When it comes to SEO, there are typically two ways to go about it. You can either train an in-house team to perform all the functions related to this or go with the safer route of hiring an SEO agency. With the latter, you can ensure quality, efficiency, and a job well done—all meted towards success. Say you’ve hired an SEO agency to do all the SEO-related functions of your business. Congratulations! Now, what’s next? What do you expect your SEO agency to do for you? Here’s a shortlist to get you started:
- Open Communication And Transparency It’s going to be very difficult to work with an agency that doesn’t practice transparency and open communication. This means that at all times, you should know what they’re working on for your business and what they aren’t. You should also be given explanations on why they’re working on certain strategies and what their goals are. This level of transparency can help ensure that you’re on the same page with the agency you’re working with. There won’t be any gray areas that’ll possibly create any doubt or mistrust between your business and the team. If you’re finding it hard to communicate with a certain SEO agency, then it’s better to switch to another one. It’s not worth stressing over an agency that’s not transparent with communications, especially since there are so many other agencies that are easier to deal with.
- Willingness To Learn About Your Business, Audience, And Goals SEO agencies are experts on one thing: SEO. This means that they don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of your business, especially when this is their first time working with a company in the industry you belong to. So, before undertaking any big SEO projects with your business, it’s important for the SEO agency to put in the effort to get to know more about your business, audience, and goals. Doing so will give them a strong foundation and framework so they know exactly what they’re dealing with, and what their team should do to address your concerns. Remember that no two businesses are alike, so a good agency can’t just apply the same principles and strategies that they used with another brand.
- Monitoring And Reporting The job of an SEO agency doesn’t just end upon the application of SEO principles per se. Rather, it also has to include proper monitoring and reporting to ensure that you’re aware of the strategies they’re applying and the progress of each SEO-related project. For instance, important metrics you should be informed about include site searches on your website, bounce rates, duration of stay, and a visitor’s journey on your website. There should also be analytics reports on your content, so you’re made aware as to what content fared well and what didn’t.
- Audit Of Your Current Website Even the most expert SEO agencies need to do a periodic audit of your website. Remember that technology is moving at a very fast pace, so this can mean that your website may be using SEO strategies today that will no longer be relevant in the coming months. Hence the need for an audit. This ensures that you’re always up-to-date with all of the strategies that you apply. With this audit, the SEO agency can make recommendations as to what changes are necessary, how these are set to affect your metrics, or what SEO strategies to keep. This should be expected of any agency that promises good SEO management. If the agency sticks to the same routines over and over again and you feel they’re not translating into results, then discuss your concerns with your team. More than anything else, they should be dynamic in adopting whatever new developments come into play in the digital marketing arena. Conclusion Are your questions answered as to what you should rightfully expect from the SEO agency you’ve hired? Now you know what work they need to do, and what they need to achieve and accomplish with the fee that you’re paying them to do. With a task as crucial as SEO, you can’t take your chances. You’ve got to ensure that the SEO agency you hire meets your expectations and helps gear your website towards online success. If these expectations aren’t met, then you may be better off in the hands of another SEO agency instead.
