Deciding on a great SEO agency for your marketing campaign may be a challenging task. There are many of agencies around who focus on Search Engine Optimization, but how can you trust that each will really push your Google rankings to the top?

It always pays while searching for an SEO agency to not just look into their past and current clientele, but in addition to ask about their achievements. What Google rankings have they attained for past clients? How long did it take? And how much did the website traffic increase? Many times, it takes around 3 months or maybe more for rankings to increase on Google and traffic should increase from about 50% upwards. At this stage, you could also want to inquire in the event the agency offers any subscriptions for post-optimization maintenance. The best company should, since maintaining high SEO rankings requires ongoing care.

It also helps to look for an SEO agency that offers a full variety of services. ‘On-page services’ like website analysis, content optimization, page optimization, internal link building and ranking and traffic management should be offered. ‘Off-site’ SEO services should include keyword research, competitor analysis, external link building, and off-page promotion. It may also help to ask your prospective company for anybody who is necessary to approve anything before they go ahead with it. Should they say ‘yes’, it’s a good sign they’re honest and willing to work closely with you. To increase your rankings, an SEO agency needs to employ a number of tasks, not simply a couple of, so be wary of businesses that just offer limited or dodgy services.

The right SEO company is essential to provide the proper SEO services and features to the business. Not every SEO can handle all the various kinds of businesses in the market. Hence, some SEO agencies often specialize in certain niche markets to hone their skills and creativity. There can be special requirements from certain niche markets which only skilled and creative SEO agencies can handle. These may cost a bit more than the other general SEO company operators. It is determined by the SEO industry vision and modus operandi.

Every SEO company will operate differently depending on their modus operandi and business objectives. Although most have similar offerings and services, some may stand out more than others with regards to service standard and creativity.

Something else to look out for is any agency that offers to improve your rankings through suspect methodologies like spamming, keyword stuffing, hidden text, high-ranking doorway pages and link-farming. These are often known as “black hat SEO” and will get you banished from major search engines, that may be hugely detrimental to your business. Also keep an eye out for automatic, bulk submissions to internet search engines. Automatic submissions are not considered best practice and it’s must more beneficial for you if a business conducts manual submissions. Always make certain that an SEO agency is open about their methodologies used – any secrecy could mean they can be using “black hat” techniques.

It is important to take into account that high prices within an SEO agency don’t necessarily mean the most effective quality SEO. Instead, choose a company based upon their client base, reputation and their own site optimization and Google rankings. Similarly, if a company is offering you “guaranteed” #1 rankings for a ridiculously low price, it really is probably too good to be true. Collecting several quotes is a great way to start and always ensure quotes are supported by a contract, so you know just what you are getting for your hard earned money. It’s going to also help to ask what their payment terms are and should they have any fees for early termination.

Inevitably, a trustworthy SEO agency should offer and conduct thorough and specific keyword research as a part of their SEO services. Many businesses shall include keyword research as a given, but be wary of any company that asks you to provide the keywords for their work. While they might ask for your opinion, the keywords used should be according to their research, analytics and competitor scope, not about what you tell them. Keep in mind, they’re meant to be the SEO experts – not you! “Guessing” your keywords just isn’t efficient and also a great SEO agency will research your keywords thoroughly before recommending them.