I started this company more than 15 years ago now, way back in 2009. In the years since, I’ve watched the search engine optimisation industry go through a tumultuous revolution, in methods, technology, and accepted best practices.
What worked in SEO 15 years ago, doesn’t work today.
Keeping my SEO skills sharp in this rapidly evolving industry has been one of the greatest professional challenges that I’ve ever faced as an individual.
Yet despite the perpetual upheaval, one thing has remained constant, and that is the ability for an SEO campaign to drive remarkable business results, provided the campaign is delivered with expert precision.
This is why your choice of SEO company is not something to take lightly. Get it right and you’ll find yourself on easy street. Get it wrong, and you may be wondering why your business is so damn hard to grow.
With this much at stake, let’s explore the factors that you must consider when it comes to choosing the very best SEO company.
History Of Success
Results matter.
While it might be easy for someone to self-proclaim their newfound status as an “seo guru”, it’s much harder for someone to showcase a history of exceptional achievement.
Choosing the best SEO company means choosing an agency that knows how to generate ROI in a predictable, repeatable, and scalable manner. If your SEO agency can deliver ROI for you, then your SEO campaigns will power your growth flywheel, enabling your business to expand.
I recommend that you evaluate your choice of SEO company by asking the hard questions. Require them to show you proof of their ability. You need to see evidence of prior results.
I’m proud to say that my agency has achieved remarkable success in the SEO space, and we’ve got the SEO track record to prove it.
Depth of Ability
SEO is complex and rapidly evolving, so you need to find a provider who knows how to wield a robust and adaptable toolkit.
Usually, you’ll find that SEO agencies have experience in content production, on-page SEO, and perhaps some basic link building.
But the true measure of ability is whether they truly understand complex technical SEO and site architecture optimisation. These skills can be hard to gauge, so if you’re unsure of the SEO company’s actual level of ability then you might want to start by asking them to provide an SEO Audit.
The most complex SEO Audit that we’ve ever delivered was 35,000 words long and had 15 pages of addendums in the forms of spreadsheets and other supporting analysis. This would of course be overkill for a local services business but given that the client in question was a national real estate portal, it was exactly what they needed. In fact, the client called this SEO Audit “the most comprehensive SEO Audit” they’ve ever read. They then went on to grow their organic search traffic more than 400% in less than 2 years.
Specific Experience
Experience comes in two flavours – broad and specific.
Broad experience is the type that gets you to first base. For example, you might have experience riding a motorcycle, and if so, then you can probably just hop aboard most motorcycles and ride down the road without too many problems.
Specific experience on the other hand is the type that gets you the home run. For example, if you take that same motorcycle and whack it in the middle of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, then potential riders would be faced with a whole bunch of additional problems. How do I ride over terrain this rough? How do I know where I’m going? What do I do if the bike breaks down in the searing heat? However, ask a seasoned Gobi Desert motorcyclist to face the same challenge and they’ll know exactly what to do – because they’ve dealt with the same problems before.
SEO campaigns are no different. There’s an ocean of difference between delivering SEO for an ecommerce seller, vs delivering SEO for a home building company. They’re two very different animals.
While I’m all for giving people a shot, there’s no denying the fact that specific experience provides a massive leg up.
I strongly recommend that your selection criteria for an SEO company includes choosing an agency who has the proven playbook for your industry and specific type of business. Doing so will help you to minimise waste and reduce the risk that something will go wrong.
Scalable Team
It took me years to become an expert in search engine optimisation. Hours and hours of frustration, excitement, and high-fiving myself late at night in my office.
But despite my personal success, I wouldn’t be able to deliver even 10% of the SEO results that my agency delivers by myself.
And this isn’t just because my team can bring more bodies to the battle, enabling us to scale the campaigns when our clients are growing, although of course the size of the team does matter.
It’s because when I combine my team’s unique skills and abilities to that of my own, then it’s no longer about what I can do, but rather about what we can do together. This is vitally important because SEO takes a broad array of skills to deliver.
It’s my web design and development team that designs and develops new websites and landing pages, and that implement the technical SEO specifications that underpin the infrastructure.
It’s my data analytics team that implements the measurement, conversion tracking, and reporting dashboards that underpin our decision making.
However, most importantly, it’s my broader digital marketing team that enables us to deliver integrated digital marketing campaigns that go beyond SEO, including search ads, social, remarketing, and more. It’s rare that SEO is the magic bullet that cures all problems, so having a full-service digital agency compliments the SEO campaign in essential ways.
The best SEO company is one that is not a freelancer, not a solo consultant, and not even an independent SEO agency, but rather is an SEO company that exists as part of a bigger ecosystem.
To this end, I founded Perth SEO Studio to be the specialist SEO division of the Living Online agency group, which means that it’s part of a multi-award winning digital marketing agency.
Proposal & Presentation
Although your search for the best SEO company will kick-off by reviewing a bunch of websites, you’ll really start to get a sense of the difference between agencies when you begin sitting down in front of people.
When we field enquiries about our SEO services from prospective clients, this is where the fun begins.
We start the process of engaging with a client by getting a detailed understanding of their requirements, before hiding ourselves away to do some in-depth analysis, and planning the best strategy to meet their objectives. I then personally present our findings and recommendations in a face-to-face meeting.
The best SEO companies will take the time to provide you with tailored recommendations, not just boilerplate responses. You should see that the SEO agency has a solid plan to drive success for your business and can articulate their vision clearly and unambiguously.
Price vs Quality
While price is an important consideration, there’s a massive danger inherent in choosing the lowest price. SEO takes time to deliver results, so if you choose a cheap and low-quality provider then it will be hard for you to identify the problems until you’ve wasted significant time.
This of course comes with a massive cost – which is the opportunity cost if you get it wrong. So don’t just look for a low sticker price, but rather consider cost also in terms of the potential downside too.
This is the best way to consider value for money.
It’s important that you begin the journey with the right team in your corner. Take the time to assess the contenders in your shortlist carefully and meticulously. Assess the SEO agencies based on the criteria I’ve proposed in this article, as well as your own individual preferences.
If you take the choice seriously, and commit to finding the best SEO company, then you’ll be setting yourself up for a pain-free future.
And of course, if you would like to see what my agency can do for you, then just reach out because we’re always happy to chat.
