Priority Questions to Ask When Hiring a Local SEO Agency

Do you consider stopping doing your SEO in-house? As SEO is nowadays a very specialized field, you’ll have to decide on this at one point or another.

When you’ve decided that you are going to outsource your website promotion and SEO, your next step is to find the right company to hire. SEO is a quite personalized service, as ideally there’ll be a lot of back & forth between you and the agency, at least at the start. And experience has shown that it is better to hire a local SEO agency.

The best way to start the process of determining which SEO agency you are going to hire is to contact them and ask them a few priority questions.

Questions to Ask

1. Ask About Relevant SEO Experience

Your first question should be whether they’ve worked with other businesses in the same field as yours. It is always better to work with an SEO agency with experience in your field. They will know what is unique in your industry and how to go about certain optimizations.

2. Ask About Guaranteed Local SEO Results

Your second priority question when you are looking to hire a local SEO agency is whether they can guarantee results. This is a tricky question.

On the one hand, you want to hear about the short and long term success they have had with other companies’ rankings, but on the other hand, you want an honest answer like “we don’t guarantee that within 5 months your company’s ranking will become number one, but we’ll look at your current position and give you a realistic opinion of where we can get you in 6 months”.

An SEO company that gives you a realistic answer is generally the better one to choose. Keep in mind that nobody can guarantee that you’ll be ranking on page 1. Guaranteeing results vs guaranteeing that you’ll be on page 1 are very different things.

3. Ask Them What Aspects to Outsource

The third question to ask the local SEO agency is what they think are the SEO aspects you have to outsource. Be aware of the SEO agencies which insist on handling your complete SEO package. They might only be looking for “big” contracts and are not so interested in what will be the best for you.

The SEO agency that indicates that they could take over all your SEO responsibilities, but suggests that you start using them for certain aspects only, is often the better choice. You and the SEO company can then gradually work on your relationship and you can rest assured that they are taking your needs and abilities into consideration.

4. Ask Them Whether They Have a Specialist within the Agency for Every Task

Your fourth question is a very important one to determine the level of expertise when hiring a local SEO company. You have to ask whether it is a one- or two-person agency, or are they working as a team but have a dedicated specialist on their payroll for every stage of the process.

The answer to this question will give you an indication of the level of their expertise, and whether they subcontract again. You want your work to be done by specialists, but in one agency only.  You don’t want multiple agencies working on your SEO.

Where to find a Local SEO Agency to hire

The answer is pretty simple – search for it online, you will get the contact details of local SEO company and not just local. Talk to others, see what they recommend, maybe they had a good experience with an agency that aren’t necessarily ranking on the first page, but will still get you excellent results and an affordable price point. You want to carefully plan out your budgets, as with anything else, and not throw everything at it without a clear understanding of what are the opportunities. So regardless of who you go with – spend time & money on first studying the market, identifying the opportunities, and then investing in SEO. And of course, don’t forget there are other digital marketing options that could work for you, aside from SEO.

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