10 Questions to ask your SEO company

Selecting an SEO company is one of the most important decisions you’ll make when it comes to your digital marketing strategy. You need to do your research as choosing the wrong company can result in you losing ranks as well as your money whilst choosing the right one will be a worthwhile investment in your business.

Do you outsource your work or perform in-house SEO?

– Beware of companies that outsource their SEO services as they often outsource the tasks overseas where the providers can’t be held accountable and often use bad practices that get your site penalised. Ask to speak with the SEO specialists who will be working on your account.

Is there a setup fee? What is your monthly fee?

– If a company is performing in-depth research before they start work on your website, they are likely to charge a setup fee. Companies that don’t charge this fee upfront either conduct superficial research or build the cost into your ongoing monthly fee. Initial research and discovery generally takes 10-20 hours and takes into account not only your business but also your competitors and industry as a whole. Here at Digigo, our SEO audits average about 30-40 pages and are filled with actionable data. So much so that many businesses choose to purchase this audit and take their SEO in-house using our insights and action plan. We can help with both local seo as well as ecommerce seo

When can I expect to see results?

– If someone tells you they can guarantee you quick results they’re either lying or will use underhanded techniques that will not be sustainable. It takes about two months for rankings to stabilise. More difficult keywords will take more time to rise. A good SEO company will spread your efforts over low, medium and high competition keywords. They will also recommend PPC services to generate instant traffic to your site which in turn will cause your site to get indexed quicker and provide Google with more site usability data which it then uses to rank your site.

What exact tasks will your be performing as part of your SEO services?

– Some of the best SEO companies will be transparent with you and provide you with an itemized list of the services they will perform. Dodgy SEOs will hide behind smoke and mirrors and technical jargon. Don’t be afraid to push them on what exactly they will do.

What is your off page SEO strategy?

– You’re looking for people who create good quality backlinks, manually. They should work hand in hand with your in house team to create content relevant to your industry. Even better if they research your industry and can build the content themselves. What you don’t want is people who buy junk links from low domain authority websites.

How often will you update us on progress and reports?

– Monthly is the industry standard. In your reports you should be able to see how your keywords are performing, the keyword opportunities that are available, the growth in domain authority and your back link profile.

Do you focus predominantly on text or do you perform technical code optimisation too?

– An SEO company that can do both technical SEO, as well as content optimisation and website speed optimisation, is key as they both go hand in hand in order to execute a well-rounded strategy.

How much time will our in house team have to invest in creating the copy?

– In some cases, your in house team may be expected to create content relevant to your industry. The SEO company will then optimise the content and publish it on your behalf. In some cases, the SEO company can perform all tasks autonomously although they may charge more for this service.

What sort of results can we expect? Do you have any case studies?

– Ask to see what they’ve done in the past and how it worked out for their clients. This is the best way to gauge how good a company is.

Is there a minimum term I must be signed up for? What is the cancellation policy?

– Given Google’s constant algorithm updates and the importance of fresh links and content, an ongoing relationship with your SEO company is something you should be looking for. However, you should have an out clause in case things go south. These generally require a 30-day notice.
So now armed with this new found knowledge, you can go find your ideal SEO partner. Check out our SEO packages to find out more about what we do and feel free to ask us these questions 🙂