How to Choose an SEO Company for Your Business
Whether you’re a small business owner looking to carve out a local customer base or a global giant expanding into a new market, search engine optimisation (SEO) is essential for reaching and converting your audience.
Properly implemented SEO enhances your brand’s visibility and increases website traffic from your most relevant customers. But as search engine optimisation is a complex and time-consuming process, you need to choose the ideal SEO services to ensure your business achieves its goals.
So, how do you make the right choice for your SEO campaign?
Here, we explore the leading search engine optimisation services and how they can grow your business, as well as how to choose the right SEO company.
How Does SEO Increase Website Traffic?
SEO is a crucial aspect of digital marketing for enhancing your website’s presence in Google search results. Naturally, the closer you appear to the top spot in relevant organic search queries, the better your chance of bringing in customers and sales.
While anyone can learn the basics of search engine optimisation, you must understand how specific SEO strategies can be used to achieve your company’s objectives.
Through a variety of SEO services, ranging from on-page optimisations to link-building campaigns, a strategy led by a talented SEO consultant will skyrocket your company’s sales and ensure you benefit from organic traffic.
So, what are you waiting for?
Read on to see how you can hit the SEO jackpot!
How to Choose an SEO Agency to Give You The Results You Want
Are you ready to take your website’s online visibility to the next level? If so, you could definitely benefit from some SEO professionals by your side.
With so many SEO agencies out there, however, it can be difficult trying to figure out how to choose the best SEO company for your needs.
Here are some considerations that could help you when it comes to choosing a good SEO company:
Experience Matters
When choosing an SEO company, it’s important to look for one that has a proven track record of success with their clients.
Experienced agencies will have a better understanding of how search engine algorithms work and how to optimise your website accordingly in order to get the best results.
They will also have established processes and techniques that have been tested and proven effective over time. Additionally, experienced agencies will have access to more resources than newer SEO firms, so they may be able to provide more comprehensive services
Success Stories
When looking at different agencies, make sure that each one has a success story or two that you can check out.
Look at their portfolio and read testimonials from other clients that they have worked with in the past.
This will give you an idea of the type of work they do and how successful they have been with other businesses like yours. Knowing what kind of results they have achieved in the past can help you decide if this is the right agency for you.
For example, First Page has won numerous awards for their SEO efforts, including The Drum Award for the ‘SEO Strategy of the Year.’
Price Isn’t Everything
It’s tempting to just go with the cheapest option when it comes to selecting an SEO agency, but that isn’t always the best choice. While price should definitely be taken into consideration when making your decision, it shouldn’t be the only factor.
Remember that you usually get what you pay for; if an agency offers dirt cheap services, chances are they won’t deliver quality results or put in enough effort into optimising your website correctly
Communication With Clients
A good SEO company will be clear with their communication. They should have no problem discussing their process and their strategies with you. Additionally, they should be able to explain the results they expect with clarity and precision so that you, the client knows exactly where your money is being spent.
An experienced agency like First Page will also be able to provide data-driven insights into how they can improve your website’s performance and visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Choose a company that tailors their SEO strategy for you
The last thing you want is an off-the-shelf solution or cookie-cutter approach from your chosen agency – after all, no two businesses are alike!
Make sure any potential agencies understand this fact, and create custom strategies tailored specifically towards helping YOU reach YOUR goals using the best search engine optimization techniques for YOUR industry segment!
The Verdict
Ultimately, choosing an SEO agency is all about finding one that fits with your budget as well as understands and can meet your expectations.
Choose the Perfect SEO Services for Your Business
After deciding on your SEO company, you will probably be curious to know what they will actually do to help your business.
To save you from the guesswork, below, we explore the most common techniques and how they can be used to achieve your objectives.
On-Page Optimisation
On-page SEO is all about enhancing the usability of your website. While there are numerous ways to approach this strategy, the most effective changes usually involve improving your content quality and user experience.
This means aligning the content you create with the keywords you want to rank for. From landing pages to blogs, this content must be easy to read, answer your customers’ questions, and be optimised to rank with search engines.
The user experience for consumers browsing your website is equally important. Make sure your website is straightforward to navigate, fast to load, and doesn’t include annoying pop-ups that might cause potential customers to click away.
Off-Page Optimisation
You can quickly enhance your search engine optimisation with strategies that don’t directly involve your website. Known as off-page SEO, this typically involves the creation of highly effective social media profiles that reach and engage your target market.
Alongside social media, businesses might also focus their attention on creating podcasts or collaborations with like-minded partners. Meanwhile, you must also establish strategies that ensure your brand generates stellar online reviews that grow your reputation.
While off-page optimisation happens behind the scenes, these techniques are just as important as their on-page counterparts. Consider which are most relevant to your needs and establish a solid foundation.
Link Building
Link building often comes under the banner of off-page optimisation, but this influential strategy deserves a heading of its own. Search engines like Google perceive backlinks leading to your website as a seal of approval, so generating these is imperative to your long-term growth.
If your business sells running shoes, reach out to the leading exercise websites to see if they’ll link to your pages within their content. Meanwhile, you can also propose guest blogging opportunities to boost trust in your brand.
Many companies also achieve growth by creating industry-specific documents, such as case studies or infographics. If you hit the mark, this in-depth content can take off on social media with an engaged audience.
Local SEO
Local SEO attracts an audience that lives within touching distance of your business. Whether you’re an e-commerce business with a location-dependent product or a physical store that wants more foot traffic, local SEO can suit your needs.
So how does it work? One of the most powerful tools is Google My Business (GMB) – an online business profile that makes your company appear in Google Maps and other services. Supported by online reviews, images and precise contact information, you can reach more customers.
Other local SEO techniques also include location-specific landing pages, local backlink campaigns and outreach methods that grow your reputation within the immediate community.
Mobile SEO
No matter the industry, most customers are now using their mobile devices to browse your website. However, there are some pretty distinct differences between a desktop and mobile browsing experience, so you must fully optimise your website for the small screen.
Speed is especially crucial on smartphones, with over 50% of visits abandoned if the page takes three seconds or longer to load. Therefore, your mobile website must feature a simplified design, compressed images and as efficient code as possible.
With a responsive design ensuring your website looks great across the myriad of devices available today, these steps are imperative to the quality of your mobile search engine optimisation.
E-Commerce SEO
If your business has an online store that deserves more attention, you need to level up your e-commerce SEO. While there’s some overlap with both on-page and off-page optimisation techniques, your website must be designed to increase the appeal of each product.
With this in mind, conduct comprehensive keyword research to determine the ideal terms for reaching your customers. Plus, consider delving into your competitors’ methods to see if you can service the same target audience better.
Alongside a streamlined URL structure, high-quality images and alt text that resonates with search engine algorithms, you can make sure your business stands out from the pack.
The Difference Between White Hat and Black Hat SEO Tactics
Now that you know the common SEO practices used, you might be surprised to know there’s a whole other layer of the SEO cake (or two!) that needs to be uncovered.
In case you haven’t guessed; we’re talking about white-hat and black-hat SEO practices, with their difference going far beyond their colour.
White Hat SEO Tactics
White hat SEO is an ethical practice that focuses on providing users with high-quality content while following search engine guidelines. This includes optimising meta tags, writing original content, and using keywords strategically in titles and headings. White hat techniques also include developing quality backlinks from other authoritative websites in your field. The bottom line is that these practices help build trust and credibility with both users and search engines alike, and often lead to improved rankings.
Black Hat SEO Tactics
Black hat tactics, on the other hand, are more focused on manipulating algorithms for better ranking results without considering the user experience or adhering to search engine guidelines.
Some examples of black hat techniques are keyword stuffing (which involves cramming as many keywords onto a page as possible) and link buying (paying for links from other sites so that they appear more legitimate).
While these approaches may seem attractive at first glance because they often generate quick results, they can ultimately have serious consequences such as being penalised by Google or having your website removed from its index altogether.
Keep in mind that SEO companies like First Page will only use white-hat SEO strategies because they understand the huge impact this can have on a website’s ranking and performance.
Grow Your Business with the Pros in SEO
Choosing the right SEO services ensures you don’t waste valuable time and money. However, effective search engine optimisation is a challenging process that requires expert help to see the best results.
The team at First Page leads hugely successful SEO campaigns for businesses working across every industry. With our talented team supremely knowledgeable about the latest Google algorithm updates, our thorough SEO audits provide the perfect way forward.
Ready to find out more? Start a conversation with our experienced SEO consultants and watch us enhance your brand’s visibility with your most profitable customer base.
