Before you hire an organic SEO company, you should understand what SEO is, how it works, and what it’s going to do for your business in the long-run. That way, you’ll know exactly what to look for as you consider your options.
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Defining SEO
SEO is an abbreviation of Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is precisely that: optimizing web pages for search engines. It involves structuring your website in a way that not only ranks it high on search result pages but also convinces visitors to click through.
These click-throughs matter because the more visitors click through to your website, the more likely your website is to meet your business goals.
How SEO companies help
SEO companies optimize your website for clickthroughs in a number of ways. While some SEO companies offer special services that others don’t, most at least provide the following SEO services:
SEO Audit
Firstly and foremost, an SEO company needs to know how your website is already doing on search engines. The SEO company’s team checks your website for structure, competition, speed, link structure, content, and more.
This process is called an SEO audit. This audit tells the SEO company where it can most improve the website’s search engine performance.
On-page optimization
Once the SEO company completes the SEO audit, it may choose to work on on-page optimization.
On-page optimization is often the easiest improvement for SEO companies because they just need to restructure elements “on the page” to increase its relevance to a search engine keyword.
These elements include, but are not limited to, the page’s mobile-friendliness, its URL, its title and meta description, content and content length, section headings, images, sitemaps, and more. These elements are the ones that are overlooked during the web design process but have an impact on SEO.
Off-page optimization
Now that the SEO company has improved your site’s on-page optimization, it may want to move on to off-page optimization.
Off-page optimization is a little more challenging than on-page optimization because it can involve outside parties. These outside parties help establish your website’s credibility. Remember, the Internet is supposed to be a worldwide network. Thus, websites linked by other websites look more reputable to a search engine.
However, blogging, social media, e-mail marketing, outreach, and influencer marketing also play a role at this stage of the SEO campaign. Luckily, most SEO companies will manage all of these according to your website’s needs so that you can focus on running your business, not a blog or a website.
Why do SEO tactics work?
But doesn’t your site just appear in Google the moment you create it?
Yes and no.
Google discovers websites using a piece of software called a web crawler. Web crawlers crawl the web looking for new pages, then store them in a database called the index.
When users enter a keyword, Google retrieves pages from that index that match that keyword best. A page’s relevancy, location, website age, the user’s device, and other factors help Google match pages to keywords.
Therefore, best SEO practices increase your website’s odds of being retrieved by Google for your target keywords.
What should business owners look for in an SEO company?
Now that you understand how SEO works and why your business needs it, it’s time to choose an SEO company.
First, you’ll want to look at the company’s past performance. Second, note what industries the SEO company serves. Third, determine whether your business needs local, national or even international SEO. Highly local businesses, like hair salons, may benefit more from local SEO.
Last but not least, like all of your other business expenditures, you need to consider your budget. While that top-rated SEO company may run a fantastic campaign, it also may not be the best choice if you’re a small business or a recent startup with a tight budget.