What Is An SEO Company?
A leading SEO company will analyze your website and come up with a strategy to optimize your design, content and technical specs to ensure it gets ranked higher on search engines.
In order for your content to get noticed by your audience, it needs to show up on the first few search pages when a user makes a query. Otherwise, your links will likely go unclicked.
Search engine optimization companies understand the specific parameters search engines like Google have in place for analyzing content. Thus, they can make the correct adjustments that will lead to higher clicks, conversions and sales.
These tactics include:
- Optimizing content.
- Embedding keywords.
- Adding meta titles, descriptions and alt tags.
- Making sure your website loads quickly.
- And more!
How Much Does An SEO Agency Cost?
SEO agencies typically charge one of three ways:
- Hourly rates
- Per-Project
- Monthly retainer fees
Hourly rates mean that an SEO firm charges you a fee per person per hour worked on your project. U.S.-based SEO agencies can charge anywhere from $125 per hour to $200+ per hour.
However, SEO companies that are not based in the United States generally charge far less. For example, Eastern European search engine optimization companies change charge as little as $35 per hour to $75 per hour.
Search engine optimization companies that charge per project simply invoice for a flat fee for each SEO-related task they complete.
Monthly retainers – another common form of billing – means that an SEO agency charges a monthly fee for semi-regular consultation. SEO agencies that have retainers are not leading projects, but they are actively advising them.
Depending on what you need help with and where the agency is located, monthly retainers can range from $500 per month to upwards of $25,000 per month.
How Do I Choose The Best SEO Company?
Choose An SEO Company With A Team Of Experienced Professionals
When you enlist a search engine optimization agency, you’re paying for the expertise of the team working on your site. Therefore, make sure you are comfortable with the professionals who will be working on your site.
Although many SEO changes are technical, you still need a team who understands your business objectives and brand identity. If you aren’t comfortable with one or two team members that an agency suggests, ask for a replacement who you do trust! You deserve to have the best SEO experts working on your project.
Pick The Best SEO Company That Uses Reliable Tools & Resources
Much of proper search engine optimization is rooted in the best tools and resources that can identify valuable keywords, gather analytics, and quantify progress. Be sure to ask the best SEO companies which tools they use and why, and how these programs will impact their work on your website.
What’s better? Many programs also empower top agencies to analyze competitor success, too. Ask any potential agency how they plan to assess your direct competitors and create a strategy that will allow you to compete with them online or learn from their successful tactics.
Select The SEO Agency With An Effective Process
As we’ve learned, search engine optimization is a long, complicated process with a lot of moving parts -- so you want to work with an agency that can prioritize and stay organized throughout the entire process.
While you’re vetting a good SEO company, ask them how they audit websites, determine a plan of action, manage deliverables and ensure results. In addition, determine how much they collaborate with clients (or what they may need from your team), who your point of contact will be, and what SEO tactics they believe are the most valuable and why.
In all marketing campaigns, the strategy is paramount. Without a clear and thoroughly researched SEO strategy, your campaigns will never bring the results your business is hoping to achieve.
Top SEO agencies begin every project with a discovery phase that informs a search engine optimization strategy. During the discovery phase, the agency will audit your website’s current positioning and identify any existing SEO issues.
They’ll also look at the competitive landscape and do the requisite research to determine which keywords and groupings will be the most valuable for your business. When choosing an SEO agency always look for one that values the importance of developing a strategy to inform their efforts.
Choose A Top SEO Company That Provides Reports & Results
At the end of the day, you need an SEO agency to take real actions and provide real results. Before you partner with a team of experts, ask them how long it will take to produce results, how often they will report on them, and how the constantly-changing data will influence their strategy throughout the project.
In addition, determine how these results will affect their payment structure. Are you paying hourly, flat-fee, or per objectives reached? Once this is solidified, create a contract that keeps both parties motivated and accountable.
SEO is a digital marketing channel that requires constant maintenance and ongoing analysis in order to succeed. These reports should detail the agency’s efforts, offer insight into the campaign progress, and suggest adjustments or tweaks to campaigns if necessary.
10 Questions To Ask An SEO Company Before You Hire Them
The most valuable search engine optimization agencies have access to the latest, greatest, state-of-the-art resources that help them gather data, analyze results, and formulate a strategy. Before you commit to an SEO expert, determine the tools they utilize and how they improve their work and results.
- What SEO services do you provide? Do you offer any other services?
- How do you determine a search engine optimization strategy for us?
- What SEO tactics do you believe are the most helpful and why?
- What platforms, tools or resources does your agency use?
- Who will be working on our project? What is their expertise?
- Who will our point of contact be?
- How often can we expect meetings and updates?
- How often will you look at analytics and data?
- How often will we get reports? Will these be segmented by each SEO tactic?
- How long will it take for us to see results?
What Does An SEO Agency Do?
Although SEO is complicated and has many moving parts and components, there are some key services that every reputable search engine optimization company offers.
1. SEO Agencies Include H1, H2 and H3 Tags On Every Web Page
H1, H2 and H3 tags are essentially HTML tags placed around headlines and subheads of a web page or online article. Because they are placed specifically in the code, Google can read the information and better categorize the information on your page.
They also are valuable to improved website accessibility. For example, digital screen readers can read the headers in the code to the visually impaired.
Top search engine experts understand the importance of H-tags. They ensure that every page has the proper tags and keywords that will enable it to rank for targeted phrases and searches.
There are a few H-tag best practices that will ensure success, such as:
- Only one H1 tag on each web page -- this should be the "headline" of the page or article.
- As many H2 and H3 tags as you would like. These will act like headers within the web page or article.
- Any keywords in H-tags should be frontloaded when possible.
2. A Top SEO Company Ensures Each Web Page Has A Title & Meta Description
Every worthwhile search engine optimization firm knows that each page needs a unique title and meta description. These items are what shows up in a Google search result.
In Google search listings, beneath the paid ads, you'll see the organic rankings. The first sentence is the title.
This won't necessarily exist on your real website. Instead, it is crafted specifically to tell Google (and users) what your website or web page is about. 50-60 characters is the ideal length of a title for Google.
Below the URL is the meta description. This doesn't necessarily impact SEO directly. Instead, it exists to encourage users to click through to your site.
Because a higher click-through rate improves search rankings, you should craft a clear, concise and informative meta description. Less than 300 characters is the ideal length for a meta description
3. A Local SEO Marketing Company Researches Strategic Keywords To Rank For
SEO is so effective at capturing organic consumers because it automatically targets them through their searches.
Top search engine optimization companies help businesses identify keywords that match their mission, core values, brand and demographics.
This helps them capture consumers who are actually interested in the products, services and information a brand offers. That, in turn, increases click-through rates, time on site, and overall rankings.
Digital marketing companies use tools like SEMRush and Buzzsumo to learn what people are searching for, how often, what the search trends are and more.
They also help clients identify the keywords that are most important for their business. After all, a higher search volume may not mean increase website visits.
For example, a hair salon shouldn't use keywords for web design, even if the search volume is higher. Their information won't help users searching for a web designer, even if they also need a haircut.
They should instead optimize for topics such as "how to fix split ends," as that will capture meaningful potential customers when they are likely to complete a purchase.
4. Top Search Engine Optimization Companies Create Custom Content Marketing Initiatives
The best SEO agencies take their keywords research and transform that into strategic content marketing. This content can be visual, video (which we will touch on later) or written.
Written content and blogs are the most popular form of content marketing, particularly because it is so easy and cost effective to execute.
Search engine optimization companies will strategically place your keywords and related keywords throughout the copy without stuffing -- or inputting too many. Keyword stuffing makes your content look spammy, and Google will penalize you for it.
SEO experts also craft high-value content that provides real insight your consumers are looking for and matches your brand identity. Some simple SEO content rules to follow are:
- Longer content over 1000 words ranks higher
- Content should be high-value and omit fluffy, unnecessary content
- Include optimized images, H-tags, and other SEO best practices in this article
- Articles and pages with video ofter perform better
- Avoid keyword stuffing -- user experience and value should always come first!
5. Video SEO Experts Optimize Multimedia & Video Marketing Campaigns
Content marketing spans far beyond just blogs -- and that means that consumers are often looking for more visual information. Thus, the best SEO firms help you create digital marketing videos that are optimized for Google and YouTube.
YouTube is owned by Google. This is highly beneficial because it means that there is an algorithm that will enable some videos to climb in both YouTube search rankings and Google Video search rankings.
Video SEO professionals help brands research topics, questions and keywords, create valuable content surrounding them, then publish them on YouTube. They will follow such best practices as:
- Enticing cover photos
- Headlines with frontloaded keywords & meta descriptions
- Captivating adjectives, such as now, fast, quickly, etc.
- The current year
- Punctuation such as exclamation points and parentheses
- Video topic tags that tell Google what the content is about
- Video descriptions with links and calls to action
6. An SEO Marketing Agency Builds Internal Links & Manages External Link Building
The best SEO companies strategically link to other pages of your website on various pages. The hyperlinks cement your website structure by pointing out the most important pages on your site (those with the most interlinks pointing to them) while also ensuring each web page has some value.
But interlinks are perhaps most valuable because they (say it with us!) improve the user experience. They link to related information and are anchored on specific keywords. This grabs a user's attention, allows them to navigate to pages with information they might desire, and typically increases time on site -- all of which boosts SEO.
- Great interlinks should be:
- Anchored on a keyword phrase (shorter is better!)
- Be related to the keyword phrase it is linked on
- Marked as "follow" -- meaning Google will index it and notice the link and where it points to
- Open in a new window
- Be related in some way to the content it is linked from
In addition, SEO marketing companies also build links from external websites. When other websites link to yours, it shows Google that you are a high-quality website that others will cite. This builds your credibility and ranking.
Meaningful link building should be from great websites with high domain authorities. In addition, they should follow the same best practices as interlinks list above.
7. An Online SEO Company Ensures Your Website Is Fast
A faster site speed drastically improves search engine rankings. In addition to demonstrating a higher quality website, a fast-loading website improves the user experience.
Strong UX has a snowball effect. As we know, when visitors have a better online experience with a brand, they stay on the website longer and engage more. This longer interaction signifies to Google that a website has the information the user was searching for. Thus, the website is rewarded with a higher ranking.
SEO companies test site speed with tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights. Then, they work with web developers to improve a site's functionality.
8. An SEO Professional Optimizes For Mobile
Around 40% of all online traffic comes from mobile devices -- and Google is beginning to recognize the importance of mobile optimization.
In fact, Google is beginning to place an even higher emphasis on mobile optimization for overall SEO rankings. This mirrors the growing mobile-first trend.
Well-optimized mobile-friendly websites should be:
- Responsive
- Well-branded
- Easy to navigate
- Fast-loading
- Have seamless key functionalities, such as eCommerce checkout
9. The Best SEO Company Compresses Image Sizes & Includes Alt Image Tags
Did you know that you can compress an image size to drastically speed up your website, but that the naked eye wouldn't be able to notice a difference?
Well, the top search engine optimization agencies do. SEO experts ensure that every image across a client's website is compressed into a smaller file size. This enables the website to load quickly without sacrificing quality -- a key search engine optimization component.
In addition, SEO companies add alt image tags. Also known as alt descriptions or alt attributes, this little piece of HTML code describes an image to Google. Not only does that help Google better understand what your web page is about and award it an applicable ranking, but it also helps your images populate in Google Images searches.
It also improves website accessibility for disabled people. That can increase your site traffic by 20% alone!
Top-rated agencies ensure that alt image tags:
- Include targeted keywords without stuffing
- Describe the image itself
- Have short and concise copy
- Match the content, brand and overarching goals
10. An SEO Company Has Access To The Best SEO Software
Top-rated search engine optimization firms have access to the best SEO tools. These resources enable them to collect accurate data, draw conclusions, research keywords, and determine customized SEO strategies that will improve a website, better its content marketing and capture more organic visitors.
While many of these technical tools are available for anyone to use -- such as Google Search Console, Lighthouse and Ahrefs, top-rated search engine optimization agencies are well-versed in them. They can quickly and easily navigate the platforms, collect information and understand what it means.
That empowers SEO experts to create better strategies faster, helping your brand grow more efficiently.
Discover your next SEO partner in the agency listing table above!
Who Are The Top SEO Companies?
What makes an SEO agency truly exceptional? That’s entirely up to you and your business goals.
Of course, there are a few key factors to keep in mind. These will ensure the agency you’re working with is top notch in general. They include:
- It’s staffed with SEO professionals.
- It has an extensive portfolio.
- It stays on top of trends.
- It provides results and helps clients like you improve search rankings.
These are hallmarks of stellar SEO agencies. But the best SEO agency in the world is the one that can give you the results you’re looking for.
Find the best search engine optimization company for your brand in the agency listings above.
