7 Questions to Ask Your SEO Provider

Eric Brantner
SEO Content Author
Choosing an SEO provider is one of the most important marketing decisions your company will ever make. Choose the wrong agency, and you’ll end up flushing money down the toilet. But if you choose the right SEO company, you will see an increase in brand exposure and sales. For this reason, I have come up with a list of 7 questions to ask an SEO provider before you hire them.

1. What have you achieved for your clients? Talk is cheap. You need to separate all the sales hype from reality. The best way to determine if an SEO company is right for you is to ask them for referrals and testimonials. Have the SEO company show you exactly how they have improved the search engine rankings of their existing clients. As the saying goes, “The proof is in the pudding.”
2. Will you analyze my competitors’ websites? There is a good chance at least one of your competitors has an SEO plan in place. The most effective way to combat their plan is to analyze their website. Your SEO provider should offer this analysis as part of their service. If they aren’t aware of the current state of affairs in your competitive market, how can they properly optimize you site?
3. How will you find keywords for my site to target? This is one of the most important questions to ask. Many of the shady SEO firms trick their unsuspecting clients by getting them great rankings for keywords no one searches for. Your SEO agency should have clear standards defining why they choose the keywords they do. Additionally, they should provide you with average search volume for the chosen keywords.
4. What link building techniques will you use? Link building is the backbone of any solid SEO strategy. Without inbound links, you will have a difficult time earning the search engines’ trust. Ask the SEO company for specific ways they plan on increasing your inbound links. If they speak in vague terms instead of naming specific tactics, you should consider looking elsewhere for your SEO services.
5. Will you be optimizing my website content? As tired as everyone is of hearing the saying, it still remains true- content is king. Some SEO companies try to take shortcuts by simply placing keywords in title tags and urls and nowhere else. The only way to achieve long term success in the search engines is to fully optimize your site. The content on your page is, perhaps, the most important area that needs to be optimized.
6. Do you service any other clients in my niche? If you don’t hear a no to this question, it’s probably time to start walking. Your SEO agency should not be servicing clients that compete with you. It’s a clear conflict of interest. An ethical SEO agency will only handle one client from a particular niche. This prevents a situation in which two clients are competing for the same keywords.
7. Do you use ethical SEO practices? We all know there are some shady SEO agencies out there. You don’t want to get involved with one because it could result in your website being banned permanently from Google. Always ask your SEO provider if they use generally accepted SEO practices.