This article will explain the advantages of working with an SEO agency and its drawbacks. It will also outline the types of businesses that would be the ideal ones to collaborate in conjunction with an SEO agency and which businesses should not.
First, let’s look at an in-depth look at what is an SEO agency does, and what a campaign that is run by one will look like.
What’s An SEO Agency?
The term “seo” refers to the SEO company is firm that carries out search engine optimization, which means it helps your site appear higher on the results of Google’s search engine for the keywords used by those who purchase your products.
The degree of professionalism within this field varies widely in the absence of professional standards like those to practice as an architect, doctor, or even a real estate agent. If I’m being sincere, whenever I meet with someone who is the director of the operations of an SEO company, my doubt increases until I find out more. Are they a one or two person business which may not exist couple of months from now or is it a reputable SEO firm with a strong established culture, experienced leaders and a carefully-tested team?
What you’re looking for when you hire the SEO company is at minimum 10 employees (indicating they’re proficient enough at the work they do to be an effective, long-term company) and a complete plan of action for your campaign (see below for more details) Positive Glassdoor feedback (if employees are happy the campaign will be more likely to be successful) and pricing that is at a reasonable cost.
What to Expect from SEO-related Engagements
SEO campaigns can range from one-time SEO campaigns which essentially “get the home put in order” to long-term engagements in which the agency handles the generation of leads organically, implementing strategies, keyword research and even content creation. Any of these kinds of campaigns is fine depending on the needs of your business but you’ll want to stay clear of agencies that fall somewhere in between by making minor changes to the site and then carrying out occasionally content marketing. If an SEO campaign doesn’t work is usually due to an absence of any or any factors:
Strategies: Setting up the hub-and-spoke system that is geared towards transactionsal, long tail keywords that result in MQLs
Keyword research: Identifying those low-volume, high-value keywords that will require a significant amount of time by using tools for keyword research and thinking about the keywords’ search intentions
High-quality content production: taking the time to know the client’s company and locating a writer with years of experience in the industry and then putting together the finest piece of content posted online, in line with each keyword’s intent to search.
The Benefits of working with an SEO Agency
The primary benefit of employing the services of an SEO Agency is that specialists can manage a complicated project that is not in line with the core competencies of your business. Similar to how you wouldn’t tackle the construction of your home yourself an entrusted project like an SEO campaign must be given to those who can do it effectively. Of course, checking the reputation of the company who will handle it is essential, since numerous SEO companies aren’t suited to the job.
If SEO is something that would be within your company’s capabilities, it is advisable to conduct an expense comparison of what it would cost to execute an entire SEO lead generation campaign in-house instead of outsourcing it. In general, four full-time team members are required to execute SEO properly within the company: a project manager strategist, SME writer, editor-co-writer as well as a graphic designer. Our company employ seven people to carry out the same duties. However we’ve seen four people are able to perform their jobs well when clients have shifted their SEO into their own company.
If you’re confident that you’re able to handle SEO internally, then it’s highly recommended to partner with a top SEO agency for the duration of a year to learn their best methods.
Alongside this primary advantage, there are many other advantages to having SEO agencies. SEO agency:
Knowledge of higher-level SEO strategies and contents that perform particularly well within your field
Access to resources your business isn’t likely to have, for instance, expensive search databases for keyword research and experts in marketing and analytics attributing that are only suitable for an agency offering customized SEO services that are scaled.
The ability to use their content to other channels of marketing, such as the use of e-mail marketing, social networks webinars, conference presentations
The ability to adapt to constantly changing standards for websites and SEO algorithms
Reputation for costly mistakes for costly mistakes, like not putting keyword phrases in the title tag, or permitting dead links to continue to be inactive and live, both of which could dramatically impact the ranking of keywords and lead generation
The disadvantages of working With an SEO Agency
As obvious as the advantages can be, they also have disadvantages to using an SEO agency, too. They include:
The difficulty of finding a reputable SEO agency, given the sense that, as previously mentioned there aren’t any standards for professional SEO that govern the industry and neither are review sites or directories (e.g. Clutch) impartial, non-commercial organizations.
A delay in the ability to analyze results as it can take about 4-6 months before you can see the improvements on any SEO campaign. It could mean that you’re halfway through your contract before you’re able to analyze the performance of your SEO agency.
Inability to write about your brand or industry or brand, unless the agency has spent long periods of time to resolve this issue like our agency did and you’re likely to be assigned a generalist that doesn’t know the nature of your business and what is important to your clients.
A team with a revolving structure is a common occurrence in marketing firms, since they have a high turnover. This is the reason it’s a good idea to read your agency’s Glassdoor reviews to find out how hard they appear to work to establish an environment that is positive and to keep the team members they have.
The Businesses that Benefit Most From an SEO Agency
There are three types of companies that will benefit by employing the best SEO agencies Europe:
B2B firms in technical fields with experts on staff who do not need the resources, skills for writing or the SEO-related training required to create lead-generating SEO-friendly content. (There’s an reason why most of our clients are in the complex fields such as construction, manufacturing managed services industrial IoT and biotech.)
Companies that provide solutions to specific problems. These businesses see amazing results when cooperating with an SEO agency due to the way that SEO is in answering questions and offering solutions to issues. (Many SaaS companies and medical device companies fall in the category.)
Companies where the average lifetime value of a client exceeds $1,000. If you can count on a steady stream of closed, new customers per month are able to afford your SEO campaign The ROI idea is simple to justify.
Companies that should not hire an SEO Agency
Companies that aren’t a good candidate to employ an SEO agency include:
They sell products that people do not search for (very high-level enterprises and referral-only businesses, as well as B2G businesses who respond to government RFQs) and
Content-based businesses that create content as their primary business, for example, review websites or news agencies
For businesses in the first group, top ranking on search engines don’t result in the closed leads you need to justify your expenditure. The companies in the second category must still invest in thought leadership however, since an authority in the field can help to close leads have been acquired through networking or other methods.
Businesses in the second group who’s primary business is the creation of content, are equipped to manage SEO internally. The most experienced writers for their company will already be employed and therefore an external SEO campaign will likely produce content that is less quality than the content they can create by themselves. One exception is with regards to the strategy of keyword selection and research companies who do not have SEO expertise could still benefit from hiring the services of an SEO firm for a once-off consultation project.