Planning on Hiring a Search Engine Optimizer (SEO)? Check Out This New Video From Maile Ohye at Google.
Hiring a “useful” SEO vs. a bad SEO
Perhaps you’ve heard about the value of “Search Engine Optimization” or it’s acronym – SEO. The concept is straightforward: you create content based on what your target demographic is likely to search for, and as a result, Google or any other search engine will prioritize your website within it’s search results accordingly.
Now, the process is something that most business-owners take it upon theirselves to delve into and at the very least: create a foundation to set their website/content up for search engine success (keyword analysis, SEO-based content, etc.) but SEO is undoubtedly an art of which will take several hundreds (or thousands?) of hours to master, and therefore many business-owners opt to hire a professional SEO.
Before you hire an SEO however, you should know that their are definitely things to consider before hiring the right one for your business. Maile Ohye at Google, has put together an informative video to help you figure out which SEO is right for your business. So, without further ado, take a look at the video and we’ll highlight the key takeaways we had from it.
Takeaways from the video:
- Conduct a two-way interview with your potential SEO. Check that they seem genuinely interested in you and your business – an important aspect within SEO is that it doesn’t just appeal to a search engine, but it is also user-friendly. It’s difficult to do effective SEO without knowing about the business/industry. Therefore, finding a Search Engine Optimizer who genuinely cares about you and your business is the first step in hiring the right one.
- Check references – as with most people you’ll hire, it’s always best practice to look into their past work and where they have been effective in the past. Don’t just find someone who has been successful with their results in the past, but be sure to find someone who has worked well with other businesses as well.
- Ask for a technical and search audit – Once you’ve determined that you trust the SEO you’ve hired, have them perform an audit and put together a list of improvements that they believe are most important for your company. A proper audit will be in depth, and include estimates regarding your investment. Furthermore, an audit should always allude to a positive impact on your business’ search engine ranking. For a technical audit, they should provide an audit regarding internal linking, crawlability, URL parameters, server connectivity, and response codes.
The last and possibly most important point made in the video, was the fact that you and everyone relevant within your business need to be fully on board. Much like any form of marketing, the greatest chances of success are based on a team effort. In regards to SEO, this means teaching anyone who contributes to digital presence in any way (blogging, social media, content creation, etc.) the proper guidelines for implementing keywords or including relevant search terms.
To recap, look for an SEO who takes an interest in your business, has effective references that detail their successful results as well as relationships, and performs the necessary amount of audits and research prior to getting started. Before you know it, you’ll be right up there on page 1 and chances are, you’ll have learned a lot in the process. Feel free to contact us if you require a consultation on the matter.
