When you start looking for a digital marketing company to manage your website, blog, online ads, landing pages, and social media accounts, how do you know what to look for? How do you know a good company when you see it?
Hire A Digital Marketing Company
There are a lot of factors that come into play when outsourcing your online marketing efforts.
But here are three of the best SEO hiring tips – along with a bunch of questions to ask any SEO marketer before hiring them.
#1. Read Their Blog
One of the first steps you should take when hiring an SEO agency is to look over their entire website and pay special attention to their blog. Their site should load quickly and look professional, but it should also put you at ease. Read several blog posts and ask yourself the following questions.
How well does their content read?
Are they making SEO more natural to understand or harder?
Are they connecting and talking to you like real human beings, or do you feel like they’re just trying to impress you with a bunch of technical jargon and slick promises?
Do you feel more confident about hiring this company after reading their blog, or do you feel even more confused and more distant from these people?
Remember, if you hire this company to create content for your blog and manage your social media accounts, you’re going to be putting your audience in their hands.
If they cannot communicate simply and honestly with their readers and build a connection, then how are they going to help you build relationships with your customers?
#2. Contact Client References
There’s no substitute for word-of-mouth advertising and results that stick.
When deciding to hire an agency, look for customer testimonials and “brands, we work with” logos plastered somewhere on the home page.
Then ask if you can contact those clients for reference.
If the client testimonials and reviews are legit, and this company has good relationships with these brands, then getting references should be no problem.
If they’re as good as they say, they’ll probably encourage you to contact their clients.
When speaking with these brands about the results the agency is producing for them, be sure to ask about timeframes too. Any sneaky SEO hack can use spam tactics to get short-lived spikes in traffic. But successful SEO agencies will get long-term results that drive targeted traffic and conversions for months and years on end.
If the agency has been around for years, yet their current clients have only been with them for a few months, then that is a big fat red flag.
#3. Avoid Anyone Using Black Hat SEO Tactics
The above point about spam practices in the SEO industry is a big deal.
If you want long-term results that help and not hurt your brand, then it’s essential that you only work with reputable companies that use white hat SEO best practices. Spammers will get your site penalized in the long run, and that will destroy your traffic levels for years – possibly indefinitely.
And the only way to know if they use proven white hat or spammy black hat strategies is to ask them about their process and require accountability.
Ask them how they will get backlinks to your website.
Do they use guest posting strategies to grow your audience on authoritative blogs in your industry? Or do they post content and links on their blog networks (PBNs) to temporarily trick search engines into sending you traffic?
Do they use experienced in-house writers and freelance content writers, or do they outsource to get cheap, low-quality spun content that nobody enjoys reading, and that delivers no real value to your readers?
Do they allow clients to monitor progress in real-time and have follow-up meetings regularly? Or do they keep you in the dark for weeks and months at a time and have you crossing your fingers, hoping for the best?
When you hire an SEO marketing company to get you more traffic, leads, and sales, you want to work with someone who cares about your business just as much as you do. Far too many SEO guys are in it to make some quick bucks at your expense and then disappear once the bottom falls out.
By following the tips above and using your best judgment, you’ll have a much better experience and get lasting results that grow your brand and customer base over time.