Most business owners rely on search engine optimization to make money online. Although this approach takes time to yield results, the organic traffic you can get from it trumps just about any other digital marketing strategy. More importantly, SEO sets your brand up for long-term success.
Although having the top spots in search engine results pages sounds like a lucrative proposal, many companies are still unwilling to make that bet. This usually has to do with the perception of SEO agencies and the method as a whole. Some companies also believe they can get better results by creating an in-house SEO team.
In this article, we analyze all the benefits of hiring an optimization company. Then, we compare this method with some marketing strategies.
5 Benefits of hiring an SEO agency
Generally speaking, it’s much better to have an SEO company in your corner than try to compete without one. These experts can significantly improve your website traffic by carefully improving its content, performance, and design and by building links. Eventually, this would bring significantly more leads while increasing your online reputation.
1. Increases organic traffic
Google traffic is, by far, the best source of online traffic. Billions of people use this search engine to find answers to their daily questions, learn new things, or simply get entertained. Unfortunately, gaining this kind of exposure is much harder than some people might think.
Internet users commonly click on the first link that pops up. Approximately 91% of people only browse the first page without ever venturing further. On top of that, 28% of users click on the first result, 15% on the second, and 11% on the third. This means you have to reach the top spots if you wish to be competitive.
So, if you’re looking to gain traffic by simply writing a few nice articles, we suggest you don’t get your hopes up. The process is much more complex than that, requiring meticulous planning, internet and external link building, and site-wide improvements. In other words, you’ll need an SEO agency to do the heavy lifting.
2. Long-term brand development
When people talk about hiring SEO professionals, they usually focus on traffic numbers as the main benefit. However, optimizing your site for search engines does much more for your brand than attracting a few potential clients. Instead, it’s a process that sets up your business for long-term success.
Here’s how SEO agencies can help not only your website but also your brand:
- A complete website redesign makes your platform more appealing to new visitors and search engines while also improving conversion.
- Getting more traffic leads to increased authority among potential partners, competitors, and clients.
- Inbound marketing attracts people to your brand but also makes you less dependent on third-party platforms.
- After getting high search engine rankings for relevant keywords, your brand can scale at a much faster rate. Furthermore, companies rarely lose positions overnight, ensuring a steady influx of visitors.
Most SEO companies will tell you that optimization takes time to kick in. But this goes two ways meaning that it’s also hard to lose traffic once you improve rankings. As long as you can find a reliable partner, like MiroMind, to get you over the hump, this strategy can make sense for your business.
3. Cheaper than other promotional methods
Businesses are usually too hung up on the fact that search optimization doesn’t provide instant results. They might look at paid ads and decide this approach can help them generate leads faster. But once they start spinning wheels, they’ll realize that SEO is much better for scaling and can, in fact, save money.
When it comes to optimization, the growing pains can be extremely tough on your brand. It might pass several months until you notice tangible results. Nevertheless, once the traffic kicks in, you’ll notice significant improvements in your sales. Even better, continuously investing in SEO efforts will help your other pages provide a boost across the board.
4. Better than having a dedicated team
Hiring industry professionals is much better than having an in-house team for several reasons:
- First and foremost, hiring an SEO company means you’ll have more time for daily operations. Partnering up with an external company is much more straightforward than forming your own team. This is especially true if you need to train in-house SEO employees.
- The entire hiring process takes a few weeks, after which you can delegate control of your business website. On the other hand, in-house optimization is more demanding, and you always need to be involved, which would distract you from your daily activities.
- While an in-house approach might be cheaper, you lose the benefit of expert knowledge. Online businesses that pursue this strategy hire cheap, young talent as a cost savings measure. Unfortunately, this reflects in much lower service quality, occasionally leading to setbacks and even Google penalties.
- Not only do you have to worry about skill level, but you might also experience issues delegating business tasks. Veteran agencies know how to do their job, with teams working like well-oiled machines. As a result, external SEO companies often finish tasks within days, the same which new in-house teams might need weeks to execute.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that forming an in-house team is a fool’s errand. Otherwise, businesses would never do it. It’s just that a veteran SEO agency will help you reach your destination much faster.
5. Improves other digital marketing efforts
Running an SEO campaign can also boost your other digital marketing efforts. Given that all these approaches ultimately increase site traffic, you still need optimization experts to convert these leads and drive revenue.
Here are a few ways optimization affects other promotional activities:
- An SEO professional can significantly improve website speed, architecture, and mobile-friendliness. These efforts make browsing much easier for visitors who come from search engines but also other sources. Among others, SEO web developers can make your platform more intuitive.
- Connections are vital for optimization campaigns. During long projects, SEO experts usually meet professionals working within the client’s field. Aside from linking to your pieces, these influencers might share your content on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, thus improving your social media presence.
- Content made by SEO teams can be shared and repurposed on other websites. Most notably, you can use them for social media but also for forum posting and content-sharing platforms.
- The biggest improvement comes in the form of improved brand awareness. As an SEO agency starts increasing your presence, it will rub off on all other things you do online, providing a cumulative effect.
Like other approaches, SEO doesn’t work in a vacuum. It affects other marketing processes helping designated teams achieve even better results.
How to choose an SEO agency for hire?
The main reason why businesses don’t believe in SEO is because they previously did a poor job hiring an SEO agency. The importance of quality work is something you should never underestimate, especially in this industry. Unfortunately, many agencies working online have limited knowledge or use risky tactics.
That being said, when looking to hire an SEO agency, you need to follow these steps:
1. Track record
Focusing on track records is vital for SEO, as well as other marketing service providers. You should look for a company that has been in the business for a while and has numerous clients under its belt. No matter what kind of first impression their representatives make, you shouldn’t hire them if they never had successful SEO campaigns.
When analyzing the track record, you’ll need to take a deep dive into client companies’ website analytics. You need to check how this provider helped boost rankings, but also if they managed to drive potential customers to that business. Also, the SEO provider has to show previous clients’ link profiles by using other data analytics tools.
Often, client companies are too hung up on traffic and placements within search results. Because of that, they tend to neglect the relevance of the ranked keywords. For example, an SEO agency might’ve boosted brand visibility, but the keywords they rank for have no commercial value.
2. Industry expertise
Every industry has its peculiarities. So, a company should have a keen understanding of the business to implement an efficient SEO strategy. The entire process is much simpler if they know the main competitors and how other brands do their SEO.
Having industry knowledge is also vital for technical SEO processes. If an optimization company already has clients from that industry, they’ve done keyword research for them. Furthermore, their content writers already have an idea of how to create content for a business competing in that industry.
Most companies that work in certain industries also have networks of connections. They might have an open channel of communication with the industry’s influencers and even competitors. This makes link-building campaigns much easier going forward.
3. Overall reputation
Lastly, you should check what others think about this provider. Although website testimonials can provide some valuable insights, a lot of companies use fake data. So, we suggest checking out Google reviews and other online feedback. You can also read reviews on third-party review sites. The comments below can give you numerous insights into the SEO company’s policies.