There are currently over 10,000 digital marketing agencies in the country.
If you’re looking for help in the digital marketing realm, it really helps to hire a professional digital marketer. With so many of these digital marketing agencies out there, you have to know exactly what to look for if you’re going to find one to take your marketing efforts to new heights.
One of the most important aspects of digital advertising in 2023 is search engine optimization. If you can pick an SEO specialist who understands your business and industry, you may find yourself at the top of the SERP.
Today, we’re going to give you a complete guide to narrow down your options for SEO specialists. Whether you’re a brand new business or an old business looking to improve your marketing strategy, keep reading and we’ll help partner you with the perfect marketing professionals.
Reading Online Reviews
The best way to start your search for an SEO specialist is to simply search for them on Google. This should give you a long list of the best and brightest SEO agencies in the country. If you’re looking for something local, make sure to add your location to your search.
Once you see how many options there are, you’ll need to narrow the selection down. A great way to do this is by reading online reviews from former clients. Choose the agencies that have the best average ratings and start searching through their reviews to learn more about them.
These reviews can tell you a lot about what it’ll be like to hire a particular company. If there’s overwhelming positivity across the comments, that’s obviously a great sign. Make sure to read the bad reviews just as closely, as they can help you raise red flags that you should be concerned about.
Reviews should help you narrow your choices down to around 5 of the best agencies. From there, you can start digging a bit deeper.
Industry Experience
Next, you can start looking at each agency’s website to learn more about what they do and how they do it. An important thing to look at is whether or not they have experience working with other companies in your industry.
Industry experience is important for SEO because there are specific tactics that may work better in one industry and not in another. If they only have experience doing SEO for automotive companies and you need SEO for home products, it just doesn’t make sense to hire them.
Most SEO companies have specialties, but if you can’t find anything informing you about their expertise, don’t hesitate to call and ask.
Look At the Portfolio
Another way to gauge how well an SEO service will fit your needs is by looking at their portfolio. Here, you’ll be able to see examples of the work they’re most proud of.
At its core, SEO is about numbers, so that’s what you’ll want to zero in on when looking at company portfolios. You need proof of tangible results in the campaigns that they’ve worked on. Great SEO campaigns can take a somewhat anonymous business and, over several months, bring them to the top of the search rankings.
What Else Do They Offer?
Many of these companies offer SEO in tandem with a number of other digital marketing services. In reality, to do SEO properly, you need to look at SEO and social media, SEO and content marketing, and SEO and branding.
The more that a company can do for you, the better. Think about what you want out of this process. Do you need someone to help you create blog posts and do social media, as well as boost your SEO standing?
This can help you narrow down the selection considerably and get a company that can take care of your entire digital marketing strategy.
Comparing SEO Services Costs
The next step in finding your future SEO specialist is to choose a few of the best options and reach out to get quotes. Creating a digital marketing budget can be tricky because it’s hard to put a value on what a strong marketing campaign can do for your business.
Do a bit of research into SEO services costs and come up with a rough number for your budget. Take that to the different companies you’ve chosen and see how much they charge for their services.
As a general rule of thumb, don’t choose a company just because it’s the most affordable. At the same time, you don’t want to go drastically over budget. Use it as a guide, but ultimately, you have to choose the SEO company that can do the most for your business.
Looking At Metrics
There are a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) that SEO specialists use to measure the success of a campaign. When you’re meeting with different services, find out what metrics are most important to them.
SEO is more than landing at the top of the SERP. In the end, your SEO efforts should help bring more attention to your business and raise your overall profits. A few examples of important KPIs are traffic, conversion rate, leads, and generated revenue.
Ask for an SEO Audit
It’s good practice to ask for an SEO audit from each company that you’re considering hiring. During the audit, they’ll look at your website and give you a rundown of what they think is good and what needs improvement to boost your SEO.
Compare the results of 3-5 different SEO audits and use them to decide which company has the best vision for your SEO efforts. These audits are the best way to get a sense of the capabilities of a particular SEO service.
Use Your Gut to Pick an SEO Specialist
As a business owner, it’s important to have a good idea of how SEO works and how essential it is to your success in 2023. You can’t do it all on your own, however. You need to pick an SEO specialist that can work with you to take your business to new heights, so use these tips and start your search today.
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