Hiring an SEO consultant for your company in Miami can be difficult…
How do you hire an “SEO expert” when you don’t know how to tell the difference between an expert and a beginner?
I discuss this in this video:
Approximate transcription:
Hi, this is Ashley, Miami SEO Geek. And today, I’m making this video about how to hire an SEO consultant. So there’s a ton of SEO companies out there, but that doesn’t mean necessarily that they’re getting any results for their clients. So something that you want to look out for or ask about before you hire them is what rankings have they gotten for their past clients or for themselves. So they should be able to show you a few different examples of websites they’ve ranked, whether it be for their clients or for themselves, for keywords that actually have value. So I do have clients that don’t want me to show their website, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have any other results that I can show. So if it’s a real SEO company, they will be able to show you a few examples of sites they’ve ranked for keywords that actually have value.
So if you asked for an example of results in the CEO company is like, oh yeah, here’s a result. And it’s their client’s brand name that they’re ranking for. That really means absolutely nothing because you will probably rank for your brand name organically without any SEO. So that’s actually a big red flag. If that’s something they show you, that pretty much means they don’t really understand the value of keywords, what keywords are going to bring traffic and so on. I mean, obviously you want to rank for your brand name, but you’re going to be able to do that without an SEO company, especially if it’s not a super common name. So definitely, keep in mind of what keywords have they ranked their past clients for and do those keywords actually have value. So next, does the SEO company actually do research? Because data analysis and research is one of the most important things that you can do as an SEO company, because that’s how you learn and that’s how you figure out what the best strategy is going to be for your client.
So another thing is, do they even look at data? Do they keep track of Google’s algorithm updates? And are they updating their plan with the update one? If you’re not paying attention to how Google changes, then you’re going to be using the same strategy all the time. And you’re not going to be getting good results at all, because you’re not going to be changing with the times. So super important, do they have data? Do they have an analysis where they go and look at Google’s algorithm and analyze what they’re going to change or what they’re going to do better or what they’re going to do different simply because Google doesn’t stay the same? So yeah, keeping track of those changes is extremely important.
Another thing that you want to know is how are you going to keep track of what that SEO company is doing for you. So a super way is putting Google Analytics on your website and then tracking how your organic traffic increases. So what is your traffic now compared to three months ago? Did it go up since you started working with that SEO company? So it should definitely be going up. I’m not saying that SEO growth or organic traffic growth is linear like this. It’s going to go up and down, but there should be a definite increase compared to before you started working with them for sure. So make sure to keep track of that on your own if they don’t do that for you. And Google Analytics is an easy resolution for that.
So next is who is the person that’s trying to sell you SEO? Is it a web designer? Because web design and SEO are two totally different services. And I can guarantee you that web designers do not know SEO, because if they were SEO experts, they would be selling SEO instead of web design. However, if an SEO company offers you web design, they probably know how to do it because web design is not technical, especially if you’re a local service or something like that, it will be super easy to make you a website, but doing SEO is a technical, recurring task that only a very small amount of people know, I would say at least 99% of people that sell SEO have no idea what they’re doing or what they’re even selling. So you want to be careful who’s trying to sell you SEO. Is it a web designer? Is it an IT company? Again, IT is not SEO just like web design is not SEO. It’s a completely different skillset.
So you definitely want to do your SEO with an SEO company, not a web design company, not an IT company, because SEO is their add-on service that they can upsell to you because chances are, you’ve either done your IT with them or you’ve done your web design with them and they’ve gained your trust. So they’re going to upsell you with SEO. But you want to work again with an SEO company that specializes in SEO and nothing else. Same with full-service digital marketing companies. They’ll probably sell SEO as one of their services, but the chances of them actually having a real SEO expert on their team is slim to none. I actually work with multiple digital marketing companies that upsell or that white label my SEO and just charge the company extra. So that’s common and that’s not necessarily bad because you will be getting good SEO, you’ll just be getting it at a marked up price. So go straight to SEO companies and you will definitely see the difference in their knowledge and their rankings and results from their past clients just by talking to them.
So a good example that I heard is like, would you hire your dentist to do your back surgery? No, they’re both doctors, but they know totally different skills. That’s just like Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Someone that specializes in that has no idea about SEO, just because they do ads. Yeah, maybe they learned SEO, but they didn’t learn it because they know ads. So pay-per-click is something totally different than SEO, totally different skillset, just like web design. So, if you want real SEO, go to an SEO company, don’t just get it from someone that’s trying to upsell you.
Another thing is real SEO companies, nine times out of 10, they’re not going to have any budget options under $500 a month. Those people that sell SEO for like $300 a month and they’re telling you that they’re doing on-page SEO, they’re they’re doing this, they’re doing that, well, first of all, on-page SEO is a one-time setup. So if anyone’s trying to sell you on-page SEO as a monthly service, that’s a complete scam because you don’t change what’s on your website every single month when it comes to SEO. Yeah, you might add more content, but that’s called content marketing. That’s not SEO. So there’s a ton of companies out there that sell cookie-cutter SEO services and call themselves an SEO company, they’re going to charge you 350 a month and you’re literally not going to see anything. So SEO is something that is an investment. It’s not going to be cheap. It’s not going to be one of the cheapest forms of marketing out there, but it is going to have the highest conversion rate and the best lifetime return on investment.
So those are just a few things to keep in mind when you are hiring an SEO company. But yeah, I mean hire an SEO company. Like I said, don’t hire a web designer, don’t hire an IT company, don’t hire a hosting company to do your SEO because they’re just upselling you, they don’t really know what they’re doing. So those are about all the tips I have for you today in terms of hiring an SEO consultant, but if you have any questions, feel free to email me ashley@miamiseogeek.com, or you can head over to my website that I have down below, miamiseogeek.com, where you can put in your information and I’ll give you a free SEO analysis. Thank you for watching this video. And I look forward to hearing from you.
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