You might have heard the saying “If you want something done right, do it yourself!” more than once. Before agreeing or disagreeing on it, indulge me while I tell you a bit of its origins. A French writer named Charles Étienne is the “father” of this world wide used phrase but the literal translation is actually – ” One is never served so well as by oneself “- . And with this literal transcription we might be on the same page. And this is because we do believe that each professional has his own defined role in every complex business strategy. Although it’s sometimes hard to leave our business in someone’s else hands, this is necessary for so many reasons we are not going to bore you with.
It might happen more than once to get to a point where you’d need a SEO company to take care of your business. The world of internet is full with appealing suggestions; yet, from all the offers, what should you choose to be sure you’ve made the correct decision? Here is where we are going to give you a helpful hand (hopefully) by suggesting you some of the most important questions you should address to a prospect SEO company:
Below there is the list of the questions we’ve founded critical to find an answer for, to make sure one has taken the correct decision when it comes to hiring a SEO company
- Can You Guarantee that Our Site Will Rank #1 for a Major Search Term?
- Can You Share Information on Some of Your Past SEO Customers and Their Results?
- Will You Provide Me with an SEO Audit? And If Yes What Kind of Information Do You Usually Include in the Audit?
- How Fast Can I Start Seeing Results from this SEO Campaign?
- What Kind of Link Building Strategies Does Your SEO Company Use?
- What Do You Need from Me to Implement the SEO Campaign?
1. Can You Guarantee that Our Site Will Rank #1 for a Major Search Term?
This is a really good question, but not for the reason one might suspect.
If a company says yes to this question, that’s a sure sign you might want to stay away from them.
While getting ranked #1 is an entirely desirable outcome, no one can guarantee that it will actually happen. It’s not that SEO companies aren’t trying hard enough. Rather, there are so many factors influencing the ranking that it would be impossible for anyone to be able to proficiently control all of them. There might be upwards of 200 measurements that influence a website’s rank. Even if someone could verify with absolute certainty that Google’s algorithm was made up entirely of some known measurements , it would be impossible for them to control each and every factor.
So for a company to boast that it will get you to number 1 with absolute is suggests either folly (in which case you don’t need them) or charlatanry (in which case you don’t want them).
Below you can see a screenshot of two companies that guarantee high rankings in record time and the prices are not even that high. Just like a chocolate cake when you are on diet, this sounds very tempting, doesn’t it?
2. Can You Share Information on Some of Your Past SEO Customers and Their Results?
While privacy is a big deal for any client, most would be OK with some of their positive results being shown to the world. Of course, you won’t be able to see what happened specifically in each case, but a SEO company should be able to show some names and bring up some numbers.
If they can’t share any info at all, it could be a pretty big warning sign.
Clients should generally be pretty open to having their success stories disclosed as good practice examples, because it boosts their success narrative.
SEO companies should definitely want to list other clients, because it represents their portfolio and speaks to their ability to attract and maintain satisfied customers.
If such a list already exists, you can also try to find out more about them (the time spent with the SEO firm, the variety they show) and even to contact some of the clients to try and get some first-hand references.
3. Will You Provide Me with an SEO Audit? And If Yes What Kind of Information Do You Usually Include in the Audit?
This question is meant to make you understand any SEO company’s level of transparency.
If they are PRO, they should share with you information such as: SEO Visibility, New Links and Lost Links, Keywords Tracked Improvements and Declines, Onpage Analysis with all the whistles and bells (architecture,content,mobile,indexability). It’s important that you know what you’ll be able to get from them and how quickly. Are going to get everything in real time or will some information be available only at certain times?
If the company is vague when it comes to what kind of info are included on the audit, their level of professionalism is probably low.
Also, it is very important for you, as a digital marketer pro, to understand the data presented in the audit. Otherwise, the audit might not serve you much.
You don’t need just a collection of fancy data but real actionable insights that you properly understand and need.
There is a widely held belief that the word “kangaroo” comes from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning “I don’t know.” There is not enough evidence to sustain this matter, yet, the story has a strong moral and goes like this: It is said that Captain James Cook, when he landed to make repairs along the northeast coast of Australia, while trying to understand the way the marsupial animal was named in the Aboriginal language, he misunderstood it and what he had heard was the word “kangaroo”which actually means “I don’t know”. Then again, the story might not be true, yet, what is important to keep in mind is that a proper understanding of the link audit you are provided with is highly important.
4. How Fast Can I Start Seeing Results from this SEO Campaign?
This question is a highly important and a bit tricky one. Although you might be tempted to be glad if you received an answer such as: “your ranks will increase in now-time” or “in max one month we’ll get you there”, the truth is that if you get such an answer you should be looking for a new company.
If the company provides you with a milestone plan letting you know where you will be in 3 months, 6 months and so on, then you might be with a good company.
Once upon a time the trend was to identify the most important 5 – 10 keywords for a business, highly optimize for them and easily improve your ranks. The SEO world looks completely different today as it’s driven by natural language search. We are not talking about ranking for a few keywords anymore; the focus is now on the natural language searches that are growing and changing rapidly.
Higher rankings nowadays cannot be reached in a matter of weeks.
The screenshot below is taken from a SEO company website that promises great results within “great” time.
5. What Kind of Link Building Strategies Does Your SEO Company Use?
Luckily or not, links are still an important signal for Google.
Even if you have the best on page optimization, a killer content and amazing social presence, those juicy backlinks are still a must.
And most of the times links are also hard to achieve. Especially high quality links. You need to keep this in mind when talking to an SEO company.
If they start talking about getting thousands of links in 2 weeks or if they start talking about web directories, paid links, link scheme or any other technique mentioned on this exhaustive list of black hat techniques, run fast and don’t look behind.
Google’s Guidelines are pretty clear when it comes to link schemes, just as you can see in the screenshot below. Therefore, if you don’t want to get a penalty you should be really clear and straightforward when talking about the link building strategy the prospect company is going to use while working on your website.
The screenshot below is taken from a SEO company’s website which makes a stellar offer, somewhat hard to refuse, you must admit. Yet, as we do cherish our beloved cognitives, we’d recommend you to closely analyze such offers as they might get you into big troubles.
6. What Do You Need from Me to Implement the SEO Campaign?
Although it might look like an obvious question, please don’t overlook it. You need to understand exactly what kind of requirements the company has and how much of your/your team time will be needed.
If you have to make all the changes and basically all the work, than what you are getting is a consultation and not a SEO service.
And we are not saying that consultancy is a bad thing; yet, you need to know what you are paying for.
Also, keep in mind the privacy matter. There might be data you don’t want tot share. There is absolutely no problem. Just keep in mind that by doing so, you might have to do some extra work. Another matter you should keep in mind is how the changes suggested by the SEO company will be presented to your team and who much time will be required by your staff to do those updates. Surely, important amount of time might be invested along with the SEO company that you hired, yet, you need to make things clear and now exactly how many hours you will need to dedicate on this.
Some very nice pointers there Cornelia.
In an industry that is still unregulated, giving people as much info as possible on what they should be looking for, is an absolute must.
Sadly, transparency is not high on the list of the ‘spammy’ service providers.
Andy, glad you liked the article. Indeed, transparency is not necessarily high on the list of the ‘spammy’ service providers.
For #2 if they can not provide information on clients or past work simply as them “Where is your website ranking at”. If their website is not really ranking anywhere that is a big red flag. And do not accept them searching for their name and showing up, that is not SEO.
Good points, indeed. Thanks for your contribution!
Thanks Cornelia I was in the process of looking for an seo company and the advice you gave had some great major issues you brought up. Many companies spam you to bad links which does not help ones SEO at all
Really happy that this post came at the right moment for you, James. Hope you’ll find a good SEO company which isn’t basing its strategy on spammy links.
Showing results with other clients and having a good SEO themselves is a good start for SEO companies. You are so right about the fact that a SEO company can’t promise to rank a website number 1 on Google. Depending on keyword difficulty due to competition, promising a page 1 might be ok if the company is very good in SEO.
I reaaly like your graph showing what a SEO audit should look like, it’s very clear.Thanks for your great article!
Glad you liked the article, Roy and hope it will be useful for you. Indeed having a good SEO for themselves can be an important reference point
Yes great points that you showed here would take this into consideration
Glad you found those points useful, Ken 😉
Very important points for someone looking for SEO services! In my opinion, every business owner who’s interested in hiring a professional to improve his online visibility correctly should know at least the basics about the state that Search Engine Optimization is today!
Well pointed, Kon! Knowing the basics of SEO would be of a real help for any professional.
I really like the context and the tone of the article, good job Cornelia. All those points are really important to take into account when looking for an SEO Agency for sure. Everyone should keep in mind, that fast and cheap services don’t mean quality and safe results. In most cases, those services are low quality, dangerous and not trustworthy at all…
Any Seo firm that tries to promising #1 rankings are most definitely scamming brick and mortar businesses. However, guaranteeing something is critical to gaining a new clients trust. For example, I always guarantee a page one ranking with any new client I bring on and I tell them; If I can’t get you on page one, you shouldn’t consider me at all. I’m also glad that you mentioned rankings taking time and giving clients realistic expectations. When a prospect calls me and expects to rank for a top local term in a matter of weeks, I politely inform them that We don’t lie to our clients and we don’t conduct in black hat tactics that supposedly promise those results in that amount of time.
Very nicely written guide. I agree with everything on the list! As a basic rule if thumb however, I think that one should always remember that if something sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is! I would also suggest checking their social media accounts. If there are nothing but good comments there and all within a limited time period, then they were probably “bought”. The ideal would be to see negative comments, questions and remarks that have been answered or dealt with in a “public” manner by the company or the admin of the social media account.
Great post. Thanks for the information.
Very useful article Cornelia, thank you! I was looking for a SEO company and this guide helped me to understand more about SEO, SEO strategies, what to expect from a SEO company and what exactly I have to look for. Thanks, again.
Find the best SEO Company who can help them in creating and maintaining the website.
Thanks Cornelia.. hope it will help me to find a good and result oriented seo company.
A very useful article, especially for those who are finding jobs for SEO.
Great article, Thanks for telling us about hiring an SEO.
Bad SEO’s are a pain but there is also a silver lining. All the fly by night SEO’s offering crappy services make it easy to win over a customer by providing really good services. You get to be the hero.
I regret that I came across this article late because I have been tricked two times. thank you very much
Bad SEO’s are terrible for business. It really makes it hard to trust these companies. Best way to audit an seo company is are they ranked in the top two pages. Test if they can do what they say they can do to their company.
Your blog is awesome with good information. You have written the reality of this sector. There are many people who have been tricked with these points. We do believe in transparency.
Good advice for potential clients here, and some points that are probably worth stressing more than others. For example, we always provide our prospects with a basic site audit before we even start talking about budgets and strategy – we think this is vital as SEO isn’t a one size fits all and you need to know what you’re working with from the start. It’s also good to get clients away from these ‘guaranteed rankings’ offers that are just not viable – or at least, I can’t see how business who make those offers can guarantee the rankings for the long term.
Thanks a lot for your article.It’s necessary to know certain things about the SEO company that we are going to hire.
Dear Cornelia , You have provided very effective tips for clients. I will definitely share your content on my Facebook profile as i think everyone should be aware of those things.
I like #4 tips for clients.
Beside every other tips, this tip is very effective as most of client don’t know “How long it will take to be on the 1st Page”.
Thanks again
i also have a seo company but your blog is very greatful
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a constantly evolving practice. More important is the SEO agency’s ability to articulate how they will adapt. This is kind of a trick question.
For me, hiring an SEO company can result in a huge boom in your business because an SEO Optimized website can bring genuine and relevant traffic from search engines. Through SEO we can promote our brand and get more brand awareness and people reach. Hiring an SEO company is always a good decision.
Cornelia, thank u for ur post. I read your article on medium and quora.
Hi Cornelia,
We advise our clients that links are imperative when trying to compete in competitive markets.
Some niches can take plenty of time to rank and clients are generally aware of this.
SEO has changed over the past decade that is for sure.
One thing I would add is to AVOID low-cost SEO firms or those that offer ‘packages’. SEO is a bespoke practice and each website and each niche is different.
Thanks
Jonathan @ Weka
That’s a nice article, Cornelia. Today the SEO market is full of fraudsters and Black hat link creators. It’s a shame though people often get caught in their lucrative offers.
Hi Cornelia,Thank you very much for your article.As a seo trainer this article is very helpful to me.
hi Cornelia, by going through your article, I gain so much information about Seo, before start reading your article, I have not such deep ideas to manage my site and rank it higher on Google, but in fact, your article is worth reading and it shows the true picture of Seo optimization,
I will thank you again for such a gem piece of article,
Thanks Cornelia. Good guide for consumers as well as agencies. I can understand the frustration and scepticism from businesses. Plenty of unethical SEO companies out there.
Thanks a lot for your article.It’s necessary to know certain things about the SEO company that we are going to hire.
Hi Cornelia,Thank you very much for your article.As a seo trainer this article is very helpful to me.
Very informative article for consumers and new agencies on what bad practices to avoid.
from client perspective, Transparency & trust are two of the major factors going around in hiring a SEO agency.
yes you are right
we are always done these mistakes
This is really a great help you doing through this blog, if anyone is thinking to hire an SEO agency this tips should not ignore
I would like to share my personal experience, I gave a blogging site to one agency aims to great SEO and rankings
But every month they used to give me few backlinks and no ranking has been changed for almost 8 months, I switch the agency to my friend’s new agency and when I showed the old agency report to the new agency they actually gave me the exact fake insights of Old agency
It was helpful when you explained that SEO helps to promote brand authority for our business. The company I work for has been discussing ways to attract new customers. Thanks for helping me see why hiring SEO services would help us accomplish that goal!
Helpful Article ! tahanks a lot…
Hi Cornelia, SEO became a need of every organization and most of them outsource it to agencies, but they lack enough data or other key indicators of genuine agency. That’s what they will get from your article thanks for that.