Selecting an SEO consultant is tricky. You have to be engaged during the proposal process, know what to look for and ask the right questions. The more educated you are, the more likely you are at choosing the right SEO consultant for your business. Let’s dive into a couple of main points to consider.
What Makes a Good SEO Consultant
A good SEO consultant will ingrain herself or himself into your business as much as possible because only this approach will allow her or him to identify a deep array of opportunities for your company to grow organic search traffic, leads and/or sales. The following attributes are signs of a good SEO consultant.
A good SEO consultant understands your traffic and revenue goals. Without knowledge of these goals, it’s hard for both you and the SEO consultant to measure success. Sometimes, the initial goal is to simply “start growing.” That’s okay at first, but once some traction has been gained, it’s good to set some specific goals. Consider the S.M.A.R.T goal methodology from Hubspot.
A good SEO consultant will discover your unique value proposition, and leverage it. Knowing what makes your company unique allows the SEO consultant to differentiate between different keywords, optimize your metadata with CTAs, leverage your assets, and provide suggestions for making your content more compelling and in-line with your company’s unique offering.
A good SEO consultant should educate you and your staff on SEO best practices. It’s important for you (and your staff) to understand the recommendations that your SEO consultant is making. Wherever possible, a good SEO consultant will provide links to source documentation that back up recommendations, and cite case studies that show why specific tactics work (and are generally accepted as “safe” tactics).
A good SEO consultant will be honest about your ranking potential. Many businesses simply don’t have the link profile authority to rank competitively for the most-searched keywords. A good SEO consultant will be honest and upfront about this, and help to identify less competitive keyword phrases that your company can rank competitively for. The key here is that your SEO consultant helps you target the keywords that are most relevant and most rank-able for your business.
A good SEO consultant will be upfront about how long it will take to achieve results. SEO takes time. Google is slow. In my experience, it can take anywhere from three to six…even nine months for a website to see noticeable organic search traffic growth. This depends on the competition in your industry, your link profile authority, your content quantity and quality, your current technical issues, etc. Be wary of any consultant who suggests that you can rank highly in a short amount of time. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
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