SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an aspect of digital marketing that you can’t afford to do wrong.
The importance attached to SEO is one of the reasons why you need to find the best SEO agency you can afford to partner with to do your SEO well, right from the very start.
Contrary to all the myths about SEO, your SEO influences your social media marketing, and so on.
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So how can you go about selecting a top SEO agency that’s right for your brand? As a business owner, it’s understandable if you don’t know much about SEO.
However, you don’t need to worry. Your SEO agency must explain to you what SEO is all about. For a start, you can use the three criteria mentioned below as a guide.
It's essential to partner with an agency that understands your brand's vision and mission. Click To Tweet
Compatibility
Compatibility is one of the most important things to expect from an SEO agency. The SEO agency needs to get to know your business.
They need to discuss with you to understand your own business and define the goals of your SEO campaign.
You need to agree on what KPI’s (links, rankings, traffic, referrals, social shares, and so on) you’d be using to measure the success or otherwise of your campaign.
Discuss the cost and if it’s affordable for you taking into consideration that an SEO campaign is not a one-off affair. It usually requires a long-term commitment from both parties to yield any tangible results.
Find out what strategies they would use to help you meet your goals and if they would be able to achieve your goals within a reasonable timeframe.
Transparency
Is the SEO agency ready to answer all your questions? Are they transparent about their strategies and processes, or are they dodgy?
Transparency is a sensitive topic because SEO and most things related to digital marketing have to do with intellectual property.
So the agency may not want to divulge all their processes and strategies, and so on, to you without getting a firm commitment from you.
Agency’s not willing to divulge all their processes to you is understandable. After all, as a client, you must learn to respect the agency’s intellectual property rights. Nobody likes a client who tries to “play smart” or “pick your brain” for free.
Ask lots of questions to know if the SEO agency that offers the level of transparency that makes you feel comfortable.
Once you’ve selected your preferred SEO agencies and they’ve signed you on as a client you should expect that their level of transparency will increase.
You should also expect that there be open lines of communication and that the agency is proactive in communicating to you how your campaign is performing and if there are any issues that need attention.
Accountability
With regards to the set goals and KPI established, you must hold the SEO agency accountable to meet them.
Before you hire an SEO agency, they must tell you who will be held accountable for what and why.
They should also be able to let you know the kind of feedback they would need from you on your SEO campaign.
Most professional SEO agencies are proactive in this regard and will always reach out to you with daily, weekly, or monthly and so on, accounts and reports depending on what you’ve agreed.
They will keep you abreast of the what, why and how of each step in your campaign. If the drive is not going according to plan, the agency will also be proactive in reaching out to you with suggestions on what to do to get back on track.
Final Thoughts
These three things are some of the most important criteria you should use in selecting an SEO agency to handle your SEO campaigns.
As mentioned before, it’s essential to partner with an agency that understands your brand’s vision and mission.
Your brand is unique, and the SEO agency that you hire has to treat your brand as such and find custom SEO solutions for your brand.
Gone are the days of cookie cutter one size fits all SEO campaigns. Google’s algorithm has developed a lot than what it was 5 or 10 years ago. Therefore your SEO strategies and tactics have to move with the times.
If you’re looking for an SEO agency to partner with, feel free to get in touch to discuss your needs and see if we are the right fit for you based on the three criteria mentioned above.
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