6 Questions to Ask a Potential SEO Firm
Hiring an SEO (search engine optimization) firm can be a daunting experience. Thousands of dollars are at stake, there is no regulation in the industry, and there is certainly no shortage of people promising amazing results. Read on to find six questions that will help you sort out the pros from the con men.
1) How well does the SEO firm’s own website rank in Google?
If an SEO firm’s own website doesn’t rank well in Google for keywords important to its business, that puts a big dent in its credibility. To quickly find out for yourself a few keywords an SEO firm ranks well for, enter its website into SEM Rush. You can then ask for elaboration on how the firm uses SEO to acquire clients.
2) What percent of the SEO firm’s clients stick around for more than 2 years?
Unfortunately some SEO firms have a churn and burn business model. They exploit the fact that SEO can take time, so they essentially do nothing for months, saying they need more time, until the client eventually gets fed up and leaves. Ask how many clients stick around for more than 2 years, and ask for a handful that you can contact for references.
3) What specific tactics does the SEO firm use to build links?
Link building is the most difficult and the most important part of SEO. You can play with the code of your website all day, but without link building, you’re not going to rank well for competitive terms. Therefore, it’s critical your SEO firm be skilled at acquiring links to your website.
Ask for the specific places (or types of places) you can expect to get links from, and then make sure you keep an eye on this if you become a client. Be sure the links are coming from reputable, relevant sites, not just junky directories no one has ever heard of.
4) How will the SEO firm measure its own performance and be accountable to you?
What do you want from the SEO firm? Do you have specific keywords you want to rank better for? Or do you just want more clients via your website?
Be honest with yourself and the SEO firm about what you want, set benchmarks and agree on metrics that you will regularly monitor. If not, bad SEO firms can string you along for months showing you complex numbers and pretty charts that aren’t getting you closer to your goal.
5) How many different clients is the SEO firm juggling at the same time?
SEO, particularly as time goes on, is not something that you can do on an assembly line. Scalability is a big problem. SEO requires time-consuming, custom solutions for each client’s unique situation, and it’s impossible to do a good job if you’re juggling too many clients at a time. Ensure the people working on your SEO are not stretched too thin.
6) What is the background and experience of key management?
SEO is a relatively new industry and lacks any real regulation or accreditation. In other words, anyone can call himself an SEO expert. Closely scrutinize the background and experience of key management to ensure they have solid SEO experience and a clean record. Also find out if the SEO firm has ever operated under a different name.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
This is a good post. i have asked how SEO sites ranked and been given lots of excuses. I don’t know enough about link building to be able to make sense of any answer I receive. Nick do another post about link building.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Here are a few more:
1. How many other law firms is the SEO servicing in your geographic location and practice areas? Some SEOs will take 30-50 clients in the same practice areas and geographic locations creating a conflict of interest.
2. Repeat of 4 above: What metrics will the SEO report? Some SEOs will focus on getting ranked for a particular keyword that has no search volume. Look for firms that are talking about traffic and interactions with your site (aka leads).
3. Does the SEO have experience with the unique considerations of marketing a law firm online? Marketing a law firm presents challenges different from all other businesses.
4. How long is the commitment? Many SEOs will lock their clients into 1-2 YEAR commitments. Pre-paying for a year of SEO without any established relationship is just not wise.
5. Repeat of 3 above: There are vastly varying philosophies about what are acceptable SEO practices. For most lawyers, talking with an SEO can sound like “greek”. Learn some basics before you hire: http://bit.ly/1vo7gk
May 25th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Very good primer on the subject and should help many businesses better understand SEO. I will be recommending it.
May 26th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Very good primer on the subject and should help many businesses better understand SEO. I will be recommending it.
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:21 pm
The other option, of course, is to write your own content or get it written for you. Try to get the best quality content that you can for your site, because the search engines will also pay attention to how long people spend reading your site: The longer they stay, the more relevant your site looks. If they “bounce” away immediately, the search engines might think that your site isn’t a very good fit.
June 23rd, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Some seo experts charge top dollars for website optimization.`”*