What You Should Know Before Hiring An SEO

Unfortunately, there are just too many bad SEO firms out there that make unrealistic promises, use dodgy practices and in some cases do a lot more harm than good.

They usually do this by using unsafe practices that may originally see positive results but will harm you in the long run.

This means you must be vigilant when it comes to digital marketing and SEO agencies, especially if they are the ones who have reached out to you.

The good news is that there are a lot of SEO agencies out there that do SEO without using unethical tricks. It may take a little longer to see any real results but eventually you will be ranking higher and driving more traffic to your site.  

Here are 5 things you should know before hiring an SEO:

1) SEO Guarantees

If an SEO guarantee sounds unrealistic that’s because it probably is. If someone promises you page one, position one don’t fall for it.

Some keywords are near impossible to guarantee a top spot on Google, as they are just too competitive.

It takes a lot of research, time and effort to get your site to the top of Google so don’t expect overnight results, so don’t trust anyone who promises it.

2) SEO Takes Time

SEO isn’t a magic trick or something you just switch on. It’s a long ongoing process of constant tweaking, re-strategising and analysing results.

Google’s algorithm takes time to analyse and rank changes to the site accordingly, so think of SEO as a marathon not a sprint.

3) Be Wary of Dated Practices

Some SEOs will recommend that you rewrite your content for the search engines or that you have to include a certain number of keywords within the text. These practices are a total waste of time as they are very dated practices that no longer work.

Of course, you need to include keywords within your text but believing that having a certain number of keywords on the page is really going to benefit your SEO efforts is ridiculous.

These tricks may have worked once upon a time, but Google’s algorithm has got significantly smarter.

Now, Google rewards websites that have high quality content, that is written specifically for your audience. If you stuff your content full of keywords you will likely be penalised so avoid doing this at all costs.

4) Quality Over Quantity

SEO used to be very simple, it was all about having the most. More links and keywords meant higher rankings. This led to a lot of shady practices and rarely delivered the best websites for the searched keyword.

Modern SEO is all about quality, one quality link can be worth a thousand lower quality links. And having a thousand poor quality links can actually harm your SEO efforts.

This forced the SEO game to change (for the better). Now, Google wants you to produce great content that people want to read, share and link to. These high-quality links will lead to better rankings overall, so dedicate your time and effort into writing great content!  

5) Fast Results

If you want instant rankings, organic SEO isn’t the way to go. SEO will likely take months to see any real improvements in rankings and traffic, however if you want to receive instant high rankings use Google Ads.

Google Ads will allow you to instantly rank for any keyword or phrase but will charge to appear at the top.

Google Ads can be costly, but it’s a great tool that can deliver results fast. You can set a maximum budget, change campaigns instantly and visually see the results your campaigns are delivering.

It’s definitely worth considering if you want to boost your presence.