Picking the right SEO Expert
Did you know that there are 4.54 billion searches performed every day on Google?
That means that no matter your line of work, people are searching for your business online.
When choosing a reputable company to manage your SEO, there’s both a right and wrong way to go about the SEO hiring process. In fact, finding the best SEO strategist for your website will help its online branding, presence, and traffic.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, a process used in digital marketing strategy that focuses on your website’s presence, page ranking, and visibility when it comes to search results on search engines like Google.
Overall, it's a process of optimizing your website to get organic, or un-paid, traffic from the search engine results page. In other words, SEO involves making certain changes to your website and content so that it's more accurate and attractive for search engines to rank their web pages and content. SEO experts utilize many on-page and off-page strategies so that that the search engine will display your website as a top result during search results.
Though SEO marketing can seem complex due to the different factors that impact ranking, the process for search engine optimization is easier than it appears to be. The hardest part is it involves effort and patience.
When you are looking for something, whether it’s a company or a product, the first thing you probably do is pull up Google and type in some keywords. Then you scroll through the many listings that pop up, looking for the best match.
Search engines do all of this by discovering and cataloging all available content on the Internet. For example, from web pages, PDFs, images, and videos, etc. SEO is done correctly by SEO consultants or SEO agencies to help improve the quality and quantity of organic web traffic to your site.
How does it work?
Major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use crawlers to gather essential and relevant information based on the content they find on the web. Crawlers then forward the results to the search engines where an index is built. Unique algorithms kept under lock by the likes of Google allow some websites to be ranked higher than others. But SEO experts know what works and what does not. There are two kinds of SEO:
- On-page SEO consists of anything you can control on your own website to improve your rankings. This refers to things like site speed, keyword presence, header text, and so on.
- Off-page SEO consists of anything done on other websites that may influence your rankings. Generally, this only refers to backlinks, social media, forums, etc.
Why is SEO important?
Effective SEO is important because it ensures that search results display websites that have been optimized. In fact, there are many tricks that SEO experts can use to ensure a website stands a higher chance of ranking high. Over time Google has made it challenging and reduced shortcuts for online marketers to manipulate these results. In fact, quality content coupled with user experience is the route Google and other search engines are steering towards. Hence, why hard work, technical SEO, and a website that appeals to visitors correlate with high search engine rankings. Ask any reputable SEO expert or online marketer if your site meets these criteria. You’ll have a better chance of showing up in the results.
Prominent Search Results
Users trust search engines and most likely click top-ranking websites. Whether it's psychological or a time constraint, anyone looking for information via a search engine will not waste time click through subsequent search pages. Hence, the higher you rank in search results, the more clicks and traffic your site will potentially generate. In addition, effective SEO also improves the click rate based on structured data and immediate results without even clicking on a search result. For example, the introduction of structured data can make searches more prominent.
Optimizing a website and including structured data will help a website stand out from regular search results. Another good example is to include reviews that provide additional information to search engines and potential visitors.
So What affects your SEO ranking?
On-page factors:
On-page SEO (also known as “on-site” SEO) is the act of optimizing different parts of your website that affect your search engine rankings.
The way your page is optimized has the most profound effect on its rankings. Here are some page optimization factors that can affect its search visibility.
1. Keywords in the title tag, meta description tag, and H1 tag.
The title meta tag is one of the strongest relevancy signals for a search engine. The tag itself is meant to give an accurate description of the content of the pages. Search engines use it to display the main title of a search result. Including a keyword will indicate to the search engine what keyword it should rank the page for. Ideally, the keyword should be placed at the start of the title tag. Pages optimized this way will rank better than those with keywords closer to the end of the title’s tag.
2. Duplicate content.
Having similar content across various pages of your site can actually hurt your rankings. Avoid duplicating content and write that is original for each page. When strategically placing your SEO keywords and phrases on your pages, it’s important to avoid over-optimization. Google and other search engines will penalize your page if it attempts to use keywords too many times throughout the content. Hence, a good balance and ratio of keywords and synonyms are required.
In addition, you want to make sure that each page of the content focuses on primary keywords and long-tail keywords and is not used on any other web page. This helps ensure that your content is specific and relevant. Trying to tackle too many keywords at once may negatively impact your search engine optimization as it often results in thin content.
3. Image Optimization.
It’s not only text that can be optimized on a page but other media too. Images, for instance, can send the search engine relevancy signals through their alt text, caption, and description. In addition, optimizing and compressing images will help the website speed factors.
Off-Page factors:
Off-page SEO focuses on increasing the authority of your domain through the act of getting links from other websites.
When ranking your pages, Google looks at factors outside of your site as well. Here are some key benefits of off-page SEO:
1. The number of linking domains. The number of domains linking to you is one of the most important ranking factors.
2. The number of linking pages. There might be some links from a particular domain to your site; their number is a ranking factor too. However, it is still better to have more links from individual domains than from a single domain.
3. Link anchor. Anchor text of a link used to be a strong ranking factor. Today it can be utilized as a web spam indicator, negatively impacting your rankings.
Though you do not have direct control over what happens outside of your organization, you can increase your chances of improving off-page SEO simply by creating quality content that others will find valuable.
The more relevant and interesting your content is, the more likely others will be to link to your content and share it. In fact, the more people trust your content, the more the search engines will too.
How do I choose an SEO expert for my website?
Be careful when you research an SEO consultant or SEO company online because many companies offer identical services. Some even promise their own “secret approach and instant results.” Regardless this is all talk with no action. So, how do you filter the top SEO services from the bad apples?
Here are a few points you need to keep in mind while choosing an SEO strategist for your firm:
Search Intelligently
When Googling SEO firms, you will find a large number of SEO companies. The top-ranked companies may be the best in showing that they can rank their website high for a reason, but they are more than likely expensive. Hence, why it's best to look at mid players too. For example, SEO agencies that may not rank high or be at the top of a search page are still worth considering.
The key question you need to ask yourself is,” Is it worth it?”. A small business does not require a huge and mighty SEO firm.
The best way to search will be to ask your vendors and peers. People in the same field will be able to give you honest and reliable suggestions. Also, check online reviews. Stay away from spammers and hire only trustworthy agencies for your online marketing.
Background Check
It is important to know the history of the company you about to do business with. First-hand information from previous customers would be beneficial. It's advisable to ask any potential online marketer for references and not just online reviews.
Current or previous clients will tell you how long it took for them to see positive changes, how it impacted their business, how the SEO firm was able to keep up to their commitments, their satisfaction level, and so on.
White-Hat Practices
Ask your SEO agency what type of strategies they use and explain SEO terms that you understand. Any strategies that seem manipulative or unethical should pose an immediate concern. Ethical companies will have no problem answering your questions and explaining the details of their strategy so that there are no qualms with their practices.
Work with a reliable SEO Consultant.
It might seem fancy to choose an already established multi-million SEO company, but this might not be the best option for you when starting. Remember, SEO companies don’t have just one client. Thus, you should partner with an agency for whom you will be as important as their other customers. If the company you pay to do SEO for your SME is already working for the bigger enterprises, you might only be a side hustle.
Also, if that SEO agency is also managing your competitor's website, you should avoid them due to conflict of interest.
When it comes to hiring the best SEO company for your small businesses, it really comes down to background check, credibility, and experience. Agencies that are transparent on their website and in conversation with you will be a better fit. Moreover, they should have technical knowledge compliant with Google, Yahoo, and Bing's best practices.
It’s not all about which agency is the biggest or which SEO agency is the cheapest. It’s about finding an SEO company that has the capability to deliver and cares about your business.
