Tag: SEO

Should You Hire an SEO Company?

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Should You Hire an SEO Company?

Hiring an SEO company isn’t right for everyone. You have to assess your current marketing plan to see if your budget, timeframe, and internal capabilities call for external expertise.

In 15 years of doing digital marketing, I’ve learned that SEO is not for everyone. It takes a very particular type of company at a very particular stage to make SEO a great fit for their business. That’s why I turn away 9 out of 10 companies who come to us looking for SEO services.

There are signs that indicate when SEO would be a good service to offer a client, just as there are signs when SEO would be worth the investment for a small business.

So how do you know if SEO may be a good fit for your business? And if SEO is a good fit for your business, should you hire an SEO company?

Here are few telltale signs you should hire a SEO company. 

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7 Factors to Think About When Considering an SEO Company

  1. SEO can lower a high paid search spend
  2. Targeting difficult keywords may require professional help
  3. Your internal expertise may or may not be enough
  4. SEO companies might have a hard time with your industry
  5. You need to have the right timeframe
  6. SEO companies take a monthly fee
  7. It takes time to find the right SEO Company for your business

A High Paid Ad Spend Can Be a Sign to Invest in SEO

SEO can reduce or replace a paid advertising budget. By ranking organically for the keywords you’re targeting with paid ads, you are able to drive traffic to your website without having to pay for each click.

As ad costs continue to rise, an investment in SEO can lower expenses while reducing the risk of becoming too dependent on paid lead generation channels like Google and Facebook.

In the image below, you can see an example of how organic stats in a month can far outnumber paid clicks.

Organic search exceeds paid search in number of targeted keywords, estimated clicks, and click value. With a monthly Google Ads budget of about $72,000, this person was only able to target under 8,000 keywords. Compare that to the roughly 13,600 keywords targeted through SEO.

The bottom line is if you are spending thousands of dollars each month on Google Ads, then you should strongly consider an investment in SEO.

Ranking for Difficult Keywords May Require Outside Help

Keyword Difficulty is an estimate on how hard it will be to rank in the top 10 organic search results for a specific keyword.

SEO tools like Ahrefs calculate keyword difficulty by “taking a weighted average of the number of linking domains to the current top-ranking pages. The result is then plotted on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100 (low difficulty to high).”

Let’s say you wanted to rank for the term “seo company.” Ahrefs estimates that this keyword has a difficulty score of “54” — meaning that this is a hard keyword to rank for.

The higher the difficulty, the more effort and skill that is required to accomplish a top 10 ranking in organic search results.

You can utilize free keyword research tools (link is external) to determine the difficulty of your target keyword. If your keyword has a medium to high difficulty score, then you should strongly consider hiring an expert SEO company to help you rank organically.

Your Internal Expertise Can Be a Major Factor

SEO is the most difficult area of digital marketing to master, so it’s not a bad idea to consult a specialist when trying to target “super hard” keywords or developing complex SEO strategies.

Here are a few technical SEO concepts that good SEO companies should know:

1. Technical SEO

There’s Technical SEO (link is external), where you will need to be comfortable making changes to your website and providing crawling directives to search engines. You can use tools to determine how easy it is for search engines to read your site.

The screenshot above shows an assessment where most of the URLs were difficult for search crawlers to read.

2. Digital PR

Digital PR (link is external) requires an understanding of backlink building, and which websites would be good or bad to receive a link from. Here’s a snippet from a tool that shows you how trustworthy a site is.

The number is based on a few criteria and covers a broad range of topics, including recreation, computers, and business.

3. Keyword Strategy

Content creation calls for the ability to perform effective keyword research, and identify the search terms that you could realistically rank for. Check out this screenshot that breaks down keyword ideas based on their search volume.

The breakdown considers topics that have the same terms, relevant questions, terms that are also ranked, and newly discovered terms.

4. Google Algorithm Monitoring

And then, once you learn everything, Google is updating their algorithm approximately three times a day (link is external) and pursuing patents to stay ahead of your efforts in order to deliver the best results for users.

This diagram from SEO by the Sea (link is external) shows an approximate model of how Google’s algorithm works.

The model takes into account the different ways a search engine can gather and assess information.

SEO is not impossible to learn and do on your own. But, you’ll need time, tools, and training to onboard yourself.

Do you have the curiosity and resources to develop an expertise with SEO? Or, do you want to enlist the expertise of an SEO expert?

Your Industry Might Be Harder for an SEO Company to Grasp

A key element to a SEO strategy is content creation. Content enables websites to appear for search terms that prospective customers are searching for. By creating content targeting these keywords, a website is able to increase organic traffic from search engines.

This means someone will have to create content for your website. That someone could be you, or an SEO company.

If your industry is complex, then an SEO company without experience in your industry may have a difficult time producing valuable content for your prospective customers.

Content is an important piece of an SEO strategy, and one that a writer needs to get right.

Your Timeframe for Success Could Limit SEO

Google says that in most cases, SEO companies need four months to a year to help your business (link is external) first implement improvements and then see potential benefits.

In other words, if you are considering hiring an SEO company, do you have four to twelve months of patience and investment to potentially see the return?

If not, doing SEO yourself while investing in paid ads for more immediate results may be a good way to bridge the gap.

You Need to Allocate a Budget for an SEO Company

A review of SEO companies on Clutch shows that you’ll be spending at least $1,000 / month on SEO. More than likely, that monthly fee will reach $2,500–$5,000/month for a reputable agency.

That could be a significant amount of money to be investing each month. When factoring in these costs and considering the length of time for investment, will you have a positive ROI?

Finding the Right SEO Company for Your Business Is a Process

Help is abundant in the SEO industry. Business owners can easily turn to Upwork freelancers, anonymous Fiverrs, tech-savvy nephews and nieces, or one of the 15,000 agencies who offer SEO.

With that said, great help is hard to find. To succeed, you need to find the right match.

Here are a few interview questions to ask an SEO company:

  • What is your experience in my industry?
  • Who would be my point of contact?
  • What are the deliverables I can expect each month?
  • How involved will I be in the process?
  • What are the terms of your contract?

If the answers to these questions align with your needs, then the decision to hire a SEO company becomes easier.

Hire an SEO Company if You Have the Budget and Time but Lack Expertise

In most cases, SEO is a solid marketing investment that will produce sustainable and predictable returns for your business. If an SEO strategy is well designed and you are successful in the execution, you can build and grow a business from organic search traffic.

Exploring that notion of organic growth is what tempts companies to hire a SEO company. However, take the time to make sure your company is a match for SEO.

  • Do you have advertising spend?
  • Are you targeting keywords that are difficult to rank for?
  • Is time on your side?
  • Would you rather pay an expert than do it yourself?
  • If everything works out the way you’d like, will you have a positive return on investment?

If the answers to these questions are yes, then you’ll need to find an SEO company. If the answers are no, then exploring alternative marketing tactics or taking a do-it-yourself approach may be the better road to pursue until SEO becomes a more viable, and appealing option.

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Why Your Business Should Consider More SEO Approaches Than Keywords

Posted on by brpWebMasterLeave a Comment on Why Your Business Should Consider More SEO Approaches Than Keywords

Why Your Business Should Consider More SEO Approaches Than Keywords

Search engines are no longer driven by keywords, which is why your business should focus on strategies beyond keyword-based content.

Web pages don’t rank for just one search term, so why write content that way?

Search engines have evolved dramatically over the last 10 years. Yet, most content strategists and SEO experts still approach content like it is 1999.

It’s become increasingly difficult to rank content, and the keyword-based process isn’t helping much. This post looks at a number of issues from which this strategy suffers and offers an alternative to creating expert-level content at scale.

Why You Should Consider Approaches Other Than Keyword-Based Content

  1. Google challenges keyword-driven content
  2. Strong pages don’t rank for only one keyword
  3. Search volume doesn’t serve as a useful metric
  4. Linked-based metrics aren’t the most helpful

Google No Longer Prioritizes Keyword-Driven Content

Google’s search algorithm is continuously evolving with near-daily updates. Some notable past updates include Panda (2010) to target low-quality sites, Hummingbird (2013) to differentiate search intent, and RankBrain (2015)  to provide relevance and context to searches.

Last year, Google added a topic layer to complement its knowledge graph. Not only does it understand people, places, things, and facts – it can deeply understand a topic space. It does this by analyzing all existing content on the web for a given topic and creating a model of that topic.

Good Pages Don’t Rank for Just One Keyword

There was a time when the one-page-one-keyword rule was in fashion. SEO experts would create and optimize multiple pages for closely related keywords.

So, a marketing agency might have separate pages that targets different but similar keywords:

  • Digital marketing agency
  • Digital marketing company
  • Online marketing companies
  • Online marketing agency
  • Marketing companies near me

Of course, these types of pages were often low-quality content, but it didn’t matter as long as the page ranked high.

Times have changed, and that approach no longer works. However, today a well-crafted page can rank for hundreds and even thousands of keywords.

Take, for example, the Top Digital Marketing Agencies page on Clutch. SEMRush data shows that it ranks for 879 organic keywords, including those I just mentioned.

Note that only the first one on the list appears on the page. So, the page isn’t optimized for all those other keywords, yet it ranks very well for those searches. How come?

Because Google has gone beyond keywords — it not only understands synonyms but also the semantic relationship between words. So, if a page doesn’t rank for only one keyword, why write content in that manner?

Search Volume Isn’t a Useful Metric

Keyword-driven content marketers typically use search volume as a metric. They only create pages targeting keywords that meet a minimum threshold.

That’s wrong, and here’s why.

We’ve already established that a well-written page can rank for a multitude of keywords. Added together, the traffic potential of those keywords far exceeds that of the targeted keyword.

For example, this page on Geico, Does Car Insurance Cover Rental Cars?, targets a keyword phrase with a monthly search volume of just 590.

Yet, this page, with multiple links and references to car insurance and rentals, receives nearly 8,000 monthly visits from 1,400 keywords for which it ranks. Now that’s something to write home about!

Still not convinced? Here are some more examples of pages targeting low volume keywords that generate lots of traffic.

Linked-Based Metrics Aren’t Helpful Either

Marketers often combine search volume with “keyword difficulty” (a linked-based metric) in an attempt to find the best opportunities. There are three challenges to this approach.

They’re a Poor Predictor of Difficulty

They do not account for the individual site. For example, the phrase “digital marketing agency” has a difficulty of 59% according to a popular SEO tool. That difficulty score is the same, whether its Clutch.co or MarketMuse that’s aiming for that keyword. That’s not realistic.

They Don’t Lead to Better Opportunities 

With everyone looking for high-volume, low-competition keywords, those opportunities quickly disappear.

Each Piece of Content Fails to Contribute to the Bigger Picture

Chasing those opportunities frequently leads to a disjointed collection of articles that don’t contribute to the greater good of your site. It’s hard to build authority and credibility this way.

Keyword Research Doesn’t Improve Content Quality

Traditional keyword tools aren’t helpful for creating expert-level content at scale. They’re not modeling a topic to provide semantically related concepts.

Instead, they provide variants of a root keyword. Enter a term such as “office breakfast ideas” into a keyword tool, and you’ll get a list like this:

  • Store-bought breakfast potluck ideas
  • Group breakfast ideas for work
  • Breakfast ideas for work meetings
  • Office breakfast
  • Breakfast ideas for work
  • Breakfast potluck ideas
  • Breakfast food ideas for work

That’s why keyword research doesn’t help create better content. A list like this does little to help a writer craft a high-quality piece of content.

However, a topic model, like that used by MarketMuse, returns a wealth of semantically related topics that can be used to create expert-level content. This type of list below creates a narrative that can help shape the story.

So, when writing a blog post about office breakfast ideas, you’ll want to include hard-boiled and scrambled eggs, as well as yogurt, granola, granola bars, avocado toast, and bagels in the discussion.

Even better, that content can be compared against the model to ensure complete topical coverage. Your editor will love you for this!

Why a Topical Approach Is Better for SEO

As search engines change their approach to understanding and ranking pages, content marketers adapt their way of creating content with the help of content analysis tools. Here’s why a topical-driven strategy offers more potential.

It Negates the Shortcomings of a Keyword-Based Technique

Instead of chasing fleeting opportunities creating a potential mishmash of content, why not create the Wikipedia of your industry? With a topical approach, you can be sure to address all user intent profiles and relevant subtopics that comprise your subject.

Better yet, every content item contributes to building your site’s authority in the eyes of your audience and search engines. Connecting content together in this manner makes it easier to rank for every piece of content you create.

It’s an Efficient Way to Create Expert-Level Content

A topic model, based on an analysis of thousands of documents related to the topic, reveals the key related topics that need to be covered in your content. Address those topics within your article to ensure your content is of the highest quality.

It’s a Scalable Process

Through the use of machine learning, AI-driven platforms can quickly create topic models that form the basis for this approach. The list of related topics can then be handed off to a writer, where even one with average competence can create expert-level content with far less research required.

Editors can quickly compare submitted content against the model to determine the depth of coverage and suggest corrections. The entire process changes from gut feeling to one that is driven by data. Now, content quality can be based objectively and not subjectively.

Skate to Where the Puck Is Going, and Update Your Content Marketing Strategy

Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player ever, said “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.” Content marketers need to take the same approach.

Search engines are no longer driven by keywords — neither should your content.

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