SEO has become a vital part of any digital marketing strategy. With more than 3.5 billion search queries on Google alone every day, you’ll certainly be missing out if your website is not optimized for search engines to easily find. Since there are more than 200 factors that affect your ranking on search engines, optimizing your website on your own can feel like an impossible task.
That’s why most businesses look for an SEO professional to do the heavy lifting, but how can you know the SEO professional you’re considering will live up to their promises? When looking to hire the right SEO specialists, here are the top mistakes you should avoid.
Hiring an Inexperienced Business
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It’s easy for anyone to claim they’re The Best. you’ll meet a lot of SEO practitioners who tell you about the years of experience under their belt, but merely practicing SEO doesn’t necessarily make them experienced or qualified for hire. Before you talk business, be sure to check their credentials first. You need to look for SEO providers who have experience in your area of operation; even if they have good SEO skills, it’s important that they’re able to tailor these skills according to your goals and needs. Check for client reviews, ask around if anyone you know has personally dealt with them, and be sure to assess their expertise before you hire them.
Believing They Can Get you Fast Results
Getting instant results is a dream every business person has, but we also know that it can be nothing more than a dream. If that’s true in every aspect of a business, you can’t expect SEO to be an exception. If the SEO provider you’re contacting promises you instant or fast results, you should certainly be wary of them. Effective SEO takes months to give you results, and those promising fast results can only use black hat techniques to deliver on their promises. If you don’t want your website to be banned by search engines, you should definitely steer away from these shady practices.
Getting Swooned by Their “Secret Techniques”
Sometimes, you meet up with service providers who flaunt their expertise under the claim of having secret techniques”. However, there’s nothing secret about SEO. You can do a quick internet search and find everything you need to know about SEO and how it can be applied to improve your ranking. If the SEO provider doesn’t clearly specify how they’ll improve your ranking or the kind of processes they’ll undergo, that should be another red flag to avoid. Instead, look for straightforward SEO providers who tell you in detail their plan and how they’ll measure their performance.
Accepting a One-Size-Fits-All Deal
There are a lot of service providers across Australia who’ll tell you about their tried-and-proven strategy that has worked for every single one of their clients. While this could speak highly of their experience, you still shouldn’t sign up with them. The specialists behind Excite Media explain that SEO is never a one-size-fits-all strategy. A professional SEO provider will start with a website audit, after which they’ll point out the current issues with the website, take your goals into account, research your competition, and then devise a tailored strategy that’s customized to your business needs.
Having Unrealistic Expectations
Expecting instant results is one way of having unrealistic expectations. It’s important that you be clear with the SEO provider about your goals and expectations before making the deal. However, it’s also important to do your research in advance and ask other specialists about their opinion. Unfortunately, only a few SEO experts will be upfront with you about the impracticality of your expectations, while most will only nod their heads and leave the surprise for later.
Failing to Notice Red Flags
When you start discussing the scope of the deal with the SEO provider, pay close attention to certain red flags. For instance, if they’re explaining how they’ll improve your ranking and mention buying backlinks, you should instantly end the deal. A good SEO provider will work on building a legit network of backlinks rather than rely on shady links they’ve bought in advance. The same goes for SEO copywriting, which is both dead and will affect your website negatively.
Looking for a professional SEO provider is vital to remain competitive in the digital world. However, finding a good and reliable specialist is not as easy as it sounds, especially if you have little to no experience in SEO. That’s why learning the mistakes you need to avoid is just as important as looking into the services provided by an SEO professional.
