Are you trying to get more traffic to your local business from search engines?
Maybe you’re hoping to launch an SEO campaign?
If so, you should consider hiring an SEO expert.
The question is: how do you know if you’ve find the right one? The answer: ask questions! Without further ado, here are 6 questions to ask before hiring an SEO expert.
1. What Techniques Do You Use for SEO?
First and foremost, you should ask what techniques the SEO expert will use. This will help you determine whether the SEO expert is, indeed, an expert.
There are several techniques that are necessities. These include keyword usage, link building, and if you’re trying to rank locally, local citations and customer reviews.
Other strategies that an SEO expert might use include content marketing with blog posts, social media marketing, schema markup, and the like.
Regardless of the SEO techniques that your prospective digital marketer uses, they should have a well-rounded plan for your marketing campaign. Discuss the campaign at length and ensure that you’re both on the same page.
2. How Have Your Clients Fared in the Past?
Another important question to ask is how the SEO expert’s clients have fared in the past. Have they seen good SEO success or are they still struggling against other websites in their industries?
Of course, not all of these companies are going to have perfect results. That’s just not possible. But a good portion of them should be ranking for their designated keywords as well as receiving a fairly substantial amount of traffic based on those keywords.
Ask to see metrics from past clients so that you can determine whether a prospective SEO specialist has what it takes. You want to have a decent idea that your chosen expert will provide you with results.
3. What Tools Do You Use in SEO Campaigns?
You could conceivably carry out an SEO campaign without the use of digital tools. However, it’s difficult and would involve a great deal of luck. In truth, any SEO specialist worth his or her salt will use tools in order to launch the most successful campaigns possible.
When speaking to prospective SEO experts, you need to ask what kind of tools they use. They should, at the very least, be using keyword research tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush and analytics tools like Google Analytics. They might also use tools like Moz or Rank Math.
A good SEO specialist knows what these tools are and knows how to use them to great effect. A bad SEO specialist throws things against the wall and sees what sticks.
Always opt for the SEO professional who uses tools. You’ll have a higher probability of success with someone who does so.
4. Do You Provide Technical SEO Services?
Oftentimes, when people speak of SEO, they leave out the technical aspects (on-page SEO). In other words, they speak of keyword usage, backlink building, and the like. While this is all integral to launching a successful SEO campaign, it’s only part of the equation.
If you really want to be successful with SEO, you need to optimize the technical aspects of your website as well. This includes everything from creating the URL hierarchies to internal linking, using proper document structures and markup, and more.
It also involves speeding up the website through minifying code, file caching, and quality hosting.
Search engines take website performance into account when making rankings, so you have to prioritize it just as much as the other aspects we’ve discussed.
Unfortunately, not all SEO experts work with the technical aspects of SEO. So, when interviewing a prospective SEO company, ensure that they do, indeed, handle the technical side just as much as the non-technical side.
5. Do You Track the Success of Your SEO Campaigns?
SEO is a long-term marketing process. It doesn’t take place overnight but over the span of months and even years. As such, it’s important to track your success so that you can understand whether you’re going in the right direction.
Success is generally tracked through the use of SEO tools. For instance, Google Search Console can help you determine which keywords your website is ranking for. It can also show you where your web pages rank and the click-through rate (CTR).
Google Analytics, on the other hand, can show you how long people are staying on your website, as well as which buttons are being clicked. This vital information can help you determine whether or not your website is producing the right results.
There are a variety of other success-tracking tools that you can use (and prospective SEO experts will be familiar with them).
If an SEO expert isn’t tracking the success of their SEO campaigns, then they’re essentially flying blind. They won’t know whether or not they’re making progress and won’t be able to adjust your online marketing strategies with any level of accuracy.
This is why it’s so important for business owners to ensure that their SEO expert is tracking the success of their SEO campaigns. If not, then the SEO expert might not be doing their job correctly and you could be wasting your money.
6. Do You Keep Track of Modern Trends in SEO?
SEO is an ever-evolving industry. The tricks that were used to rank 5-10 years ago are no longer effective today. Google’s algorithms are constantly changing as a means of finding the best content.
Search engines don’t want written content to rank simply because it’s been optimized for SEO. They want that content to be valuable to those that are searching.
For this reason, if you’re going to have any chance at growing your business with SEO, you have to keep track of modern trends. You have to know what’s currently acceptable and predict what might not be acceptable in the near future.
One example of this is the total lack of interest that many marketing firms show in generating and responding to reviews. This practice has been identified as a key component of any local SEO strategy, so anyone who tries to sell you local SEO without consideration for reviews is leading you astray.
Ask your SEO agency about whether they keep up on current trends in SEO and look elsewhere if you even think they don’t know their stuff.
We Hope That Made Hiring an SEO Expert Easy
If you’re here, you’re probably thinking about hiring an SEO expert with a good reputation. If so, Gosu Sites has you covered.
Our customers’ results speak for themselves – we’ve established ourselves as local SEO experts in Pittsburgh and have the results to prove it. We help our customers compete with big brands like FedEx and UPS as other established local brand names.
If you provide services to customers in Allegheny County, we can probably help you too. And we’ll be honest if we don’t see good opportunities for you in SEO.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation!
