Seven questions to ask before hiring an SEO expert

You know you need to invest in search engine optimisation (SEO) as part of your digital strategy, yet hiring the right provider is an intimidating, time-consuming, and frustrating task.

Maybe you’ve been burnt by an unscrupulous SEO company that delivered zero results, jargon-filled reporting, and poor excuses.

Back in SEO after a five-year stint teaching high school English, I see an industry still grappling with a reputation problem.

It’s hard for business owners and marketing managers to know who to trust. There is always someone offering to get you ranking #1 or pay nothing.

So, how do you vet potential SEO service providers?

Google offers a list of questions you can ask any SEO consultant or agency before hiring them. Here’s what you should know about the questions. 

What to ask your potential SEO consultant

1. Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?

   Always ask for case studies that show tangible SEO results.

   If the consultant or agency has success stories from a range of industries, this tells you their strategies and methodologies are robust and well-tested.

   Ask for customer testimonials and read Google reviews, too.

2. Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?

   Google is very clear on what is and what isn’t acceptable SEO practice if you wish to appear in its search results.

   In fact, Google directs webmasters to its quality guidelines that spell out many techniques you should avoid.

   Like a builder cutting corners, there are ways to manipulate Google’s algorithm to your advantage. The problem with this short-sighted approach is you run the risk of having your site (or certain pages) removed from Google’s search results.

   You want to deal with an SEO who follows the guidelines to keep your website safe.

3. Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?

   This question is important because SEO should form part of a multi-channel digital marketing strategy. SEO doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and you simply can’t rely on organic traffic alone to drive revenue.

   Run a search for a product or service and look at how many Google Ads appear above the fold, for example.

   If the consultant or agency offers services like pay per click, social media management, web design and development, you can leverage this expertise to grow your business.

4. What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?

   You know how important managing expectations is to your own business. Failure means at best, an acrimonious business relationship, and at worst, a lost relationship and reputational damage.

   How long does it take for SEO to work?

   SEO is a long-term investment and in Google’s own words it takes, “typically from four months to a year from the time you begin making changes until you start to see the benefits”.

   Don’t fall for any sales pitch that promises you SEO results in under three months. There’s a chance the provider is doing one of two things:

   1. Potentially violating the Google Webmaster Guidelines with manipulative practices that risk your site being penalised; or
   2. Ranking your site for ultra-low competition keywords with zero commercial value as a way of proving that some work is being done to justify the retainer.

   Any measure of a successful SEO campaign must align with your business objectives whether they are to raise brand awareness or increase sales (usually a combination).

   An increase in sales, leads and engaged website traffic from organic search are common success metrics.

   You don’t want to set keyword rankings as a KPI — nobody can guarantee you’ll rank #1 in Google’s search results.

   Walk away from any SEO provider that makes this promise.

5. What are your most important SEO techniques?

   This is a great question to gauge the SEO’s ability to explain strategies without overwhelming you with tech-speak.

   While every business will need a different SEO strategy, the following aspects are what help drive results:

   Technical SEO — like the foundations of a house, a technically sound website is easier for users to navigate and search engines to crawl. It is fast-loading and offers a great user experience.

   Content — this is a combination of website copy on your homepage, service/product pages, about us pages etc. that inspires people to act (enquiry or buy) and editorial content that helps educate your target audience at various stages of the buying cycle — top, middle, and bottom of the sales funnel.

   Links — simply put, high quality, relevant backlinks that point to your website help your rankings improve. Links are a huge part of Google’s ranking algorithm.

   Securing editorial links on top-quality websites that your audience visits is hard because it’s so labour intensive.

   In my experience, any good SEO strategy consists of the following tactics:

   • Competitor analysis;
   • Audience and keyword research;
   • SEO auditing and recommendations;
   • Technical SEO;
   • Tracking and tagging;
   • On-page optimisation and internal linking;
   • Content ideation, creation, publication, and promotion;
   • Local SEO;
   • Copywriting;
   • Link building;
   • Reputation management (online reviews); and
   • Project management and reporting.

   You want to deal with an effective SEO provider who thinks about your target customer. This is what Google wants you to do, too.

6. How long have you been in business?

   There are fly-by-night operators in every industry and SEO is no exception. The barrier to entry is very low because the industry is unregulated. 

   Anyone can call themselves an SEO expert.

   To help manage risk, you’ll want to deal with a consultant or agency who’s been in business for several years, with a proven track record and happy customer testimonials.

7. How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?

   As the hybrid workplace model continues to gain popularity, Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings are very common — they save a lot of time and money.

   That said, an SEO provider should be willing to communicate on your terms.

   At a minimum, a client on a retainer should expect regular email correspondence, a monthly SEO report and a follow-up phone call to discuss the project and next steps.

   Regarding changes to your website, you’re instilling a lot of trust in an SEO specialist by granting them access to your site. Ask if they’ll provide a list of changes and whether they’ll backup your site beforehand.

   All SEO recommendations should be backed by reasoning (and preferably data) that helps you understand why the changes will help support your business goals.

It’s easy to feel intimidated by the process of choosing an SEO given our less than stellar reputation in the marketplace.

The good news is most SEO providers do the right thing by their clients. An SEO company wants you to succeed because it means they do, too. It costs a lot more to acquire a new customer than it does to upsell or cross-sell to an existing one.

Long-term client-supplier relationships are extremely valuable because happy clients are more likely to advocate for your brand.

So, if you’re in the market for a new SEO consultant or agency, put yourself in a position of strength by using Google’s own list of questions as part of your due diligence.

You’re likely to engage a digital partner who’ll help grow your business and you’ll avoid the churn-and-burn operators that give the SEO industry a bad name.