You currently outsource to an SEO management company
If you are already working with an SEO company, the chances are you’re reading this because you aren’t 100% happy with performance.
If you are thinking about moving your SEO management, here are some points to consider:
How long has your campaign been active?
If you’ve been working with your SEO company for less than six months, we have to be fair, it’s not unusual to not see rapid progress.
Of course, this is a very broad statement, and the pace of progress with your SEO management will be affected by a huge number of factors; the competitiveness of your market, the number of keywords being targeted, your website structure, content, the amount of time dedicated to your campaign and the ability of your SEO company to carry out their recommendations, to name a few.
Although we have delivered fantastic results for customers within a short space of time (see our easyCar.com case study for an example), we always say that campaigns generally start to show good results at the five or six month mark. This is because there is a huge amount of work involved in kick-starting an SEO campaign, and it takes time for all the changes and improvements to be picked up by the search engines.
Does your SEO management company integrate content and social media marketing?
Very simply, if your current SEO company does not combine content marketing and social media with SEO, you will not get results.
This is because SEO now demands content and social media as standard.
Successive Google algorithm updates support our view. Good content is crucial to a website’s success, with the quality, frequency of publication and relevance to the business and its audience a large ranking factor. Social media signals are also an acknowledged ranking factor, and social media too requires great content to be successful.
If you don’t combine content with SEO management, you will not gain organic rankings and attract visitors to your website. Content and social media must be part of your SEO strategy. Please do not accept an SEO company that tells you otherwise.
Your website is a media publisher; think ‘readership’, not ‘traffic’
If your SEO management company is not talking to you about publishing regular, new, commercially-neutral content via your website and social media channels, they are letting you down.
The measure of SEO success should not be traffic volumes, but rather look at your engaged readership; compare your new visits each month with returning visits, how shareable is your content, and how far is it being promoted beyond your company website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook pages? What referred readers are finding your website as a result of this content?
This will give you a far better indication of how effective your brand content is.
Does your website convert?
Make sure you and your SEO management company are working toward the same goals. If your website is designed to make people enquire via contact form, sign-up for a newsletter or further information, or make a direct purchase, you need your SEO management company to be aligned with the specific objectives of your website.
Ecommerce SEO, for example requires an in-depth understanding and approach to deliver the best results.
A crucial indicator of successful SEO management is the quality of communication and relationship between the SEO provider and the customer. Are you satisfied that you know what activities are being conducted on your behalf, and that they are effective? How transparent are working practices?
Does your SEO management company tailor campaign reporting to meet your needs? In our experience, the best relationships are based on an understanding of the individual customers’ requirements; some people like to chat on the phone, others via email, some face-to-face etc…
We developed a unique business intelligence tool called Apollo, which supports and records every single action our Campaign Delivery Managers perform for our customers. It enables us to examine in minute detail every aspect of an SEO campaign and proactively make changes to stay ahead of search engine updates. Apollo allows our customers to view at any time the performance of their campaigns.
If this has left you feeling a bit neglected by your current SEO management company, talk to us.
Find out more
We’ve published Guides and Whitepapers to offer more information on SEO:
Guides:
Content-driven SEO; what does it really mean?
Why content marketing is integral to SEO
Whitepapers (takes a minute to register then we’ll email you the paper)
Customer engagement through news content marketing