SEO is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.
In fact, it’s a marathon where there’s obstacles, the rules change constantly, and there’s no real finish line.
But despite the fact that SEO is a moving target, there are things that will have definite impact.
Here’s what we think an SEO company should be doing (or at least overseeing) to help you get better rankings with search engines:
1. SEO Strategy
Search Engine Optimization is like any other type of marketing: you need a plan. Your SEO company should first conduct a competitive analysis, get a better understanding of the competitive landscape and put together a list of keywords that are a) realistic to get higher rankings for, and b) relevant to your product or service (so traffic will convert into leads and prospects). The SEO company should provide their plan to you for your approval.
2. On-Page SEO
About 10-15% of SEO importance boils down to on-page factors. These include everything from optimizing navigation, urls, titles, headers, image tags, and content. On-page SEO is also about ensuring code is easily digestible for search engines by using XML sitemaps, clean and fast loading code, and taking advantage of Schema.org to help translate code for search engines easier. If you’re using a CMS such as WordPress, your SEO company can help you learn to use plugins such as Yoast for generating SEO-friendly content (check these SEO tips out for further reading).
3. Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is all about marketing your website and creating awareness (and thus links) for your business. This can include getting your company listed in relevant directories, acquiring links from relevant associations and/or organizations, guest blogging or blogger outreach, or from social media (see no. 6 below). There are no rules for acquiring links (except to make sure they’re relevant to your website) so be as creative as you can. Your SEO company should be leading or actively participating in your company’s link-building strategy.
4. Content
Your SEO company may not be contributing content to your website, but they should be overseeing it. They should be helping to ensure on-page SEO of your blogs, showing you the SEO value of transcribing videos, helping you syndicate content with RSS feeds and email – or any other type of content that helps bring traffic to your website.
5. Social Media
More and more search engines like Google are putting more SEO weight on social media factors. Likes, Tweets, and social shares are an indication of quality content to search engines. Your SEO company may not be directly involved with your social media, but they should help you understand how social media can help syndicate content, build links, achieve higher rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
6. Website Optimization
As we’ve said before, SEO is only one side of the Rubik’s Cube of Digital Marketing. If your SEO company is successful improving your rankings and driving more traffic, it still should be in their best interest to optimize your website for conversion. You want to ensure that once visitors land on your website, you have conversion goals – a download, form submission, product purchase, etc. – to help convert visitors into prospects so you can capture their contact information and continue to engage them.
7. Reporting
It’s such a cliche (I know), but you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Your SEO company should be providing monthly reporting that can include: keyword rankings, links acquired (and their value), organic search traffic, and even social media mentions and network size. Have your SEO company walk you through each monthly report (not just email it over), and take this as an opportunity to ensure they’re inline with the SEO strategy, answer your questions, and ask them to teach a little about SEO with your team.