The best method we use to shortlist SEO Agencies
The best method we use to shortlist SEO Agencies
Hiring an SEO Agency is like hiring any other service in that you have to trust them to do what they promise, and there isn’t much you can do if they don’t.
So, how do you decide if an SEO Agency can do the job?
Don’t assume your SEO expert knows what they are doing!
Think about when you hire any other professional in a regulated industry. You have Ofsted for childcare and industry licenses for plumbers and electricians.
You can go further and check their license and verify their insurance to ensure they are who they say they are.
With an SEO company, you can only check feedback ratings (buyer beware with that one). SEO companies will normally insist on a 6 or 12 month minimum contract, so you are doubly at risk.
There are thousands of SEO Agencies and Freelancers in the UK. They will all claim to get you to the top position in Google, but there are only three organic slots!!!
So what is the number one SEO Agency check we do?
Use an SEO tool to check if they are practicing what they preach. Would you agree that the top organic search results on Google for the keyword SEO will list those SEO agencies that have made the effort to be indexed organically for this keyword?
For a company to get ranked for the keyword SEO, it must convince Google that it provides results for people whose search intent is for SEO advice.
The image below is taken from my account at ahrefs.com. This is a paid account, but the top SEO software services provide free trials and lite versions for free so you can run these basic keyword searches.
What does this tell us?
This tells us that SEO keywords are challenging to rank for. However, if you rank in the top three organic search results, you can expect a lot of traffic each month.
Now that we know how hard it is to become indexed for this keyword, let’s look at who is ranked for it.
When I go back into AHREFs, it lists the top ten organic results. The value column suggests how much they would pay monthly for the same CPC results. The top company is getting approximately $80k of free advertising per month. I say FREE, but that is after years of hard work.
These are top players, and I can go down the list to find companies who could work within my budget. Alternatively, I can broaden my search criteria to something specific to my sector and region.
That is step one in finding your expert SEO Agency or Freelancer
Conclusion
Now that I have shortlisted the SEO Agencies I want to use, I can investigate further to see if they can do what we ask for within our budget.
Without this initial check, I would be at the mercy of reviews (good luck proving those) and shiny websites. I prefer to work with those who say what they do and do what they say.
Good luck!!