Here’s the deal. There is no easy, fast way to get your website to rank number one in Google search. If there was, everyone would be number one.
When a marketer or an agency promises a number one spot with a “secret method” – shake their hand and walk them out.
I’m still in awe of the amount of black-hat SEO tactics that are being promoted in today’s digital marketing arena. If you are looking to hire an SEO agency and don’t know exactly what to ask, or look for – these questions will help.
What goes into your SEO strategy for my website?
For this question, you want to hear the process of how they will deliver results. There are over 200 ranking factors that Google looks at. These include meta tags, back linking, social signals and content. Focusing on one of these isn’t going to be successful. Understand their process, what goes into the planning and more importantly, how they will execute.
How would you build links for my website?
Several business owners understand that link building, or backlinks, to your website is a good thing for SEO. While backlinks are an important factor, the type of links impact your rankings. If someone will “sell” 3,000 backlinks for $50 – it’s not a deal. Don’t buy into that.
The only way to obtain credible links is by offering quality content that provides value. Once you do this, you can promote those pieces of content in order to increase your backlinks.
How do you incorporate keywords throughout my site?
This is an important question. If they mention that the keywords will be hidden or tiny to give signals to search engines…RUN! This is the furthest thing that you need for your website. Keywords should be used in a normal manner, that is beneficial to the audience. Tagging pages on the backend, incorporating keywords and phrases in the copy are great ways to include your targeted keywords on a page.
I cannot stress enough that once SEO is done wrong, it’s extremely difficult (and expensive) to go forward. Google knows what they are doing and they can see all of the black hat tactics mentioned above. They will demote your website and could possibly remove your site from their index.
Don’t fall into empty promises. Remember that SEO is a marathon – strategic and small changes are what bring you over the finish line.