What to Ask SEO Consultants: Our Guide
When it comes to hiring an SEO consultant, you’ll want to know the right questions to ask, as they can make the difference between seeing success with SEO, or failure with SEO. SEO is certainly a crucial component of any solid digital marketing strategy. SEO can vastly improve your website’s digital performance, visibility, and organic traffic. In this spot, we’ll be exploring the questions to ask an SEO consultant when you’re searching for help with your website’s SEO strategy. Contact us for an SEO audit of your website today!
Understanding Their Strategy
Having a good understanding of an SEO strategy presented by the SEO consultant is very important. SEO can be approached from many different angles, so it’s best to have an in-depth conversation with your potential SEO consultants to better understand their strategies and how they plan to implement said strategies.
What is your approach to SEO?
Gaining a greater understanding of what the SEO consultant’s strategy is when they work on your site is crucial to success with SEO. Ask about both on-page and off-page optimizations to gain a sense of how they will handle your SEO campaigns. You’ll also want to ensure their SEO strategies and tactics align with Google’s guidelines and your own business ethics to ensure you’re not left with a defunct website.
How do you adapt your strategy to various industries?
Each industry of business has its nuanced factors and specific challenges involved, especially in the world of SEO and digital marketing. SEO consultants should be able to effectively communicate how they plan to customize your SEO strategy for the different demographics and target markets you plan on marketing to in order to gain new customers and business.
Can you explain a successful campaign you’ve recently managed?
Always be sure to ask for case studies or examples of successful campaigns the SEO consultant has recently managed. Also ask what allowed the SEO campaign to be successful to provide a clearer understanding of the SEO consultant’s capabilities and the results you can likely expect for them to deliver.
Evaluating Their Expertise & Credibility
Below are some of the ways you can evaluate your SEO consultant’s expertise and credibility. Evaluating these facets can provide you with the right level of reassurance you’re going to have a successful business relationship with this particular SEO consultant.
What metrics do you consider most important in SEO?
SEO is not merely about driving loads of organic traffic to your website, it’s about driving qualified traffic to your website which turns into leads, sales, and conversions. Having a good understanding of which metrics the SEO consultant prioritizes (conversion rates, return-on-investment, etc…) is helpful when determining if they’re the right fit for your business.
How do you stay updated with SEO best practices & algorithm changes?
SEO is a rapidly evolving field. Any competent SEO consultant will stay updated on the latest algorithmic updates and have an appropriate strategy to best navigate any newfound changes to Google’s algorithm or industry-specific changes.
Do you have experience with mobile optimization & local SEO?
Ensuring your SEO consultant has a “mobile-first” approach to their SEO strategy is a good indicator they know what they’re doing. With a large majority of searches being first performed on mobile devices, it’s very important to have your website optimized for mobile performance. Finding a skilled SEO consultant with a mobile-first approach is ideal.
Tools & Reporting
SEO consultants will utilize various tools to develop their SEO strategies and various types of reporting software to showcase results as each month passes. You’ll want to know which tools and reporting software they use to see if they’re using industry-standard toolsets, or if they’re using outdated tools and software. The former is a good sign of a skilled SEO consultant, while the latter is a sign you should avoid that particular SEO consultant.
What SEO tools do you use?
The SEO tools your SEO consultant uses on a daily basis should be industry-standard tools such as ahrefs or SEMrush. These tools help with keyword research, linkbuilding efforts, and competitor analyses. This question can help you gauge the SEO consultant’s level of expertise and if they’re staying up to date on the latest and greatest SEO tools available.
How do you report your results?
Reporting is one of the most important aspects of SEO consulting, as it sets forth a benchmark of where your website’s performance is today, where it is three months from now, six months from now, one year from now, etc… Understanding the frequency of reporting shared with you is important, as it helps you see the progress being made. Once per month reporting is the industry standard. Any SEO consultant who sends weekly reports is either overzealous or they’re trying to present data in a certain fashion to make performance seem stronger than it actually is. SEO does not typically fluctuate all that much on a weekly basis, hence why monthly reporting is the industry standard.
SEO Techniques
SEO techniques when it comes to keyword research and linkbuilding efforts are important to discuss with your SEO consultant, as they should have a standard operating procedure, regardless of industry, business size, or performance goals.
How do you conduct keyword research?
Conducting keyword research is both a technical, data-driven skill and a creative artform. Understanding your SEO consultant’s approach to identifying valuable keywords which can increase your business’ performance online and increase overall revenue can provide you with what you can expect if you choose to work with said SEO consultant.
What is your approach to building links?
Linkbuilding should always be done in an ethical manner. Unethical link building can severely penalize your website in the form of a manual penalty from Google. Ask for linkbuilding case studies or examples from your SEO consultant. If the link building examples they provide are housed on shady looking sites, run away. The links being built by your SEO consultant should be on niche-relevant, high-quality, editorial-focused websites.
Client Relationship & Communication
Communication is key in any relationship, yet it’s especially important in business relationships. Ensuring your SEO consultant communicates clearly and effectively can yield great results over time.
Who will manage our account & who will be executing the work?
Knowing who will be your direct point of contact when you engage with an SEO consultant should be fully established from the beginning of the agreement. Having a smooth workflow and communication with your point of contact will enable everyone to see better results over time.
How do you handle communication with clients?
Your SEO consultant should provide regular updates and have open lines of communication. Always ask how often they plan to communicate with you and hold them to it. Additionally, an SEO consultant should be available during business hours and should ideally respond to emails within 24 hours or the next business day.
Budget & Agreement
Establishing a healthy budget for your SEO campaigns can help your SEO consultant understand how much effort they can dedicate to your website. Agreeing on SEO campaigns which focus on ROI-driven strategies will help to ensure you see the results you need to succeed.
What are your payment terms & are there any long-term contracts?
Always understand the financial commitment involved before signing any agreements. A professional, growth-oriented SEO consultant will require a minimum agreement of six months, as this is how long it will typically take to begin seeing tangible results roll in. Any SEO consultant who operates on a monthly basis with no long-term commitments should be avoided, as they’re likely going to perform some grayhat or blackhat strategies on your site to have it ranking as soon as possible, which will likely leave your website in shambles when Google rolls out a new update to their algorithm. SEO should always be a long-term strategy and short-term contracts are a sign of a bad SEO consultant.
Can you provide a clear breakdown of costs?
Your SEO consultant should provide an itemized list of the services included with their monthly retainer. This will help ensure there are no hidden fees or surprises when it comes to invoicing.
Outcomes & Guarantees
Establishing anticipated outcomes is great, but you’ll want to avoid any SEO consultant who offers “guaranteed” outcomes or performance.
What outcomes do you expect? How do you measure those outcomes?
Any SEO consultant who offers “guaranteed rankings” should be avoided like the plague. A qualified SEO consultant will be able to offer an agreed upon level of service, no SEO consultant can truly guarantee rankings, as Google’s placements are algorithmically-focused, and that algorithm is being modified through the year. To offer “guaranteed rankings” or “guaranteed performance” indicates the SEO consultant is likely doing something unethical or illegal, which you do not want to be a part of.
Measuring outcomes should be based on SEO-focused performance indicators, but it should also be based on ROI. If you as a business owner are not making money from SEO campaigns, there’s really no point to any of it. Find an SEO consultant who has an ROI-focused approach to their SEO strategy and you’ll likely be in good hands.
Contact DASH-SEO Today for Expert SEO Services
If you’re searching for a qualified SEO consultant to help your business grow online through enhanced organic traffic performance, you’ve come to the right place. We’re focused on long-term relationships with our clients and we want to work with businesses who understand SEO is worth the investment and time it takes to see quality results. Learn more about how we can help your business grow via SEO by filling out the form below. We’ll be sure to respond to your message as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you soon!