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Working on search engine optimization (SEO) doesn’t have to be the Wild Wild West. Get an SEO company on your side, and you can optimize your site, improve your rankings, and increase your traffic without the time-sink and hassle of doing SEO in-house.

Learn more about SEO companies now, including:

  • What is an SEO company?
  • What does an SEO company do?
  • When should I hire an SEO company?
  • And more!

What is an SEO company?

An SEO company is a provider of search engine optimization services. SEO companies help businesses improve their online visibility by optimizing their website for search engine optimization, like with keyword research, content creation, backlink building, and more.

What does an SEO company do?

An SEO company helps businesses develop, implement, and manage SEO strategies to improve their online visibility in organic search. With greater online visibility, companies can earn more rankings, traffic, and sales from organic search traffic.

what does an SEO company do infographic

 

What services do SEO companies offer?

SEO companies offer multiple services, which can get categorized in a few ways like:

  • Market, like local SEO services, to serve brick-and-mortar businesses.
  • Scope, like link acquisition services, to focus on building a backlink profile.
  • Duration, like SEO consulting services, to resolve a one-time issue or project.

Some examples of broad SEO services include:

  • Traditional or national SEO
  • Ecommerce SEO
  • Local SEO
  • SEO consulting

In comparison, below are more specialized services SEO companies provide:

  • Link acquisition
  • Keyword research
  • Content creation
  • SEO audit
  • Page speed optimization

If you’re looking to outsource SEO, a good chance is there is an SEO company that offers what you need.

Why hire an SEO company?

Businesses opt to hire an SEO company for a few reasons, including:

  • Time: Partner with an SEO firm, and you’ll get lots of time back in your day. From updating title tags to conducting link acquisition outreach, your SEO company will handle the time-consuming tasks that dominate your day.
  • Skill: You’ll also get the benefit of SEO specialists. With these professionals, you don’t have to know everything about SEO, from on-page SEO to technical SEO services. Instead, you can rely on their expertise to inform and energize your search engine optimization efforts.
  • Tools: SEO companies also come with SEO and marketing toolkits. While some in-house SEO teams can afford these platforms, most don’t have the budget. With an SEO company, you can get all the perks these tools bring to your SEO efforts.
  • Competition: Businesses in a competitive market will also hire SEO firms. With a team of SEO experts, companies can build a stronger SEO strategy and implement it faster, which helps them keep pace (and hopefully pull ahead) of the competition.
  • Cost: Hiring an SEO agency is typically cheaper than maintaining an in-house SEO team. However, it’s worth mentioning that how much you pay for an SEO company vs. an in-house team will depend on your unique needs, from your site’s size to your strategy’s scale.

When should you hire an SEO company?

You’ll want to partner with an SEO firm before you start to see the product of not having one (like missed deadlines and low performance).

You know what some of the best SEO companies do, but should you hire one? Consider hiring one when you’re:

  • Missing SEO goals
  • Delivering past deadline
  • Predicting increased SEO investments

When seeing or predicting difficulties related to time, results, or skill, consider hiring an SEO company. Ideally, you’ll want to partner with an SEO firm before you start to see the product of not having one (like missed deadlines and low performance).

How to choose an SEO company

Learn how to choose an SEO company now (or later) with these five steps:

1. Outline your requirements

First, outline your requirements and fencing for partnering with an SEO firm, like:

  • Budget: What is your approved budget for hiring an agency?
  • Services: What SEO services do you think you need?
  • Location: Do you want an agency that’s local, international, or somewhere in between?
  • Goals: What do you want to achieve with SEO?
  • Access: How much access will the agency have to your site for implementing SEO updates?
  • Experience: How much experience does the firm need, and do they need it in your industry?

Understand your requirements, and you will save time when searching for an SEO company. For example, if you know your budget, you can easily axe SEO agencies from your list based on their published pricing (though this is rare among SEO companies).

2. Compile your list of agencies

Next, compile a list of the best SEO service providers to consider. You can get started with this step in a few ways, including:

  • Ask for referrals from your network
  • Browse marketplace websites like G2, Clutch, and The Manifest
  • Search online listings, like Google Maps, to find local companies

From here, you can generate a seed list, which you can then prune based on your earlier requirements.

3. Research your contenders’ track record, awards, and more

With your narrowed list, you can dive into researching each company’s background, like their:

  • Reviews
  • Awards
  • Case studies

When reading reviews and case studies, consider the following:

  • How the agency measures its performance and its client results
  • What clients most often mentioned as a pro and con
  • How long the agency and client have worked together

Based on this information, you can better understand what it’s like to work with the SEO company — and if they’re someone you want to have as a partner.

4. Interview your top SEO companies

Next, you can move on to interviewing your top SEO companies.

For you and the SEO company, this is the chance to interview one another and determine if you’re a good fit for one another. SEO firms typically ask some qualifying questions, like your budget, before scheduling a more in-depth meeting.

As you gear up to meet with your potential SEO firm, outline some questions to ask SEO agencies, like:

  • How do you measure performance?
  • How do you adapt when campaigns underperform?
  • Is any of the work outsourced, and to whom?
  • How do you approach working with a client’s competitors?
  • How — and how often — do you communicate on campaign progress and performance?
  • How much time will you require from me and my team?

Talk with your internal team and stakeholders beforehand to generate even more questions. The more questions you ask, the better you’ll understand if this SEO company is a good fit for your business in the short- and long-term.

5. Choose your SEO company

With all your research complete, you can choose an SEO company!

Before signing with a provider, though, review these potential red flags, which can cause trouble later:

  • Refuses to share pricing and/or deliverables
  • Answers questions with a non-answer
  • Promotes black-hat SEO tactics, like purchasing links

If you’re hesitant about an SEO firm, start your research process again. Signing with a bad SEO company can have lasting effects on your site and business — the most severe being removed from a search engine’s index.

Get all the benefits of an SEO company in one place

From keyword research to link acquisition to page speed optimization, we can provide your business with an all-in-one solution to SEO. SEO.com is one of the best SEO companies in Canada, the U.S., and around the world. Our team has more than 25 years of experiencing implementing revenue-driving SEO strategies for clients.

Learn more by completing our contact form — if we think we’re a good fit for your needs, we’ll connect!

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