A Complete guide while hiring a SEO Company!

With an increase of awareness of importance of SEO in ones website, while carrying on a business has led to a rise in the

SEO service provider

companies. Finding a right SEO company is a tough job in itself. Choosing the right company would be the best thing one could do for their business and choosing the wrong one would cost your business time and money.

With an rise of the internet era, many people firstly rush online to check if they can get information about the required product, The company who can provide them the product and also the reputation of the company.

Those company website which are ranking on the 1st pages of Google catch 99% of online business. So not doing SEO or choosing a wrong one could cause a potential damage caused to your online presence as a result of bad or poor quality SEO.

There are many SEO agencies in the market to consider. Here are some of the essential questions you can ask potential SEO companies and why would it help? This information can help you to diamond from the coals when it comes to find a high-quality SEO companies.

1. How would you improve our search Engine Rankings? Or How do you approach SEO?

• SEO is all about process and following the algorithm. All good SEOs follow a process which include Website Analysis, Keyword Analysis, On-Page SEO, Back linking etc.
• You can ask about Link Building as back linking play a very major role of SEO algorithms. All the SEO companies will majorly focus on getting back-links to your website in order to improve the keyword rankings
• An Agency should Firstly Analyze your website and see if there are any problems and then help you fix them.

2. How would you go about with Link Building?

• External In-bounds Back-links i.e Off-Page Optimization is one of the most important part of Search Engine Optimization.
• Without good back-links, you will find it difficult to rank higher than your competitors.
• But, not every back-link is good. Back-links can be only useful only if they are relevant. If you choose a wrong SEO Consultancy you may risk your website as it may be possible that they may build spammy links which may go against Google's guidelines (Black Hat SEO) which may end your website being penalized and you may miss your goal by miles.
• So it is really important that you should ask the Following questions regarding Link Building:
  • i.What Kind of Links will you be building?
  • ii.How would you build the links?
  • iii.How many links can we expect per month?
  • iv.Do you know about Google Penguin Algorithm and what makes a quality back-links?

3. Google Algorithms are constantly changing and updating, How Do you cope up with the changes and updates?

A good SEO company would constantly keep a check on Google algorithms and keep on trying the new things and new tactics but of-course not on your website. A good SEO Company would have their own websites on which they try new techniques and Algorithms. The ones which we effect positively on SERP's would then be applied over their clients websites.

4. How would I know about what changes are been done from your end?

Would you share all the changes you make on my website?Also how would I be knowing about the links you have generated?

• Search engine optimization may require a number of changes to your existing web page coding i.e On Page Changes. It's really important to know exactly what adjustments the consultant plans to make and on how many web pages. If you would like the consultant to get your permission/approval before accessing and altering your website code, be sure to say so.
• Off-page SEO basically deals with creating back-links pointing towards you website, it is really important to keep track of this back-links created so as to comply with point no. 2 of this article so that you know that your consultant adheres Google's guidelines.
• A good SEO company will always share reports mostly on monthly or weekly basis so as to share the work status and maintain transparency.
• Qualities of a good SEO reports :
  • i.Keywords Rankings: Keyword standings of your website as of current date.
  • ii.Keyword Suggestions: A report might note about a particular keyword which would get you a lot of traffic from a specific keyword and recommend an action to take advantage of this, such as creating a content to target a particular keyword.
  • iii.And most importantly You should be able to read it and get good information from which you could boost your online presence.

5. Will I be able to meet and communicate with the team assigned to my project?

• Most SEO agencies will send their Sales team to win new clients and of-course there is nothing wrong with that, but lookout! chances are that you're not going to have the agency technical SEO specialist handling all of the work.
• Ask them if you could meet the SEO specialist responsible for your website SEO and any other team members involved. I Am sure you wouldn't want a wrong person handling your project!

6. Do you currently work with any of our competitors?

• Ask the SEO Agency for their clientele. Having other clients in your industry can be a plus point as this may indicate that the agency knows what may work or won't in that particluar industry.
• Ever heard of this? "A coin has two sides" same way along with its positive point it does carry a negative point. A agency may be working for your competitors who might be paying more higher than you for getting better services that's why it is really important to find out the details.

7. Can we have a look at some case studies?

• It is good to see case studies so that you can have a reference about the work and progress of the client whom the SEO agency is providing services for.
• Hearing testimonials from the horse's mouth will help you develop a more informed opinion.
• Plus case studies can provide you statistics for progress over a period of time.

8. How often will we be having meetings?

Transparency can be maintained by clear communication. Some SEO Companies may catch up once in a month, some may catch up once in a week while some may communicate through E-mails and share reports through the online medium. It is recommended to have a face-to-face discussion atleast once in a month so that you can have details and status about the work done, seek answers for queries, discuss over suggestions and other details.

9. Are there any free tools I can use to do my own SEO research?

• A good SEO agency will not only will be familiar with free and good tools available but also will gladly provide the information to you. knowing that the value of information that the agency can provide drives far beyond a list of keywords and also shows that the SEO Agency is confident and transparent with their work.
• List of some Free SEO Tools which can help you in a long run:
  • i. Google Keyword Planner (https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner)
  • ii. Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/)
  • iii. Google Webmaster (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/)
  • iv. Check my link Chrome Plug-in ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/check-my-links/ojkcdipcgfaekbeaelaapakgnjflfglf?hl=en-GB )
  • v. SEO Report Card (http://app.upcity.com/free-tools/seo-report-card)
  • vi. HubSpot's Website Grader (https://website.grader.com)
  • vii. Found's SEO Audit Tool (https://www.found.co.uk/seo-tool/)
  • viii. Varvy's SEO Overview Tool (https://varvy.com/tools/)

10. What if we part ways?

• When your contract expires or if in-case you terminate the contract early, you should still maintain ownership of all of the optimized web content that you have paid the consultant for.
• You should make sure that when the contract states that when you part ways from the agency, consultants will not change or remove any of the content they have added, modified or changed to optimize your website.
• You should also ask the agency weather they charge any fees for early termination of the contract and if any, ask them to mention it in the contract.
• At the end of the contract you should make sure that the passwords of various portal leading to your website should be changed so that only you make sure your Ex-SEO Agency has no control over the website anymore.

Conclusion
The Main purpose of this entire process is that you don't choose a black hat SEO agency who may land up your website in a pit in crawlers eyes. With the above set of questionnaire, you will be sure that you are selecting a right SEO company as a Digital Marketing Partner.