No matter what business you have, one thing that all business owners can take advantage of is digital marketing. Without diving too far into the history of digital marketing, this form of marketing has essentially switched how businesses find clients. In the old days, businesses had to fork out thousands of dollars for a traditional marketing ad or awareness placement with the hope of finding a client. Nowadays, digital marketing has made it so that businesses can make themselves available any time a client looks for them online. This is done through specific strategies that conveniently place a business in a position on a search engine results page. Of these strategies, perhaps the most popular one is search engine optimization. Also known as SEO, this strategy is unique in that it is an organic way to place a business website online. It is essentially a free way to market a business online as other strategies such as PPC require a specific account budget to get started. As we can see, these benefits are some of the main reasons businesses turn to SEO agencies to implement this strategy. However, what many business owners fail to realize is that hiring a bad agency can be worse than not using the SEO strategy at all. Simply put, you want to look out for dedicated and proven agencies as opposed to ones that will offer a cheaper price for their services only to keep you on a monthly retainer. With this in mind, let’s go over seven helpful tips to select the best SEO agency for you.
#1: Avoid Specialty Agencies If Possible
When it comes to SEO agencies, all of them fall into one of two categories. The first category is the well-rounded category. This type of agency not only provides SEO services but they also have a focus on other digital marketing strategies if needed. The second category is the specialty category. This category of agencies primarily focuses on one strategy. While a specialty agency might provide better SEO results, they should be avoided as no marketing campaign uses only one digital marketing strategy.
#2: Avoid National Agencies If Possible
Another tip to help you find the best SEO agencies is avoiding national agencies. The mistake some business owners make is thinking national agencies provide better services. While they might have more resources than local agencies, local agencies have more benefits such as faster response times and higher quality customer service. For example, your local Brand That Name agency will most likely know important local factors better than a national agency would.
#3: Research More Than One Agency At A Time
During the research phase of finding the best SEO agency for you, a helpful tip to speed up the process is researching more than one agency at a time. There is not much that goes into this tip as all it does is weed out bad agencies by process of elimination.
#4: Research Specific Agents Within An Agency
If you are a more detailed researcher, not only will you research an SEO agency, but you will also research the agents within one. Overall, reviews on the agents within an agency give a more specific representation as to how that agency operates.
#5: Negotiate Prices With Multiple Agencies
One of the biggest factors that play into finding the right SEO agency is prices. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking lower prices will result in a cheaper quality of work. Quite obviously, this tip is to help you find which agency will provide a cheaper price for the same services.
#6: Ask To See The SEO Tools They Use
If you manage to secure a meeting with an agency that you like, a good determining tip that will show the true colors of that agency is to ask to see the SEO tools that they use. With this tip, it is up to you to research which tools are updated and will best help your SEO campaign.
#7: Ask How Often They Provide Regular Performance Audits
Last but not least, asking an agency how often they provide performance audits serves the purpose of seeing how responsible they are. The more regularly they can provide them, that should be a good sign that the agency is putting in daily work to optimize for you.