No matter what field of business you’re in, deciding to work with an SEO agency is a smart move. Why? Because they are specialists in this complex area of online marketing. If you’re on the hunt for an agency, you’re no doubt already aware of the many and varied benefits of SEO and why every business needs it. SEO can get complex, especially if you are new to local digital marketing. If you are shopping for SEO services online, you have probably come across a plethora of different agencies.
Though agencies talk about their services and provide checklists on their websites, it may still be difficult to decipher what exactly it is they do, especially when they throw around a lot of technical jargon. To help you out, we have consulted with marketing officers in New York, one of the busiest cities in the world, and consulted with a top SEO company in New York. We’ve compiled a checklist of the top four basics any good SEO agency should be handing for you.
1. Learn All About You
The very first thing any good SEO agency is going to do is learn everything there is to know about your business. They will want to know what services and/or goods you sell, where you conduct your business, who your competitors are, what your goals are, who your target audiences are and so on. This last point is particularly important, understanding the customer (age, sex, interests, location, habits, problems, etc.) and their motivations is critical to success.
2. Audit Your Website
The next step is to do a thorough audit of your current website. Even if you have a brand spanking new one and have faith your developer did a great job, it’s still important to take a look under the proverbial hood and see what’s going on. For example, there are certain design issues that can make or break a business website: does it look trustworthy, does it have the right messaging, does it flow, does it have call to actions (CTAs) in the right places, does it make the most of your unique selling points (USPs)?
3. Improve Your On-page SEO
Now it’s time to get a little technical. Any SEO agency worth their salt will spend a lot of time checking to see that your site has proper on-page SEO. They will start with considerable keyword research, to learn which words are easiest to rank, which have the most competition and which are the biggest money makers. Then they will look to make sure your site has properly formatted internal links, title tags, anchor texts, meta descriptions, etc. on the site.
4. Devise Your Strategy
And last but not least, the SEO company you’ve chosen to work with should present you with a clear and concise strategy. Take the time to understand this fully and ask all the questions you want. Also, check that it’s aligned with your overall business and marketing strategy and brand persona. If the agency you’re working with can’t tell you what steps they are taking to improve your SEO, this should raise red flags; particularly as this could be an indication that they’re dabbling in illegal ‘black hat’ SEO tactics.
5. Enhance brand and business credibility
Customers trust search engines. They trust that when they search a keyword for their required product, they will be given the best results. Therefore, its assumed the first results reflect a perceived credibility. Customers may not realize this, but at a subconscious level the higher ranking of your business, the more credible it appears for customers. When a person searches for the product and all the keyword lands them on search results from your pages, it implies that your company is reliable, and that’s the reason why your business appears at the top of search top results.
