can promise exact search engine rankings or the amount of traffic a website can generate in a span of the next 6 months to the potential customer.
On the other hand, if an agency is telling you that with their wide range of SEO services, they can generate results and improve your website by 100% in a span of 3–4 months and this is just their forecast of things that can turn out to be even better or slightly lower than what they have promised.
Such is the kind of agency that you need to choose as they are setting realistic expectations with the clients.
There are lots of companies or agencies that don’t share their plan of action with the clients or even if they do, they don’t share it’s status with the clients leaving them in complete darkness as they don’t know what’s happening with their own digital marketing services.
So, when starting out, if your agency doesn’t share weekly or monthly Digital marketing strategy with you or doesn’t even report to you, consider it as the biggest red flag and don’t move ahead with them because it’s going to be a lot expensive for you if they don’t get results or reach your SEO goal as you will be losing time and money.
5) Black Hat SEO :
If you are able to see a lot of unusual links linking to your website and getting weird comments on your web pages, this is a sign that your hired agency is resorting to spammy link-building methods or even black hat methods such as PBN which might cost you a lot than what you are paying them as Google might ban your website.
Not only link building, but some agencies might even do keyword stuffing on your web pages in order to improve your website search rankings or improve your online visibility which can lead to getting your web pages de-indexed by Google as well.
So make sure that you are keeping track of all the activities when you begin with the SEO agency or else, just confirm with your dedicated account manager about what are they going to do before making the decision to hire them.
6) Analyze multiple packages offered :
Before choosing an SEO agency, make sure that you are analyzing its pricing plans and deliverability with all the other top SEO agencies available in the market.
Don’t ever choose an agency just because they are cheap or have an affordable pricing and as per their package, they are delivering more because you might end up compromising with the quality of service.
Look at the pros and cons of all the agencies and packages and also if possible, just contact their previous clients if they have mentioned their names on testimonials through LinkedIn and ask them about their experience with the SEO agency and how were they actually beneficial for their business.
Conclusion
In conclusion, hiring an SEO agency is a very critical decision step to achieving online success and each and every business must take this decision in a much more calculative manner keeping all of the above pointers in mind.
If you fail in this by hiring the wrong SEO provider, you might end up losing a lot more than what you are paying as the service cost because being a small business, each and every penny and time spent matters and one can’t be casual about it especially if you are a small business who is bootstrapped.
FAQs
1) How do I know if my SEO company is good?
By contacting their ex-clients, looking up their case studies, and checking the reviews on multiple platforms. If you still feel positive after looking up all the data points that are mentioned above, you can proceed ahead with the shortlisted SEO company.
2) Is it worth paying a SEO company?
It depends. If you are investing in the right agency or company that has a ton of credibility in the SEO industry then, whatever amount you are spending. You are bound to get results if not now, maybe after a few months since an SEO campaign is a long-term process.
Originally published at How To Choose The Best SEO Agency For Small Business? on September 20, 2023.
