Writing by Nick Stamoulis in SEO
ShareThis
If
you are looking to hire an SEO firm, you want to make sure you find the
right company for your business and online goals. There is no shortage
of SEO companies (large and small), consultants, gurus, experts and
specialists eager to become your SEO partner—but how can you tell if one
SEO company is better than the other? How do you identify the good, the
bad and the ugly when it comes to SEO firms?
Here are 4 ways you can tell if you’ve found a good SEO firm:
1. Can you find them in the search engines?
This is kind of a no brainer—you want to work with an SEO firm that is
good at SEO and can get their site performing well in the search
engines! Keep in mind that broad keywords like “SEO company” or “SEO
firm” are incredibly competitive on a national level and typically the
largest firms show up on page one, but smaller SEO companies will carve
out a niche for themselves by going after localized keywords (“Boston SEO firm”, for example) or long tail keywords like “full service SEO agency.”
2. Do they have an active social media presence?
Social media and SEO go hand-in-hand. A good SEO firm understands that
and should have an active social media presence on the biggest social
networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Are they
publishing new content, responding to comments/questions and following
other people/companies? Social media marketing is all about getting
having conversations—how much talking is that SEO firm doing?
3. Do they have a blog and are regularly publishing new content?
Without content SEO is dead in the water. Any SEO firm worth its salt
should have a company blog that they routinely updated with fresh
content. And the content shouldn’t just be about their company
either—you want to work with an SEO firm that writes content designed to
educate the reader and establish the firm as trusted experts.
4. Can you find any red flags about the company online?
Before you hire an SEO firm, do your due diligence and try to get a
“l(fā)ook under the hood” of the company. Remember, a sales representative
is going to say whatever they need to say to earn your business, but
it’s important that you do a little fact checking of your own. Search
for things like “[company name} review” or “[company name] scam” and see
what comes up. One complaint isn’t too much to worry about, but if the
search results are littered with consumer complaint reports than steer
clear! A good SEO firm shouldn’t have anything published online that
makes you second guess their reputation. If you want a good idea what a
poor online reputation looks like, do a quick search for “Ocean Marketing.”
If your website has reached the point where you’re ready to outsource
your SEO, be sure you hire a good SEO firm that can take your online
marketing to the next level and really help your brand succeed online!
