If you are searching for ‘seo consulting denver co,’ you are at the right place. Here are the top 5 questions to ask when hiring a SEO agency to best assure you adhere to industry best practices:
1. Do You Also Offer Website Design and Writing?
Website design, writing, and SEO go hand in hand. If the SEO agency doesn’t offer professional website design and writing as a core competency, then they’re only offering a piece of the SEO solution.
The reality is, too many SEO agencies only care about rankings and not results. Even if your site ranks well on the search engines, if it’s not professionally designed with compelling content that converts visitors into customers, it won’t help you earn more business.
2. What Experience and Certifications Do You Have?
An agency does not require a license or certification to offer SEO consulting or client services. However, there are 3rd party certification programs such as eMarketing Association, HubSpot, and more, that help establish industry best practices for internet marketing & SEO professionals.
If an SEO agency tells you they are a ‘Certified Google Partner,’ that’s good. It means that they have successfully passed a course that certifies them to manage your Google Adwords and Display account (paid search). However, it does NOT mean that they have any special ‘insider advantage’ to getting your site ranked in the organic search results.
There are few, if any, ‘SEO schools’ that teach or certify SEO. Almost every SEO specialist learned SEO through 1.) resources they found on their own and 2.) good old-fashioned, trial-and-error experience. However, the problem is there are too many ‘self-proclaimed’ SEO professionals who might be familiar with aspects of SEO, but can’t demonstrate proven client SEO results.
That’s why it’s good to choose an SEO agency who is:
- a member of an industry association,
- has more than five years of SEO experience, and
- can demonstrate they’ve successfully performed SEO results for actual clients.
For example,
“Our client X started with an overall online search presence of only 4% for a competitive search term with 400 monthly searches on Google. After one year, we improved their overall online search presence to 15%. As a result, their web traffic grew 258% and they acquired more than 40 customer leads per month.”
It’s important to note that, while not bad, it’s not necessary for the SEO agency themselves to rank well in the search engines. Why is that? It depends upon the SEO agency’s business development goals. In some cases, selective SEO agencies prefer to find and choose their clients instead of being found and clients choosing them.
3. How Do You Build Backlinks?
Some SEO agencies are reluctant to answer this question or claim ‘proprietary business confidentiality.’ If that’s the case, leave and find a reputable SEO agency who is transparent about all of their SEO activities.
Generally speaking, backlinks (links from other websites to your website) boosts the online authority of your website. This is one of the strongest (but not only) factors search engines like Google use to determine the ranking order for search results.
Do know, though, that not all backlinks are of the same quality or good for your SEO.
Beware of Slick Oil SEO
If the SEO agency purchases automated links or SPAMMY low-quality links (although they probably will never admit it), stay away. You risk wasting your time and money or worse yet, having your website penalized and demoted in the search rankings. The industry calls that ‘black hat SEO.’ Such linkbuilding tactics are risky and their effectiveness, if any, is often short-lived.
Google has information about link schemes you should avoid here:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356
What Is A Good Backlink?
Natural links come from real websites made by real people. The linking website should have authoritative content related to the content on your website and should be useful to the website visitor. These links are often hard to come by and requires the SEO agency to proactively reach out to appropriate websites to negotiate a link for your website. The industry calls this ‘white hat SEO.’
Of course, any attempt to manipulate rankings is generally frowned upon by the search engines. Your SEO agency might have a few tricks up their sleeve, but should assure you that they’re abiding by SEO best practices to avoid search engine penalties. The industry calls this ‘gray hat SEO.’
So, black hat SEO? White hat SEO? Gray hat SEO? Which is best for you? That depends upon your business objectives, values, and the risks you’re willing to take.
4. What Does SEO Cost?
In your area, you shouldn’t spend more than $3,000 a month for SEO on the high end – that’s for very competitive search terms. Likewise, you shouldn’t expect to spend less than $600 a month for less competitive terms – anything less than that is likely junk SEO and a waste of your time (or potentially harmful!).
Be sure to get bids from at least 3 different reputable SEO agencies. Don’t let their sales people rush you into a hasty decision. Hiring a SEO agency is a long-term proposition – you want to hire the right people.
Ask to see an example of the SEO reports they provide you. It should be more than just website traffic analytics. It should include rankings, key performance indicators, and return on investment (such as Cost Per Lead or Cost Per Acquisition).
5. How Many Clients Do You Have?
Watch out for high-volume, get-rich-quick SEO agencies. SEO can be a very profitable business and attracts all too many people who care more about their own profits than your success. They’ll sway you with promises of fast, top ranking results and show you an impressive client list – whatever it takes to get your money.
However, good SEO is a highly detailed, diligent, and customized process. Just like any business it seems, if an agency has too many accounts (say, more than 100), it gets more difficult for them to maintain high quality results for their clients. Often, customer service suffers as well.
At the same time, you want to see proof that the SEO agency has done successful work for enough like clients (at least 10) in competitive marketplaces. Always ask for at least three professional references.
Bonus Question: How Confident Are You In Your Performance?
This is really a personal question. As you can imagine, there are some SEO professionals who are quite arrogant. They’ll show you how big their company is, how well a select number of their clients rank, maybe even show you pictures of them standing next to Lamborghinis, and so forth.
SEO is a competitive business, but not one that should dismiss professionalism and respect. Ask to talk to (or meet) the people you’ll be working with, not just the CEO or sales reps. Do your best to get a feel of who they really are – do they seem like they have your best interests first in mind? Or their profits?
Find Best SEO Consulting Denver CO
So, now that you have more information to help you in your search for ‘best seo consulting denver co,’ the next step is finding the best SEO agency or consultant. Please contact us to request an estimate for internet marketing & SEO services from 88PLATINUM. We’re happy to provide you a very competitive bid when you compare our services and prices to other Colorado internet marketing and SEO agencies.
More info coming soon. Also see: SEO Consulting Boulder CO