6 Tips for Hiring the Right SEO Service Providers

Updated on July 24th, 2018 by Quertime Team in Web Development

I believe most of the website owners or bloggers have ever considered hiring a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firm to perform various online marketing services for their website. This is especially true when the websites or blogs experienced a drastic drop in web traffic due to impacts like Google Panda and Google Penguin. Some new websites that struggled to take their web traffic to the next level after certain period of time will also desperately ask for help from SEO service providers.

Now here’s a question. How can every SEO Internet marketer promise each of their clients to show up on the first page of Google natural search results? Well my answer is that some can deliver while the others can’t. And that’s the reason why I write this article sharing 6 valuable tips to help you make the right decision when hiring a SEO company.

Don’t Judge a SEO Firm by Its Web Design

Most of the SEO firms have professional-looking business websites, but it doesn’t mean they are all good and trustworthy. Instead, check with them what online marketing services they can provide? Are they all white hat SEO techniques? Alternatively you can review user comments online about the particular SEO firm that you are considering.

Should You Simply Hire a SEO Firm that Ranks High?

High PageRank (PR) SEO firms that show up on the first page of Google search results are not necessarily the ones that you should work with. Some of them ranked high could be simply due to its domain’s age and decent number of inbound links they have. It will be good if you can compare among your selected SEO firms in term of pricing, SEO services and social media optimization (SMO) services offered and, why not, check out who are their satisfied clients?

Is Big SEO Firm Always Better?

Most of the people will be impressed with some big SEO firms that have hundred or even thousand of employees. However it doesn’t mean small firms can’t deliver excellent jobs. Do you know that when WhatsApp bought for $19 billion by Facebook, the instant messaging app firm only has incredible 55 employees?

Identify What Do You Want to Achieve through SEO?

SEO firms can help you optimize your website through various SEO techniques including keyword research and selection, link building, title tag and meta tag optimization, sitemap creation, directory submission, content development, etc.

Other than that, some of them also offer social media optimization (SMO) services such as social profile creation, profile page design, fan engagement, social updates, etc.

Before selecting a SEO package, you have to first decide what you exactly want to accomplish for your website via SEO. Do you want to increase sales by 50% within the next 6 months or you want to boost the web traffic by 100% over the next 12 months? With a clear goal in mind, you can then select either moderate or aggressive SEO package depending on your need.

Get Several Consultations for Comparison

It will be good if you can touch base with a SEO firm in person, by phone or by email to get free consultation. Request them to propose a right plan for your website. Or you can even ask them to perform preliminary research on your website or the industry you’re in. Most of the SEO firms are willing to offer free consultation in order to impress you what they are capable of and to win your business. Repeat the same for the other SEO firms then do comparison among them.

Request Job Reference

To increase chances of getting the job done and to avoid spending money on nothing, you should ask for job references and case studies from the SEO firms. Chances are if the SEO firm has successfully gotten the job done for other clients running similar business like yours, they will most likely be successful working with you too.

And, why not, ask the firms to tell you stories about their background, successes and failures. Given the above tips, we hope you can hire the right SEO firm.