It’s very fair to ask yourself, “Why hire an SEO company?” There are a number of strategies that go into marketing, each of which can yield positive results. Business owners and decision-makers are also faced with concerns such as budgets, ROI, melding a third party with your current in-house structure—and even trusting an outside company in the first place.
SEO is an investment in the sustainable long-term growth of a business’s online presence and revenue. Search engine optimization takes time and multi-layered skill sets to be truly effective. Hiring an SEO agency (the right one at least) can make a world of difference to a business’s bottom line.
Why SEO is important for businesses with an online presence
SEO is important because it enables a business to:
- Build brand awareness
- Establish trust with target audience and search engines
- Become an authority in a niche
- Grow traffic organically to the website
- Drive leads and conversions without paying for advertising
Search engine optimization is about gaining a larger organic audience, making the growth of the business and website more sustainable and cost-effective in the long run.
A study conducted by BrightEdge stated that 51% of website traffic comes from organic search and that over 40% of revenue is captured through organic search traffic. While organic traffic contributed more to overall website traffic, it’s important to note in the study that the ratio of traffic to revenue favored paid search. However, a different perspective shows that with SEO, you aren’t paying per click to your website, so the cost per lead or sale reduces over time.
The benefits of hiring an SEO company
1. Companies get a team of experts
A huge upside when you hire out for your SEO services is that you’re hiring a group of experts. There are a lot of components that go into SEO, each of which takes its own set of skills to perform well.
Business owners and decision-makers typically have their plates full running the operation. SEO is time-consuming! Most of the time, it can’t be justified for someone to take the time to learn the ins and outs of SEO.
Luckily, when you hire an outsourced SEO team, you have a crew that can:
- Perform keyword research related to your business and what your target audience is searching for
- Develop a concerted strategy that can not only attract your target audience but also establish you as an authority in your space, increasing your online visibility and trust
- Perform in-depth competitor analysis
- Deliver expert written content
- Optimize key pages to attract high-converting traffic
- Build out a robust internal linking structure
- Guide the website to a logical and clean URL structure
- Uncover and resolve any technical errors on your website
- Help page indexing and crawlability
2. Businesses save money
Not to beat a dead horse, but SEO has a lot of layers; in order to be done well, it requires a number of different skill sets and tools. In order to hire an SEO team in-house, there are a number of costs to consider.
According to Glassdoor, the average salary of an SEO manager is $81,800. Then, you add on top of that a content writer who sits at an average salary of $54,304 and SEO tools that can set you back on average between $100-$800. Obviously, the costs start to add up.
SEO services in general can cost anywhere between $2,500-$10,000 per month. That can be a stiff price on the surface, but when you take in the long-term benefits and ROI weighed against hiring in-house, the cost becomes justified.
3. Brand awareness, authority, and trust
93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and 75% of users don’t even scroll past the first page of the SERPs. These two stats alone show how important it is to make your business visible online. A quote I often use (probably too much) is if you don’t put investment into making your business visible online, it’s like keeping it a secret.
SEO isn’t just about ranking number one on Google for a keyword. It’s about building brand awareness, authority in your niche, and trust amongst your target audience, which unsurprisingly takes time and effort.
4. Targeted audience and higher conversion rates
You know your target market best, but consider the following:
- Do you know how to target them with the right content?
- Will that content bring them your website?
- Will that content convert them to a customer?
A professional SEO company will take the time to understand your business and your target audience. Then, we get cracking on these questions.
Knowing what content resonates with your audience takes a bit of intuition, skill, and research. When you hire a top-tier SEO firm, you’re hiring a team of professionals who do the groundwork to understand what content and angles to take, leading to higher conversion rates on your website.
5. Deeper business insight
There are some benefits to hiring an SEO company that you might not initially be aware of, and one of those is deeper insight and knowledge into your business. And by that, we mean data! SEO companies often provide robust analytics and regular reporting that inform future decisions.
6. Gives companies a competitive advantage
If you aren’t capturing your target audience, then your competitor is. And the same goes in reverse. You gain a competitive advantage when effective SEO and content are deployed by having higher visibility and being the authority in your space.
The reality is many people and business owners who aren’t in the SEO space or familiar with it don’t realize the potential SEO has to help grow a business. This is great news for those who do, as it can give them a significant advantage.
7. Stay ahead of the latest SEO trends
Approximately 500-600 changes to Google search algorithms are presented every year. While many of them are minor, some of them can have large impacts on websites and SEO strategies moving forward.
In 2022, Google rolled out the helpful content update. In general, this was Google making changes to its algorithm to favor high-quality and valuable content. Those who leaned on older tactics of writing content for keywords and to please search engines as opposed to writing for people suffered in rankings.
Trying to stay on top of all these updates can be daunting! When you hire a reputable SEO company, you can rest easy knowing your website will remain in favorable standings in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
8. Long-term strategy and ROI
There are a couple of common misconceptions about SEO.
The first misconception is that people expect it to take effect overnight. This just simply isn’t true. SEO is a long ball game that requires a long-term strategy, for long-term sustainable growth.
The second misconception is that it’s an SEO vs. paid ads situation. Both of these can go hand-in-hand when the budget can be reallocated between the two depending on the current state of the business and goals.
The simple take on it is ads can help you get revenue quickly but can be increasingly expensive as time goes on. SEO, on the other hand, doesn’t yield results immediately but becomes much more cost-effective. With SEO, you aren’t paying for every click; as your online presence grows, each organic click becomes cheaper and cheaper against whatever you are paying for SEO (typically a monthly retainer). This can enable you to ween off paid advertising.
SEO doesn’t just stop after the work is done (like ads do). The work put into SEO and content creation still garners you traffic and conversions long after the optimizations and content are published.
The truth about hiring an SEO agency
The truth is not all SEO agencies are created equally. Everything from the overall quality of work, the legitimacy of those efforts, the types of services offered, and the areas of expertise can vary widely.
You may see one agency or freelancer offering 100 backlinks for $100 and then another agency that will charge $10,000 for ONE backlink.
I’ll put it simply: you get what you pay for.
There are countless agencies out there that use dated, spammy, or what we call “black hat” SEO tactics that will only serve to hurt you as opposed to helping you. On the contrary, a reputable company may offer fewer backlinks or pieces of content, but what you get is of much higher quality and will move the needle for your website.
SEO isn’t just one thing, so every SEO agency is going to have its specific areas of expertise. For example, here at Ranq, we are a content, technical, and on-page-heavy agency. Other agencies may focus mainly on link-building activities (off-page).
It’s important that you understand what your business goals are in order to make an informed decision on the SEO path you want to pursue.
What to look for when hiring an SEO company
These are four important things to look for when hiring an SEO company.
1. They have actual results to back them up
Case studies and testimonials will serve you well when you’re doing your SEO company homework. Ask the prospective agency if they have any case studies of previous clients in the same or similar niche as you are in.
2. They are transparent
There is no reason for an SEO firm to hide their tactics. Simply ask them the specifics of their strategy for your business either through conversation or a proposal. They should be straightforward with what they’re doing and how they’re going to achieve the results you’re looking for.
3. They stay in regular communication
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had clients tell me their previous SEO agency was difficult to communicate with. Not to toot our own horn, but this is something that Ranq makes an utmost priority. Be sure to ask the company in question how they intend to maintain a channel of regular communication.
4. Their strategies are bespoke to your situation and needs
Every business is different and so too should the SEO strategy be behind any business. Ask SEO companies how they approach each client in terms of developing an SEO strategy.
To hire or not to hire… That’s the question Ranq can answer!
At the end of the day, if you hire a solid SEO company and stick with it, the results will speak for themselves down the line. It’s often a huge turnaround point or elevation in a business’s journey when employing a concrete SEO strategy with a concrete team. If you don’t have the time or resources to hire an in-house SEO team then outsource it to the right company and your bottom line will be happier for it. And if you need a friendly SEO ear to listen to your needs, contact Ranq today!