6 Things to Consider Before You Outsource SEO for Your Business
Contents
Outsource SEO Services Like a Seasoned Pro: A Comprehensive Checklist
- Is the Package Cost-Effective?
- Do the Services Align With Your Requirements?
- Is the SEO Agency Familiar With Your Niche?
- Are Transparency and Flexibility Prioritized?
- Is Their Work Consistent With Your Brand Image?
- Is There a 100% Money-Back Guarantee In Place?
Struggling to achieve KPI targets?
Whether you recently launched a startup or have been running a local business for a few years now, leveraging SEO is essential. And while building an in-house SEO team may sound tempting, it comes with its fair share of challenges.
SEO is a complex, time-consuming, and intricate process. It can take up to several years or decades to master the art of actionable and measurable SEO that brings value to your company and ensures long-term growth.
Taking the easy way out by hiring employees with minimal knowledge about the workings of SEO can burn a hole in your pocket and leave your KPI targets in a state of limbo.
If you’ve been considering outsourcing SEO services for your business for a while now, it may be time to put your foot on the gas.
Here are some things you should consider before you get started.
Outsource SEO Services Like a Seasoned Pro: A Comprehensive Checklist
1. Is the Package Cost-Effective?
Not every SEO company offers cost-effective solutions. While outsourcing SEO is easier on your pocket than building an in-house SEO company, you still need to proceed with caution.
Take note of the term “white hat” here. Unlike black hat SEO strategies, white hat SEO strategies are designed to improve search engine result page (SERP) rankings and pull in quality traffic without risking penalization by Google.
In many cases, businesses tend to hire SEO agencies that offer quick solutions at dirt-cheap prices. Needless to say, the impressive price tag hides surreptitious black hat SEO strategies that can damage the integrity of your website and take you off the digital map entirely.
These unethical strategies violate search engine guidelines and commonly include keyword stuffing, cloaking, content automation, and link schemes, among many others.
A little research will help you find a reputable SEO company that delivers sustainable results through search engine-friendly strategies.
Here’s where things get a little tricky.
How can you possibly demarcate cost-effective services from heavily underpriced black hat SEO services? In fact, what qualifies as overpriced outsourced SEO?
According to Glassdoor, hiring an SEO manager can cost you around $80,000 per year.
Doesn’t sound great, does it?
An affordable option would be an SEO package that starts at $199. With no embellishments or beating around the bush, you’ll get exactly what you asked for at a price tag that’s more than favorable.
Anything under $199 generally qualifies as black hat SEO.
Keeping these figures in mind is a great way to invest in a cost-effective package that doesn’t end up breaking the bank.
Feel free to have an in-depth conversation with the respective SEO agency to ensure the numbers look right. Ultimately, this will help you avoid getting stuck with a large cheque that consumes your company’s funds or a too-good-to-be-true bill that leaves you blacklisted on Google.
2. Do the Services Align With Your Requirements?
SEO is an umbrella term that encompasses three key areas.
Within these areas, there’s a plethora of services that collectively help businesses gain greater online visibility and increase the visitor-to-lead conversion rate.
Here’s a glimpse of the SEO map:
- Technical SEO
- Page Speed Optimization
- Mobile-Friendliness
- Broken Link Building
- Sitemap Accessibility
- On-Page SEO
- Keyword Research and Optimization
- SEO-Friendly Content Creation
- Link Building and Internal Linking
- Off-Page SEO
Companies that build an in-house SEO team commonly experience issues in a wide range of areas owing to little experience.
It’s important to note that covering all the bases of the SEO map is essential. While some companies may invest more time in harnessing certain strategies, they still have a crystal clear bird’s eye view of the entire SEO map.
In short, you have to leverage SEO in its totality.
Outsourcing SEO is a great way to cover all the bases and focus on areas that can help your business the most. Analyze your company’s current performance and draft an overview of areas that require work.
When outsourcing SEO services, take note of whether the agency specializes in the specific strategies you’re interested in leveraging. In addition, they should also offer a wide range of technical, on-page, and off-page SEO services.
We suggest using the Ahrefs Website Authority Checker to gauge your website’s domain authority. The search engine ranking score assiduously examines numerous aspects of a domain to determine how well it currently ranks on SERPs.
It commonly ranges from 0–100. If your domain authority is less than 50, outsourcing SEO is a great way to give your rankings a much-needed boost.
For instance, Entrepreneur has a domain authority of 91, which indicates that they dominate the top search results on Google.
3. Is the SEO Agency Familiar With Your Niche?
Outsourcing SEO services from a digital marketing agency that has little to no experience in your respective industry is asking for trouble. You’ll end up with content that doesn’t align with your brand and alienates your audience.
In fact, SEO companies that aren’t familiar with your niche can also get crucial technical and off-page SEO components wrong.
The outcome? A not-so-great brand identity and poor audience engagement and retention.
Instead, pull out all the stops to ensure you partner with a company that knows the ins and outs of your industry.
Whether your business lies in the automotive, construction, education, travel, health, technology, real estate, or beauty domain, recruiting SEO experts that have a strong grasp of your niche will ensure great results.
For instance, if your company offers hairstyling services, outsource SEO from a company that has served numerous clients in the hair care industry. This will help you avoid brand inconsistency and ensure the SEO team is already well-versed in current trends, jargon, and insights into the hair care industry.
The last thing you want is to get stuck with SEO specialists that leave you with content that sounds too technical.
Have a clear idea of what you’re looking for so you can ask key questions beforehand.
If you haven’t already, we also suggest listing your demographic.
Feel free to get specific!
If your business primarily targets tech-savvy Gen Z-ers, look for an SEO company that has extensive experience in optimizing content and websites for a similar audience.
4. Are Transparency and Flexibility Prioritized?
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of outsourcing SEO services for the first time.
If your business has been suffering from deteriorating metrics for a while now, the thought of turning things around can sound and feel like a breath of fresh air.
“What kind of traffic will I attract?”
“Will I manage to tap into the Google 3-Pack?”
“How much revenue growth should I expect after hiring SEO experts?”
Before you get caught up in the novelty of giving your business an SEO makeover, take a step back.
Are you outsourcing SEO services from a company that prioritizes transparency and flexibility?
This thought seldom crosses people’s minds. However, it’s an integral part of the hiring process. Overlooking this aspect can leave you knee-deep in regrets in the long run.
While expertise is essential, core values are of equal importance. Ultimately, you want to outsource SEO services from a digital marketing agency that honors commitments and deadlines, sets realistic and measurable goals, and doesn’t beat about the bush.
In addition, take special note to partner with an SEO agency that doesn’t set unrealistic standards. They should be able to walk you through each goal and clearly delineate the achievement strategy.
Ensure the overall approach is flexible so your feedback is not just taken into consideration, but also actively implemented along the way. The project manager and SEO specialists should be willing to customize projects depending on your evolving requirements.
SEO isn’t set in stone. There are continual algorithm updates and evolvements in strategies. An experienced and flexible SEO team will keep up with each external amendment and your feedback to ensure the project runs seamlessly.
5. Is Their Work Consistent With Your Brand Image?
One of the biggest mistakes clients make prior to outsourcing SEO services is failing to go over the SEO agency’s portfolio and testimonials. These two elements are key deciding factors in whether you should proceed with the investment.
We recommend requesting samples of previous work for clients in your industry. These may include blogs, articles, guest posts, press releases, infographics, videos, or other types of content depending on what you have in mind for your business.
Check whether the content is consistent with your brand image.
In addition, examine analytics of the results the company has yielded for previous clients. If they’re consistent with the goals you have in mind for your business, it’s all systems go!
Being careful about these nuances and requesting information beforehand will go a long way in helping you make an informed decision.
SEO is non-negotiable for the large majority of online businesses in 2020. Its imperativeness necessitates a thorough examination of the respective SEO agency’s experience, expertise, work ethic, and consistency.
Overlooking key details can take a toll on your business.
Instead, make the right decision for your business from the get go so you can navigate the complex and competitive terrain of digital marketing with ease.
6. Is There a 100% Money-Back Guarantee In Place?
Nobody likes the thought of making an investment that doesn’t live up to its expectations.
Whether you’re outsourcing SEO for the first time or trying your hand at it again after unsuccessful attempts at building an in-house SEO team, don’t take a risk that’s not worth taking.
Most experienced SEO agencies have a strict 100% money-back guarantee in place. This serves as the perfect airbag in case you don’t end up getting the results you were hoping for. It also shows that the company knows what it’s doing.
Nobody in their right mind would make such a bold claim if they didn’t have the expertise, strategies, experience, and testimonials to back it up.
Consult the project manager beforehand to get an overview of the initial stages of the SEO plan. A measurable, attainable, and timely SEO plan will include carefully outlined steps that transition into the next seamlessly.
Take your time when going over the project timeline. Feel free to ask questions if any component of the plan doesn’t look right. Your involvement will play a big role in shaping and reshaping the project until it meets your expectations.
Kick-start your SEO project by consulting our team of SEO experts. Our services start at $199 so you can steer clear of exorbitant SEO bills that leave you wishing you had taken care of things yourself.
Over the years, we’ve completed over 40,000 projects and are on our way to hitting 40,000. We’ve worked with countless clients in a wide range of industries so you can rest assured that you’ll receive customized services for your niche.
At Search Berg, we can help you rank on Google in less than 30 days. If, for some reason, you’re unsatisfied with the results, we have a strict money-back guarantee in place.
Here’s a glimpse of our SEO process to help you get the hang of how we help clients get a much-needed boost in rankings and organic search traffic.
