How to Choose SEO Agency [Complete Guide]

As the world becomes increasingly digital, it is increasingly important to have a strong online presence to reach your target audience. This includes everything from social media ads, paid display ads, and of course search engine optimization, SEO.

Given that more than half of all customer journeys begin on a search engine, search engine optimization becomes an obvious part of the marketing strategy for any business that wants to build a strong online presence and reach its target audience effectively.

But succeeding in SEO and implementing an effective strategy that actually generates results is not entirely easy. The concept behind SEO is, in theory, quite simple: optimize the website according to the algorithms of the search engines and in a way that strengthens your website so that you rank higher in the search results.

But in practice, SEO can be much trickier. Search engine algorithms use hundreds of different ranking factors that you need to keep track of to drive effective results. In addition, these algorithms are constantly changing, which means that you must constantly stay up to date with the latest changes in order to continue to succeed in the future.

Becoming an SEO expert can therefore take many years, often of hard work and a lot of practical implementation and testing of different strategies and methods.

Having said that, not everyone has the opportunity, time, or desire to learn SEO and then do all the work themselves. So what do you do instead? You hire an SEO agency, of course!

But as you have probably noticed, there are a large number of different SEO agencies on the market. How to identify the best and most suitable one for your particular business and your needs to maximize results?

This is exactly what we will look at in this article.

This guide aims to help you choose the right SEO agency to optimize your website and drive successful digital marketing. We will go through a comprehensive process to ensure you make an informed and informed decision that fits your specific needs and goals.

Understand Your Needs

The first step in choosing an SEO agency is to define and understand your needs. Many different SEO agencies specialize in different areas and offer different types of services. For this reason, it helps to first know what you need help with.

Identifying your goals and wishes is a fundamental prerequisite to being able to communicate effectively with potential agencies and ensure that they can deliver a tailored solution to your needs. This will also help you explain your needs so the agency can understand what you need and how they can best help you.

Evaluate your current website and SEO strategy

Start by doing a thorough review of your existing website. Identify which pages are performing well and which need improvement. Also, analyze your current SEO strategy (if you have one) to assess how effective it is and what results it is generating. This may include reviewing keywords, examining link structures, and assessing the overall user-friendliness of the site.

Identify your goals and desires with SEO

The next step is to define what your goals are with SEO and what you hope to achieve. In this way, you can communicate clear expectations to the SEO agency. This helps them to better establish a strategy and plan for your goals and also determine how much work is required and of course what it will cost.

Your goals can either focus on SEO in general with the main goal of driving more traffic or it can be more specific such as increasing conversion rates and generating more sales.

Define your target audience and competitors

When establishing your SEO strategy to understand your needs, you also want to define your target audience and competitors. Some SEO agencies specialize in specific areas such as igaming, which may mean that it is more appropriate to choose an SEO agency that specializes in your particular industry.

Define who your ideal visitor is and what they are looking for online. Also analyze your competitors to identify strengths and weaknesses in their online presence.

Request Quotes and Evaluate Costs

The next step is to identify a handful of different SEO agencies that you think are relevant to your business and needs. Now that you understand your own needs and goals, it’s time to reach out to potential SEO agencies and request quotes. This gives you the opportunity to compare services and costs to find the most cost-effective and at the same time competent solution for your company.

Contact the selected SEO agencies for quotes

Create a list of the SEO agencies that seem most relevant to your needs and start by contacting them. Clearly explain your goals and desires and provide them with all the relevant information about your current website and SEO strategy. This gives them a better understanding of your case and allows them to tailor their quotes.

Compare costs and services offered

Once you’ve received quotes from different agencies, it’s time to carefully compare the costs and the services included. Be sure to understand what is covered by each offer, including any additional costs that may be added later. It’s not just the price that matters, but ultimately it’s the results you’re after.

A common mistake many people make is to just look at the price and then assume it’s the best. This is of course far from the whole truth. In general, the expression “you get what you pay for” usually rings true, but it is important to know that price is far from everything. The most important thing is that you look at the services specified in the quote and any results that the agency should focus on. The cheapest quote does not necessarily mean that it is bad, but it may mean that the agency will work with fewer parts of your SEO strategy, which may mean that you may have to expect worse results.

That said, the most important thing is to look at the work involved and the agency’s reputation, expertise, and references from previous clients and the results the agency has generated for them.

An affordable price combined with realistic expectations will be crucial to a sustainable and long-term relationship with your chosen SEO agency.

Look at the Agency’s Strategy and Methodology

All agencies work in different ways and not all ways may suit your needs. Therefore, after you have received quotes from different companies, it may be good to look at how they work to determine how well they can meet your specific needs. This step will help ensure that you’re not just getting a standard solution that isn’t a good fit for your particular circumstances, but instead, you’re getting a tailored strategy that’s tailored to you to maximize results.

Here are some important steps to follow:

Ask about their SEO strategy and practices

Try to be specific when discussing the SEO agency’s strategy and practices. Ask about their approach to keyword analysis, on-page and off-page optimization, technical SEO, link building, and user experience. A holistic strategy covering all these areas is necessary to achieve long-term and sustainable results.

Understand how they adapt to changes in search engine algorithms

SEO is constantly changing as search engines constantly change and adjust their algorithms. Ask the agency how they are staying current on these changes and how they are adapting their strategies to stay relevant. A flexible and adaptable strategy is incredibly important to ensure that your website maintains and improves its visibility over time.

Discuss long-term strategies

Quick results are nice but SEO is something long-term that you want to generate results for a long time to come. Having said that, long-term, it is incredibly important when working with SEO agencies. It is important that they establish a sustainable SEO strategy that focuses not only on immediate results but on long-term growth. Discuss with the agency how they plan to manage your site long-term and how they will adapt the strategy to meet changing business needs. This includes things such as content strategies, link building, and other factors that affect the sustainability of results.

Look at Results and References

This is an obvious point for any type of service you purchase. It can be difficult to know exactly how skilled and experienced an agency is by just listening to what they say themselves. Therefore, it is important to look at results and references from other clients they have had in the past. This may be the best way to understand how the agency works and what results they are capable of generating? Are the customers generally satisfied or is there a lot of dissatisfaction in their reviews?

Ask about case studies and results from previous campaigns

Good SEO agencies will be able to present concrete examples of previous successful campaigns. Ask for detailed case studies showing their work from start to finish. With these case studies, you can assess the agency’s ability and knowledge to achieve various goals in SEO.

Check customer references and contact information to verify

Ask for references from current or past clients and contact them to hear directly about their experience and what they have to say about the agency. Ask specific questions about communication, results, and how the agency handled any challenges. A reliable agency will be willing to share these references, and their clients are perhaps the best way to get feedback on how past clients have experienced the agency.

Last but not least, there is always a risk that some agencies talk more than they do. It is therefore important to ensure that the agency can keep what they promise, be it deadlines or results they promise they can achieve.

Transparency and Communication

An SEO agency will act as your partner for a certain period of time – sometimes for a longer period of time. For this reason, transparency and communication are important aspects to ensure that you have an open and smooth dialogue with your chosen agency:

Ensure the agency is transparent about its practices and results

Transparency is linked to how the agency runs its campaigns and how they measure results. Of course, you want to know what is happening and how they work with your strategy. It is therefore wise to ask for an in-depth review of the strategies they intend to use to improve your website’s visibility. This includes how they handle keyword analysis, on-page and off-page optimization, and what tools they use to track progress. The clearer your understanding of their methods, the more confident you will be of their ability to deliver.

Discuss communication channels and reporting systems

Of course, communication plays a central role in ensuring that you are constantly informed about your project and that you can discuss any challenges and questions in a smooth manner.

Discuss which communication channels will be used and how often you can expect to receive progress reports. This includes not only positive results but also any challenges or changes in strategy. A good agency will already have established processes to continuously update you during the journey.

Post-treatment and Follow-up

When you have chosen and started the collaboration with your SEO agency, the agency must work with the agreed strategies as agreed. Having said this, you want to be able to easily follow up on how the work is progressing and see the results.

Implement agreed strategies and track progress

The first step is, of course, for the SEO agency to start working according to the strategies and goals that have been set together. This can include content optimization, technical SEO, link building and other steps. It is important that both you and the agency understand each other and know what is expected of each party.

Schedule regular meetings and reporting to follow up

SEO is ongoing work and with this said, it is necessary to have regular meetings to follow up and above all to get an update on how the work is progressing and to sort out any question marks. Therefore, create a schedule for different stages of the work with regular meetings and reporting. This allows you to follow up on progress, discuss any changes in strategy, and identify new opportunities.

Evaluate and adjust the strategy as necessary

SEO is constantly changing and, moreover, it is a job that can require a lot of testing and adaptation. Having said this, together with the SEO agency, you need to evaluate the results on an ongoing basis to assess whether your strategy needs to be adapted or adjusted.