How to Decide If SEO Consulting Services are Right for Your Business

Like any other small business owner, we completely understand how overwhelming it can be to decide how you’d like to grow and maintain your online presence, generate quality leads, and guide your audience through your sales funnel. Do you rely on organic social media to generate website traffic, or do you launch an AdWords campaign? Do you shell out thousands for influencer marketing to compete with big brands, or do you focus on SEO for a more organic approach? If you’re not well-versed in these subjects, understanding exactly what choice is right for your company, and how they all work together, can be a daunting task that some small business owners choose to avoid altogether. So how do you know if SEO consulting services are right for your business and your specific marketing goals? With this handy guide, you’ll be well on your way to making an informed decision for your company.

Deep Diving into Organic Search Traffic

First things first, you need to dive into some market research. What keyword phrases might your customers search to discover your website organically? You can use tools like Google’s Search Console to uncover information on this, or look to programs like Moz or SEMrush to research potential keyword phrases. Of course, this step will provide only preliminary insight into potential and current organic search phrases, but in-depth SEO consulting services will provide an extensive list of phrases to target for your brand.

This is a crucial step in the process, which is why our team at WIMZE Digital always recommends tackling it first. If you find that customers are not discovering your brand via organic search, and the keyword phrases from which one may discover your brand do not have any organic search traffic, SEO may not be the right fit for you.

Think about it like this — If your company sells a highly-specific product that no one has created before, SEO may not be a good fit off the bat, because in general, your customers aren’t searching for it. For example, a quick Moz keyword search reveals that there is no organic search for the phrase “doggy spaceship”. While plenty of people may be interested in purchasing a doggy spaceship, they are not searching specifically for this product. Therefore, it would not make sense to optimize your site with this phrase.

Your Website Structure Matters

If, during the first step of this process, you discover that there are plenty of high traffic keyword phrases for which potential customers may search to discover your site, the next step of the process will send you back to your website itself. Here, you need to decide if your website is already setup to support an SEO campaign, and if not, whether you’re willing to invest in a proper setup.

In terms of on-page optimization, each primary keyword phrase (or group of similar phrases) you target should have its own dedicated landing page. You cannot simply keyword stuff every landing page if the keywords you target do not reflect what that page is about. For example, if your company offers event production, you may need to create a dedicated landing page for each specific type of event you offer (i,e. weddings, birthday parties, rehearsal dinners, etc.).

Technical elements also play a huge role in the success of an SEO campaign. If you’re investing in SEO consulting services under the assumption that this will only involve keyword research and copy editing, think again. Factors like page load speed, image size, alt tags, and file compression will all affect the outcome of your efforts, so make sure that you understand the full scope of work before signing on for SEO consulting services.

Scope the Competition

Finally, before jumping in feet first, take a peek at the competition for the keyword phrases you may choose to target. Specifically, take a look at the domain authorities of the sites that currently hold the top 3 position on organic search. If these sites all have domain authorities of 80 and above, and your website falls somewhere around a 20, this phrase may be nearly impossible for you to rank. As small business owners, we’re all about optimism, but when it comes to search engine optimization, we’ve got to be realistic, too.

Before you decide that you’re dead-set on search engine optimization, do your due diligence. What works for one company may be a total flop for another. A small investment of your time could earn (and save) you thousands down the road.