What Can You Expect from SEO-Related Engagements?

This article will explain the advantages of working with an SEO agency and its drawbacks. It will also outline the kinds of companies that would be the ideal ones to collaborate together with an SEO agency and which ones should not.

First, let’s look at an in-depth look at what is an SEO agency is and what a campaign that is run by one will look like.

What’s An SEO Agency?

A SEO Agency is firm which specializes in SEO, or search engine optimization. This means that it helps your site appear higher on Google’s results for the keywords used by those who purchase your products.

The professionalism level in the SEO industry is wildly different in the absence of professional standards like those to practice as an architect, doctor or even a real estate agent. If I’m being truthful, when I meet with someone who is the director of the operations of an SEO company, my doubt increases until I find out more. Is this a single or two-person company which may not exist couple of months from now or is it a legitimate SEO business with a solid well-established culture, a seasoned leadership team and a well-trained team?

What you’re looking for when you hire the SEO company is at minimum 10 employees (indicating they’re proficient enough at what they do to create an enduring, sustainable company) and a complete job description for the campaign (see below for more details) Positive Glassdoor review (if employees are happy then your campaign is more likely to be successful) and pricing that’s at a reasonable cost.

What Can You Expect from SEO-related Engagements

SEO campaigns vary from one-time SEO campaigns that basically “get the home cleaned up” to long-term engagements in which the agency handles the generation of leads organically, implementing strategies, keyword research and even content creation. Any of these kinds of campaigns are acceptable according to your requirements However, you should to stay clear of agencies that fall between the two with a few minor tweaks to their website and then executing periodic content marketing. If an SEO campaign is unsuccessful is usually due to the absence of one or any factors:

Strategy: establishing the hub-and-spoke system that is geared towards transactionsal, long tail keywords, which results in MQLs
Keyword research: Locating those low-volume, high-value keywords that take a lot of time by using tools for keyword research and thinking about the keywords’ search intentions
High-quality content production: taking the time to know the client’s company and locating a writer with years of experience in the industry and putting together the most effective piece of content posted online, in line with each keyword’s search intention

The Benefits of working with an SEO Agency

The primary benefit of employing the services of an SEO Agency is that specialists can manage a complicated project that is not in line with the core competencies of your company. Similar to how you wouldn’t undertake the construction of your home yourself an entrusted project like an SEO campaign should be given to those who are skilled at it. Of course, checking the reputation of the company that will be handling the project is essential, since numerous SEO firms aren’t equipped for the job.

If SEO seems like it would be within your company’s capabilities, it is advisable to conduct an expense comparison of what it would cost to execute an SEO lead generation campaign in-house as opposed to outsourcing it. The majority of the time, 4 full-time team members are required to effectively manage SEO internally: a strategist-project manager, SME writer, editor-co-writer and graphic designer. In our company, we employ 7 employees to perform the same tasks. However we’ve had 4 people perform well when our clients have moved their SEO to in-house.

If you’re confident that you’re able to handle SEO internally, then it’s highly recommended to contract with a top SEO agency for the duration of a year to get a better understanding of their best methods.

Apart from this major benefit, there are a number of other advantages to having SEO agencies. SEO agency:

The ability to learn about the more advanced SEO strategies and contents that perform particularly well in your particular industry
Access to resources your business isn’t likely to have, for instance, expensive search databases for keyword research and experts in marketing and analytics attributing that are only suitable for an agency offering customized SEO services that are scaled.
Capability to utilize their content to other marketing channels , like the use of e-mail marketing, social networks webinars, conference presentations
The ability to adapt to ever-changing standards for SEO and website standards, as well as algorithms
Reputation for costly mistakes for costly mistakes, like not putting keyword phrases in the title tag, or permitting dead links to continue to be inactive Both of these can dramatically impact the ranking of keywords and lead generation

The drawbacks of working in conjunction with an SEO Agency

As obvious as the advantages can be, they also have disadvantages to having an SEO agency, too. They include:

The difficulty of finding a reputable SEO agency is due to the fact the sense that, as previously mentioned there aren’t any standards for professional SEO to oversee the business as well as none of review websites or directories (e.g. Clutch) independent, non-commercial entities.
A delay in the ability to analyze results as it can take about 4-6 months before you can see the improvements on any SEO campaign. It could mean that you’re halfway through your contract before you are able to assess the performance of your SEO agency.
Inability to write about your brand or industry or brand, unless the agency has spent many years to address this issue like our agency did and you’re likely to be assigned a generalist that cannot comprehend what your company’s mission is and what is important to your clients.
A team that is constantly changing can be a problem for the best SEO agencies Europe, who typically have a high rate of turnover. This is the reason it’s a good idea to look over their Glassdoor reviews to find out how hard they seem work to establish an excellent culture and keep the team members they have.

The Businesses that Benefit Most From an SEO Agency

There are three types of businesses that can benefit the most by having SEO agencies: SEO agency:

B2B companies working in technical fields that have experts on staff who do not possess the necessary time or the writing skills or SEO education required to write lead-generating SEO-friendly content. (There’s an reason why most of our clients are from complex industries like construction, manufacturing managed services industrial IoT biotech, and other.)
Companies that provide solutions to specific problems. These businesses see amazing outcomes from cooperating with an SEO agency due to the ability SEO is in answering questions and offering solutions to issues. (Many SaaS companies and medical device companies are in that category.)
Companies where the average life-time value of a customer exceeds $1,000. If you can count on a steady stream of closed, new customers per month are able to afford your SEO campaign The ROI idea is simple to justify.

Companies that should not hire an SEO Agency

The companies that are not a good fit to employ an SEO agency include:

They sell products that people aren’t looking for (very high-level enterprise business, referral-only companies, or B2G businesses who respond to government RFQs) and
They already produce content as their primary business, like review websites or news agencies

For companies that fall into the first group, top results in search engine rankings will not translate into closed leads you need to justify your expenditure. The companies in the second category must still invest in thought leadership however, since an authority in the field can help to close leads they’ve gotten through networking or other methods.

Businesses in the second group who’s primary business is the creation of content, are equipped to manage SEO within their own organization. The most skilled writers regarding their industry will already be employed and therefore an external SEO campaign will likely produce less high-quality content that what they would create for themselves. However, there is a caveat in the area of the strategy of keyword selection and research in the case of content companies who do not have SEO expertise could still benefit from hiring one of the SEO firm for a once-off consulting task.