Finding the right experts to help improve your SEO requires knowing your options.

Here are some tips on choosing an SEO agency for small businesses.

As a $68 billion industry in 2022, search engine optimization (SEO) is just as important as ever. Small businesses can not only benefit from these strategies, it is imperative if they are going to survive online. Without a working seo strategy, your small business won’t be able to compete with other companies in your industry and you will lose out on many opportunities for new business.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to success. Although there is a very defined process to good seo, it is still very much a moving target as search engines are constantly making changes to what works and what doesn’t work. Keeping up with both the science and the math of good seo is a full time job unto itself. For that reason, good seo is a moving target to a great extent.  That’s why it’s often in your best interest to hire an SEO agency. Doing so could ensure your website content is doing the most work for you and your website is keeping up with the latest science of seo.

1. Identify Your SEO Goals

Before you start looking for an agency, identify your SEO goals. What do you want to achieve through SEO? Is it to increase website traffic, generate leads, or improve brand visibility? Knowing and understanding your goals will help you to insure you are getting the most out of your seo plan and will also be important in finding the right seo agency,

Once you have identified your goals, you can look for an agency that has experience in achieving those specific goals. An agency that has proof of achieving similar goals to yours is more likely to deliver the results you are seeking.

2. Check the Agency’s Reputation

When choosing an SEO agency, remember to research its reputation and experience. Seek out an agency that has a proven track record of delivering results for their clients.

Check their website for case studies, testimonials, and reviews from previous clients. You can also check third-party review sites to see what others are saying about the agency. An agency with a good reputation in the industry is more likely to deliver quality work.

3. Look for Customized SEO Strategies and Experience

A good strategy for SEO and keywords is not one-size-fits-all.

Get a clear understanding of their strategy: Before hiring an SEO agency, it’s important to understand their approach to optimizing your website. A good agency will have a clear strategy that’s tailored to your specific needs and goals. They should also be able to explain their strategy in simple terms that you can understand.

What SEO campaign elements can they offer you? Check out some of these SEO trends to see if they can provide these, too.

Find an agency that takes the time to understand your business, industry, and target audience before developing an SEO strategy. A customized strategy will deliver better results than a generic one.

Working with an agency that understands your business is going to provide you with them most effective return on your seo dollar. Good seo isn’t just about search engine rankings. It’s also about growing your conversions. A good seo agency will understand this and have experience with conversion growth plans and understanding how your potential customer will respond to your offerings. In fact, the best seo plans like the ones we offer here at Adtastic will include not only onsite and offsite seo but web analytics tracking, conversion growth planning and customer growth.

4. Consider the Agency’s Transparency

Transparency and honesty are crucial when working with an SEO agency. You want to work with an agency that is upfront about its processes, strategies, and results.

Try to hire an agency that provides regular reports on their work and progress. Many is the time we have been hired by a client that was using an “seo” practitioner and had no idea what they were doing, if anything at all. Unfortunately, once we audited the site we could not see that they were doing anything either, not even what we call “seo 101” which is the most basic of seo service. This is one of the reasons that a majority of our seo clients come to us by referral.

You should also be able to access data and analytics that demonstrate the impact of their work on your business. This analytic data is one of the reasons why SEO is so helpful for small businesses. At Adtastic we are big on analytics data and helping our clients understand the numbers. This is like having a two-way mirror into your business, otherwise you are blind to what is really going on and its all guesswork.

5. Communication and Collaboration

You’re going to want an agency that is responsive and easy to communicate with. They should also be open to feedback and suggestions.

A good agency should be willing to collaborate with your internal team whenever necessary. This is essential to ensure that their work aligns with your overall marketing strategy.

6. Ongoing Support and Maintenance

SEO is a continuous process. It requires long-term support to maintain and improve results. We like to say that good seo is like a river. If it is in constant motion it will thrive and grow stronger. If it is not in motion it will stagnate and eventually die.

7. Ongoing Support and Maintenance

Look for an agency that provides reliable support services. Ask them about their availability if you need to troubleshoot an issue, for instance. Knowing they’re readily available can give you invaluable peace of mind when hiring them.

Ask about their reporting and communication: A good SEO agency should provide regular reports on the progress of your campaign and be responsive to your questions and concerns. Ask about their reporting process and how often you can expect to receive updates. You should also ensure that they have a clear communication process in place, including who your main point of contact will be and how you can get in touch with them. Be aware that many seo agencies today simply use automated processes to conduct their seo campaigns. Working with an agency that is hands-on and does most of their work manually is going to be much more effective than an agency that simply uses automated, boiler-plated systems. You can often discern this by the reports they write.

Choosing an SEO Agency

With the above guidelines, you have information you need to make the ideal hire. Choosing an SEO agency is vital to your online marketing strategy and by choosing the right seo agency you will be rewarded many times over by the results.

Further, it’s up to you to continue improving your brand’s SEO. Spending a part of your marketing budget on seo each month will pay off and grow your business. Just be patient, good seo takes time and is a process of doing the right thing over and over again. If you do, you will eventually get the right results.

You can learn more about search engine marketing here to get your business ahead.