SEO is a complex area of specialist digital marketing and it makes sense to hire an agency where your business doesn’t possess the in-house skills it needs. But how can you find the right agency for you? Our guide will help.
What is your approach to keyword research?
Today’s keyword research activities require much more understanding and analysis than the old approach of simply plugging in keywords to an automated tool and then adding them occasionally into content. Today, it is vital to understand user intent. Speak to potential SEO agencies about their strategies for determining user intent and the methodologies they employ to deliver current approaches.
How do you handle influence marketing and link building?
Some agencies will promise thousands of instant links but will they be quality. You need just a few authoritative, credible links. So find out how the agency ‘earns’ these links in an organic, quality way that focuses on relationships.
What does success look like?
Ask if you can see a sample SEO report to see how the agency reports progress. Find out how they would customise a standard report to meet your unique KPIs and goals. A good agency will be able to articulate this in some detail. Discuss frequency too. Most brands expect a progress update by month.
What are your preferred tools?
This question provides useful insight into how thorough the agency is. They should have researched various tools and be using a range to cover keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink monitoring, crawler use, rankings, and so on. Find out why they use each. A good SEO company in Dublin such as http://www.rycomarketing.ie/search-engine-optimisation-seo.html will always have a rationale.
How do you keep up to date with Google?
At the very least, the agency should be following Google’s Webmaster Central Blog, and ideally other SEO forums and blogs. Great agencies do their own research too, checking strategy shifts and trends proactively – www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/02/17/6-seo-trends-to-inject-into-your-marketing-programs-this-year/&refURL=https://www.google.co.uk/&referrer=https://www.google.co.uk/.
What will you need from us?
Good agencies know that their clients need to provide key data in order to carry out their programme, so test their plans and, again, look for detail in the answer.
Review the answers, compare and contrast and you’ll be well on your way to finding a great provider that can help you to grow your online business.
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