So you finally decided to hire an SEO firm, fantastic! Maybe you’re just getting started with your SEO and are looking for someone to do the heavy lifting, or maybe you’ve been handling your site’s SEO for a while and need help taking it to the next level. Whatever the reason, you’re about to become an SEO client. Before you dive in head first, here are 7 things you need to understand about your new SEO partnership:
1. SEO can’t do everything
The greatest SEO campaign ever devised can’t save a website from itself. Your website forms the crux of all your Internet marketing activities. Without a well-designed, easily navigable and well-written website that focuses on the user, all your SEO efforts will go to waste.
2. We’re on your side!
Your SEO provider is there to help you and your business succeed. They are going to be making recommendations based on where your site is now and where you want it to be. This is not an attack on you, your brand or your business; we just want to make your site the best it can be!
3. The importance of open communication.
Let’s say your company gets a new VP of Marketing and decides to rebrand the company. Please don’t forget to keep your SEO provider in the loop! All of their on- and off-site SEO efforts are based on what they know about your business and online marketing goals. If you end up taking your company in a different direction and forget to tell your SEO provider, their work becomes useless.
4. There is no “magic” to SEO
SEO is not the magic-bullet solution to all your online marketing needs. Your SEO provider can’t wave their magic link building wand and have 100 new links crop up overnight. Great SEO is the result of long term, dedicated and consistent work; there are no secrets to success the SEO provider can pull out of nowhere to help you site.
5. SEO is a service
Please treat you SEO provider with the same amount of respect as you would any of your other employees or coworkers.
6. You will need to be involved
While your SEO provider will handle the bulk of the work, that doesn’t mean you get to wash your hands completely of SEO. You will be required to approve keywords and on-site changes before they are implemented, provide topics for blog posts, article and online press releases and so forth. While you aren’t required to “get” SEO, it’s important to learn the basics.
7. There are no SEO guarantees
While every business wants to know their money is being put to good use, there are no guarantees in SEO. Any company that promises to have you ranking number one in Google by the end of the month is black hat and should be avoided. Obviously your SEO provider is going to do everything they can to help your site rank well, but there are too many factors they can’t control to make promises like that.
About the Author – Nick Stamoulis
Nick Stamoulis is the President and Founder of Brick Marketing (http://www.brickmarketing.com), a search engine marketing and SEO consulting firm based in Boston. With over 12 years of industry experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting daily SEO tips in his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal (or SEO Journal), and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers.
Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com