11 Important Questions To Ask To Get The Most Out Of Your Portland SEO Professional
The choice of SEO professional you hire can either make or break your business. While a good SEO professional can help you make tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, a bad one could lower the volume of traffic you currently get.
If you are considering hiring an SEO professional, you should read on to find out more about the 11 questions you need to ask to make the right choice. It is, however, wise to note that you need not ask all the questions, but the article will explain exactly why each question is important and whether it is relevant to your individual situation.
Here are the questions:
1. How Do You Plan To Improve The Search Engine Rankings?
A good SEO professional should have a good strategy in place whether they work for an agency or they are freelance professionals. Inquire about where the professional intends to get backlinks from. It is good to note that not all backlinks are created equal and that one quality backlink may be worth more than several hundred low-quality backlinks.
2. How Will The Professional Keep You Informed Of Any Changes To The Website?
A good SEO professional should send you regular reports. The commonest frequency is at least once monthly, but weekly updates are not unheard of. You need to understand that you will have to give the SEO professional access to your website or part of it, and that is why you need to hire one that you can trust. Ensure that the SEO professional is diligent about any changes made to your website.
3. Can The SEO Professional Share Some Information On Past Clients?
Shopping for SEO services is just like shopping for anything else. You need to check out reviews, case studies, and testimonials to find out more about the previous and current clients of the SEO professional. Do not expect the SEO professional to share details of all their clients but most will be willing to share details of their top 2 or 3 clients. The professional should also be willing to share their results. If the professional fails to provide details of previous clients, it might be a sign for you to start looking for another professional.
4. Does The SEO Professional Always Follow Google’s Best Practices?
Adhering to Google’s best practices is the secret to long-term growth in traffic volume. Google rolls out an average of 500 updates to their algorithm every year to provide better results for their users. The best practices are the rules of user search, and each search engine is never happy if you attempt to violate these rules. It is the reason some major websites have been penalized by Google and other search engines. The worst thing is that it can take up to several months or even years to correct the damage caused by the penalty.
5. Which Tools Does The SEO Professional Use?
Even though most people believe that only blackhats use ‘tools,’ this is not the entire story. When talking about SEO, ‘tools’ can refer to a variety of applications. Examples of tools include reporting tools, technical SEO tools, link building tools, and research tools. While most tools are good and help you comply with Google’s guidelines, some of the pure link building tools are very bad.
6. Does The SEO Professional Guarantee Number 1 Ranking For A Major Search Term?
This is a perfect way of determining the legitimacy of an SEO professional. If anyone claims that he or she can guarantee a number 1 ranking for a major keyword, walk out and never look back. The reasons why nobody can guarantee a number 1 ranking include:
SEO is a part of your marketing strategy and not separate from it. The goal should be for everything to work seamlessly. Therefore, when hiring an SEO professional do not rule him or her automatically if he or she brands himself or herself as a marketing consultant. It is not uncommon for the SEO professional to offer other additional valuable services.
8. Has The SEO Professional Ever Worked With Penalized Websites? If So, How Did They Fix Them?
Until a few years ago, penalties were hardly ever part of the SEO landscape. If a website suffers a penalty, it is never easy to recover back the ranking. However, a good SEO professional can achieve a relatively high success rate. Find out how the professional has been regarding restoring penalized sites as well as the plan of action to ensure that your website never suffers any penalties moving forward.
9. Is The SEO Professional Up To Date With The Most Current Algorithm Changes?
As previously stated, Google releases around 500 algorithm updates every year even though most of them are not all that significant. However, some are significant enough that they deserve to be named. The SEO professional should be knowledgeable about all these changes.
10. How Does The SEO Professional Determine Success?
If your chosen professional fails to meet your expectation, you will feel frustrated. The more the clear you are on your expectations from your SEO, the better he or she will understand what you require from him or her, and the less the frustrations will be for all of you. Ideally, the professional should mention at least on these two: Return on Investment or Conversions or both.
11. Why Hire The Particular SEO Professional Over Others?
This is typically an open-ended question with no right answer. However, be on the lookout for any red flag answers that involve such things as:
SEO has always been and always will be a long-term investment. Regardless of your choice of SEO professional always understand that it will take time for any results or lack of to become apparent. The 11 questions discussed above will help you weed out shady SEO professionals and help you get the most out of your SEO professional.
If you are considering hiring an SEO professional, you should read on to find out more about the 11 questions you need to ask to make the right choice. It is, however, wise to note that you need not ask all the questions, but the article will explain exactly why each question is important and whether it is relevant to your individual situation.
Here are the questions:
1. How Do You Plan To Improve The Search Engine Rankings?
A good SEO professional should have a good strategy in place whether they work for an agency or they are freelance professionals. Inquire about where the professional intends to get backlinks from. It is good to note that not all backlinks are created equal and that one quality backlink may be worth more than several hundred low-quality backlinks.
2. How Will The Professional Keep You Informed Of Any Changes To The Website?
A good SEO professional should send you regular reports. The commonest frequency is at least once monthly, but weekly updates are not unheard of. You need to understand that you will have to give the SEO professional access to your website or part of it, and that is why you need to hire one that you can trust. Ensure that the SEO professional is diligent about any changes made to your website.
3. Can The SEO Professional Share Some Information On Past Clients?
Shopping for SEO services is just like shopping for anything else. You need to check out reviews, case studies, and testimonials to find out more about the previous and current clients of the SEO professional. Do not expect the SEO professional to share details of all their clients but most will be willing to share details of their top 2 or 3 clients. The professional should also be willing to share their results. If the professional fails to provide details of previous clients, it might be a sign for you to start looking for another professional.
4. Does The SEO Professional Always Follow Google’s Best Practices?
Adhering to Google’s best practices is the secret to long-term growth in traffic volume. Google rolls out an average of 500 updates to their algorithm every year to provide better results for their users. The best practices are the rules of user search, and each search engine is never happy if you attempt to violate these rules. It is the reason some major websites have been penalized by Google and other search engines. The worst thing is that it can take up to several months or even years to correct the damage caused by the penalty.
5. Which Tools Does The SEO Professional Use?
Even though most people believe that only blackhats use ‘tools,’ this is not the entire story. When talking about SEO, ‘tools’ can refer to a variety of applications. Examples of tools include reporting tools, technical SEO tools, link building tools, and research tools. While most tools are good and help you comply with Google’s guidelines, some of the pure link building tools are very bad.
6. Does The SEO Professional Guarantee Number 1 Ranking For A Major Search Term?
This is a perfect way of determining the legitimacy of an SEO professional. If anyone claims that he or she can guarantee a number 1 ranking for a major keyword, walk out and never look back. The reasons why nobody can guarantee a number 1 ranking include:
- Other than Google itself, nobody else knows the exact Google algorithm.
- Penalties can and will come out of nowhere.
- Nobody knows how Google’s algorithm will change.
SEO is a part of your marketing strategy and not separate from it. The goal should be for everything to work seamlessly. Therefore, when hiring an SEO professional do not rule him or her automatically if he or she brands himself or herself as a marketing consultant. It is not uncommon for the SEO professional to offer other additional valuable services.
8. Has The SEO Professional Ever Worked With Penalized Websites? If So, How Did They Fix Them?
Until a few years ago, penalties were hardly ever part of the SEO landscape. If a website suffers a penalty, it is never easy to recover back the ranking. However, a good SEO professional can achieve a relatively high success rate. Find out how the professional has been regarding restoring penalized sites as well as the plan of action to ensure that your website never suffers any penalties moving forward.
9. Is The SEO Professional Up To Date With The Most Current Algorithm Changes?
As previously stated, Google releases around 500 algorithm updates every year even though most of them are not all that significant. However, some are significant enough that they deserve to be named. The SEO professional should be knowledgeable about all these changes.
10. How Does The SEO Professional Determine Success?
If your chosen professional fails to meet your expectation, you will feel frustrated. The more the clear you are on your expectations from your SEO, the better he or she will understand what you require from him or her, and the less the frustrations will be for all of you. Ideally, the professional should mention at least on these two: Return on Investment or Conversions or both.
11. Why Hire The Particular SEO Professional Over Others?
This is typically an open-ended question with no right answer. However, be on the lookout for any red flag answers that involve such things as:
- We are the cheapest
- We can get you quick results
- We do not know
- We can get you a huge number of backlinks
SEO has always been and always will be a long-term investment. Regardless of your choice of SEO professional always understand that it will take time for any results or lack of to become apparent. The 11 questions discussed above will help you weed out shady SEO professionals and help you get the most out of your SEO professional.
PDXSEO
PDX SEO assists business owners, particularly those who are new to creating websites, build a friendlier, faster and better website for their online business.
http://www.pdxseo.net
http://www.pdxseo.net