Introduction
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complicated and nuanced field. There are so many different ways to do it and so many different opinions on what “doing it right” means. While some people are able to master SEO on their own, hiring an expert is a great way to get the insights you need for your business’ growth. However, before you hire an SEO consultant, there are several things you should consider first:
Determine your goals.
The first thing you should do is to determine your goals. Before hiring an SEO consultant, it’s important to know what you want to achieve and why. An SEO consultant will help you develop a strategy that can be customized for your business and audience, but in order for them to do that effectively, they need some idea of what direction you want them to take. The more specific your goals are, the better results they’ll likely produce—and if this means starting with smaller objectives like improving pageviews or getting more social media followers rather than immediately trying for top rankings on Google (that may take years), then so be it!
Know your business.
Before you contact an SEO consultant, it’s important to fully understand your business. This will help you communicate your needs and goals clearly and effectively, so that the consultant can make good recommendations for future marketing efforts. SEO consultants Melbourne carefully study your business and they also avoid doing spammy links into your website.
Here are some key questions for you to consider:
- What is my business goal? Do I want more customers or more qualified leads? Which metric(s) will help me evaluate progress toward those goals?
- What is my company’s customer base? How does my target market differ from competitors’ customer bases in size, location, demographics and other factors that affect how they buy products and services like mine?
- Which keywords have worked well in previous SEO campaigns—and why do I think they’re still relevant (or not)? How do these keywords align with what people are searching on Google when they look for my product/service offerings? Have any competitors used these keywords effectively against me to achieve higher rankings than I currently receive in search results pages (SERPs)? If so, what should we change about our strategies going forward if we want greater visibility among consumers who type these terms into Google’s search engine box when looking for information related specifically towards someone like me offering solutions similar enough yet unique enough compared with theirs too!
Do your own background checking.
Do your own background checking. Before you hire anyone, it’s important to do some research on them first. You can start by Google-ing the company name and checking out their website. Look for reviews and online forums where people have had good or bad experiences with that business. If possible, ask friends or family if they have used them before and what experiences they had.
Meet with the consultant more than once.
It’s important to meet with the consultant in person, so that you can get a true sense of who they are and what they do. Ask them for references. If they won’t provide them, ask why not? What are their qualifications? Have they been doing SEO work for a long time? Will they be able to help you reach your goals? Do they have any case studies or examples of previous work that you could look at? Do they use the same tools as other companies in their industry sector (e.g., Moz tools or Google Analytics)? Will it cost more than an hourly rate if something goes wrong with my website after I’ve hired them? These are all questions worth asking when vetting potential SEO consultants before hiring one!
Have a budget in mind.
In the world of SEO, a budget is important. It’s a starting point for negotiation, and it can help you determine what type of results you’re looking for. You should be able to justify your budget to the consultant, especially if it’s higher than average.
Before talking about budgets in detail, though, let’s address some common misconceptions about SEO costs:
- SEO doesn’t cost money; it pays off in the long run! This is true, but that doesn’t change the fact that many businesses need money upfront before they begin seeing returns on investment (ROI).
- The more expensive packages are always better! Not necessarily. Some companies offer cheaper packages because they’re less experienced or don’t have as much experience working with certain industries such as retail or legal services. They may also offer lower prices because they’re new startups trying to gain traction quickly by offering lower rates right away rather than waiting until their clients are more assured of their abilities before increasing prices later on down the road—something called “undercutting.”
Avoid black-hat SEO tactics like backlinking, cloaking and link farms.
- Black-hat SEO tactics are methods that manipulate search engine algorithms in ways that are not approved by Google. These tricks can help you rank higher, but they also present a risk of getting your site penalized or even banned from Google.
- Avoid these unethical practices:
- Backlinking means paying for links from other websites in hopes of increasing your rankings. Backlinks should be earned naturally through relevant content, not paid for with cash or other incentives.
- Cloaking is when a website uses code to display one version of the page if it’s accessed through a search engine and another version if it’s accessed directly by a user (i.e., “cloak” the pages). This practice may be used to trick Google into returning results that aren’t accurate or relevant to what users want when searching the internet using their algorithmically ranked results pages (SERPs). The intent behind cloaking is usually malicious and aimed at boosting rankings artificially—and often comes at the expense of providing users with an honest experience online.* You should never use cloaking as part of an SEO strategy because it could lead to penalties on your site from Google.*
- Link farms are websites whose sole purpose is to link outwards so as many other sites link back into them as possible for increased ranking power within SERP listings; this helps boost relevancy scores even though such links tend not belong naturally within content created by people who might actually read them regularly enough do so consistently over time…
Find out how they plan to report on progress.
Make sure you can easily understand the reports.
As a rule, it’s always better to receive more frequent updates than less frequent ones. If your SEO consultant is going to report on progress only once per month or so, that might not be enough for you to make informed business decisions about whether their strategy has been effective. You’ll want to make sure the data they provide is accurate and reliable before trusting them with your company’s website management.
If they’re not providing detailed information, ask them why and if they have plans to start doing so in the future.
Be prepared to invest in quality content before anything else.
Before you begin any search engine optimization effort, you need to understand that quality content is more important than quantity. There are many businesses who use poor-quality content on their websites and think it will drive traffic and help them rank higher in the search engines. However, this just isn’t true: if your site has poorly written or irrelevant content, then your rankings will suffer as a result.
But what exactly does high-quality content look like? It’s well-written and interesting for users; it’s also informative and relevant to your business or industry. While high-quality content takes time and effort to create, it’s essential for improving both organic traffic and ranking positions on Google’s first page of results for valuable keywords (which means more visitors).
Hiring an SEO consultant is an investment that can pay off if you choose wisely
Hiring an SEO consultant is an investment that can pay off if you choose wisely. You need to look for a consultant who has experience in your industry, whose track record shows a history of success, and who uses the right processes and procedures to get results. Make sure you understand the costs involved as well.
Here are some questions to ask:
- Can they provide references from previous clients? If so, who are they and how long ago was it?
- What tools do they use? Are these tools customized for your industry or just general use? What kind of reporting process do they have in place? How often will I receive reports detailing where we stand with our efforts (weekly/monthly)?
- What else should I know before hiring an SEO Consultant
Conclusion
Hiring an SEO consultant is a big decision, but it can be a good one if you know what you’re doing. We hope that this article has helped you get started on the right foot by providing some tips to help you make your choice. If none of these options work for your business needs, there are plenty more out there! Just remember to do proper research before investing in any service or product. Happy searching! Heliumseo.com.au are fully aware about your niche because they have covered all niches in the country.