Over the past several years, we have worked with a few different SEO agencies. My best advice is if an agency is not working out after a reasonable period of time, move on. After working with a few larger agencies, we have found success with a more [tailored] agency model.
Look for agencies that mention more about communication and less about sales pitch. Looking back, agencies spent as much or more resources on the sales process than the delivery process. Colorful monthly reports do not replace consistent communication. We work in a fast-moving industry; what our target was three months ago may have changed.
We outsource our SEO because we are experts at what we do—IT solutions, not online marketing. We have considered bringing the work in-house, but upon further research, it was cost prohibitive to hire a team necessary to handle the scope of the project.
No one-size-fits-all
Every website needs something different and it’s important to choose a firm based on your needs.
For new or small websites, I recommend choosing an agency that focuses on building high quality, authoritative backlinks. Most of the technical SEO won’t have a dent on a new website’s rankings – just take care of the basics like meta data, h-tags, title tags, image tags, keyword density and focus the rest on backlinks.
Mid-tier websites (DR 30-45) should have a slightly higher focus on technical SEO (improving site speed, deleting thin pages, site architecture, interlinking), but there should still be a great focus on backlinks. The SEO firm should be able to find low competition keywords that require no backlinks for the website to rank for.
And lastly, if you’re a large, established website with a lot of links (DR 50+) then most of the focus should go into keyword research, content creation and CRO (conversion rate optimization). Your website is strong enough to rank for most low-to-medium competition keywords so there’s a lot of fruit to be picked.
The firm should also have a copywriter who can increase click-through-rates and engagement time on the website. Backlinks will also come naturally, but this doesn’t mean building backlinks should be neglected. If there’s a high volume/high competition keyword that you’re trying to rank for, you’ll need a firm that can manually build high authority links to those inner pages. But at this stage, you’ll want to hire an SEO firm that really specializes in keyword research and allow your site to rank for as many as possible without needing backlinks.
