At its core, SEO is the process of making your site rank as high as possible in Google when someone types in your business, or whatever it is you sell, promote, or talk about.

The higher your site ranks, the more visible your business is, and the more traffic and sales your business is likely to generate. If you are just getting started in SEO, though, you might be a little lost.

Search engines like Google follow links. They follow links from one web page to another. Google consists of a crawler, an index, and an algorithm. The crawler follows the links on the web. It goes around the internet 24/7 and saves the HTML- version of all pages in a gigantic database called the index.

This index is updated if the Google crawler comes by your website again and finds new or revised web pages. The new version of this page is saved. Depending on the traffic on your site and the number of changes you make on your website, crawlers come around more or less often.

For Google to know of the existence of your site, there first has to be a link from another site – one that is already in the index – to your site. If crawlers follow that link, it will lead to the first crawler session and the first time your site is saved in the index. From then on, your website could appear in Google’s search results.

• Do you Pay For SEO to Google?
• How SEO Works Step by Step?
• How do I SEO Myself on Google?
• How Long Does it Take For SEO to Work on Google?
• Is SEO Really Worth it?
• How do Beginners do SEO?
• How Much Does SEO cost?
• Can I do SEO for Free?
• Do I Need to Hire Someone for SEO?

Do you Pay For SEO to Google?

When making decisions about how to invest your time and online marketing budget, there are a few important distinctions to consider, including the difference between PPC (pay-per-click) ads and SEO (search engine optimization).

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Improvements to SEO can help your website rank higher on Google Search by making it more relevant to users, while PPC ads like Google Ads are paid online advertisements which allow businesses and website owners like you to bid on the chance to show an ad next to searches on Google.com.

Google Ads is Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) advertising solution, which allows businesses to bid on keywords for a chance to show ads in Google search results.

When using Google Ads, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad to visit your site or call your business. Plus, you can tweak your ads anytime to reach a specific group of people (by interest, geographical area, etc.) or promote a specific deal or product. This flexibility can be a great resource for small companies who can’t frequently update their website to reflect sales, promotions or seasonal offerings.

Google Ads also gives you the option of promoting your business outside of Google Search by showing ads on relevant websites in the Google Display Network (GDN). The GDN is made up of thousands of sites across the web, where you can connect with even more potential customers. You can pick specific sites to run display ads, or choose the types of people you’d like to reach and let Google Ads create a list for you.

A PPC ad solution like Google Ads doesn’t have the same results as SEO and won’t improve your organic search rankings. Instead, Google Ads can help you display your ads to potential customers, at the exact moment they’re searching for a business like yours.

How SEO Works Step by Step?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a step-by-step process of improving the visibility and quality of a web page or a website for the users on a web search engine. It is also referred to as “natural,” or “organic,” results for the users’ search query. It is a set of methods for increasing ranking position on search engines and traffic to your websites.

Different SEO elements need to be combined in order to achieve high-ranking positions in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Step 1: Off-Site SEO Analysis

An extensive keyword analysis is the foundation of each search engine optimization. In addition, this step includes the analysis of competitors, the links (internal and external), the social media visibility, and the international and multilingual use of the website.

Step 2: Technical SEO Optimizations

Technical SEO optimizations not only involve correctly using the relevant SEO tags such as title tags, meta descriptions, and heading tags but also include improving the page load speed and the use of structured data. Furthermore, it should include verification that search engines can index all relevant pages.

Step 3: Usability Check

In this step, the usability of the website is evaluated. The website should be user-friendly when accessed from desktop computers as well as from mobile devices. Usability for smartphones has become very important. Evidence for this fact is provided by studies about user behavior and several new recommendations provided by Google in the past months.

Step 4: Link Building

In this step, information from the off-site analysis serves as the basis for improvements in the quantity and quality of the external links.

Step 5: Content Marketing

Users will readily share and link to high-quality content. For this reason, content marketing is a crucial component of an SEO strategy.

Step 6: Social Media Marketing

The visibility of a website on social media has a positive impact on search engine rankings, just like backlinks. As a result, social media marketing needs to be part of a successful SEO optimization together with all the previous steps.

All 6 steps should be implemented in order to achieve high-ranking positions. Typically results can be seen after 4-6 months. So hang on – the more effort you invest, the sooner you will be able to see improvements!

How do I SEO Myself on Google?

Search engine optimization ( SEO) is a valuable marketing tool that drives organic traffic — meaning potential clients — to your website. SEO is a must, particularly for small business owners and those running e-commerce sites. If you don’t have an enormous marketing budget to devote to hiring SEO experts, don’t stress:

There are plenty of straightforward SEO tricks you can implement and easy-to-use tools to help you and we have provided them below.

1. Set Your Organic Search Baseline

SEO is all about improving your website’s search engine ranking. The first step is figuring out your baseline: How visible is your website now? Domain Overview gives you the answer. SEMrush lets you see how visible your domain is on mobile and desktop devices, and you can get an overview of both organic and paid traffic (e.g., from pay-per-click ads on Google). The comprehensive reports even cover metrics like backlinks.

An SEO audit shouldn’t just include your website, though. It should also encompass your competitors’ websites so that you can get a better idea of their share of your industry’s search volume. Also, the domain overview tool highlights your main organic competitors, and websites competing in your field to get traction online. This lets you identify potential areas for growth and can serve as a source of inspiration.

• Set Up Search Analytics

Other tools that marketers can use to set a baseline for their search position include those offered by Google and Bing. Below, we offer a step-by-step guide to track your domain using one of these analytics tools.

Here’s how to set up a Google Analytics account:

• Create an Analytics account.
• Set up your “property” (your website).
• Set up the “reporting view” in your property. This lets you filter data, for example, based on IP address or defined sales regions.
• Analytics will then ask you to insert a tracking code to your website, which allows Google to collect data.
• You can then start viewing data.

Here’s how to set up Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing’s version of Analytics):

• Sign up for a Bing Webmaster Tools account. You can use a Facebook, Google, or Microsoft account.
• Add your website to your account.
• You must verify that you are the website’s owner. Bing offers three means of doing this: XML file authentication, meta tag authentication, or adding a CNAME record to DNA.
• You can then upload your site maps and start tracking data.

2. Research Keywords and Relevant Search Queries

Keywords are at the heart of a strong SEO campaign. These are words or phrases that searchers plug into a search engine like Bing or Google that bring them to your site. Identifying target keywords that align with your website content and match your target audience’s search intent is critical. You can use a keyword research tool to learn which keywords perform best.

For instance, we have several tools that assist with keyword research. The Organic Research Tool allows you to see which keywords are searched most often and which keywords drive traffic to your competitors’ websites. Easily discover new organic competitors, see who you’re competing with for top positions on SERPs, observe domains’ position changes, and more! 

You can see related keywords to help you decide which ones to target with future blogging efforts (particularly any that might be low-hanging fruit for a quick win in rankings). 

3. Publish Optimized Content

Once you’ve identified valuable keywords, you can start crafting high-quality content that will make up a heavy portion of your content marketing strategy. Are you wondering how to do your own SEO content? Follow these basic rules:

• Include a primary long-tail keyword naturally in the text. Don’t practice “keyword stuffing.” Search engine algorithms don’t react positively to the overuse of keywords.
• Include the primary keyword in the title as an H1 heading.
• Choose secondary keywords that logically complement the primary keyword. So, if you’re creating a webpage about root canals for a dental website, a primary keyword might be “root canal,” and a logical secondary keyword might be “cavities.” For future content, you can also consider building out content pages for these secondary keywords and then providing internal links to those pages.
• Include at least one piece of “rich” content, like an image, infographic, or video. Search engines recognize that this adds value to the content and will rank the page higher accordingly.
• Include the primary keyword in the page’s title tag and meta description.
• Consider using any plug-ins available to optimize your content. For instance, WordPress offers many plug-ins that can help you enhance your on-page SEO efforts.
• If you’re refreshing content, make sure that your new content is uploaded to the existing landing page or remove the old content before producing your new page. This will help you avoid duplicate content, which can harm your Google search rankings.
• If you have trouble updating meta tags, copy, and other page elements because your developer team is dealing with a large backlog of change requests, check out a solution such as PageImprove. PageImprove and Edge SEO solutions allow you to make instant, indexable, and reversible website changes.

4. Analyze Your Backlinks

Search engines prioritize content that is valuable to the end-user. Google has even established loose criteria to assess value, the EAT principle: expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Backlinks (links from other websites to your own) help establish your EAT. Links from high-authority, high-traffic domains are the most valuable and worth pursuing as part of your digital marketing strategy. 

Backlink Analytics provides details about referring domains, including anchor texts and IP distribution. You can also use a backlink gap tool to identify which websites in your niche have earned the most backlinks in the past. This is a fantastic way to discover what backlinks you might be missing. You can then address these gaps. There are many effective link building methods, from creating shareable infographics to writing guest posts on other platforms.

5. Explore Technical Issues

Content aside, your DIY SEO strategy also needs to take technical issues into account. For example, you should make sure you’re using HTTPS, a known ranking factor in search engines. This offers encryption that keeps data passed through your site secure, including potentially sensitive customer data. The aforementioned guide also advises on how to improve page speed, fix crawl errors, and more.

6. Stay Informed

Search engine optimization is a constantly evolving field. That’s why specialists dedicate their entire careers to it! Search engines like Google are always updating their algorithms and changing the factors that influence search engine results pages (SERPs).

Following bloggers in the industry and staying up to date on SEO news will help you stay abreast of the latest. The Google Search Central blog, formally the Google Webmasters blog, is a great starting point.

How Long Does it Take For SEO to Work on Google?

While it’s absolutely accurate to say there’s no set answer to how long it takes before you start seeing organic improvements from your SEO efforts, most subject-matter experts agree that it typically takes four to six months:

• “Generally speaking, websites can see results in 4 to 6 months.” – SEO Mechanic
• “Many SEO firms will tell you that it takes 4 to 6 months to start seeing results. That’s generally accurate, but bear in mind … SEO results grow over time.” – Forbes
• “You might begin seeing improvements in organic ranking and an increase in traffic for keyword topics with little competition in just a few weeks. On the other hand, moderately competitive topics might takes months, while highly competitive phrases could even take one year or more!” – Search Engine Journal

Is SEO Really Worth it?

Business owners and managers are often skeptical of search engine optimization (SEO) when considering their marketing budget. “Is SEO even worth it?” They’ll ask themselves and their staff. And we understand why.

Unlike paid ads, there’s no easy, platform-specific performance dashboard that compares daily spending with sales revenue from conversions. The industry is full of jargon, and it can feel like some service providers are positioning themselves as gurus more than serious businesses.

SEO is very effective — not just to generate traffic but also for leads and sales. Don’t worry. The long answer includes research and data, not just empty statements. Most SEOs get too caught up in search-specific metrics like SERPs (search engine results page), rankings, and organic traffic.

For example, organic search gets over 20 times more clicks than any paid Google ad. (Zero-click searches are, for example, resolved by showing the information in a Wikipedia infobox or a word definition.)

That sounds like a great selling point, right? Essentially, the traffic potential is 20 times larger with SEO. And you don’t have to pay for each click for the rest of your life.

But as a business owner, you care more about your bottom line than flashy metrics. If all that traffic comes from “how you can unclog your own toilet” rather than “plumber in San Diego,” you won’t get many sales.

Search intent and keyword relevance matter.

But don’t worry. When done right, SEO attracts potential consumers at beneficial stages in the buying cycle. A true SEO expert knows how to plan an SEO campaign that delivers traffic, conversions, and sales.

And the proof is in the pudding. For B2B companies, SEO generates more revenue than all other digital marketing channels combined. Across all industries, it averages 44% of all revenue.

There’s something powerful about showing up naturally in the top results for Google. Compared to an ad, it almost feels like you’re getting Google’s cosign, singling you out as the best result.

Most experienced digital marketers agree — 70% say that SEO is better for driving sales than PPC.

How do Beginners do SEO?

Many people think SEO is too hard and not worth the effort. That’s not true. The basics of SEO are actually quite simple. And with 57.8% of all web traffic coming from Google, it’s certainly something worth learning about if you have a website.

If you think the basics aren’t enough to get you ranked, think again. Most people running websites have a very limited understanding of SEO, so knowing the basics can certainly help you succeed.

The meaning of search engine optimization (SEO) is increasing your website’s visibility in the organic search results of major search engines.

To get that visibility, you must understand three core components:

• What types of content do search engine users and your customers want or need.
• How search engines work to discover, index, and serve content in search engine results pages.
• How to properly promote and optimize your website to tell search engines more about it.

While search engines and technology are always evolving, there are some underlying foundational elements that have remained unchanged from the earliest days of SEO.

This is why, in collaboration with some of the field’s top authorities and experts, we created these in-depth overviews and tutorials – to define SEO for aspiring SEO professionals and explain how search engine optimization really works now.

How does SEO work? SEO is a fast-paced and dynamic field. It can also sometimes be frustrating, especially if you’re relying on outdated tactics that no longer work.

That’s why it’s crucial for you to stay well-informed and learn continuously. Search engines are always updating their algorithms to provide quality search results to their users.

Artificial intelligence is constantly improving algorithms to ensure better user experiences. Meaning SEO is also more complex than ever today.

Marketers must continue their SEO education to keep up with what tactics works now, and what tactics need to be removed from your search marketing plan.

It takes more than just building links, creating any old content, and adding a few keywords to improve your organic search rankings and increase the visibility of your business or brand.

You need to keep track of and understand:

• Emerging trends (e.g., voice search)
• New features in search related products and tools (e.g., Search Console)
• Technological advancements (e.g., machine learning).
• Your audience (e.g., how they behave and what they want).

So how do you develop an SEO strategy to dominate your competition in Google and other search engines?

Because, ultimately, SEO isn’t only about being found on search engines and driving traffic to your website. It’s about providing a great experience and generating leads and revenue.

To create a positive user experience and generate leads from search, you have to do more than target the right keywords. You have to understand the intent of the search user and develop content that provides solutions for their problems.

Once you understand your searcher’s intent, you will be able to create content that meets the needs of search users and is optimized for search engines to discover and index it.

How Much Does SEO Cost?

While SEO is one of the most important types of digital marketing available to you, it is tough to estimate typical costs.

Given the wide range of campaigns, most SEO projects cost between $400 to $10,000 depending on the level of service. These projects can range from working with an hourly consultant to hiring an agency for monthly SEO.

For the perspective on this average, a small business with a 15-page website will typically be on the lower end of the spectrum while an e-commerce store with 50,000+ products should plan on a larger budget for SEO.

Several factors determine SEO pricing, including:

• Agency, contractor, or consultant’s experience
• Agency, contractor, or consultant’s location
• SEO pricing model, like monthly or hourly
• Business size, like startup or enterprise
• Scale of SEO strategy
• Status of existing SEO strategy, like your backlink profile’s strength
• SEO goals
• And more

You’ll often find that the more experienced SEO providers, from agencies to consultants, have higher search engine optimization prices. Similarly, an SEO strategy with a bigger scale, like an enterprise-level plan, will see higher SEO costs.

PRICING MODEL	SEO COST
Monthly	$1500 – $5000 / month
Fixed price	$1500 – $25,000 / contract
Project-based or one-time	$5000 – $30,000 / project
Hourly	$100 – $300 / hour

Depending on the SEO services you choose, the scope of your project, and the agency you work with, you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to more than $30,000 for SEO services.

When it comes to SEO pricing, most agencies follow one of these payment models:

Monthly retainer

For the monthly retainer, clients will pay a monthly fee for selected SEO services. SEO costs for a monthly retainer plan range from $1500 to $5000 per month.

Fixed-price

The fixed-price contract services allow clients to sign a contract and pay a set fee for specific SEO services.

In most cases, fixed-price contract services will offer the following SEO services:

SERVICE	AVERAGE COST
SEO copywriting	$0.15 to $0.50 word
SEO content audit	$500 to $7500
Link profile audit	$500 to $7500
Social media site setup	$500 to $3000

Project-based

Project-based pricing is similar to contract-based services, but it allows clients to pay a determined fee for custom SEO projects. Project-based SEO services can cost anywhere from $1000 to $30,000. The average cost for project-based SEO services, however, is $5000 to $30,000.

Hourly

Hourly consulting refers to a contract in which clients pay agencies an hourly fee in exchange for SEO services. Hourly SEO consulting fees range from $100 to $300 per hour.

Note: If SEO companies charge less than $750 per month for SEO services, you’ll want to be careful. When it comes to SEO, you often get what you pay for with regard to results. Agencies that offer “cheap” SEO services often lack the resources and experience to help you earn the highest possible ROI.

It’s also important to remember that no matter what plan you choose, SEO takes time — you won’t see results overnight. That being said, SEO is extremely valuable, and it will position your business for long-term success.

SEO costs by business size

Curious how much SEO costs based on company size? Check out this breakdown:

BUSINESS SIZE	SEO COST
Startup	$750 – $1,500
Small Business	$1,500 – $3,500
Mid-Sized Business	$1,500 – $5,000
Enterprise	$5,000+

Can I do SEO for Free?

The worst thing you can do is hire a low-quality service in an effort to save money. The cost of hiring a low-quality service can actually surpass the fee of hiring a low-quality service. If you’re interested in improving your SEO but can’t afford a high-ranking agency or consultant, don’t fret.

Small business owners and marketers should know SEO strategy and best practices anyway. It’s useful knowledge to have. Even if you end up hiring someone, you’ll want to be able to review and assess their work, right?

Learning best practices for SEO will help you stay in tune with your search engine activity and ensure that you’re always producing content that helps your business succeed online.

1. Know your target audience

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Now, why would anyone want to optimize their website for search engines?

To be found. Duh. More than 60% of consumers start with search engines when shopping online. So, if your site isn’t accessible via a search engine, you may not be found at all.

Taking another step back, let’s think about who’s searching for you. These are the folks for whom you’re optimizing your website. These folks are called your target audience, and in order to do your own SEO, you must know them.

Traditionally, getting to know your target audience involves determining their age, sex, geographic location and their needs (also known as pain points). These pain points are what you want to focus on, as they will determine what keywords and types of content resonate with your audience.

How do you discover these pain points? Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and consider what they’d do if they had a question. (Hint: They’d probably Google it.)

Instead of relying on Google’s results or autofill to see what’s being searched, head over to Keyword Tool Dominator to get the full picture. This tool will allow you to get an idea of what answers your audience is seeking.

Another option is to insert yourself into your audience’s conversation. Hop onto Quora, Reddit and other popular forums to see what’s being asked and answered, and to better understand how you can help.

If you don’t center your site and content around what your audience is looking for, you may never be found.

2. Understand keyword research and planning

Once you understand your target audience and their pain points, you’ll have a better idea of which keywords to target. Your customers probably use different terms to refer to your products and/or services than your colleagues and industry leaders, so keep this in mind when brainstorming keywords. Look for phrases that are searched for in a more casual, human way—rather than a jargon-loaded way.

Free tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest are good places to start your keyword research. If you have the funds (which you may, if you do your own SEO), paid research tools like SEMRush and Wordtracker are also helpful.

Make a list of your keywords and longtail phrases, divided by priority and search volume. This will help drive and organize content for your website, blog, and social media.

Monitor Backlinks also provides a keyword ranking tool so you can check your website’s rankings (and the rankings of your competitors) in Google. Use this tool to compare results and discover the best ways to outrank your competition online. Daily reports and weekly keyword updates help you easily do your own SEO.

3. Build up your site with keywords in mind

Now that you have an understanding of your most searched and relevant keywords, it’s time to apply those to your website.

Looking at your list of keywords, ensure that you have a page on your website that corresponds to each of your high and medium-priority keywords. This will help consumers find your website even if they’re searching for terms that are more generally related to your site’s focal area.

If you’re currently building a site now, we recommend WordPress for individual bloggers and small businesses. It’s simple, flexible and has plenty of built-in SEO features and plugins.

If you already have a WordPress, here’s how to audit your existing content:

• Check each URL. Ensure that it includes the target keyword for that page. Keep it short and sweet. It’s good practice to include your keyword in the SEO title and meta description, too, although this doesn’t directly affect your search results.
• What’s the title of your page? It should include the target keyword, but avoid keyword stuffing as that can actually hurt your SEO. The same goes for the text body of your site.
• If you have any outbound links, check their domain authority. High-ranking outbound links can help boost your page’s rank.
• Include graphics on your page. Nice images keep your visitors around longer and counteract high bounce rates (people abandoning your page as soon as they arrive) which can hurt your SEO.
• Optimize your images. Place the target keyword in each ALT description. Make sure the image you’ve uploaded has been saved with the target keywords in the filename itself, too.
• Include social media share buttons. How easy is it for your visitors to share your content on social media right now? Can content be shared with a single click? If not, add a plugin with social share buttons. When readers share your content, this gives you decent backlinks to your site and boosts SEO all around.

4. Build authority and backlinks through quality content

Surely you’ve heard the saying “Content is king!” We’ve all heard it to death—and there’s a reason why.

Never has it been truer than in today’s marketing world. Having an inbound content marketing strategy is integral to attracting consumers, converting leads and building a loyal customer base.

Consistent, quality content is amazing for SEO. By “quality content,” we mean factual research, actionable blog posts, articles with lists, easy-to-save infographics, thorough guides, e-books, and “evergreen” content.

This type of content helps you do your own SEO in a couple of ways. First, it helps you build authority within your industry. You’re free to showcase your knowledge and experience in the form of a blog, email newsletter, infographics and/or images. Don’t feel the need to post daily; consistency in any cadence is key.

Secondly, quality content helps to build backlinks for your website. Backlinks are one of the building blocks of a strong SEO campaign. Backlinks are a sign of a popular website, and they’re important for SEO because some search engines (especially Google) give more credit to websites that have a lot of backlinks.

Of course, Monitor Backlinks is a super helpful tool for building and managing your site’s backlink activity. Not only can you get real-time alerts when you gain backlinks, but you can also stay up to date with your competitors’ backlink activity. A tool like this is very important for building your credibility and doing your own SEO.

5. Create, build and maintain social media presences

Social media allows you to connect with your customers, industry partners, competitors and the general public. Every small business should have a social media presence on a few main channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Social media equips your audience to share your content and allows you to collect social signals (likes and shares) that contribute to your SEO.

Social media also gives you another platform on which to share your content, be found by consumers and ultimately garner more backlinks. Do your own SEO right by creating and curating a strong social presence.

6. Understand Google Analytics

The importance of analytics when doing SEO work is unparalleled. If you don’t know how to read and process your website’s traffic and conversions, you won’t understand how to do your own SEO.

Google Analytics is a great place to start, especially because almost 80% of searchers worldwide use Google. This tool helps you know where your visitors came from, segment your customer base, create campaigns, set and track goals, learn which keywords bring in the most organic traffic and much more.

Spend some time reviewing the Google Analytics dashboard and studying the different types of reports it can create. Becoming literate in this data will help you appreciate and improve your numbers as you do your own SEO.

7. Read SEO blogs and take free courses

The curse of SEO is that trends and best practices are always changing. There are always new ways to optimize your site for search engines.

As do your own SEO, look for ways to expand your knowledge on the topic. Subscribe to an SEO-specific blog or take a free course online.

We suggest free courses like Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, Search Engine Land’s SEO Guide or Google SEO Start Guide. Follow SEO updates by subscribing to Moz’s Whiteboard Friday or the Google Webmasters YouTube channel.

It’s much simpler than you think to do your own SEO. If this is something you want to do for your business—or just for your own entertainment—follow our seven easy steps above.

Soon, you’ll be having coffee with a friend and sharing all of your new knowledge. Put in the effort, and you’ll be an SEO expert before you know it!

Do I Need to Hire Someone for SEO?

Below are 10 evaluations to do before pulling the trigger on that SEO Agency.

1. Hire an agency if you have internal resources dedicated to SEO

The year is 2022. It’s been ages since anyone can simply go out and hire an SEO agency and “do that SEO thing and get us results” with zero effort internally. If you want to make SEO work with any company, you have to dedicate time and resources internally. You also need buy-in from the top down so SEO work can be prioritized among the numerous other initiatives the company is working on.

2. Hire an agency if you trust your analytics data

Any good SEO or digital marketing agency is going to want to clear up any data integrity issues prior to setting goals or moving ahead with a project. Without knowing how much you have in your bucket and what holes need to be plugged in, how do we really know what is achievable?

From double-counting sessions to having e-commerce tracking set up to knowing your conversion funnel, there’s a lot to track (and track confidently) prior to starting SEO.

3. Hire an agency if you have development resources available

If you can’t implement recommendations, why pay for them in the first place? Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. Ensure you have resources available to implement recommendations from your SEO company. Whether it’s title tags, redirects, internal linking, or a hundred other potential edits, you need dev resources especially if your agency is conducting a technical audit.

4. Hire an agency if you have enough budget

A typical 12-month project for a medium or large sized business will be $120K or more. This typically includes technical SEO, a dedicated team, project plan & strategy, setting goals, content strategy, etc. If that budget doesn’t make sense for 12 months, hiring someone in-house who has the skills likely isn’t cheaper (salary, benefits, fixed costs).

If for some reason you don’t have enough to hire a legitimate agency, finding a solid individual consultant to help give the site a shot in the arm could be a good move. There are plenty of solid consultants out there as well as people working for agencies who take clients on the side.

Making the case for a bigger SEO budget through using a small one is something we see often. It also never hurts to ask if an agency you love that is out of your price range can do a three-month sprint or pilot program.

Being in business development, a line commonly echoed is “Seer typically isn’t the most expensive, but we’re never the cheapest.” If you find that Seer’s pricepoint isn’t a match for your budget, we’ve done some significant vetting.

5. Don’t hire an agency if you determine they’re a bad fit for your culture

If your culture has plans that might change at the drop of a hat because of what the CMO says, a lot of agencies might signal that they can’t work in that environment. On the other side of the coin, if you’re looking for an agency to communicate daily, have weekly calls, send reports weekly or monthly, and be an extension of your team, you need to ask how they communicate with clients to ensure it aligns with your needs.

6. Don’t hire an agency if they’re going to lock you into a 12 month agreement

We all want to be treated fairly. If for some reason you’re not getting results after six to seven months and need to pull the plug, you shouldn’t have to pay for another five to six months for something that isn’t working for you. So 30- or 60-day outs for either party should be something to have in your contract, as well as ensuring the agency will play nice and have a transition plan for the next agency should that be the case.

7. Don’t hire an agency if they aren’t prioritizing revenue as the most important goal

Any agency that leads with “we can get you ranked for XYZ” should be an immediate flag to slowly move the phone away from your ear and back on the hook.

You can’t pay your bills in rankings and the agency you select shouldn’t measure their success based on rankings. Rankings are a great early indicator that things are headed in the right direction, but if they aren’t followed by increases in traffic, conversions, and revenue, then they’re simply a vanity metric.

8. Yes, hire an agency if you’re also investing in other marketing channels

SEO in a vacuum doesn’t typically work. It plays nicely when used in combination with PPC, PR, email, social, and brand advocates. SEO can provide a technically sound site and well-optimized content, but if there aren’t other channels helping to drive authority and traffic to the site, SEO could take an extremely long time to pay off. Even the best content needs a way to be shared and gain authority to then drive traffic organically.

Read Also: Omnichannel Marketing

Your potential SEO agency should want to collaborate with these other channels, sharing information to create a data-driven approach for success. An SEO company will want your search query reports, calls to action that drove open rates for email campaigns, and so much more. Finding data-driven opportunities is exciting and you should hear that over the phone or see it in person with the agency you select.

9. Yes, hire an agency if you’re looking for long-term success

Unless there’s something easily fixable on your site (like blocking it entirely with your robots.txt file), the majority of SEO is building long-term successes and value. If you need immediate traffic, paid search is a much more realistic way to achieve those quick wins. You’ll spend some to get some, but you could set up a campaign within a day and start selling and learning how customers react to different calls to action in PPC.

Before any of that, you’ll want to ensure you have your analytics configured and set up correctly so you can track what people are doing on your site. If you have data integrity concerns, perhaps finding the right analytics team is the first step you’ll want to take

10, Yes, hire an agency if you’re invested in knowing your audience

Any good SEO agency isn’t going to talk about keywords and throw content up to see what sticks. They’ll want to connect with you, the expert on your business. They’ll want to connect with customer life cycles, life stages that trigger actions, how people use your product, how people search for it, understanding if we’re reaching everyone just about to enter your funnel and catering to those ready to convert too.

When should you hire an SEO agency? Ultimately, when your organization has the right resources and finds a company that values revenue and long-term strategy (that involves additional marketing channels), that is when you should hire an SEO company.