SEO is critical for the growth of your business online. Many business owners become overwhelmed by the idea, but with the right consultants doing the job for you, growth is closer than you think.
The first step towards achieving your website’s dreams is a simple meeting between you and your consultant. If you’re unsure what to ask them, you can follow this guide for a more productive consultation.
Do You Have A Portfolio Of Your Past Clients?
When hiring SEO professionals, you should always go for ones that already have experience. The best way to check their experience is by asking for a portfolio or case studies of their past clients.
If possible, you should also consider asking if the consultant has previous clients in the same line of work as your business.
How Long Can We Expect Results?
Don’t be mistaken; SEO doesn’t deliver results as quickly as other digital marketing strategies like PPC. Building good SEO takes time. However, you can start to see minor changes in a short matter of time.
It would be wise to ask when these results will arrive so that you know whether their campaign is effective.
SEO companies are transparent about the results they’re getting. They do a lot of research and analytics to ensure your SEO is dynamic and updated.
Are You Experienced In Local SEO?
This matters a lot if you’re running a small business. Local SEO refers to practices that help your business be more visible in local search results on Google. For instance, it makes your business present when people search for “restaurants near me.”
Local SEO doesn’t just drive more visits to your website. It can also potentially increase the number of visits that you have to your real store.
Do You Have A Plan In Case We Get Penalized?
Google rewards websites with good SEO. They also penalize websites with practices that are deemed bad.
Websites that get penalized suffer greatly, and it takes time before they actually recover. Although SEO companies do their best to avoid such instances, it would always be better if they had a backup plan prepared just in case the website receives penalties.
What Are The Fees?
SEO isn’t cheap. Depending on the business, it can cost around $750-$30,000 a month. It’s vital that you know about the fees upfront.
It can be heavy, but some SEO consultants can be lenient with the pricing. They can adjust the campaign to better fit your budget.
Are You Always Available To Talk?
A good SEO consultant should always be readily available to talk to you. In case of emergencies and other issues, it would be good to know that they can always respond in a timely manner.
Aside from their availability, you should also ask which platforms they use to contact you so that you come prepared.
What’s The Plan?
The last question would be this. After the initial assessment of your website, an SEO consultant should devise a plan to improve its SEO.
Although you are the client, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask more questions or suggest things that can help with the campaign results.
The hardest part about hiring an SEO company is the initial consultation. If you don’t know what to ask, you’ll significantly waste both of your time. These questions will help your SEO consultant get to know your goals better. For you, these questions serve as a means to know your SEO partners more.