How to choose the right SEO Company?

How To Choose The Right SEO Company In 22 Steps

Choosing the right SEO agency is critical for success. You can find hundreds of local SEO agencies. How to choose the right SEO company for your business?

Here are some factors you should consider while choosing the right SEO company for your business. If you would like to work with the best SEO agency Melbourne to lift your business then talk to us.

Key Considerations

1. The Right Attitude

The right attitude is critical while choosing the SEO agency. One may be the best at work but no one likes to work with people with a bad attitude.

A positive environment between the client and the service provider is important. Businesses should also have the right attitude towards SEO agency and allow them to do good work with minimum interruptions.

2. Talk to SEO Strategist in Detail

Don’t fall in the trap of sales pitch with over-promise. Have a detailed strategy discussion with SEO strategist who may do the work or lead.

If you do not have the basic technical knowledge to understand the basics of SEO then you may ask your friend or anyone who can help you in the meeting.

3. SEO Creativity (Out of the box Ideas)

This can bring a WOW factor to the SEO campaign. This is the major point of difference SEO agency should demonstrate with examples and case studies.

A flat SEO approach can take you to some heights only.

SEO creativity is a time-consuming process and high-level planning may cost you more but this can keep you ahead in the competition.

4. Data Analysis & Insight

These days data and insights are key. An SEO approach with digital analytics can bring a unique approach to your SEO campaign.

We highly recommend businesses to invest more in data and digital Analytics.

If you have an eCommerce business and need Magento SEO Melbourne then digital insights become even critical to converting the learning into practice to enhance the outcome.

5. SEO Reporting

Most of the agencies do not do this right. A report should be something the client can understand.

A report should also indicate the work done as ranking may take time. There should be clarity on how SEO activities and insight will be reported.

6. Clarity on Measuring Ranking

A clarity on measuring ranking is important. Transparency keeps the relationship going.

Example: Top 3 ranking vs page 1 ranking.

SEO outcome expectation should be clearly defined and documented to avoid any dispute.

7. Understand Monthly Scope of the Work

It is important that you know about the monthly SEO activities. The gist of the work should also be reported.

Make sure you discuss monthly SEO activities before making the decision to choose the right SEO company.

8. Who will produce content?

We all know content is king. Apart from strategy planning and creativity, this is the most time-consuming task.

Content includes content writing for website and blog, sourcing images, video production, designing infographics etc.

Generally, a combined effort brings the best outcome but if you are a very busy client then do not accept the content responsibility, a delayed approach in producing content can impact the SEO effort.

Building highly optimised and powerful content is a very time-consuming task to bring out of the box ideas into practice. Example: content building with SEO infographics strategy can take days in planning, writing, designing etc. This kind of pure green SEO can be costly but the outcome is generally very satisfactory.

9. Thinking Beyond SEO

Finding an SEO company who can think beyond SEO is difficult.

SEO is not just about ranking.

Thinking beyond means planning for the future, guidance on taking SEO learning to invest in other marketing channels.

10. Respecting Your Data

Don’t get locked up. We have heard numerous stories of agency keeping the client digital properties and it becomes a very challenging task when they move to a different provider.

All your digital assets must be under your accounts which may include hosting, emails, link building assets, social accounts and more.

11. Helping to Build Your Brand

If you can build your brand then you can sustain and grow your business easily. It can take years but if the agency can have a vision towards this then its a plus.

You have to look beyond SEO when it comes to brand building. Greater planning with online reputation management, brand marketing can help to make the brand popular in the community.

12. One who can be the Trusted Advisor

If you have issues with your online stuff and if you know you can count on someone then you are in the good hand.

These days every business should have their digital trusted adviser in the same way you have tax and account advisors.

13. Pay for Quality Work

Quality work is not cheap. Be prepared to pay for the quality work.

Many businesses do not understand the complexity and the level of work required to rank a website in a competitive environment.

Cheap SEO is not the answer to business SEO. Learn about standard SEO pricing in Australia. You may have to pay higher for eCommerce SEO optimisation because of the complexity and keywords range.

Background Check

14. Company Reputation

Do your research to know about the agency reputation. Go through their website, customer reviews, client results and more.

You must know fake reputation vs real feedback.

It is not very hard to build a fake online reputation, you must do the required checks to ensure you hire the right agency.

15. Talk to their Past or Present Clients

This is a great opportunity if you get a chance to talk to past or present clients.

We are a leading SEO provider in Melbourne and we also provide services across Australia. We allow new prospects to talk to our existing clients. 

15. Case Study

Go through their case study if they have. Having a chat about a tough project can help you understand the level of work done by the SEO agency.

Common Mistakes

16. Don't Fall for Cool SEO Presentation

Do not fall in the trap hyped SEO presentation. Do your own due diligence check.

Try to understand more about the work rather than getting inspired by how they may look at their office location.

17. Say No to Guaranteed SEO

Stay away from guaranteed SEO pitch. The approach to gain ranking at any cost may lead to SEO penalty.

SEO should be a long term approach and as it is impacted by 100s of factors it is not realistic to guarantee the SEO result.

Having said that, qualified SEO expect and provide you with a realistic expectation which they can achieve. 

18. Avoid Cheap SEO

You will get what you pay for. Cheap SEO is not the answer to reliable SEO service.

Cheap SEO is a waste of time for the business as well as the agency unless the scope of the work is very small.

Google ranking suddenly dropped? Don't get surprised, you will get what you will pay for.

19. Don't be just a number in their client list

Often cheap and over-promised pitch is to get clients at any cost. Don't be one in the lists just for the monthly cash flow.

Good work and relationship can be rewarding for the business as well as the agency.

20. Avoid Black Hat SEO Agency

Black hat SEO get caught very easily by the search engine. It's not worth even thinking.

If you are serious about your business and reputation then do not even think about getting ranking at any cost, it's not worth it.

You must know the basics of good vs bad SEO to make the right decision.

You must have safe link building work done on your site.

Set realistic SEO expectation. How long do backlinks take to work is an important question which any agency should communicate to clients. This is one of the major factor for the ranking.

21. Don’t Keep Changing SEO Company

Don’t keep changing your SEO provider. A restart with Google Ads is a lot easier but SEO is a very different strategy. The work done today will have an impact on your ranking in the future.

Take time and choose the right agency. Avoid changing your SEO provider every few months.

22. Avoid long term contracts

If you don’t know much about the agency then it's not good to sign a long term contract.

Even if you sign then think about the exit strategy if no improvement in ranking in a decent time.

Work with experts

We provide SEO services across Australia including SEO Perth in WA. Call us now to get a quote.