You need to take on an SEO consultant. But how do you choose the best seo person for the job?
Here are our top 12 tips for identifying someone who’ll help give your business better visibility in the search results, drive more potential customers your way and help you maximise sales conversion.
How long have you been working in SEO? Things change incredibly fast online and the marketing world is full of instant experts. Make sure your candidate has the right amount, breadth and depth of experience to merit calling him or herself a consultant. SEO Agencies have existed for more than a decade so find someone with at least a few years’ experience under their belt
Do you have any case studies we can see? Any expert worth their salt will be able to show you at least two solid case studies that demonstrate exactly how they’ve improved other business’s search positions.
If they don’t want to reveal sensitive details about the work they’ve done for clients, ask for an anonymised version with the client name removed. What you need is a logical, clear story where £X has been spent and, as a result, a return on investment of £X has been generated. Nothing fluffy and vague – you need the facts
What about references? Always ask for references and take up at last three of them. If they don’t have three referees, why not?
How current is your SEO knowledge? Google alone releases literally thousands of algorithm updates every year. Some have a powerful impact, most are so subtle you won’t notice them. An expert in the field will be able to talk you through the latest developments fluently, in plain language.
What media do you use? If they only use social media marketing, step away. SEO is a multi-disciplined affair and a good consultant will bring all manner of media into play including on-site SEO, SMM, natural link building and content marketing
Can you explain exactly what you do? Assuming the person you’re talking to has already taken a long, hard look at your website they should be able to give you a broad-brush, easy to understand outline of the techniques they recommend to take your particular site to the next level.
What about on-site SEO? The starting point for SEO excellence is your website and there are probably plenty of relatively simple quick wins that’ll optimise it for search engines, things like SEO-friendly meta data and content mark-up. If all they can talk about is building links, they’re missing a vital trick
What do you need from us? SEO is a two way street and experienced SEO consultants will be happy to provide a list of the things you need to do to meet them half way. If they recommend lots of fresh content, you need to deliver it. If they specify site updates, you need to carry them out in good time, without delay, to their brief
How quickly can you improve our search positions? If the answer is ‘instantly’, be wary… very wary! If they promise you the earth in no time it’s likely they will either resort to old fashioned spammy link building techniques (that’ll inevitably catch up with you one day) or they don’t know what they’re talking about
How will we know you’re succeeding? Find out what methods they’ll be using to measure their work’s effectiveness and how / how often they will pass the information on to you. You need someone meticulous and well organised with a good head for admin
How does your own website rank in the search results? SEO Consultants are busy people but that’s no excuse for letting their business site slide. If someone’s on the ball with their own site it’s more likely they’ll stay on the ball with yours!
Do you have any non-SEO marketing experience? SEO is one thing, but it isn’t everything. If you can find someone with well-rounded experience that covers more than SEO alone, they’ll prove more valuable than someone whose experience is narrower
It’s also important to get on with the people who support your business’s aims and ambitions. Once you’ve established which prospective consultants have the right professional attributes, it is absolutely fine to make your final decision based on whether or not you think you’ll enjoy working together.
Do you need excellent SEO Consultants in London? If so, feel free to ask us all these questions and more and we’ll provide the answers you need.
