Guide to Hiring SEO Specialist for the First Time

A business has a lot of options to choose from when searching for hiring SEO specialists as there are several such SEO specialists across the globe. Just searching for SEO services on Google would give you thousands of results along with their charges. Thus, if you are a business owner and you do not have an understanding of SEO services, selecting one can be one of the most challenging tasks. 

Most of the SEO specialists would entice you with words and promises that you are looking for. However, to select the right SEO professionals, you need to consider some points. In this article, we would be talking about why you need SEO services as well as the factors to be considered before choosing one.

Why do you need SEO Service specialists?

With the advancement in digital technology, a website needs to be optimized to ensure that it ranks higher on Google searches. If you do not have thorough knowledge of SEO or do not have an in-house digital marketing team, it is best to outsource your SEO requirements to a professional.

Based on several factors that are better known as ‘ranking factors’, search engines decide which websites are to be ranked higher. An SEO specialist has complete knowledge of all these factors and can help your website to rank higher in searches. This can help in driving higher traffic to your website, ultimately increasing your sales and revenue. Thus, a business needs SEO services to send the correct signals to search engines and push the website on top of the search engine result page (SERP).

Points to Consider before hiring an SEO Specialist for the first time

Marketing With Seo - Hiring SEO Specialists

Several points need to be considered before hiring an SEO specialist to rank your website. Below we have listed the 12 major points that need to be considered while hiring an SEO Services.

Choose an SEO Professional Making Realistic Claims

The first point to be considered while choosing an SEO specialist is to see how realistic the claims made by them are. For example, an SEO Professional that claims to bring your website to the first position within a week is not a reliable firm. Additionally, a professional that demands payment before starting the work also cannot be relied upon.

The SEO process should work systematically. After you tell the SEO Professional your goals, he will analyze your website, check its performance, the competitors and then give the real facts. They will also propose the facts and the goals within your budget and a practical timeframe. A specialist that follows this approach would give you the best results.

Case Study and Work Plans

With a high number of SEO specialists & professionals available, it is advisable to check the history and background to crosscheck if the individual or agency is legitimate. As a client, you can ask the specialist to share some case studies of their previous works. You can also request for reports that depict how traffic to websites is being increased

Once you have done the above, you can also conduct a Google search on the shared case studies to check if those websites are ranking higher on Google or not. Do not hire a specialist if the results don’t match with the case studies.

Look for Genuine Reviews

Checking reviews about an SEO Professional or Agency should be one of your top priorities while selecting an SEO services specialist. However, you need to ensure that the reviews that you read are genuine as many companies hire people to write amazing reviews about them.

You can do thorough research to find out if the reviews are genuine or not. Once you go through a review, you can try contacting the reviewer to find out its authenticity. If they have a lot of anonymous reviews, then those are also red flags. Asking a specialist about its portfolio can also be a great way to check reviews.

What Services Does the SEO Specialist Offer?

Google has more than 200 ranking factors. With this huge number of ranking factors, SEO specialists have expanded their services to include as many things as possible. Although some specialists might limit themselves to keyword research and backlink building, others provide solutions such as infographics, videos, email marketing, social media marketing, content creation and so on.

This way, even if the SEO professional is not the best in all fields, you would at least know what all it can offer you. You can also request for a combined package that includes different services and thus save on a few extra bucks.

Look for Reasonable Price

As a business owner, you should remember that SEO is an investment and not an expenditure. Instead of keeping track of spending on SEO, you should focus on the ROI that you are getting. However, while setting the budget and choosing an SEO specialist, go for the one that offers a reasonable price for its services. 

Selecting an SEO professional that has a high quote would not guarantee high-quality. Similarly, do not compromise on the quality to save a few bucks. You need to strike the correct balance between the quality and the price.

Backlinks are one of the most important SEO ranking factors. These are links that are present on other websites and point towards your website. Google assumes that your website is good if you have backlinks on good and reliable websites.

If he created a link to your website on spam websites, it would cause a lot of trouble for you. Even if you get a good search ranking initially due to the number of backlinks, you would be penalized by the search engines in the long run due to low-quality. You should ask the professional where they would create the backlinks.

Work with a Professional that is Transparent about Their Service

As a business owner, you should not forget that in the end, you are responsible for the smooth running and growth of your business. And as a responsibility, you should be aware of what work is going on, even when you have availed SEO services from a third party.

While choosing an SEO services specialist, check with the your contacts or online review sites for transparency about their service. The SEO specialist should be able to share their work with you regularly rather than just contacting you once every few months. Make sure that the SEO specialist updates you about their tactics, analysis as well as other essential parameters of the campaign regularly. 

Frequency of Sending Reports

Sending regular reports can be linked to the transparency of the SEO specialist. A good SEO professional should provide you with frequent and regular reports of their progress in the campaign. Whatever parameters are set by them, they should share regular data along with complete facts and figures to help you track the progress. This will also give you complete peace of mind, ensuring that your SEO campaign is in the right hands. 

Tools used by the SEO specialist

Tools are typically applications that are used to check the different parts of SEO. They help in processing a lot of information in a short period which helps in saving money and efforts. You should check which tools are being used by the SEO professionals for providing different services. Some common tools are:

  • Reporting tools: Although reports can be created manually, using a reporting tool can make it much easier to make a custom report. A custom report can combine keyword rankings, analytics, and similar SEO metrics. The report can also be automated which helps in saving time.
  • Link building tools: These types of tools help in creating a huge number of links with just a click of a button.
  • Technical SEO tools: Technical tools allow SEOs to crawl through huge sites in a matter of minutes to address a variety of technical problems. This saves a lot of time and helps in finding problems that might have been ignored manually.
  • Research tools: Tools such as BuzzStream help SEO specialists in gathering information about thousands of people within a few minutes. This helps in gathering prospects and assists in conducting keyword research.

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Knowledge and Expertise

Being successful in SEO requires a lot of expertise, knowledge, and practice. The experience of an SEO specialist plays a major role in determining its success. It is important to check for how many years the SEO professional has been doing business rather than just finding out about its years of incorporation as these can be two different things altogether.

Conclusion

According to OMG SEO Sydney experts, every specialist, or any business entity must find a great service provider that can take your online presence to the next level. Selecting the correct SEO specialist for your business plays a huge role in defining the success of your business digitally. Take into account the above factors before you decide on a particular SEO services specialist.