Hiring SEO consultants is a step in the right direction when growing your brand. Optimizing your website for search engines takes time, effort and financial investment. When sifting through available professional SEO services, it’s important to understand what exactly you need for your brand and even more importantly, who you need to get the job done.
Whether you’re in need of someone to grow your brand in six weeks or in the course of a year, you want someone you can trust. SEO is a craft that provides incredible return, and an SEO consultant should guide you through the process comfortably.
Here’s a list of questions we deem the most important when seeking SEO marketing services.
1. Who are your clients?
Find out what brands consultants have worked with in the past or with which they work currently. Does that brand profile fit your brand profile? What sort of results have they seen? Would their clients attest to valuable service?
2. What is your strategy?
What specific strategies will the consult use to address (and improve) your specific deficiencies and inefficiencies?
3. Do you abide by Google’s webmaster best practices?
If a consultant does not plan to follow Google’s webmaster best practices, there are severe repercussions for your site- including being banned from Google search results entirely.
4. Trick Question: Can you make me show up as the number one ranking on all the search engines?
If their answer is yes, your answer is no! It is not possible to guarantee such a ranking. The SEO consultant will do everything they can to help your site win Google’s favor. They cannot mark the territory personally.
5. What’s my involvement?
Will you show me the changes made to my code so that I know exactly where changes have been made to improve my site? Are we touching base throughout the process? If so, how often? What’s our relationship after your complete the services? Can I contact you for help, etc.?
6. What are the terms of our agreement?
Make sure you know exactly how much the consultant intends to charge you (hourly or project-based), and how often you will be invoiced.
7. How do you measure SEO success?
If you’re looking for a specific result, communicate that with the consultant, and make sure it’s a goal that they consider feasible. Are you looking for a few more hundred viewers a week or hundreds of thousands? Communication about expectations is key.
Don’t forget, cheap SEO services don’t necessarily mean weak SEO services. Dig into what your brand needs and what the consultant can provide. And when you’re ready to seek the best, give EM360 a shout. We look forward to growing with you, soon!
