You’re tired of how slow your business has been going. You know you offer a useful and valuable product to customers, but you haven’t seen the success you expected.
You decide to invest in making SEO and online marketing more of a priority. After doing the initial improvements yourself, you realize you have the budget, but not the time to devote to internet marketing.
After all, you have a business to run.
Until your business grows and has the financial capacity to hire some marketers, you’re going to have to try and navigate the internet marketing arena yourself or hire an outside SEO company.
You go through the selection process of choosing an SEO company and you’ve found one you’re sure that you can work with.
Now that the service contract is signed, what should you expect?
It is important to keep an eye out on how committed your SEO company is to your business. Every SEO company is going to approach your situation differently, and it’s important to know what they’re doing along the way.
Positive SEO results take time to be noticed and seen. In fact, in a Google video, it was mentioned that it takes 4 to 12 months, on average, for any kind of improvements to your website to start having an impact on your search engine results.
If you start seeing better than average results in 1, 2 or 3 months you need to know if it’s because there’s not much competition in your industry, or if your company is using questionable methods to produce fast – but unsustainable – results. On the other hand, if you have to wait for over a year to see results, you should take notice and investigate what your company is actually doing.
So let’s talk about some of the things you should always expect from your SEO company to make sure they’re keeping you in the loop.
An Introductory Meeting
Once you selected an SEO company to oversee your business’s internet marketing activities, you should have an introductory meeting either in person, conference call or via video. In this meeting, you’ll be introduced to your account manager and team. They’ll use this opportunity to ask you additional questions about your business and your marketing and SEO goals. They will outline their processes and state their pricing.
They also mention what you should expect when working with them. If you’re like most business owners, your knowledge of SEO and how SEO agencies operate are limited and may even be way off the mark. As the company expresses what you can expect from them, you need to be sure they know what your expectations are for them. Let them clarify things you don’t understand like time allotment and billing cycles.
It’s also important to remember that the sales people you previously worked with were likely giving you generalities and some likely strategies. Once your team has a chance to take a closer look at your website, they may have some different suggestions and strategies.
This initial meeting is a great time to reconcile any differences between what the sales rep initially suggested and what your specialist has determined to be the best solution.
This is where you also get to ask additional questions or express any concerns that you’ve thought of. Be sure that you come into this meeting with a list of such things and make sure they can answer them all.
Initial Website SEO Audit
If you didn’t get around to having an SEO audit done for your website while you were still in the process of selecting an SEO company, the first thing a good-quality SEO agency will do is run an initial audit of your site.
If you have a Google Analytics account, your newly hired SEO firm will need limited access to your reports and dashboard. The SEO company will likely have additional tools and programs that will diagnose the SEO health of your website.
The turnaround time for a website SEO audit will depend on the size and complexity of the site. Websites with many pages, for instance will take longer than a website with just a few.
Someone from your SEO team will call to discuss the results of the audit, this should be the person directly managing your account. He or she will clearly explain their observations, suggestions and concrete next steps that need to be taken.
The more interactive these calls the better. The account manager will either walk you through a screen share of what is being discussed and how to implement the suggestions, or a conference call will be done with your team.
Depending on the type of contract you have with your company, you will either receive an email with the report and the account manager’s notes and step-by-step directions on how to implement changes should also be expected. Or, if you’ve given more website access to your team, they can implement the changes for you.
This audit should also be the basis for a timeline for the work that they will be doing for you.
Regular Communications and Check-Ins
A good, reliable, reputable SEO won’t just dump you with a list of “to-dos” based on their website audit findings.
Your account manager should also always be available to answer any questions you may have.
You should expect regular reports to let you know how things are going. They will want to keep you in the loop by being transparent about their strategies and activities.
Throughout the course of your contract, your account manager will let you know of any changes or anything that doesn’t look right. He or she will also work with their team to troubleshoot and fix any issues that come up.
Conclusion
You’ll know you made the right choice if your company is willing to speak with you clearly about their strategies, perform a detailed audit to establish a baseline for your campaign, and maintain ongoing communication over the length of your contract.
We know that SEO is not one dimensional nor is there a quick and easy SEO fix. Many businesses can’t keep up with the constant nuances and work associated with effective internet marketing.
That is what we’re here for. We want to take the SEO weight off your shoulders so you can focus on important business operations.
To learn more about how we can help your business or what you can expect by working with us, don’t hesitate to contact us today.
