Are you thinking about investing in an SEO agency to manage your business’s organic search program?
SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is a great way to bring “free” traffic to your website each month. If you provide visitors with a quality user experience, you can easily convert them into new leads or customers.
While SEO doesn’t require the same kind of budget as other marketing channels (like paid search or display ads, for example), it still requires time, effort, and strategy. Depending on your team’s size, you may not have enough workforce or hours in the day to focus on all the elements involved in accomplishing organic search success.
In that case, it can be helpful to hire an SEO agency. But before you sign a contract, there are a few questions you should ask. You want to make sure you know what to expect as you build this potentially lucrative source of website traffic for your business.
1. Will they provide an audit before they begin?
Any SEO agency worth their salt will start by conducting an audit of your website. They’ll review both on-site and off-site factors, do keyword research, and review trends in your industry to decide where you have opportunities to optimize your efforts.
An audit is usually a flat-fee that you’ll make as a one-time payment. If you hire an agency to support you, you’ll likely pay a monthly retainer fee.
If you know that you’re all in on making SEO work in your business, and you’ve already signed up for long-term support, then they might provide your audit for free.
2. How many keywords will they focus on?
SEO is a way to get specific pages on your website to rank for particular keywords. It’s important to know exactly how many keywords your agency will help you increase rankings for.
As you achieve positive rankings, you may want to add additional keywords to your list of targeted terms. It’s essential to know how the agency will handle such requests.
3. How will the SEO agency you hire complete their keyword research?
You may have data in your company to support the agency. This data will determine which keywords are most valuable for your business. For example, reviewing your web analytics data, organic traffic referral keywords, and PPC ad performance data can provide insight into the terms that drive customers that convert to your business.
That data will support other tools that they can use to find high-value search terms. Many agencies use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, Answer The Public, Google Trends, and more to gain insight on the top terms people search related to your business.
Openly sharing this data with your agency will ensure that they can build a strategy that brings powerful results. It’s common to feel a little hesitant to share such sensitive information with partners. In that case, simply ask your agency partner to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before sharing the information with them.
4. How many pages on your website will they focus on?
Ideally, in SEO, you’ll focus on ranking one specific keyword for each page of our website. You might currently have many pages or just a handful. Your agency should create a list of all the pages on your website and discuss which pages will be optimized.
They should also tell you which new pages to build. If you’ve purchased a premium service, the agency might take the lead in creating new pages for you. If you’ve selected a budget option, you may need to build those new pages yourself.
5. What activities will they be responsible for?
There are many tasks to be executed. When hiring an SEO agency, you want your scope of work to be crystal clear so that you fully understand what they are responsible for and what you’ll be accountable for. Some potential tasks are:
- Writing SEO-friendly content
- Optimizing domain architecture
- Adjusting page URL structures
- Submitting your sitemap
- Building backlinks
- Keyword research
- Creating meta and alt tags
- Creating new pages
- Encouraging positive social signals
- Adding elements to increase time on site
- Improving page load speed
- The list goes on and on and on
As the business owner (or the person in charge of marketing), you want to know what work will be done. Some agencies will do a portion of these tasks, like keyword research and increasing site speed. Still, they might leave it up to you to complete other tasks, like creating new pages or writing SEO-friendly content.
Asking this question will help to ensure that you’ve got the resources to complete any tasks needed on your end. If you don’t have those resources, you might consider investing in a premium support pack where all the work is done-for-you.
6. How often will they share reporting?
If you’ve decided to invest in hiring an SEO agency, it only makes sense to measure your efforts. You can do this by viewing regular reporting with the agency to consider how your first page rankings have adjusted over time. You can also review how much additional traffic you’re getting to your website through organic search.
Because SEO is a long-term strategy, most agencies will offer reports on a bi-weekly or monthly frequency. It’s essential to know how they’ll deliver those reports. Some will create a dashboard where you can log in and view results on your own. Others will send notifications via email. You should also make sure that the agency will be available to explain each report’s details and the reason behind an increase or decrease in rankings. These conversations may happen over email, but it’s best to meet over the phone, video conference, or in-person.
7. If their strategy doesn’t work, what happens?
There are no guarantees in marketing. If the SEO agency you’ve considered hiring promises, with 100% certainty, that they can get you rankings, you should run in the other direction. They may use blackhat strategies that are frowned upon by Google. There’s a lot of controversy around ethical SEO practices. Most practitioners that take their craft seriously will be honest with you that they’ll try their best, but they can’t guarantee results. This is an excellent thing.
But still, you don’t want to waste your money. That’s why you need to have an honest conversation about what will happen if their SEO strategy and execution doesn’t work. If you’ve signed an annual contract, done everything the agency has asked you to do, and don’t have any results in 6 months, you should be able to get out of that contract. Suppose the agency does something shady or uses blackhat strategies that will hurt the reputation of your domain. In that case, you should also be able to get out of the contract.
Yes, you should assume that the SEO agency you’re hiring will do everything right, and you’ll have great results with increased rankings in no-time. However, it’s wise to be prepared to go in a different direction if things don’t work out. The best time to have this conversation is before you sign up for their services.
8. What is the roadmap? What is the timeline?
Rome wasn’t built in a day. A steady stream of organic search traffic for your website won’t be either. Your agency should be upfront about that and share a reasonable timeline of the activities they’ll focus on.
In question 5, we discussed the different tasks that might be executed by you or the agency as a part of your SEO strategy. Here’s an example of what a simple timeline might look like.
Most agencies will start with an audit and keyword research. Then, they’ll move into content creation. Next, they’ll add that content to your website and focus on on-site optimization strategies. This ensures that you’ve got a solid foundation for your overall strategy.
Once the on-site work is complete, they’ll start building strong backlinks to your pages. Lastly, they may work on increasing your social signals. All of these things take time. They should be able to explain their process clearly. If they say something along the lines of “we guarantee results, and it’ll pay for itself,” run the other direction.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. You won’t create a steady stream of organic search traffic in one day, either. – Ashley Baxter
In Summary
Yes, you need help. However, you want to make sure that the people you’re paying to help you have a clear strategy and plan to reach your desired results. The old saying “you get what you pay for” rings true in many areas of life.
Hiring an SEO agency is no different. Some businesses will pay between $500 – $5,000 for an SEO audit and, in return, only get an excel spreadsheet with a list of tasks that they must complete. These situations lead to frustration and a lack of trust between business owners and marketing professionals.
By taking the time to ask the questions we’ve provided, you’ll get a clear understanding of what to expect from your agency. This will help you hit your goals faster and save money on expensive trial and error.
Are you considering hiring an SEO agency? Have you hired an SEO agency in the past? what was your experience? Tell us in the comments below.
