A search engine optimization (SEO) consultant is your perfect ally if you want your small business seen online. You are already halfway through generating customers and revenues by making your website appear on the search engine results page (SERP).
But as a small business, you face certain challenges that established ones do not have. How do you pick the best SEO consultant to truly cater to your needs and understand your limitations?
This article shares five tips.
5 Tips on How to Pick the Right SEO Consultant for Your Growing Biz
Conquering the search results is not easy. It demands a careful balance among all SEO elements, which range from technical to content.
Further, it takes a while to see significant results or translate your marketing efforts into conversions. You should complete as many steps as possible correctly to avoid wasting resources and maximize online exposure.
For these reasons, working with an SEO consultant makes perfect sense. You can bank on its experience, knowledge, and guidance to avoid unnecessary mistakes, optimize your pages well, and even dominate the SERPs.
But how do you pick the best given your limited budget, know-how, time, and team? Here are five ideas.
1. Get an All-Around SEO Team
Marina Turea of Digital Authority Partners (DAP) wrote “expertise in everything SEO” as one of the general criteria. With it, you can avoid hiring multiple services, take advantage of a package, and guarantee that all strategies are holistic.
The best SEO marketing firm should be capable of the following:
| SEO Service | What It Is | Examples |
| Technical SEO | It ensures that search engine spiders, or bots, can crawl and index your pages. | Site speed optimization, XML sitemaps, advanced mobile pages (AMP) optimization, and site architecture and accessibility |
| On-page SEO | It refers to everything done on the webpage to help it rank organically and higher for your chosen keywords. | Title and meta tags, content marketing, topic clusters, and internal links |
| Off-page SEO | This SEO type focuses on activities you do outside the webpage that can help boost your rankings. | Social media, local citations, brand mentions, and link building |
2. Consider Your Budget
The only way to squeeze out all the benefits that SEO offers is to make it an ongoing activity. But it also means you should allocate money for the service.
SEO firms charge clients in different ways:
- Hourly rate. It is an ideal pricing option if you are new to SEO and want to test if you and the agency are a good fit. However, it becomes more expensive if you are expecting heavy work or thinking of getting a firm for the long term.
- Project fee. One of its benefits is you are clear about the scope and the price for everything. The downside is it can get hefty, reaching up to several thousand. It can also increase if they do more work beyond what is in agreement.
- Retainer’s fee. Many firms, whether you are hiring them for an hourly or project rate, ask for a retainer’s fee. This is the amount you pay consistently to maintain the services. The best teams want you to stay because it usually takes six months to get better SEO data.
- Predetermined packages. Some teams use the SaaS model, where you choose the plan you want and then include some add-ons for separate rates. This pricing option makes it easier for you to scale. But some plans are extremely limited, while the most comprehensive can be insanely expensive.
3. Get One That Understands Your Industry
The various Google updates only mean that:
- Stuffing keywords can already get you penalized because it is already spamming
- Echoing the same information does not improve your credibility and authority
- Content should be helpful and valuable
Today, one of the best ways to please search engines is to prove that you are believable, credible, and knowledgeable of your industry. It does not matter whether you are a new or seasoned player.
Therefore, you need an SEO consultant who knows your industry by heart. But how do you know it? Ask them these questions:
- What do you know about my industry?
- How have you helped other websites within this industry?
- What strategies do you suggest for my website to stand out from its competitors?
- Do you understand the latest trends and developments in my industry?
- What search engine guidelines can impact our SEO strategies?
- What federal or state laws can affect our SEO efforts?
4. Pick an SEO Consultant Who Values Collaboration
Collaboration is an invaluable part of the SEO process. It:
- Allows multiple people to work toward a common goal and share insights that not everyone may have.
- Develops comprehensive marketing strategies that are much more effective than anything a single person could achieve by themselves by pooling the knowledge and skills of an entire team
- Consolidates resources where certain team individuals can focus solely on their particular specialty (e.g., content creation or backlinks)
- Helps create a search engine presence faster and more effectively than ever before
The best collaborators exhibit the following traits:
| Trait | Definition | Example |
| Good communication skills | Ability to clearly and effectively communicate with the client | The team holds regular meetings with the client to discuss progress and any changes to the SEO strategy and submits timely reports with understandable data. |
| Willingness to educate | A desire to share knowledge and educate the client about SEO | The consultant updates you regularly on the latest SEO best practices and trends. |
| Open to feedback | A willingness to listen to and consider the client’s input and feedback | The firm seeks the client’s input on key aspects of the campaign and is open to criticism, questions, and concerns. |
| Adaptability | Ability to adjust the strategy as needed based on changing business goals or circumstances | SEO can change in a minute. Your team should be flexible and help you craft and manage a resilient digital marketing plan. |
5. Get an Agreement in Order
Sometimes you get so caught up in finding the most technical SEO expert that you forget other aspects of doing business. One of these is legal.
Having an agreement or contract provides many benefits for you, the team, and your audience. This document:
- Outlines the expectations and tasks of each party involved
- States who owns the rights to any work produced by the team
- Ensures that SEO practices comply with the law
- Helps protect both parties from legal disputes over copyright infringement, breach of contract, or unpaid services
The best digital marketing firm provides you with a contract with clear, easy-to-understand, and fair terms and conditions. It also gives you enough time to read, ask questions, and make adjustments before signing.
Summing Up
Do not let your limited resources stop you from engaging with an SEO consultant. With these tips, you can find a team willing to collaborate, meet your needs, work within your budget, or help you scale and compete in the market.
When you are ready to hire, request a demo, a free quote, or give them a call to learn more about their services.
