Here are two inconvenient truths about search engine optimization, which should drive your decision making with respect to hiring an eCommerce SEO company.
SEO takes a long time – generally a year or more – to produce results, and there will be no quick financial turnaround, even when you work with a professional marketing agency.
Add to this the fact that it’s sometimes difficult to attribute specific successes to SEO work, and you have a recipe for doubt and plausible deniability.
Therefore, here are 4 things to assess in an eCommerce SEO agency before you hire one.
Organic Rankings
This is easily the most important thing to check out before you hire any eCommerce SEO company. Take a look at some of their services, then try to find them for relevant keywords related to those services in the organic search results.
Look for things like “eCommerce SEO services” “eCommerce SEO agency” and other related search terms, then modify these with location-specific keywords, or even see if you can find industry or vertical-related keywords.
This is so important because this company is selling SEO services. The whole point of SEO is to show up in the organic search results.
Do not believe that they’ll get your company to show up in the search results if they can’t even get their own website to show up for the very thing they’re peddling.
Customer Reviews and Testimonials
We’ll put a big asterisk here. While you should check the customer reviews and testimonials, the ones you should be looking at are the ones that are not on the company website.
This is because whatever website admin has control of the domain can ultimately curate what does (and doesn’t) show up on the website.
That means you might not be getting a clear picture of what it’s actually like to work with the company.
Rather, get your reviews from sources other than the company website. Look at review boards and websites dedicated to that sort of thing so you can get a more unbiased picture of what it’s like to work with them.
Case Studies and Client Portfolios
Client portfolios are one thing (and better than nothing) as they can show you some of the customers with which the SEO company has worked.
But case studies – assuming they contain actual data – are far better. In case studies, look for increases in organic keyword rankings, impressions and other organic metrics that will indicate the success of the work done by the company.
Ideally, the client should be disclosed, too, that way, if you want to reach out for a recommendation from someone that has actually worked with the company.
The Proposal (What Ranking Factors Do They Optimize?)
Lastly, if you get so far through the process that you’re working on a proposal or a scope of work with the eCommerce SEO company, pay very close attention to what they’ll be working on.
Specifically, what deliverables are a part of the campaign? There are over 200 ranking factors and Google considers them all, even though some are more important than others. It goes way beyond keyword research.
For instance, what on-page optimizations will they be making? Will they be link building? What about technical optimizations and off-site SEO? And as for content and keyword strategy, what aspects of that will they be optimizing?
These are all questions you need to answer before you hire.
Hiring an eCommerce SEO Company the Smart Way
When it comes to growing your eCommerce website, an SEO digital marketing strategy is almost definitely a good bet. This is all the more true if the eCommerce SEO strategy is data-driven and focuses on optimizing for user experience, organic revenue and conversion rates.
Either way, the tips contained herein should make it easier for you to find the right eCommerce SEO experts for your online store – so get started today.
