If you spend on multimedia, then your website will look great, but do you know that your site may not be consistently attracting all your potential customers. Your website isn’t doing its job if you are not optimizing it effectively.
It’s time for you to hire a search engine optimization (SEO) expert. Finding an SEO expert isn’t that simple, you need one who can obtain quality links and from relevant websites.
Your design-heavy business website may look amazing when it’s packed with dazzling media and premium content. What if your website isn’t getting enough visitors to convert them into customers?
If your company is experiencing this problem, then your website isn’t fulfilling its main purpose. At such times, you can help yourself by hiring an SEO expert to boost not only your website’s visibility but also increase its revenue at the same time.
The confusing aspect here is that SEO experts come in different shapes and sizes, whether it is as an employee, as an individual consultant, or as an SEO consulting firm.
What all of them have in common is that an experienced SEO expert is going to review your website, will ask about your business goals. They will inquire in detail about how you target visitors and identify strategies to improve your search engine rankings and page views.
The possible remedies that an SEO expert may resolve can range from something as simple as rewriting your HTML tags to the more complex structural issues that prevent search engine bots from crawling and indexing your content and obtaining quality links from relevant, higher ranking domains, and external websites.
Whatever your goals, an SEO expert will help you achieve them. So, without further ado, let’s go ahead and identify the qualities you must look for when hiring an SEO expert.
1- Years of SEO Experience
Anyone can set up a firm, and call themselves an expert in the field. Although, it is not necessary that they have the required knowledge within this field. It takes years of experience and hard work to do a good job. An SEO expert will be able to look at any external website and know how you can gain additional search engine traffic.
With Google placing such a strong emphasis on page rankings and domain strength, it has resulted in an explosion of SEO experts and consultants in recent times. However, that doesn’t mean these SEO “experts” know what they are doing.
With Google’s hundreds of algorithm-ranking factors increasing daily, what worked years ago can be damaging in today’s online world. That is something a top SEO expert is going to know as they will know what changed and how they should go about resolving the problem.
The only reason they know all this is because they have acquired years of experience under their belts. On top of that, every website should use different SEO tactics, as what works for one business may not work for another business.
An SEO expert with years of experience under their belt will know exactly what needs to be done for it to gain more search engine traffic. On the other hand, someone new to SEO will apply the same methods on all websites. This will limit the impact and may also damage the rankings of the website.
2- Understanding of Different SEO Levels
There are three tiers in SEO; first is technical in which the structure of the site is defined. The second is on-page optimization in which the use of keywords and HTML tags are used to increase the traffic.
The third is off-page optimization. An SEO expert needs to understand the technical limitations that occur in a search engine. An expert will also be able to articulate those issues to the developers in order to minimize them.
Search engine optimization involves three different facets, which are defined as:
- Technical (the website’s structure, determines how easy or difficult it is for search engines to crawl and index your content)
- On-page optimization (correctly using HTML tags and keywords in ways that aid the increase of search engine traffic to your website)
- Off-page optimization (for example, link building)
A truly successful SEO strategy requires all three elements to be implemented, and even though some may be more prevalent than others, a top SEO expert will know which one it is and will advise you on what is the best combination of the three SEO levels.
An SEO expert should understand the technical limitations of your company’s website and manage to articulate to your website developers so that such issues can be minimized. Otherwise, if a search engine can’t access the content on your website, all your SEO efforts are going to be in vain.
3- A Record of SEO Success
Modern SEO needs an understanding of all the marketing strategies at a deeper level, just like the psychology of modern-day consumers and also the various aspects of web analytics.
You’ve all heard the expression “talk is cheap” or “actions speak louder than words,” you should take these expressions to heart when looking for an SEO expert.
There is so much content online about how you should implement SEO tactics and which ones your business should be using. The inexperienced SEO experts are going to be reading these blog posts and will be applying them to your business.
There isn’t anything wrong with that; after all, that is how SEO experts tend to learn about the changing world of search engine marketing. However, before you go ahead and hire your SEO expert, you should ask them for references that you can contact.
That will allow you to gauge whether this SEO expert had a positive impact on business and whether their client was happy with their contribution.
4- Knowledge about Marketing
This includes focusing on conversions and achieving the search engine rankings required. The focus of any SEO technique should be able to attain the goal and not just a certain rank.
Apart from the technical issues, SEO is just like traditional marketing techniques. The onsite content needs to be written so that the user understands the value of the product or service that you are promoting, which will hopefully lead to a sale.
Understanding the psychology about user intent and marketing is just as important as repairing the technical issues that surround your website.
Search Engine Marketing is where a business’s website is correctly set up to respond to a visitor’s search for an answer to their query or their problem. If your website doesn’t contain the correct content or if it’s not easy to find or navigate, the visitor is going to bounce off your website quickly, which will affect the page relevance.
Therefore, ensure that the SEO expert you’re hiring is sassy about marketing and understands the market completely.
5- Understands Your Goals
Does your SEO expert understand what your goals are? Do they appreciate what you’re trying to achieve? Do you want the SEO to focus on conversions?
What about increasing your domain strength? SEO should be a part of your overall digital marketing strategy, and the focus of any strategy should be about accomplishing certain goals and being able to measure them, or you won’t have a base that can be used to determine success.
It’s important that the SEO expert you’re hiring knows and understands your goals completely, as they are going to need to work with you to achieve the right results for your business.
You need to work as a team, and the only way that is going to happen is when there is open communication between both you and the SEO expert, and they understand what it is that you are trying to achieve for your business.
6- Expertise in Using All SEO Tools
Usually, an SEO expert is going to require several different SEO tools to enable them to achieve success with your website. There are several tools that display domain rankings, where to list your website in directories, and which keywords rank better than others to determine what content you write.
SEMRush is a great tool to monitor your competitors’ performance. Another tool that is great for checking backlinks is Ahrefs. If you’re pursuing a content-driven strategy, then Moz is the tool for you, and if you’re looking to add better quality but low competition keywords, then Long Tail Pro has all the answers for you.
An SEO expert is going to know all about these tools and is going to insist on using some of them for your business. What they all have in common is that they cost money, so ask your SEO expert whether the cost of using them is going to be included in the contract cost, or it will require you to make an additional purchase.
7- Fitting in with Your Company’s Culture
This isn’t exclusive to only SEO experts but is related to all employees in general. A new employee or contractor interacts with several areas of a business, including IT professionals, senior management, marketing gurus, customer service personnel, and salespeople.
The ability to work well with members of these teams is important as they can communicate within your company’s style of getting things done. Their organization style, personality, and integrity should all be explored before you hire them, and you can do this by discussing, with their references as well.
8- Excellent Communication Skills
Regarding communication style, an SEO expert must be able to clearly communicate why a change to your website is going to be needed, and in a manner that is non-confrontational and that everyone understands. They can’t do everything themselves; so, they should be competent at getting their point across, whether senior management or a web developer.
After all, the condition of the existing website is due to decisions that have been made already. Simply saying that all is wrong is going to irk the ones who have worked on this process already and possibly lead to a toxic working atmosphere within your teams.
A top SEO expert will know how to work with different types of people and understand how to get tasks done efficiently and effectively.
We have been in business for over 18years doing online marketing and have helped thousands of businesses achieve not only first page placements but as well as solidifying top positioning for some of the most aggressive search keywords in their industries.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 01, 2017, and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
