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SEO agencies are a dime a dozen these days. So how can you tell the professional agencies with quality services from those with more questionable practices? In our business, rates do not necessarily reflect quality. If you want to choose the best on the SEO market, you need to ask the right questions, because it is only through talking to the company that you will get an idea of their level of professionalism and analysis.
But before asking questions, you need to understand what a professional SEO agency does.
What Is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the art of improving a website’s positioning and increasing its traffic and revenue.
For example, if you have a website that sells leather shoes and goods, you want to be the first result when a potential client searches “buy leather shoes” on Google. Search Engine Optimization is a generic term that includes many different strategies. There are many ways to improve your positioning.
- Tag optimisation
- Content optimisation
- Searching for external links
- Google Ads Campaigns
- Website speed
- Etc.
We are constantly researching and developing new and better ways to optimise your website and provide you with quality SEO.
What Does a Good Agency Do?
Set clear goals in line with your company’s strategy, in collaboration with you
An SEO agency must align its strategy with that of your company. Why? SEO is part of a digital strategy that must be integrated into the company’s objectives if you want effective results. What are your medium- and long-term quantitative goals? What is the role of digital marketing? Do you plan to launch new products and when?
You should not limit your digital marketing strategy to SEO. Success depends on a multi-channel strategy that integrates both online and offline channels.
Once you have defined your company’s objectives and shared them with your SEO agency, it is easier for them to set goals that fit with the company’s strategy for the SEO campaign.
Recommendations are good, action is better !
One very important thing to take into account: SEO is about teamwork and taking action. For your SEO audit to be effective, the recommendations must be applied. In order to do so, the SEO agency may intervene directly on the website, in which case all recommendations will be implemented as long as you have provided the necessary access.
Or you or your team may make these changes yourselves. In this case, you must verify that the changes have actually been made, or risk not achieving the expected results. The role of the SEO agency is to explain and, if necessary, train the person or people who will be in charge of implementing these recommendations.
In any case, there must be regular and constructive communication between you and the agency in order to build trust.
Being transparent about results
Each SEO agency has its own methods, processes, and strategies to position your pages on Google. And some have unsavoury SEO practices that it is best to avoid. If you do not work in the field, it can be difficult to understand SEO methods. Or maybe you don’t want to, or can’t take the time to understand them, which is why you have contacted an agency.
On the other hand, you rightly expect to see the results of your SEO campaign. Your agency must provide you with reports that are as complete and easy to understand as possible. This is often mentioned in a clause in the contract. If there is no contractual reporting obligation, consider looking elsewhere, because your agency is not credible.
If all of these recommendations are applied, the results will be more or less effective depending on the agency’s expertise and methods. Whether the results are positive or negative, your agency must be upfront with you. Sometimes the expected results are not achieved for a variety of reasons: competition, insufficient resources, etc. This is why it is important to study the competition when setting your goals. An SEO expert will be able to tell you how feasible an objective is, based on the level of competition and investment.
Our Philosophy
Our top priority is to help you achieve your goals – in terms of sales, presence, or fame. We study your challenges and analyse your website. What have you already achieved? What needs to be improved? And what have you not yet done? We do everything possible to meet your expectations and those of your target audience.
We have a global approach (website technology, SEO, SEA, remarketing, link building, social media, etc.). Most web agencies focus on the technical aspects of websites. However, once a website is published, it must be maintained and optimised to attract quality traffic.
Whether you have a new project, a redesign, or want to optimise an existing website, our services will meet both your needs and your budget.
What We Do
1. Keyword and competitor research
With strategic keyword research, you can maximize the right terms for the right pages. When applied properly, keyword research helps you structure your content, pages, blog entries, product descriptions, and much more.
2. Configuration and analytical review
Google Analytics allows you to monitor your SEO progress, trends, and growth in order to pinpoint and resolve any problems or areas for improvement. It also allows you to see how specific keywords affect your traffic and/or sales. Google Analytics is useful for setting and tracking goals, generating reports, or simply seeing where your customers come from.
3. Link building campaigns
Link search is an important part of any SEO campaign. This does not mean simply creating links, but having a reputable website redirect to yours. It’s all about finding the right links, both in terms of quantity and quality.
4. Social media campaigns
SEO and marketing are very closely related, and social media campaigns are very effective for both. However, in order to work they must be appropriate for your audience.
5. SEA Campaigns
Effective Google Ads campaigns and a good return on investment depend on professional knowledge for targeting the right keywords and pages and maximizing ad quality. You need an SEA strategy. We have Google Ads certified experts to optimize and manage your SEA campaigns.
6. Website creation
Our team of developers works in collaboration with the SEO department. We create websites that reflect your identity using the latest web development technologies. All of our websites are optimized to be visible on Google and other search engines.
We also provide other services, such as transition to HTTPS or local or video indexing. We specialize in penalty removal for websites that would have otherwise been penalized by Google. Finally, we offer hosting on our servers.
Our Marketing Strategy
We start by analyzing your website (if you already have one). Our experts examine all aspects of your website, determining what is already done well and what needs to be improved. It is a meticulous job that requires time and technical skills.
To give you an idea, here is the list of items that we study.
Why We Are Perfect for You
- For us, SEO is a collaborative process. So we work hand in hand with our clients, as they know their field best.
- We work with companies of all sizes and in all fields. However, we specialize in SMEs / VSEs
- We adapt our services to your needs. We can therefore offer services ranging from simple link search to complete website creation and SEO.
A Trusted Agency
- We have been an SEO specialist since 1998, the year Google was created. We grew up with the Internet, so we know how important it is to be present and visible on search engines.
- We are a certified Google Premier Partner. Less than 5% of agencies in France have this certification. Google guarantees the quality of the services provided by these agencies.
11 Questions for Evaluating Your SEO Agency
Here are some questions you might ask an SEO project manager about your website. Understanding the answers to these questions does require some technical knowledge, so do your research in advance. The goal is to surpass the agency’s marketing façade and better understand the services they offer.
1. What do you think of my external and internal link profiles?
Ask them to comment on this important factor in SEO. It is one of the 200 Google criteria that most influences your visibility on search engines.
This question is also important because Google has greatly improved its link algorithms. This means that the criterion has become more complex, pushing SEO agencies to change their strategies for creating quality, thematic links that are natural or appear so to Google. You can ask for examples of websites for which they do link building to evaluate their performance.
2. What kinds of changes need to be made to my website and will they be visible?
You should expect an answer related to the previous question. The SEO project manager should explain the changes they want to implement on the pages of your website. For on-page changes, they should create rich content, including targeted keywords for your field. For off-site changes, they should create quality, thematic links to improve your positioning.
3. I know developing a backlink profile is very important in SEO: how will you create additional links to my website?
This refers to the quality and quantity of links to your website. They must form a balanced link profile made mostly of non-optimized links. The links should come from reputable websites related to what you offer, primarily websites with related or complementary themes. These could be links from news articles published on relevant websites, entries in high quality free or paid directories, or links from institutional websites such as city hall, the tourist office, the chamber of commerce, associations, etc. Finally, they could also be links from your suppliers or professional colleagues. The goal is to make all of this seem natural.
4. Can you show me some examples of your work?
They will of course show you their agency’s credentials, but that is not enough to judge the agency’s suitability. Also look at their concrete results on short queries such as “computer repair” rather than long tail queries such as “computer repairs in the South West of France”.
5. Should I expect a significant increase in traffic? How long does it take?
There are many factors to consider when answering this question. However, as long as your website has original and unique quality content and all recommendations have been applied, there will be an increase in traffic. But providing percentages for increase is unrealistic. Google is not an exact science. It will take about 3 months to see results, or even much longer depending on the specificities of your website.
6. Which keywords do you think we should promote?
There are many factors to consider when answering this question. However, as long as your website has original and unique quality content and all recommendations have been applied, there will be an increase in traffic. But providing percentages for increase is unrealistic. Google is not an exact science. It will take about 3 months to see results, or even much longer depending on the specificities of your website.
7. How big is your team?
Asking this question tells you who you are dealing with: a small, medium, or large SEO company. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. A small company can be efficient, but may also spend more time working on key accounts. A small business may also have trouble keeping up with the latest SEO trends. Large companies, on the other hand, can be like big factories, tossing out new SEO strategies on the fly without really discussing them with you…
8. Who will work on my project?
Most of the time you will be dealing with a customer service or sales representative. But once the contract is signed, you must work with an SEO professional, preferably with at least 3 years’ experience.
9. How long have you been working in SEO?
This is an important question to ask to find out the agency’s level of experience, but you may be surprised at the answers you will receive and how. If it’s less than 3 years, keep looking !
10. Out of all the SEO agencies around, why should I choose you?
This gives them the opportunity to express themselves and confidently explain what they can do for you. However, you will be surprised at how uncomfortable this question makes people and how awkwardly they answer it.
Of course, you will also have to ask them how much the services cost and how long it will take to set them up. It’s best to ask for a written proposal including long-term contractual obligations and what they intend to do.
11. What questions should a good SEO agency ask you?
An SEO professional should also ask you a few questions to assess your needs. The best SEO agencies are interested in your situation and can afford to be selective. They will decide how easy it will be (or not) to perform the tasks at hand and should be able to meet your expectations.
– Which keywords do you want to use for your campaign?
– Who do you see as your main competitors, online and offline?
– When did you create your domain name?
– Do you use a content management system (CMS) to edit and modify your website’s content?
– Have you ever done any SEO?
– Do you use paid indexing (pay-per-click, Google Adwords, etc.)?
– How much can you invest in SEO, for how long, and what do you expect to get from this investment?
– Can you give us access to your web statistics and/or your Google Analytics account?
– Do you have any other websites?
– Are you planning any other online or offline marketing campaigns?
If the agency asks you these types of questions, look no further! You’re on the right track.
