Finding Your Best SEO Partner

Businesses need search engine optimization (SEO) to make the most of their marketing efforts. But it can be difficult to know what to look for in the right SEO agency. So let us help you out.

In this guide, you will learn how to find the best SEO partner by:

• Developing your SEO goals
• Collecting relevant data
• Asking the SEO techniques the agency uses
• Considering your budget
• Avoiding guarantees

Whether you’re a small business, a startup, or a big company, the right SEO agency will increase conversions, improve brand awareness, and promote site traffic. Want to know more about finding the best SEO expert?

Let’s begin!

Want to learn more about the Digital Authority Partners approach to SEO? Watch this video!

Develop Your SEO Goals

What do you want your website to do? Before choosing an SEO partner, develop your SEO goals. Once you have a clear idea of your goals, you can start identifying the kind of agency you wish to hire.

Develop your goals using S.M.A.R.T.

• Specific. Your goals must be clear and should match your business objectives. Things like “more exposure,” “more traffic,” and “higher sales” are examples of specific goals.
• Measurable. There must be a way to measure and illustrate the achievement of your goals. It could be the number of links from high authority sites, the increased amount of organic traffic, or a percentage increase in conversions.
• Achievable. Your goal must be aggressive but achievable. Perform feasibility studies, check your resources, or reflect on your current search engine result page (SERPs) rankings.
• Relevant. Your goal should matter to you. Your goal and the plan should make every stakeholder feel it is worth their effort and resources.
• Time-bound. You should set deadlines. Doing so helps you stay focused, especially since SEO results take time to show. Deadlines help you keep track of your activities along the way.

Find an SEO agency that will own your goals. Choose one that will do all they can to help you put your marketing plans into reality.

Check SEO Agency’s Relevant Experience 

Your marketing goals are in place, and you're now ready to select the best SEO agency. Gather relevant data that will help you in making the right choice.

One of the most important things you should consider when selecting an agency is their experience with businesses or companies in your industry. For example, if you're in the healthcare industry, an SEO agency should be adept at promoting websites for medical professionals, medical clinics, practitioners, and healthcare companies. Similarly, if you’re in manufacturing, an SEO agency should be able to highlight your products and processes for prospective customers.

An agency should prove its expertise through customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies. Consider customers with similar marketing goals; what strategies were used to complete these goals? If you can, contact these clients and ask about their experience working with the SEO company to get a good idea of how the agency works.

Ask how long they have been working with companies to help them with their SEO. Hiring an SEO agency with a long-term optimization plan rather than strategies that will not be relevant in just a few months is a plus.

Ask What SEO Technique They Use

One way to determine if an agency uses updated strategies is to ask what SEO techniques they prefer. A good agency will match a client's campaign with an SEO strategy. An example would be using local SEO tactics to promote a small business, a startup, or mobile SEO for an e-commerce site.

Choose agencies that will start with an SEO audit. An audit reviews a site's optimization efforts, including local SEO, off-page SEO, on-page SEO, and technical SEO. According to Google's best practices, audits reveal your site's health and how well it's doing.

Check for the following too.

• Plans to improve your website's rankings - do they use modern SEO strategies or have a fool-proof ranking plan ready for you? Someone who dances around, unable to explain how they will improve your SEO, is not prepared to help you.
• Backlink strategy – backlinks continue to be one of the top search algorithms. An excellent technique to promote backlinks can effectively help rank your site higher on SERPs. Look for an agency that values quality backlinks instead of quantity.
• Metrics tracking – choose a company that will track your rankings, site traffic, and conversions. These metrics have meaningful relationships with one another. Ask how they will report your campaign progress and how often you need to expect a report.
• Knowledge of Google's latest algorithms - you know that an SEO agency is dedicated when they take time to learn Google's updated search algorithms. That means they value how your website ranks and follow Google's updates to keep clients on top of SERPs.

Your SEO partner must be a local SEO expert to help boost your local business. Localized strategies help maintain valuable web traffic and ensure foot traffic to your business or office.

Consider Your Budget for SEO

Examining your budget is part of looking for the right SEO agency. Decide how much you're willing to spend on SEO. Most SEO agencies that provide local services will cost hundreds of dollars a month, while companies that offer aggressive campaign services will cost thousands of dollars per campaign.

Small businesses and startups may choose to DIY SEO, which does not cost a thing except for their time and effort in learning new strategies. DIYing your SEO is a great way to learn optimization strategies. But you can’t waste time and afford costly errors if you want to grow your traffic and rank higher faster.

Be Wary of Unusual Guarantees

It’s common for companies to boast that they have the best products and provide the best services. But giving guarantees that you can fix a site’s SEO with specific outcomes is questionable at best.

Never trust an SEO company that can give specific guarantees, because there is no way to predict a website's performance in SERPs. An SEO agency will give you an idea of how they will improve your website despite changing search algorithms.

A good SEO agency will help you look at digital marketing from a broader perspective. What more does your site need to rank higher and stay ahead of your competitors? You may need advanced SEO strategies such as accelerating page loading speeds, enhancing website architecture, and data analysis.

Summing Up

To find the best SEO agency, you must first be clear about your SEO goals and gather relevant information about the company you wish to hire. Find out the SEO techniques the agency prefers to use but don't get carried away by unrealistic guarantees.

Finally, consider your budget when hiring an SEO company. Doing SEO alone won't cost you anything but the time and effort spent learning new strategies. However, expert SEO help will ensure you rank using the proper techniques, especially if your business is in a competitive industry.

Have you found your best SEO partner? Contact us, and let's get started right away.