Do you want your website to rank better on Google and Bing with SEO? Do you lack the time to study SEO and learn how to use it for your website? Are you looking to outsource SEO to ensure your SEO has professional quality?
The current health crisis is a driving factor of digital transformation in many businesses. As more businesses move to online and digital media, the race to be the best website became more competitive. As a business owner, you know that the best way to win the game is to gain the trust of customers.
SEO companies can help you earn that trust. With strategic SEO, you can build reliability and trust for your website. In this guide, we’ll show you how to find the best local SEO companies for your website.
1. What Is Local SEO and How Does It Work?
Before we discuss how to find the best local SEO company, let’s talk about what local SEO is and how it works. Understanding what local SEO is will help you grasp why it’s important and why you need to use a local SEO company.
What Is Local SEO?
SEO is a key factor in the success of your website. It stands for search engine optimization, and it improves the rank of your website. If your site ranks high in a search engine, it’s more likely to display your website at the top of its search results page.
Almost 87% of all searches online occurred on Google. It means most people use Google and Bing to find stores, products, and services online. The higher the rank of your website in a search engine algorithm, the easier it’ll be for people to find it.
Local SEO takes that idea but to a local level. In other words, it’s the localized promotion of businesses’ products and services. It lets you optimize your website to a local target audience.
How Does Local SEO Work?
Local SEO doesn’t only optimize your website for search engines. It also promotes your local business on social media, Google My Business, and others. The higher your local ranking, the more likely you’ll be the first Google search result to pop up on a search query.
This is important if your business belongs to a niche. For example, you create customized wooden furniture in Seattle. Using Seattle SEO will help potential customers find your business faster and easier.
Local SEO uses a combination of keywords, content, and links to make this possible. Some effective SEO strategies include blogs, email marketing, and social bookmarking. Other SEO strategies include the use of webinars, word-of-mouth marketing, and infographics.
2. Why It’s Smart to Outsource Local SEO Companies
You may know from others that SEO is an effective way of gaining customers and brand awareness. Many business owners also like to say that they learned SEO and are doing the SEO for their companies. Yet, not everyone can grasp its complexities and do the work needed for a successful SEO campaign.
In 2019, only 36% of small businesses had an SEO strategy. One reason is that most of these businesses had no idea how to use SEO. This is where SEO companies come in.
Local SEO companies have the skill and knowledge of what makes a successful SEO campaign. They know how to research the best keywords and optimize your content. From experience, they know what to do and not to do for a successful local SEO campaign.
SEO companies also understand that the SEO industry is dynamic. Google’s algorithms are always changing and evolving. A local SEO company’s tools, strategies, and fluency evolve with them.
Speaking of tools, SEO companies have the tools needed to observe the state of an SEO campaign. They also understand what the numbers mean and what they need to do to optimize for success. These are only some of the reasons to hire a local SEO company.
3. How to Find Local SEO Companies
Research is a great step to finding some local SEO agencies. One of the things you can do is to get on Google or Bing and search for SEO companies in your area. However, there’s more to finding a local SEO expert that will work well with your brand.
Get Referrals
An effective way of finding the best company is to look for referrals. If you know of other online businesses that have great SEO, reach out to them. Ask for recommendations or referrals.
Try to get referrals from more than one other online business. Don’t settle for the first local SEO agency you find. Reach out to a variety of other online sellers or website owners and create a list of SEO companies.
Keep an ear out for names you hear again and again in referrals. They’re likely the companies that you want to take care of your website’s SEO.
Focus on Quality Performance
Although you’re looking for local SEO companies, don’t limit your search to a small area only. A company being local shouldn’t be your priority. Rather, you want to focus on an SEO company’s experience and performance.
What good is hiring a local SEO company if it doesn’t have a good client experience yet? You’ll only end up wasting your time and money. Meanwhile, your competitors are going the extra mile and hiring SEO companies that create decent results.
It Has a Strong Online Presence
One of the advantages of strong branding is that they often bring out reliable companies. Yet, companies with strong marketing but no skill to back up their claims can overtake them. One way to assess a company’s credibility in SEO is to check its web presence.
Do they have a professional website where they offer their services and contact info? Do they have a solid social media presence where past clients can leave feedback? Can you see the brand mentioned in review sites or blogs?
An online presence is a good indicator of its legitimacy. Positive reviews or feedback is an even stronger sign of a good local SEO company.
Look for these aspects when you do a background check on an SEO company.
4. Factors That Make a Good SEO Company
Don’t always believe when a company is advertising that it gives the best SEO services. Make sure they are good before you spend your time and money on them. Below, we discuss what makes a local SEO company worth hiring.
Proof of Local SEO Success and Experience
When you start shopping for viable SEO companies, you’ll see a lot of big promises of great results. Taking their claims at face value can put you in a bad position, especially if the company turns out to be terrible at SEO. What’s the best way to check the veracity of an SEO company?
The answer lies in their proofs. SEO companies will put forth samples of their best works. Good SEO companies can produce more when you ask them for it.
Check their past works for the services you’re looking for and then some. For example, you want SEO focused on the written content or blog posts for your website. When you ask an SEO company for proof of their work, keep an eye on their blog pieces.
Transparency, Good Communication, and Client Experience
A reliable SEO company will communicate with you. It’ll be honest about the state of the SEO campaign and the results. At the same time, it’ll build a professional and healthy relationship with you.
It will share with you the analytics and results of your SEO campaign. If you ask for other metrics, they can also show them to you. Knowing what certain metrics mean is also a sign of the company’s technical capabilities.
Flexibility
Flexibility is also a good sign that you’ll have a good working relationship with the company. Every business has unique needs, and a good local SEO company understands this. It will offer some level of customization to its SEO packages.
This will give you more control over the SEO services that you’ll get and pay for. Look for companies that give you chances to alter instructions for your SEO.
Look out for these facets when you’re picking from the list of local SEO companies.
5. What You Need to Know About Local SEO Companies
Before you hire a local SEO company, you have to be ready to pay for their services. Remember that quality services or products often cost more. Before you pick an SEO company that’ll do your websites SEO for you, ask about the price of their services.
Compare what you find with the prices of other SEO companies. Most SEO companies also offer a variety of flexible packages for their clients. Consider the packages each SEO company offers and which will fit your budget and goals best.
When you hire a local SEO company, you also want to learn what their game plan is. Don’t hesitate to ask an SEO company about how they plan to do their local SEO and organic SEO. Get in-depth information so you can ensure that you picked the right SEO company.
6. Questions to Ask a Local SEO Company
Creating a list of good SEO companies in your locale is easy. Picking the right one that’ll fit your website best is the tricky part. One way to weed out the companies that won’t match your standards is to interview each local SEO company.
One of the questions you want to ask is their experience with your business’s industry. They may be great at SEO for digital marketing agencies. However, they may not have much experience working with food and beverage companies.
Another important question you need to throw their way is how long you can expect to see results. How does the company plan to measure SEO performance metrics? How will they measure results based on those metrics?
Most local SEO agencies already have a good grasp of the work they need to do. The edge you want to is their relationships with influencers and media in your market. If they have connections with media personalities in the area, all the better it will be for you.
If you don’t have a Google My Business yet or you want to improve it, ask about it. Ask a candidate SEO company about their experience with GMB. It’s a great tool for SEO that you shouldn’t miss out on for your website.
Don’t forget that mobile is the most common platform people use to access the internet. When you’re considering SEO companies, ask them about their mobile strategy. Consider this as one of the make-or-break questions that need addressing.
Finally, don’t forget to ask how much their services will cost you. Inquire about their payment structure. Once you know how much you need to spend on local SEO, you can calculate for a positive ROI.
7. Things to Consider When Picking an SEO Company
What are your goals with local SEO? What is your budget for a local SEO campaign? You need to have a clear answer to these questions before you start looking for local SEO companies to hire.
Don’t go for the cheapest options. Remember that SEO is an investment. It’s what helps build your website’s reputation online, which is a big deal. Thus, you have to invest in good SEO and not settle for cheap local SEO.
72% of consumers who search for local businesses visit stores within five miles. In the current pandemic, consumers want to make sure they have a destination before they go out. If they can contact you through your website, they’ll do that first.
Find the Right Local SEO Company for Your Website
That ends our guide on how to find the best local SEO companies for your business. We hope this guide helps you discover a local SEO company that works best with your brand. Upgrade your SEO game now, so you can reach more customers and improve your ranking.
Did you enjoy reading about our guide on searching for local SEO companies? Do you want to see more content on topics related to SEO and digital marketing? Check out our other guides on our blog.
Are you in search of the best SEO services Seattle has to offer? Reach out to us at Riserr. We offer digital marketing services and website design.
