Navigate the path to successful optimization with confidence. Explore key factors for choosing the best Organic SEO Agency and elevate your online presence to new heights.

SEO has remained a great way to get new customers for a low cost per lead, and successful optimization, and remains one of the most profitable ways. Only some have in-house SEO experts, which is why many businesses hire the best organic SEO agency.

But how do you choose one that is good?

And even more importantly, how to choose the best organic SEO agency if you know very little about SEO yourself? Today, we’re going to help you with just that.

Determine Your Goals

Determining what you want from SEO to find the best organic SEO agency would be best. What are the pain points you want to solve?

Think hard about the specific and measurable goals you want to achieve.

However, your content could be of high quality and relevant, and all you need is a healthy dose of link-building to get better rankings for your keywords.

You can also determine your goals.

That way, you can conclude that hiring an agency is not right for you and that you want someone in-house instead.

Use Your Network

Ask around your business network about an agency others have worked with.

You’ll often get honest recommendations you couldn’t find in reviews and testimonials.

Further, you can ask your network about their goals and whether a specific agency helped them achieve those goals.

You’ll also get to ask about the finer nuances of a client-SEO relationship, such as communication, punctuality, reporting, and much more.

Of course, you’ll always run into businesses recommending a friend or SEO partner, so this is the first of many steps to follow.

Even if you get a recommendation from a close friend or associate, vet the agency before starting any work with them.

Bear in mind that many agencies have referral programs.

Ask For Previous Results

Every best organic SEO agency has some social proof that helps them with client acquisition: case studies, testimonials, reviews, interviews, and similar.

Once you find an SEO agency that might be great for your next SEO campaign, ask them for examples of previous websites they worked on.

They should show you an example of a website in a similar industry and niche.

If you have no SEO experience, you might need help understanding the graphs, so ask the agency to elaborate and interpret the results for you.

Many agencies present vague graphs with upward trending curves in their portfolios, hoping it would be enough to persuade clients that they’re the real deal. Ask for explanations and dig into metrics and results.

Check For Guarantees

If an organic SEO agency guarantees you keyword rankings for a specific keyword (or more keywords), walk away.

No SEO company can guarantee that a website can rank in search engines for a keyword in a specific time.

After taking time to prepare a proposal, they should tell you how long you’d have to wait to start seeing the first results.

You should expect a period such as 3-6 months.

As the client, you should understand that you can have expectations, but there is no way to get guaranteed results from most SEO companies, no matter how good they claim to be – or are.

Question Their Strategy

Transparency is key when choosing the best SEO company for your needs. Once you ask them how they plan to reach your goals, you should get a set of actionable items they intend to do.

If your chosen SEO company is secretive and withholding information, beware.

You want to make sure that they are not taking any shortcuts.

This means they are not getting links from PBNs, writing only AI content, or attacking your competitors with malicious links.

Examine The Team

A good SEO agency has a variety of experts in-house to be able to handle various aspects of search engine optimization. This includes:

• technical SEO experts
• content writers
• link builders

Based on the proposal that you get from the agency, you’ll know what kind of people they need to have onboard to deliver the work for you.

For example, let’s say they promise to build 20+ links per month for you. If they have no link builders or outreach managers, that’s a red flag that you should ask about and get more details.

Verify Their Pricing

There is no such thing as a good and cheap SEO company. Even if the labor is outsourced to countries with lower wages, a good SEO firm will cost a pretty penny.

Remember that the typical agency or consultant charges $50-150 per hour. If they promise 40 hours of monthly work at a $500 retainer, you’ll know that math is off and something smells fishy.

Whichever pricing package you choose, bear in mind that good SEO is expensive for a reason. It requires coordination from multiple people.

They all need advanced skill sets, and the chances of getting quality work for pennies are slim.

Review Their Website

An SEO company with a poor website that does not rank for keywords is a bad sign.

It is like a contractor selling houses while they live in a poorly built shack themselves.

Simply put, a high-quality SEO company has an amazing website with successful optimization that they can stand behind.

Ensure the website is properly optimized and ranks for at least some keywords in search engine results.

Could You Put It In The Contract?

With SEO agencies, the devil is in the details.

Instead of asking the SEO company to promise rankings in a certain number of months, ask for things you can track.

Top SEO companies have specific items that they deliver every month and send in their reports.

Research properly before looking for agencies if you need to know these deliverables. A little bit of extra knowledge can save tons of time and money.

These can be:

• the number of backlinks built
• new content pieces published
• keyword movements
• new keywords
• and many others

Refrain from settling for vague promises from SEO agencies. 

Instead, start the relationship with a smaller retainer if you don’t trust the agency.

You can later get a higher pricing plan once you develop a relationship and the SEO company earns your trust.

Study Their Reports

As we’ve written, SEO reports are the staple of a good client-agency relationship.

Besides sending a list of your latest metrics, the best SEO companies also include a bit of backstory with each report.

If the agency is indeed amazing, they’ll execute SEO strategies well and communicate with you clearly using reports.

These documents should answer most of your questions, so you won’t need to reach out through calls or emails.

Questions To Ask Potential SEO Agencies Before Hiring Them

The problem is many SEO agencies out there need more clients’ knowledge.

That way, they woo them into working together, only for the agency to fail at delivering results.

Choosing an SEO agency is incredibly hard, especially if you have little to no knowledge of SEO yourself.

Now that you know a little about finding the right SEO company for your needs, let’s go further.

Here are some questions you want to ask your potential SEO agency before signing a contract and choosing them as your partners for SEO success.

• What is your typical SEO process for onboarding clients once you start working with them?
• What practices do you use in link building, and how do you build most links for your clients?
• What is the one aspect of our website that is in the most need of search engine optimization? Why?
• How will you measure your progress for our website and business?
• How long will it take for us to start seeing the results of your work?
• What kind of tools do you use for your work?

These are good starting points to inspire you when choosing SEO companies.

But remember: there are no stupid questions, especially if you need to learn more about SEO. It’s best to ask questions and not get surprised later on.

Key Takeaways

• An SEO agency is a specialized marketing agency offering SEO services.
• There are pros and cons to hiring an SEO agency, and you’ll know if it’s the right choice for you by first determining your marketing goals.
• This is also the first step to hiring an agency – determine what you want from SEO regarding results. Then get recommendations from your network. After that, ask the agency for referrals and testimonials, ideally in your niche.
• Ask them for a guarantee. If they offer one for their SEO services, walk away. Ask the agency how they plan to reach your goals and what kind of staff they have available for the job.
• Look at their pricing; it should be a red flag if it’s too cheap. Their website should be spotless and well-optimized, and they should provide you with a contract to sign before starting.
• Ensure you get timely reports with progress on your goals and KPIs and the agency’s marketing services.