3 Questions to Ask an SEO Company Before Hiring Them

Since running our SEO company for the last decade, we’ve discovered the difference between the top SEO companies and those who fall behind. The difference is having a clear and honest communication with clients as you go through the sales and onboarding process. There are a number of SEO Companies that promise the world only to disappoint. They subscribe to the “churn and burn” strategy. That might be okay for some, but not Big Fin SEO. We choose to work with out clients over the long term.

Many of our customers have been working with us for more than a decade. This is due to specific things we do when it comes to working with clients and best practices learned over time. To make sure you’re getting the most from your SEO company, we suggest you ask the following questions.

1. What’s Your SEO Process? This is a reasonable questions to ask but unfortunately, there are a number of companies out there without a defined process for optimization. You don’t want to hire a company that just wings it from month to month. The more defined the process, the better results you’ll see (in general). Ask for visibility into their process. If they claim their process would be revealing state secrets, its time to move on. You don’t need every detail
2. How Long Does It Take? A good SEO company will be honest with you. Depending on your situation – how well optimized your site is, the optimization plan, and other factors (ex: website authority), you should expect a ballpark response. If the company is too definitive, giving you a specific time frame like 4 weeks, be concerned. Even if they did everything they could, there’s no guarantee that Google will respond with higher rankings. And the opposite is true. If they can’t give you any sense of how long until you see improvements in keyword rankings, they probably don’t know enough about SEO. Make sure your SEO company gives you a timeframe for when improvements may yield results.
3. Reporting. This is reporting, not magic. A verified SEO company should provide weekly or monthly reporting. In addition to the work performed on your site, building citations, or generating SEO optimized content, they should also provide keyword tracking data to help you see the impact of their work. Failure to report creates suspicion regarding the work being done and/or any results that may have occurred.

Finding an SEO Company should be easy, but its not – unless you work with a provider who can deliver transparency into their process, define the timeframe for seeing results, and report on work done weekly or monthly. Begin with these 3 questions and learn the true nature of your provider. This open and honest communication says a lot about the company and people you’ll be working with, likely for some time. Don’t be afraid to ask difficult questions. That’s what you’re paying your provider for. Contact us to learn more.