Top Questions To Ask Before Hiring an SEO Consultant
Search engine optimization is a constantly evolving practice and getting tougher day by day. SEO tactics are changing as search engines update algorithms. It is no more limited to setting keyword density equations and cheaply bought backlinks. Today, it has become an integral part of modern holistic and competitive digital marketing strategy.
Companies that once kept their SEO budget to a minimum are now ready to hire top-rated SEO agencies in Sacramento, CA at a higher cost.
Apart from creating backlinks, modern search engine optimization strategies include user intent research, improving user experience, use of natural language processing in content marketing and awareness of latest search engine algorithm updates..
With growing competition in all industries globally, SMEs and startup businesses have to struggle to gain online visibility and beat their competitors.
If you’re considering hiring a local SEO company in Sacramento, CA, you will have numerous choices and all of them seem like the best option. But before you make a quick decision, it’s important to look beyond and choose a competitive SEO agency that can deliver the best results.
In this page, we will answer all your queries which will help you take a better decision in hiring an SEO agency for your project.
Some quality checks you should know about SEO
SEO boosts your search engine ranking thus improving your business ROI. But the case might be reversed if you have not partnered with the right SEO agency.
From time to time reporting and regular improvement in the website gives results. However, here is a checklist to evaluate quality of SEO work done by previous SEO agency or the Company you selected for your SEO strategy :
- Research and integrate keywords.
- Focus on user experience.
- Optimize Meta tags.
- Publish valuable content.
- Image Optimization.
- Internal Link.
- Core Web Vitals
- Mobile-First Indexing
- Machine Learning and Automation
- E-A-T
- Knowledge Gap, Semantics, and Entities Optimization
On top of that, you can always opt for an SEO audit. It is a detailed report of an in-depth assessment of SEO done so far.
Evaluating the results obtained and compared with the previous report will show the actual picture. However, SEO monitoring done on a daily basis will provide you with information about weak areas where you need to focus.
It involves collecting basic performance data over time using SEO tools.
Here are some of the top SEO ranking methods where you can always improve to produce effective SEO results:
- Remove unwanted text, images, and broken links that slow down your site
- Create relevant links to other authoritative websites
- Optimize content by considering users first, and Search Engines Second
- Start SEO by using Google analytics
- Meta descriptions and Meta titles help you in ranking
- Try to book your domain with a simple name
- Build Momentum with social media posting
- Use the Right Keywords in Images
- Publish Unique Content Consistently to Improve SEO
1. How Long Before You See Results From SEO?
Though there is no set timeframe for when you will start seeing organic results from your SEO efforts, most subject-matter experts agree that it takes approximately four to six months. It depends on the business niche & market competition.
You’ll start to see good results once you know how to market your business & outrank your competitors by analyzing –
- Competitor’s SEO Analysis
- Creating quality content by grouping keywords
- Backlinks strategy to get links from high authority website
2. How does your SEO agency approach keyword research?
Keyword research includes finding, sorting, and prioritizing high searched keywords, which can then help in developing SEO optimized content that can rank.
SEO keyword research finds all the possible variants matching the intent of customers for searching your product. Once you define the keywords then using different tools, you check their search volume for your site. While doing the research, consider the following points:
- Focus on finding the relevancy by deciding keywords for each page rather than over stuffing keywords on the home page.
- Brainstorm Topics by finding potential search terms for target pages using Google Autosuggestion or other tools.
- Explore Your Competitor’s Keywords regularly
- Analyze Specific Keywords by checking Monthly search volume, or MSV, CTR, traffic estimate, and keyword difficulty
- Consider long tail keywords, question based keywords, zero volume keywords and location based keywords.
- Prioritize Keywords by determining the search intent and describing ToFu, MoFu, BoFu
3. How can you Stay ahead of your competitors with our SEO services?
Beating the Competitors Ranking on the 2nd or 3rd page of Google for multiple keywords could be your first task. We can help you in that and bring On Page tactics into your notice that will help you get position in top 10 search results for every keyword.
- By focusing on competitor’s website structure
- Group your keywords / Plan targeting keywords
- Focus on content creation
- Stay abreast of SEO updates & algorithm changes
- By monitoring your competitors’ backlink profiles.
There are various options available as per your SEO budget but setting the goals is a must before hiring the SEO company. If you are having any queries related to above -mentioned SEO tactics, you can contact RedBlink’s SEO Experts.
We will guide you through the SEO changes your website is required. You can approach us for a detailed discussion about your project. You can discuss the budget and can ask for the strategy to beat the market competition.
Before you go for any decision, you need to first understand your business requirements and what outcomes you want to achieve.
Consistency and regular effort with the blend of AI technology is the need of present SEO. Check out our SEO case studies to know our progress report and how you can get better results for your business.
4. What is local SEO and why it is important for SEO?
Local SEO is based on two types of searches. “local pack” results and organic “blue link” results. These two results are achieved by targeting:
- Creating and managing a Google Business Profile (GBP)
- Local service-based keywords optimization
- Targeting 0 search volume keywords / Low Competition
- Creating content abiding local search intent
Most importantly, optimizing a Google Business Profile (GBP) as per latest marketing trends will help in boosting local SEO search results. Apart from this, a series of actions can be taken to raise local search visibility. The top strategies contain:
- Reputation management by getting authentic reviews
- Getting star rating using local schema
- Local Citation building
5. How to Create a Winning Content Strategy for Your Website?
First you should know your target audience. Then only you can group keywords to bring traffic to your website. After deciding the keywords list, you need to nurture the content strategy keeping long tail keywords in mind.
Cover the topic clusters on every topic that your primary keyword represents. By creating blog posts you can generate traffic for your business easily.
The search engine ranking depends on the user’s intent. Your content should be relevant to your readers’ query.
The content should be divided into h1, h2, and h3 heading tags with the mix of SEO optimized images, FAQ section to target the featured snippets, People Also Ask (PAA) search and Google image search,
The other thing you should consider is adding entities. With high relevance, make sure the content’s readability, user intent, search probability, and user queries are answered. The target audience is always going to be a focus point while writing engaging content.
Before you go live with the content, check the content for grammar errors and NLP ( Natural Language processing )
6. How do you build backlinks?
Relevance and authority are the two important factors to getting organic traffic. A backlink (also called an inbound link) is a link that connects your site with other websites. These links can be placed on the text, image, or on the click button to boost the site’s performance.
There are two purposes of creating backlinks in Search engine optimization:
1) Building relations with high authority sites to increase domain authority of our website.
2) providing the highest degree of information related to your product and services.
Keeping these two points in mind, SEO specialists must create high-authority backlinks. The backlink creation process must consider the following checkpoints
- High authority links ( .gov, .edu ,.com domain carry more weightage than other sites)
- Relevant links that are in context with your website niche adds more value to the website.
- If a site refers to your business and does not mention your competitor’s name then it becomes a unique advantage.
- Natural and real-relevant links from broken link building and guest posting links help increase the company’s rank.
A strategy for backlink creation must include:
- Reclaim Unlinked Mentions
- Get Contextual Links
- Get ‘Best X’ List Mentions through outreach.
- Become a Source for Other Publishers
- Update Old Content
- Use Images to Earn Links & Mentions
- Use Guest Posting
- Use Local Citations
- Use the Broken Link Building Method
7. How do you produce results with your overall SEO strategy?
Developing an SEO strategy that produces 360-degree changes starts with auditing your website, analyzing your targeting keywords based on your services and location and then tracking what your competitors are doing to achieve good results.
These things SEO might sound simple but certain triggers and twists make a difference in the results. Getting the top results on Google comes by applying a comprehensive SEO strategy by understanding all of the above things.
To check whether these SEO strategies are working or not, here are some of the parameters that you must consider
- Organic Traffic.
- Keyword Ranking.
- SERP Visibility.
- Click-Through Rate.
- Bounce Rate.
- Backlinks.
- Page Speed.
The top-rated SEO agencies base SEO campaigns measuring the above mentioned parameters and assure a guaranteed success through SEO.
8. SEO Report: How To Show Progress To Clients?
Following the best practices, we should consider sending a biweekly / monthly progress report to the client. So we could justify where we started & what we achieved biweekly or monthly.
These reports bring the client’s attention and should make use of stats and metrics like website’s organic traffic, Top ranking keywords, new keywords, clicks, impressions, CTR increase. Basically all these things should justify the progress of your SEO strategy.
Other than that, regularly meeting with the client through a call or an email should be organized to discuss the SEO report. We should also be ready to update these reports as client requirements and focus points.
9. How will I know which SEO is right for me?
The nature of the business and the target audiences are the deciding factors for choosing the SEO service for your website. If your target is local audiences and specific region-based businesses then local SEO is good for you.
At the same time, if you are a global brand, international SEO is good for you. Similarly, for an eCommerce website, eCommerce SEO is good.
Overall, SEO is a vast field. Depending on the individual need and the demand of your website, you can choose the type of SEO service.
If the SEO agency can rank your website in the top 10 searches then you can say that the SEO is quality SEO. The experienced team and a company following the latest trends along with the use of AI tools can provide such a service to you. So, contact an agency that does quality SEO!
Wrapping Up
When you search for a Sacramento based SEO Company on the internet, thousands of results might appear, both local and far away companies. How do you come to know about the right SEO agency for you? How will you avoid the conflicts?
The above written questions will provide an insight of the effective SEO strategies to help you hire an SEO agency. It is clear that SEO has come a long way and making the campaigns result oriented is the need.
As a full-service digital marketing company RedBlink has the knowledge, experience, and professional SEO specialists you need to see real results on your site. As the #1 Sacramento SEO company, you can count on us to deliver top search engine rankings and high visibility for your business.
Want to know what we can do for you? Contact us today to learn more about our SEO packages, and to find out how we’ve helped companies just like yours find success online. You can request a quote or SEO audit!