Have you ever wondered why your business website doesn’t get many views or you rarely get any customers from it? Does it ever seem like your website is just there… but not accomplishing anything? If so, this could be due to a lack of SEO.
Search Engine Optimization is infinitely important for business websites as it improves your visibility and means people will have a greater chance of finding your products or services on Google. If this is something you feel you need, a brilliant starting point is to enlist the help of an SEO consultant.
There are many professionals who specialize in SEO and can help drastically improve the usefulness of your website. But with the sheer volume of choice available, how do you know which one to go with? It can be a daunting task taking the first step so we have provided some useful tips and considerations below.
Why Does Your Business Need an SEO Consultant?
- Search Engine Optimization is the process of making your website visible and easy to index by search engines like Google. Google is quite fussy and it likes websites to be built in specific ways. It also loves keywords and if you can optimize your website for keywords relating to your business (i.e. words and phrases customers are likely to search for when finding your business) then Google will hopefully rank you higher.
- The better optimization your website has, the more impressed Google will be and the more traffic you should get! An SEO consultant can facilitate this and get your website on track with Google.
5 Tips for Choosing an SEO Consultant for Your Online Marketing
You now see why SEO is important and how an SEO consultant can help but this doesn’t help you choose a business! Below, there are five simple considerations that should make your decision easier!
1. Check the services they offer
The first obvious thing to look for is the services the consulting business provides. SEO is a relatively broad industry and there are many aspects to it. Just because a company specialized in SEO, it doesn’t mean that they do everything you require.
The consultant will most likely have a website so look at this and see what services they offer. Basic things that you should look for include SEO audits (these are essential for assessing your current SEO and weaknesses), keyword research assistance, and on-page SEO optimization.
If an SEO consultant doesn’t offer these simple services then they may not be worthwhile.
2. Find testimonials
Anybody can make a fantastic website and write a bunch of spiel to make themselves sound amazing! That doesn’t automatically make what they are saying true. You need to take any written content with a pinch of salt and remember that it is marketing material – it’s meant to pull you in.
The best way to be sure of the quality of an SEO consultant is to read real testimonials and if possible, speak to companies that have used their SEO services. What did they think? Did the SEO consultant make a difference? There is nothing better than hearing first-hand if an SEO business can walk the walk!
3. Check the SEO of their clients
You can be a little sneaky and research the SEO of the consultant’s clients too. Visit client’s websites and see what you can find – run their pages through free SEO auditing tools and check site loading times too. Do a few Google searches too to see how the client’s sites are ranking for different keywords.
This isn’t a 100% fool proof method as you don’t know what keywords they are using, but still you can get a general idea of the SEO practices used to see if the consultant is any good.
4. Check their own SEO
Do the same for the SEO consultant’s own website – if they are any good then their website should have fantastic SEO right? See if they practice what they preach and you can gain a great deal of insight simply by looking at how the consultant has approached their own SEO.
5. Look at the regions they cover
Although an SEO consultant can work remotely and implement SEO for companies around the world, many will cover a specific region. It is preferable to choose an SEO consultant from your local area, or who covers the region your business is located in.
This is because they will have local knowledge and should hopefully be able to appeal to your local customers more effectively than an outsider.
Improve Your SEO and Online Presence Today With the Help of an SEO Consultant
If you have a company website but it isn’t bringing in much traffic or custom, perhaps the services of an SEO consultant could be just what you need? Merely owning a website isn’t enough in today’s digital world – you need an effective SEO strategy too so you can get visible on Google and attract the right customers.