There are several areas of the SEO and digital marketing world that may be important to your business, and one of the most notable in many cases is the local SEO realm.
Ensuring that your business is visible to those in your local area will often have a massive impact on the overall success of your marketing efforts, and this is typically one of the key areas business owners are looking into as they search for ideal SEO partners.
When you’re on the hunt for quality local optimization and other local SEO services, what should you be thinking about? Here’s a basic primer.
Look At Past Work
Any SEO company you’re considering for local SEO work should be able to show you a portfolio of clients they’ve helped in the past. This will give you some serious insight into whether or not they’re actually capable of boosting a business’s local SEO presence. If they don’t have any past examples, that’s a huge red flag.
Ask About Their Local SEO Strategy
A good local SEO company will have a well-defined strategy for how they plan to help you achieve your goals. They should be able to walk you through their process step by step so that you can understand how they’ll be working to improve your visibility and rankings.
For instance, they might focus on helping you claim and optimize your Google My Business listing, or they might work on building citations for your business. Whatever their strategy is, make sure it aligns with your goals and that you’re comfortable with it before moving forward.
Check Their Own SEO
One of the simplest but most effective things you can do when vetting a potential local SEO company is to check their own SEO. Do a quick Google search for keywords related to their business, such as “local SEO company” or “SEO services.” If they don’t rank on the first page of results, that’s not a good sign.
It’s also worth looking at their own website to see if they practice what they preach. Do they have a well-optimized site with plenty of relevant content? Are their titles and meta descriptions optimized? If not, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to do any better for your business.
Get Some Customer Feedback
If you know anyone who has used the local SEO company you’re considering, reach out and ask them about their experience. If they had a positive experience and saw results, that’s a good sign. But even if they didn’t have success, it can still be helpful to hear about what went wrong and what they would have done differently.
You can also check online review sites like Google My Business and Yelp to see what customers are saying. As with anything, take the reviews with a grain of salt, but if you see a consistent pattern of happy customers or dissatisfied customers, that can be telling.
Check For Transparency
A good local SEO company should be completely transparent about their pricing and what you’ll be getting for your money. They should also be upfront about any risks involved in the SEO process and what could potentially go wrong. If they’re being elusive about any of this information, that’s usually not a good sign.
Understand Your Objectives And Desired Results For Local SEO
The top local search metrics for businesses, according a BrightLocal poll, were:
1. Google Rankings
The more traffic you drive to your website, the better for grow your business will be. If you score highly in both organic search and Google Maps’ local pack, it will be simpler to create leads, queries, or sales.
2. New Clients
It goes without saying that nearby companies require clients; this is not the issue. It has to do with the reality that small businesses in a region face intense rivalry for a finite number of clients. If they want to reliably bring in new clients, they must dominate local search.
3. Fresh Leads And Inquiries
Leads provide neighborhood companies some breathing room. If you have a steady flow of leads, you may raise your rates, experiment with new goods and services, and figure out which promotions are most effective for you. As soon as you get your conversion rate dialed in, cash flow becomes more predictable.
4. Organic Traffic
This includes traffic from direct visitors, online reviews, search engine rankings, and other sources that you have earned.
Ask Lots Of Questions
As you’re vetting potential local SEO companies, don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions. The more you know about their process and what they’re planning to do for your business, the better equipped you’ll be to make a decision.
You should also feel free to ask for clarification if anything is unclear. A good company will be more than happy to answer all of your questions in detail.
Choosing a local SEO company doesn’t have to be difficult, but it’s important that you take the time to find the right fit for your business. By following the tips above, you can rest assured that you’ll be in good hands.
