July 19, 2022
Clients frequently ask about SEO and agencies often include these services in their digital marketing package. But what exactly is SEO, and how do you know if you’re getting what you pay for? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical component of online marketing. But there is a lot more to SEO than keywords. If you don’t know how to effectively implement SEO on your own, you’ll want to find an SEO consultant to do this for you. But not all SEO consultants are created equally! What to Ask an SEO Consultant If you have decided to work with a digital agency that specializes in SEO, you can ensure that they know what they’re doing (and that you’re getting a good ROI) by asking the following questions before signing anything. Do you perform a detailed SEO audit? At Clove Digital, our SEO consultants will evaluate your website for SEO opportunities, including content, on-site and off-site optimizations, backlinks, meta descriptions, and more. We will create a plan to refine your site, fix broken links, optimize content, and move your site up in search results. We begin with strategies that will make the most significant impact in the shortest time, and move on to longer-term SEO strategies. Do you do keyword research? In-depth keyword research is essential if you want to determine what keywords should be used in your content to attain top search engine rankings. We use these keywords strategically throughout your content, but we do not engage in “keyword stuffing” . Search engines will notice the keywords, but readers will only notice beautiful, informative, compelling content. Do you actively procure backlinks? Backlinks may be the most important tool in your search rankings toolbox. Of course you won’t get backlinks without exceptional content, so that is step one. But backlinks (which are links from other sites back to yours) tell search engines that you are popular, which will quickly and effectively skyrocket your site to the top. The main driver of backlinks is content that other sites want to share, but obtaining numerous and quality backlinks is not a passive process. In fact, poor quality backlinks can harm your search rankings. What you need are linkable assets, or items within a page of content that are likely to be shared, such as lists, infographics, tutorials, informative blog posts, and snippets of high-value information. These pieces of content typically provide a solution to a problem in a way that is interesting to the other site’s audience. At Clove Digital, we run a report to review your current backlinks, then create a plan for fixing bad or broken links, and developing new high-quality links. To do this, we create content that is likely to be shared, but we also actively recruit links from other sites through outreach, such as direct emailing, guest blogging, broken link building, asking for links on unlinked mentions, and by becoming a source for journalists through the use of services like HARO and Muck Rack. Our link building campaigns are focused on quality not quantity; tons of low-quality backlinks can actually harm your ranking. Do you run monthly SEO reports? The search ranking landscape is constantly changing, so what works this month may not work next month. As such, it is crucial to run monthly reporting to assess the effectiveness of your SEO campaign and evolve the plan along with new algorithms and SEO trends. We provide you with a monthly report of your performance, along with any changes for the upcoming months. We believe that for SEO to work for you, it is important for you to understand what is working, what is not, and how we plan to address any issues that arise. Transparency is key to an effective long-term SEO campaign. Contact Clove Digital today to learn more about how an effective SEO campaign can work for you.