Here's How You Know It's Time to Find a New SEO Agency
If you’re already working with an SEO agency, you must make sure you’re getting value for your spend unless you want to waste your company’s hard-earned revenue. A lack of results could mean that you need a new SEO agency that has more experience or understands your industry more thoroughly.
The Strategies Seem Outdated
The SEO landscape of 2010 doesn’t look anything like the one that exists today. An outdated SEO strategy can tank your efforts to attract links, drive traffic, and rank highly in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Unfortunately, an SEO agency that continues to rely on outdated methodology is actually more of a liability than an asset.
This is because poor SEO isn’t value-neutral. It doesn’t just fail to produce positive results, but it can also harm your position in the SERPs and reduce your chances of ranking highly in the future. If your SEO agency uses outdated methods, find a new partner that won’t harm your marketing prospects.
You’re Getting Low-Quality Inbound Links
Years ago, link quality didn’t matter significantly. Every website that linked to your site was considered a “vote” for your site. The more websites that linked to you, no matter the content or value of those site, the more favorable the search engines viewed you. Things have changed a lot since then. Search engines prize websites that attract high-quality inbound links. According to Forbes, quality is measured by history (the length of time the site has been online), reputation (the quality of the information the site publishes), and relevance (how the site relates to your industry or subject matter), among other factors.
Simply splattering links across new or irrelevant domains won’t help your SEO efforts. Consequently, you need a new SEO agency if yours is attracting poor-quality inbound links that could jeopardize your website’s relationship with the search engines. This is particularly true if it’s a consistent problem.
Content Isn’t Optimized for Multiple Search Types
People conduct web searches for a variety of reasons. Business2Community, for instance, compares navigational searches with informational searches. A navigational search occurs when a user searches specifically for a brand, product, or business name, while informational searches involve asking for answers to questions.
An experienced SEO agency will target all different types of searches to help your business gain traffic. In many cases, the types of content depend on your industry. In some industries, such as automotive, customers have a long buying cycle, often because the product is expensive. Therefore, the business must create SEO strategies for multiple points in the buying cycle. Conversely, other businesses experience shorter conversion cycles. The consumer conducts a search, finds a solution, and initiates the transaction. SEO strategies should vary based on these patterns.
The same is true for issues like geographic location. If you’re targeting local consumers, your SEO strategies should reflect localized keywords. An agency that neglects these small but essential elements isn’t doing its best work.
The SEO Agency Can’t Explain Its Process
Your SEO agency should be able to answer your questions about its strategy, goals, and techniques. Otherwise, you won’t know whether or not it has the skills and expertise to provide significant value.
If you ask your SEO specialist for specific information, you don’t want generalities. Ask for data to back up any claims, then ask about the agency’s strategy for recovering from poor results. If you don’t get the answers you need, start looking elsewhere.
SEO isn’t a simple or short-term process, but it’s vital to your company’s success. If your SEO agency doesn’t perform, it’s time to find someone else to take over your SEO campaign.
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