If youre the owner of a small business, youve got dozens of tasks on your mind: generating leads and sales, personal branding, social media marketing, employee payroll the list goes on and on.
How much thought and effort have you put into search engine optimization?
This is the process of attracting organic (free) traffic from the search results in search engines. You need your business to appear high-up in the organic results or potential clients wont even know you exist.
Do this process right, and youll get targeted traffic landing on your website to learn more and/or buy what youre selling. Fail, and your potential clients will find your competitors without even knowing you exist.
Often, small business owners are trying to make small marketing budgets stretch. They may even take search engine optimization upon themselves, cobbling together a DIY campaign that doesnt get results or ultimately damages them.
Or, they hire a company thats making them lots of false promises, like “Youll be #1 in Google!” (Nobody can promise you that, by the way).
Here are three compelling reasons to hire a pro if youre wondering “Should I pay for SEO?”
1. You benefit from an experts experience and knowledge.
Although nobody but Google knows the answer, its widely estimated that there are 200 factors used by Google’s search algorithm to rank websites and pages.
This part of your marketing is a LOT of work and responsibilityare you willing to do it yourself or trust your companys success to an overseas firm that offers you rock-bottom prices?
If you hire the wrong company, its not just about poor results. Many of these companies employ illegal techniques. These are shady practices that Google will punish you for, perhaps even by removing you from search results entirely.
A good search engine optimization strategist is on top of the ever-changing rules and trends and will play by Googles rules. They will evaluate your competitors and help you create and implement a strategy that will get results.
2. Theyll help you create a better user experience.
When it comes to SEO outsourcing, its important to look at it as a holistic process. Their efforts should impact your entire website, not just the pages with optimized content.
Thats why its essential to find a reputable marketing company that doesnt just focus on keywords. While targeting the right keywords and using them the right amount of times throughout your website is key, theres more to it than that, such as:
How fast your site loads
If your navigation is user-friendly or not
Mobile friendliness
By hiring a well-rounded marketing company, your strategy isnt just focused on keywords, but on other essential factors that can make or break your success.
3. Theyll analyze the data.
Its one thing to make changes and test out different things, but how are you measuring your success or lack thereof? Youre only going to see results and improve what isnt working if youre diving deep into your stats and making adjustments.
If you hire an SEO specialist, he or she can provide you with stats such as:
Number of visitors
The keywords people are using to find your site
Bounce rate (how many people are landing on a page, not interacting with it and leaving)
What content visitors are interacting with
How much traffic youre getting from social media
Its unlikely that you have the time or training to look closely at your analytics and pull out the relevant data. By opting for paid search optimization, you can focus on what you do best within your business.
Questions to Ask Before You Hire an SEO Specialist
You need to look at this process as a job interview. Youre hiring a VIP for your companythe person who is going to attract visitors and keep them on your site.
Before you hire another person for your team, here are six questions to ask your potential new employee:
1. Can you guarantee that our site will rank #1 for a search term?
This is the first question you should ask, because if the answer is “Yes,” theyre not a reputable company. Like I mentioned above, nobody can guarantee this.
2. How do you plan on improving our search engine rankings?
If your consultant or firm is good, theyll have a tried-and-true search engine optimization strategy theyll happily share with you. Watch for vague answers around linking or keyword researchtheres much more to it than that.
Speaking of links, as them about how they plan on building links. One good backlink is worth more than thousands of low-quality backlinks, and some consultants will try to wow you with the number rather than the quality.
3. Whats your reporting process?
Ask your potential company what metrics they track. You need to be informed of whats happening, and usually companies send a monthly report (at least). Be wary of those who dont have a solid schedule to keep clients in the loopthis is often because they dont have enough good results to share.
4. Do you optimize for voice search?
When you hire someone, they need to think beyond the right-now and focus on the future of your business. A short-sighted strategy isnt going to get you results in the long run, and voice search should absolutely be on your radar.
According to ComScore, 50% of searches will be voice searches by 2020, so you should be optimizing your website for voice search now.
5. Can you provide referrals or testimonials from clients?
A reputable company should have online referrals that include the names and organizations of those who recommend them, either on their company site, or on Google or Yelp.
If someone doesnt have any examples of past successes, theyre not going to be able to take your business to the next level.
Heres a good trick: ask them which client has been with them the longest. If its under a year or two, run! That means that they probably employ short-term techniques that dont last.
6. Why should I hire you?
Listen for red flags like “Were the cheapest” or “We get you the largest number of links.” You want to hear that their plan involves a longer-term strategy with research, implementation and testing.
These are some great ways to help you find a reputable, professional business to tackle your SEO needs. If youre asking, “How much does SEO cost?” my answer is: that depends. A trustworthy firm will work with you to find the package and pricing thats best for your business.
Hiring an SEO specialist is a big decision, and theres a lot at stake.