Search engine optimization (SEO) is the ongoing process of optimizing your website for search engines. Many factors play into how long it takes to see significant results. In most cases, it takes 3-12 months to see consistent improvement. Learn more in this 6-minute read.

The first step in choosing the right agency for you is identifying your specific marketing needs. It’s important to understand that different agencies may offer different services. Some focus on foundational tools such as websites, SEO and SEM, others may favor social media and content marketing while larger firms may offer full-stack services. Businesses should evaluate their marketing goals, review agencies that can deliver results in the areas that matter most and then choose a firm that will truly value your business rather than treat you like a number.

Dr. Michael Perusich, CEO of Kats Consultants remarked, “we often think about marketing as a mechanism to accomplish a task. But, just like the need to create great relationships with your customers, the same is true when choosing your digital marketing partner.  I advise my clients to avoid firms with ‘thousands of clients’. Yes, that can be reassuring to hear but, that also indicates a high-volume, cookie-cutter approach where you are just a number. Choosing a strategic partner that truly values your business will bear much more fruit for your business in the long run.”  

It’s difficult to be confident about what services are offered and needed, how pricing and terms are structured and most of all, what results should be expected. And with so many choices, how do you select the right professional marketing team?

In this blog post we will explore the critical questions you should ask and considerations you should evaluate before selecting a digital marketing agency for your small or medium-sized business, discuss what services marketing agencies do for you, review the elements that make up an effective digital marketing strategy and, reveal standard costs and compensation structures.
Understanding these points better ensures that you’re more likely to select the right partner and create a successful relationship that generates the consistent growth outcomes you’re looking for. Let's get started!

When looking to hire a digital marketing company there are several things to evaluate. Look for an agency with experience in your industry, ask for examples of past work, what tools they use to track success, how often they can meet with you, the size of the agency, how they are compensated, what specifically is included and what terms are required.  

1. What Services Do You Offer?  You want a company that provides comprehensive services. This is often referred to as ‘Full-Funnel’ services. That means they have a wide range of expertise and can handle various aspects of digital marketing, including SEO, social media, email marketing, content creation, and web design. If a digital marketing firm only specializes in one area, you may have to engage different firms to handle other aspects of your online marketing, which can be a hassle and time-consuming.
2. What Success Stories Can You Share?  Before deciding on a digital marketing firm, ask them to share some successful online marketing campaigns they have run for other clients. A credible and trustworthy firm will not hesitate to provide you with examples of their work. Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a good gauge of what a digital marketing firm can deliver. If they can’t provide specific examples of what they have achieved for clients, you may want to keep looking.
3. What’s Your Industry Expertise?  Digital marketing practices vary by industry, so you want a firm that has experience in your business niche. This way, their team understands your target audience, industry trends, and engagement strategies. Ask for examples of past clients in your field and what specific marketing approaches they used to create consistent impact.
4. Who Will Be Managing My Account?  It’s essential to have a direct point of contact or account manager within the firm you hire. The account manager will ideally provide you with regular updates and reports on your campaigns' performance and help you strategize. Find out who this person is, and how open to communication they are, especially if you prefer to be hands-on with your campaigns.
5. What Are Your Compensation Structure and Terms?  It’s crucial to understand how the marketing agency will be compensated and what terms are required. Ask about their payment, terms and what’s included in their pricing. Be wary of firms that offer vague pricing terms or ask for large upfront payments and promise quick results.

Digital marketing agencies typically provide a variety of services such as website design, search optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and SEO. Niche firms specialize in providing one or several services. Full-funnel digital marketing firms will typically offer all digital services plus graphic design, copywriting, video/audio production, branding, advertising, media planning/buying as well as public relations services.

1. Digital Marketing Agencies Conduct Market Research.  They’ll identify the target audience, understand the business's value proposition, and the competition's marketing activities. Through market research, digital marketing agencies can create strategies that resonate with the target audience's interests, generate leads, and convert them into paying customers.
2. Digital Marketing Agencies Create Strategies.  Look for them to develop an all-inclusive digital marketing strategy that includes various components such as search engine optimization, search marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and more. They also determine the budget required to implement each strategy and set specific goals in terms of leads generated, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, and overall return on investment.
3. Digital Marketing Agencies Develop and Maintain Websites. Digital marketing agencies help businesses create and maintain websites that are fast, user-friendly, and optimized for search engines. The websites that digital marketing agencies create are easily navigable, mobile-friendly, and provide high-quality user experiences to the audience.
4. Digital Marketing Agencies Develop and Execute Paid Advertising Campaigns.  Search marketing targets specific audiences through various media platforms such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc. Programmatic ads serve paid advertising to users across any platform such as subscription video services referred to OTT (Over-The-Top) such as YouTube TV, Hulu, etc, or while people are shopping on Amazon or other ecommerce sites.
5. Digital Marketing Agencies Measure and Analyze Results.  Marketers use analytics tools to measure, analyze, and interpret the effectiveness of each digital marketing campaign. They generate data-driven reports to provide businesses with insights on their digital marketing campaigns, identifying areas of improvement, and generating recommendations.

An effective digital marketing strategy requires careful planning, research, monitoring and goal-based adjustment. You need to define your target audience, establish your goals, choose the right channels, plan and implement your strategy, monitor and measure your results then adjust for improvement.
Effective digital marketing strategies are comprised of foundational elements no matter a business’s size, target audience or industry segment. By following these steps, you will be able to create a successful digital marketing strategy that delivers results for your small or medium business.
Ask agency candidates for example digital marketing plans and look for these elements:

1. Defined Audience and SMART Goals. The target audience demographics and what they are looking for, should be clearly identified. Goals should be focused on increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving brand awareness, or increasing sales. No matter the goals, they need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
2. Channel Selection.  Selecting a mix of digital marketing channels that align with the audience and goals is key. Each channel (SEO, content marketing, PPC, social media marketing, email marketing, programmatic, etc) has its strengths and weaknesses, and you need to choose the ones that work best for your business. If you’re looking to boost your website traffic and generate leads, you may want to invest in SEO and content marketing. Whatever channel you choose, make sure it aligns with your audience and goals.
3. Planning and Implementation. This involves creating a content calendar, developing a messaging strategy, creating high-quality content, and testing and tweaking the messaging and delivery. The content calendar should outline the topics and themes you’re going to cover, the channels you’ll use, and the frequency of your posts. Your messaging strategy should be consistent across all channels and align with your brand’s tone and personality. Your content should be SEO optimized, engaging, and provide value to your audience.
4. Monitor and Measure Results. Track progress, identify what’s working and what’s not, and adjust accordingly. Use an iterative process based on analytical data to optimize strategy and to achieve dependable growth.

Digital marketing agencies typically offer two types of compensation structures: project-based & retainer-based. Project-based compensation is charged by the hour for one-time projects such as website design, branding, or social media setup. Retainer-based compensation is charged monthly for services such as content creation, social media management, and email marketing.
When asked about why they chose a retainer through a full-funnel firm, Eric Johnson of CJ Real Estate said, “We struggled to realize how our website, SEO, email, events and social media - all our marketing -  works together and needs to be managed as a whole. We wasted so much time and money with one-off projects and short-term focus. I’m so glad we listened to Chris Lowers and let his team get us marketing strategically. Grey Partners is a remarkable digital marketing agency – they have us off the sales roller-coaster and enjoying steady business growth. And, we’re spending about half of what we did on project work. Go figure!”
Service costs are often substantially reduced by entering into a monthly retainer agreement because it offers the same benefit for both the client and agency – consistent success. Agencies know that your success is their success. One-time projects typically won’t be good for them or their clients over the long term because websites and SEO must be continuously nurtured to be consistently successful.
Check out these FAQ’s to learn more about digital marketing agency pricing:

1. What is the average hourly cost for digital marketing agency services?   Usually, digital marketing agencies charge between $90 and $200per hour for their campaign or project-based services. Hourly fees will vary depending on the scope and complexity of the project.
2. What is the typical cost of digital marketing agency retainer services?  Retainer services vary based on the scope of services provided. Most small business spend approximately $1,200 - $3,000 per month while larger brands may allocate $10,000-$30,000 or more per month for digital marketing services.
3. Are paid advertising costs included in digital agency service compensation? No, unless specifically called out in the contract, hard costs are not included.  Paid advertising costs, stock images, royalties, hosting and other hard costs are charged separate from digital marketing services.
4. What to look for in a Digital Marketing Agency Contract? Before signing a contract with a digital marketing agency, ensure that you're clear on important details such as deliverables, timelines, and payment terms. Check for clauses such as a non-compete or early-termination fees. Always ask if there is a 30-day out or if longer notice is required to terminate services.
5. Are Digital Marketing Agency terms flexible and negotiable?  Yes, reputable marketing firms are always ready to offer flexible terms customized to your needs. While many digital marketing agencies offer standardized contracts, you may want to negotiate a lower retainer if you commit to a longer-term engagement or ask for a clause that allows you to increase or decrease your retainer based on business needs.

The takeaway
Before hiring a digital marketing firm, it’s crucial to do your research and ask critical questions to ensure that you end up with a firm that complements your business needs. Ask about the firm’s services, previous success stories, industry expertise, who will be managing your account, and their pricing structure. Ensure significant experience, an understanding of your goals and objectives, a commitment to be ahead of the latest trends and technology, transparency, and the ability and desire to measure success. With a clear understanding of the digital marketing firm, you’ll be more comfortable working together toward the common goal of building your brand and achieving consistent growth outcomes.

If your website is not SEO friendly, you are missing out on significant traffic, leads, and revenue for your business. Think about it, what good is a website that's essentially hidden from your customers?

In this article, we'll take a closer look at what it means to have an SEO-friendly website and provide you with tips on how to optimize your website for search engines.

First, understand that SEO is a process rather than a destination. It must be continually refined and updated.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the process of optimizing your website's content, structure, and links to increase your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). Essentially, the higher your website ranks, the more likely people are to see it when they search for relevant keywords in Google or other search engines. This can lead to more traffic, increased brand visibility, and ultimately, more conversions.

There are three core SEO elements: on-page, technical and off-page.

On-page refers to the content that makes up your website - both (1) what people see and read to learn about your business so they can take action and buy, and (2) what search engines read to learn about your business so that they can return relevant results to people searching. One of the main components of SEO is keyword research. This involves identifying the search terms that potential customers are using to find businesses like yours. There are various tools available for keyword research, including Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, and SEMrush. Once you've identified your keywords, you'll want to incorporate them into your website's content, meta descriptions, and other on-page elements.

Technical SEO plays an important role in your website's rankings. This involves optimizing your website's structure and code to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content. Factors such as site speed, mobile friendliness, and structured data can all impact your rankings. Working with a professional web developer or SEO agency can help you ensure that your website is optimized from a technical standpoint.

Off-Page SEO refers to everything you do outside your website to improve your ranking on search engine results pages, such as link building, social media marketing, and guest blogging. Off-page SEO is an essential part of optimizing your website. Without a good off-page SEO strategy, your website may struggle to rank well on search engine results pages. Remember, Off-page SEO is not a one-time thing; it’s an ongoing process that requires continuous effort. If you want your website to rank well, you need to build quality links, engage with your audience on social media, guest post on other websites, submit your website to web directories, and save your website pages on social bookmarking websites.This involves posting content on third party sites and getting other websites to link back to your website, which signals to search engines that your content is valuable and authoritative. You can build links through guest posting, outreach campaigns, and other methods. It's important to note that not all links are created equal, and quality over quantity is key. Getting a few high-quality links from authoritative websites can be much more beneficial than getting numerous low-quality links.

When done well, these three components contribute to build search engines understanding of your EXPERTISE, AUTHORITY and TRUSTWORTHINESS. In search vernacular this is referred to as E-A-T which is the fuel that drives search engine effectiveness and your websites ability to generate high seach engine results page rankings.

But what exactly is E-A-T, and how does it impact your website's visibility?

E-A-T is a concept that emerged from Google's Quality Rater Guidelines, which are used to train human evaluators on how to assess the quality of search results. Expertise refers to the knowledge and skills of the content creator, authority relates to the creator's credibility, and trustworthiness is about the overall credibility of the website.

Why E-A-T is Important
When search engines crawl your website and finds high-quality pages with excellent E-A-T, it views your content as trustworthy and authoritative. As a result, your pages are more likely to rank higher in search results than pages with lower E-A-T. Poor E-A-T, on the other hand, can result in lower search engine rankings and less visibility for your brand.

E-A-T is tough to quantify. Search engines do not provide a guide to building E-A-T ranking factors but, we know that there are a few factors that drive E-A-T. Some of these factors include the quality of your content, the expertise and credibility of the author, the reputation of your website, and the quality of your website's user experience.

Effective SEO generates strong E-A-T by feeding search engines high-quality content that's informative and helpful to your target audience, ensuring that you're publishing content that's written by experts in your industry, establishing your brand as a credible authority in your niche delivering top-nothc user experiences with intuitive navigation, fast loading speeds, and a mobile-friendly design.

So how do business owners move forward?

1. The first step to improve your website's SEO is to evaluate its structure. An SEO-friendly website should have a clear and organized structure that makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index. This means having a logical hierarchy of pages, a clear navigation menu, and a URL structure that is easy to read and understand.
2. Once you have a clear and organized website structure, it's time to focus on your content. High-quality content is the backbone of SEO, providing value to both your readers and search engines. To optimize your content for search engines, you need to ensure that it includes relevant keywords and is structured using header tags. Additionally, strive to make your content engaging and informative, as this will encourage users to spend more time on your site.
3. Link building is one of the most effective ways to improve your website's SEO. High-quality backlinks from reputable sources can help establish your website's authority and credibility in your industry. This, in turn, can improve your website's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). To invest in link building, reach out to other websites and ask if they would be interested in linking to your content.
   
4. Mobile optimization has become increasingly important for SEO in recent years. With more people using mobile devices than ever before, Google has placed increased importance on responsive design. Ensure that your website is optimized for mobile devices by using a responsive design and ensuring that your content is easily accessible on smaller screens.
5. Social media can be an effective tool for SEO, allowing you to connect with your audience and build backlinks to your site. Incorporate social sharing buttons on your website and encourage users to share your content. Additionally, use social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to share your content with your audience.
   

Having an SEO-friendly website is essential if you want to establish your brand and grow your business online. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can optimize your website for search engines and improve your visibility on SERPs. Remember, SEO is a long-term process, and it requires consistent effort and attention. Stay dedicated to these efforts, and you'll see positive results over time.

The more you understand SEO the more likely it is that you'll seek professional SEO help. Here are 12 questions to ask before hiring an SEO provider.

SEO is the primary driver of brands, businesses and organizations of all types and sizes. Customer journeys beging with search. And, organic search delivers 53% of all website traffic.

Think about it, whenever you want to go somewhere, do something, find information, research or buy goods/services – what's the first thing that you do? It's probably involves a click.

How people search is fragmented and businesses are struggling to keep up with the pace of change. While Google may represent over 84% of all searches most business leaders aren't aware that 61% of Americans start their product search on Amazon verses the 39% who begin on a search engine like Google.

Unlike other marketing channels, SEO work is sustainable. Think of SEO like an ecosystem. As long as you care for the individual parts the system sustains itself with minor maintenance requiired from you. However, when a paid marketing campaign ends, so does the traffic. f

The bottom line is that SEO is foundational to your business. Yes, it's a marketing channel but the most successful businesses budget SEO as a capital expense because they understand that SEO is elemental to consistent market share. Without a strong SEO plan your business simple can't compete.

Start-up AI search-bot companies seek to one day carve out a slice of the massive web search market that Google has so thoroughly dominated for 30 years.
Large Language Model (LLM) AI search-bots represent a fundamentally different approach to retrieving content from the web. Google works by matching search queries with relevant sites that its web crawlers have found and indexed, then ranking those content sources based on their popularity and other factors. AI “answer engines” (as one start-up, Perplexity, terms them) leverage the language skill of LLMs to understand queries, then assemble customized, conversational answers based on content from millions of web pages.
Learn more in this 4-minute read from contributor Mark Sullivan's article in Fast Company.

If you’re serious about vying for top search engine results, then you know you that brand crediblity is a critical component. But Google has been ambiguous about what E-A-T (expertise-authoritativeness-trustworthiness) actually is, and how it plays into your SERP rankings.

So how do you prove your E-A-T your success?

Learn more in this video from our friends at Moz where Lily Ray discusses the ways in which you can prove that all important “E” – expertise – and measure your success.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for goods, services or information on topics that your organization has expertise or authority. What you’ll learn in this guide:

• Why SEO is important
• How SEO works
• The SEO Process
• Organic SEO versus paid search
• SEO planning

Whenever people want to go, do, find, research or buy – their journey usually begins with search. In fact, 53% of all website traffic flows from organic search results. Want to know something, Google it.
Smart marketers build search relevancy so that they can engage users across a myriad of search, social and retail platforms as they begin their customer journey.

How SEO Works
SEO works through a combination of people, processes, technology and activities working in unison to provide search engines with the information they need to view your site as expert, authoritative, and trustworthy.
Search engines perform four core functions to produce page results:

1. Crawling: Search engines use crawlers to discover pages on the web by following links and using sitemaps.
2. Rendering: Search engines generate how the page will look using HTML, JavaScript and CSS information.
3. Indexing: Search engines analyze the content and metadata of the pages it has discovered and add them to a database (though there’s no guarantee every page on your website will be indexed).
4. Ranking: Complex algorithms look at a variety of signals to determine whether a page is relevant and of high-enough quality to show when searchers enter a query.

SEO is a journey, not a destination. Your search results are dependent upon feeding major search engines relevant information fast from credible sources so that search engines view you (your site) as experienced, expert, authoritative and trustworthy. Effective SEO involves three disciplines:

• Technical SEO: Site performance – the structural elements you control on your website to help search engines index and crawl (read) your site such as load speed, responsiveness, structured data, site maps, image optimization, etc.
• On-Page SEO: Relevance – the content you control on your website to help search engines understand the relevance of your company to a search query, i.e., site content, title tags, meta data, keyword usage, links, etc. 
• Off-site SEO: Credibility – the content you influence that is published on other sites such as: NAP citations, backlinks, reviews, article mentions, etc.

 
Technical and on-page optimizations are directly controlled by you. Off-page SEO is a different animal because you can’t control the content that other sites publish.
 
Technical optimization
Job one for SEO is technical optimization. This begins with site architecture that makes it easy for search engines to discover and access all of the content on your pages (text, images & videos). Properly indexed sites allow search engines to crawl and capture and organize your site so that it returns relevant search engine page results.
User experience is also a critical element of technical optimization. Search engines stress the importance of pages that load quickly and provide a good user experience. Elements such as Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness and usability, HTTPS, and avoiding intrusive interstitials all matter in technical SEO. 
 
On-page optimization
People and search engines are your primary audience. Your site must be optimized for both. Effective SEO optimizes the content your audience sees (what’s actually on the page) as well as what search engines crawl (the code).
Publishing high-quality content congruent with your audience’s wants and needs, and that follows Google guidance, ensures that your content your experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness as perceived by search engines.
For people, content must be:

• Relevant, covering topics with which you have experience or expertise.
• Inclusive of keywords people use to find the content.
• Unique and original.
• Well-written and free of grammatical and spelling errors.
• Current and accurate.
• Well organized and readable.

For search engines, content must be organized and include:

• Title tags
• Meta description/data
• Header tags (H1-H6)
• Image alt text

 
Off-site optimization
Working to influence content that you do not control is a significant challenge for any organization. Managing your listings and reviews is the best place to start. Listings are free NAP citation (Name-about-place) such as Google Places, Yelp, Bing Places, etc. Reviews are another tactic that you can directly influence.
There are four core off-site tactics:

1. Listing management: Claiming, verifying and optimizing the information on any platforms where information about your company or website may be listed and found by searchers (e.g., directories, review sites, wikis).
2. Ratings/reviews: Getting them, monitoring them and responding to them.
3. Link building:  referring backlinks from a third-party site to your website offers significant ranking and traffic benefits. The challenge is the effort required to establish and maintain these links. Chris Lowers president of Grey Partners advised, “Link quality wins. Successful marketers get results by establishing backlinks from relevant, authoritative and trusted websites.”
4. Content Marketing:  referring backlinks from this can refer to a host of tactics from podcasts to posts to native articles and more. Anywhere you can insert content on a reputable third-party site helps build your expertise and authority as perceived by search engines.

Organic SEO Versus Paid Search
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and its objective is to ensure that your site attracts visitors through relevant search results. SEO results occur organically because your site is optimized for search engines. SEO is vital and sustainable – traffic continues without additional spending.

• SEO = driving organic traffic from search engines. 
• PPC = driving organic and paid traffic from search engines. 

PPC stands for pay-per-click. It’s a type of paid search marketing where advertisers are charged whenever a person clicks on their ad. Ads are served as search results or display ads next to search results.
It’s important to think of SEO and PPC as complimentary marketing channels. SEO is foundational providing long-term traffic without exponential cost. PPC is an effective tool for as long as your budget allows. When your paid campaign ends, so does the traffic. And, the more aggressive your competition – the more expensive your cost to be competitive.

SEO Planning
Effective SEO is based on clear objectives and adhering to a long-term action plan to reach them. Remember, SEO is a journey rather than a destination. It’s ideal to think of your strategy as an endless road trip. The path you take will evolve over time – but your goal should remain clear and unchanged.
Your SEO plan may include things such as:

• Setting goals (KPI’s, OKR’s) and expectations (timelines/milestones).
• Defining and aligning meaningful KPIs and metrics.
• Deciding how projects will be created and implemented (internal, external or a mix).
• Coordinating and communicating with internal and external stakeholders.
• Choosing and implementing tools/technology.
• Hiring, training and structuring a team.
• Setting a budget.
• Measuring and reporting on results.
• Documenting the strategy and process.

 
Turn ideas into effective SEO actions through research such as:

1. Audience research: It’s important to understand your target audience or market. Who are they (i.e., their demographics and psychographics)? What are their pain points? What questions do they have that you can answer? 
2. Keyword research: This process helps you identify and incorporate relevant and valuable search terms people use into your pages – and understand how much demand and competition there is to rank for these keywords.
3. Competitor research: What are your competitors doing? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What types of content are they publishing? 
4. Brand/business/client research: What are their goals – and how can SEO help them achieve those goals?
5. Website research: A variety of SEO audits can uncover opportunities and issues on a website that are preventing success in organic search. Some audits to consider: technical SEO, content, link profile and E-A-T. 
6. SERP analysis: This will help you understand the search intent for a given query (e.g., is it commercial, transactional, informational or navigational) and create content that is more likely to earn rankings or visibility.

 
Because code is intangible, many organizations wrongly think of websites as static objects and struggle to allocate the resources required to maintain an effective site. The same is true for your SEO.
 
Consistently improving your SEO is dependent upon analyzing, assessing, and reporting performance. You need to know if traffic drops to a critical page, pages become slow, unresponsive or fall out of the index, your entire website goes offline, links break, or any other number of potential catastrophic issues. There are a variety of resources to help you make data-driven decisions such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Performance reporting should be reviewed at meaningful time intervals, typically comparing to previous report periods and tell the story of your customer journey. Monthly reporting is ideal for information sites. E-commerce sites should consider weekly performance measures.

Our digital world is ever-evolving. Search engines, user behavior and your competitors are always changing. Websites change, become stale and break over time. There is always an action you can take to improve your results. Or, as Chris Lowers put it, ‘SEO will only end when our competition dies.’
If you found this page via a search engine, you likely searched for ‘what is SEO’ or ‘how does SEO work’. 
This article is published by Grey Partners, an authoritative digital marketing company with solid expertise on and experience in the topic of SEO since 2009.

Understanding how search engines function and how they prioritize information is crucial for those managing SEO ecosystems and a bit overwhelming if you're just getting started so, here's a quick 3- minute read covering the basics.

What is a search engine?
Search engines are businesses. As of January 2023 Google served 84.6% of all searches globally while the next closest competitor Bing, served 3.4% of searches.

Search engines exist to provide relevant information to users. They do this through searchable databases that return two type of search results.

• Organic results  are sourced from the search index. Businesses cannot pay prime positions.
• Paid results are sourced from advertisers. Businesses pay to for prime positions.

How do search engines work?
Search engines are comprised of two primary parts: index and algorithms. Search engines discover and index websites through a process that consists of identifying URL's (www.XYZ.com), crawling known URL's for information, processing that information via an algorithm and then adding it to the search index.

How do search engines rank pages?
Search engines rank the information they find through a variety of ranking factors. Ranking is conducted by search algorithms which are unique to each search engine but share commonalities.  Pages that rank highest are perceived by search engines to be Expert, Authoritative and Trustworthy. This is known as E-A-T. Key ranking factors are:

• Backlinks
• Relevance
• Freshness
• Page speed
• Mobile friendliness
• Unique & relevant content

How Key Takeaways

• The index and algorithms are the two primary elements of a search engine.
• Search Engines build an index by crawling known pages and following links to find new pages.
• Search algorithms purpose is to return the most relevant results to the right users.
• Having search engines view your site as Expert, Authoritative and Trustworthy is key search results.
• Key E-A-T factors include backlinks, relevance, freshness, unique content and load speed.

E-A-T, Google's acronym for EXPERTISE, AUTHORITATIVENESS & TRUSTWORTHINESS — isn't a new topic, Google has been evaluating EAT signals for years. What's vital to your business is boosting those signals through content that's strongly inline with Google's 2023 Helpful Content Update.

For years search engines have demoted sites deemed to have “unhelpful” content, giving them less visibility in search results. Google’s internal communication revealed:  “Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that’s better to display.” Yikes!

The bottom line is that you can have a great mobile site experience, create engaging video content, and optimize for voice search. But, if your content doesn’t align with Google's definition of 'helpful', your business will suffer.

That's where GP Coaching can help. Our experts provide the strategic architecture that gives your marketing team the ability to build 'helpful', engaging content that puts you on top of search rankings to keep your business relevant and leads flowing.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a constantly evolving practice. Search engines continually update their processes to provide a better user experiences. Where SEO could once be effectively done with keyword density equations and cheaply bought back-links, modern SEO only works as part of an integrated digital marketing ecosystem.

Hiring an SEO company or agency can be a daunting task. In the best-case scenario, your partner grows organic traffic to your site, improves your search rankings, and helps you generate more leads and sales. In the worst-case scenario, your SEO partner engages in black hat techniques that give the appearance of success, disappears before the penalties kick in, and leaves you with less traffic than ever—and months’ or years’ worth of costly cleanup.

However, hiring someone to create and execute an SEO plan doesn’t have to be difficult. You don’t need to be an expert to hire one. You do need to know what questions to ask and what answers to expect. Consider the following 12 questions—and what to look for in the answers—to find a proficient SEO company that follows best practices and drives the results you’re seeking:

1. What is your philosophy of approaching SEO to deliver results?
There are three major facets of SEO, and the most effective SEO companies consider all three as components of a comprehensive SEO strategy.

• Technical SEO considers code, site structure, site speed, and other metrics that could impact your search traffic. During a technical SEO review, an SEO professional will make sure that search engines can crawl your site and its content, will review 404 errors, and will analyze redirects, among other tasks.
• On-page SEO/User experience (UX) is the optimization of the content of your digital properties. During an on-page SEO review, an SEO expert will analyze user-facing aspects of your site, including content, navigation, and keyword optimization.
• Off-page SEO means improving your SEO presence by earning links, strengthening the brand online, and improving the popularity of the site and content. To execute off-page SEO campaigns, an SEO agency will look for opportunities to increase your domain and page authority through incoming links to your site from other high-quality properties.

Many SEO agencies operate in one of two ways:

1. They will offer only one facet of SEO (such as link-building).
2. They will do all the research and strategy without being able to effectively implement any of it.

Modern SEO requires a holistic strategy and experienced execution. Make sure the SEO agency you are evaluating can do all three (technical, UX, off-page), and that they have a clear strategy for balancing them.

2. How will you adapt that strategy to our brand/business/industry/niche?
SEO is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and your SEO partner should have some ideas as to how your business needs a unique approach that caters to your industry, business model, and goals. SEO for a local business interested in attracting customers from a dozen zip codes requires a very different approach than SEO for a major corporation with a global market.
Experience in your industry is a plus, but it’s not necessarily a requirement. More important is the SEO agency’s ability to articulate how they will adapt the general approach to cater specifically to your niche. Make sure that the company can highlight specific places where the general approach will vary.

3. What metrics define “success” for you?
This is kind of a trick question. While SEO companies may come to the meeting with certain, general goals in mind, their success metrics should really stem from what success means for you. No SEO company can guarantee page-one rankings, and those that make these types of promises are likely using black-hat techniques. These techniques may get you traffic for a short time, but they’ll ultimately land you a penalty—along with significantly reduced traffic and rankings.
Legitimate SEO professionals will build their plans around your goals. If you’re looking for increased traffic, they may prioritize keyword optimization or content creation. If you’re looking for more local traffic, they may recommend optimizing your local business profiles on directory and review sites. An SEO agency’s success metrics should be directly based on your business goals, so look for companies that turn this question around and seek the answer from you.

4. How long will it be until we can expect to see results?
Effective SEO takes time, but that shouldn’t prevent an experienced agency from giving you a time frame for results. In general, you should expect to see results from legitimate SEO techniques within six months of getting started.
The possibility of seeing results earlier depends on the health of your site. For instance, correcting technical errors and oversights can net some legitimate SEO gains in a short period of time. However, if your site is already structured well and free from technical issues, you will have to wait longer for measurable change.
If your SEO company promises quick results, ask why. If they point out technical factors that need to be cleaned up, good. If not, be wary—they might be using outdated, spammy techniques that will eventually get your site penalized.

5. How do you approach mobile?
Ideally, mobile should be part of the conversation when you discuss the general strategy. Google announced last year that they were in the process of moving to a mobile-first index, making mobile optimization more important than ever. Look for companies that have a process for conducting a mobile audit of your site, and ensure your SEO agency can convincingly articulate why mobile is an important SEO consideration.

6. How should SEO incorporate with our overall marketing strategy?
The most successful SEO initiatives are part of an overall marketing plan, so avoid companies that expect to perform their tasks in isolation. SEO goes hand-in-hand with content marketing, and public relations and social media marketing activities can be used for effective link-building. Your SEO partner should be very open to collaborating with your other marketing teams—as well as other teams as needed, such as your web development and sales teams—and should have a basic plan for integrating their efforts with your existing marketing initiatives.

7. How do you conduct keyword research?
In the past, keyword research meant plugging a term into a keyword research tool, populating a list of relevant keywords, and developing content with keywords inserted at various places. However, modern keyword research requires much more effort—it’s an exercise in understanding user intent. It seeks to understand what information a user is looking for when searching a keyword phrase and provides content catered to the intent behind the search.
As you’re interviewing prospective SEO companies, make sure that they refer to user intent and speak about the tools and methodologies they use to determine keyword intent. If the entire conversation revolves around number of searches for a keyword and keyword density, it’s likely that they’re operating on outdated practices.

8. How do you approach link-building and influencer marketing?
Some SEO companies will promise to get you thousands of links within a few weeks, but the reality is that those links will not be high quality. One high-quality link from a credible, authoritative site is more effective than hundreds of low-quality purchased or machine-created links in blog comments. The conversation should focus on building quality links over a large quantity of links.
Modern link-building is better described as link-earning. It’s executed by providing high-quality content that drives incoming links organically, and building relationships with influencers and editors. Your SEO company should describe their link-building efforts in terms of relationship-building and quality—not quantity and expediency.

9. What tools do you use?
Knowing exactly what tools an SEO company uses isn’t necessarily important, but knowing that they can describe why they use those tools is critical. Legitimate SEO professionals will have a number of tools they use to conduct audits and complete tasks, and they will have tested multiple tools to find the best. Ask the following questions:

• What tools do you use to conduct keyword research, and why?
• What do you use to monitor rankings, and why?
• What crawler do you use, and why?
• What do you use to monitor backlinks, and why?
• What do you use to conduct competitor analysis, and why?

Your SEO partner should be able to articulate the reason their preferred tools are used and the impact those tools can have when properly utilized—not simply recite a long list of “great tools.”

10. How do you report on progress and what does it look like?
Ask to see a sample report created for another client in order to ensure that the SEO company has a valid method for reporting their progress toward your shared goals. At this point, you’ve already discussed your specific goals, so ask how they would customize the progress report to cater to your unique goals and KPIs. Be wary of companies that cannot provide detailed information on how progress will be measured and reported.
How often an SEO agency reports on progress will likely depend on the size of your project. Most brands can expect monthly updates. Bigger companies, or short-term and specific projects, might require more frequent updates on the work being done, but bear in mind that tracking actual progress week-to-week is largely ineffective and can be deceptive.
Search results fluctuate for a variety of reasons: Google testing new algorithm changes, competitors making dramatic changes to their content, etc. SEO is a long-term strategy, and companies that monitor close-term changes often make rash changes that end up hurting their efforts.

11. How do you stay up on industry trends?
At a minimum, you’ll want someone who stays up to date with the information posted by Google on its Webmaster Central Blog—Google’s own outlet for news on how to best position a site for their search algorithms. Better, is someone who follows popular industry blogs and participates in SEO forums and conversations. The best SEO professionals will do all of the former as well as conduct their own research. They monitor the properties they manage for potential signs of algorithm changes and investigate possible shifts in SEO best practices.

12. What do you need from us to be effective?
Legitimate SEO companies should respond with a long list of questions and needs. To conduct their work effectively, they’ll need detailed information about your audience, industry, goals, and KPIs. They’ll need to know what other digital marketing platforms you’re using that will affect your content, if any, such as marketing automation. They’ll also need access to your Google Analytics. Effective SEO requires a partnership between multiple teams and company leaders, so agencies that need very little from you are unlikely to build an SEO plan that will help you achieve long-term success.

Hire an SEO Company that Delivers

SEO is a complex field. Effective SEO companies stay up to date on key changes and adjust their plans and practices accordingly. Additionally, the ultimate goal of a search engine is to provide quality results to searchers, so effective SEO should be more concerned with quality for users than with ranking factors and quantity of links.

By asking these questions and evaluating the answers to determine the practices and policies an SEO company employs, you’ll be able to weed out bad actors and find an agency that delivers long-term success.

What other questions would you ask an SEO company?

SOURCE: Adobe Experience Cloud Blog. Check out the original post here.