How to Find the Best Local SEO Agency for Your Company

When you engage an agency to assist with the many duties of local search engine optimization and offline-to-online marketing, you're expecting to bring an experienced guide with you from the trailhead to setting up camp to making the most of your company's stay in your neck of the woods.

Increasing income will undoubtedly be at the top of your local business's priority list. You know you'll need better or broader local and localized organic rankings for this, as well as maybe more reviews, clicks-to-call, form submissions, qualified website visitors, or a higher conversion rate. However, I would want to advise you to begin your search for a local SEO agency with the objective of developing a long-term partnership rather than quick victories on certain metrics.

The ideal agency for your local business will be the one that is there for you when things go well and when they go bad for many years to come since you've made a mutual commitment to journey together and are both reaping the benefits of success. This article will provide you with advice for selecting that type of agency, warn you of potential hazards, and assist you in taking your local business in the best possible direction in the future.

5 questions to ask a local SEO firm before hiring them

Before inviting a marketer or marketing team to join your company, you should walk a mile with them. Conduct an in-depth interview with one or more prospective agency representatives and capture their responses to these five questions so that you may compare them to find the greatest potential match for your needs.

1. Do your marketing methods adhere to all of Google's guidelines?

A good agency should be knowledgeable about Google's Guidelines for Representing Your Business on Google, Google's guidelines for user-contributed content — including reviews, and Google's search quality evaluator guidelines, and should agree to follow them in order to avoid negative outcomes for their client. If you're not sure if a marketer you're interviewing understands Google's standards, pose a hypothetical inquiry to them and check if their answer meets the guidelines.

For example, if you ask the marketer if you can acquire a Google My Business listing for a virtual office, they should say "no" and direct you to the standards that prohibit it. If a marketer knows the rules but tells you that you can get away with breaking them because Google is sleeping at the wheel, go away. By the way, the marketer may be correct, but they are not a safe bet for your brand's image.

2. Are my goals feasible based on what you currently know about my business and market?

Give the interviewee a concise, precise list of goals. Be precise about how many more search phrases you want to rank for, how many more reviews you want, and how many phone calls, form submissions, leads, purchases, and so on you want within a certain timeframe.

A motivated agency would have done some preliminary research on your company and its market before doing an interview with you. They could have run a few reports. However, don't expect them to have completed a thorough workup before being employed. What you want to know at this point is if they believe your objectives are realistic or clearly impossible based on what they know so far. You want to hear them claim that once they've completed their task as your hired partner, they'll be able to offer a more reliable answer. However, be wary if they offer you everything right away – they may be overselling you in order to obtain the job.

3. How much time will you devote to researching my market prior to developing my strategy?

Because you are not going to choose a local SEO who is currently marketing a direct rival in your location, your partner will require time to learn about the community you serve. And, unless you select a specialized firm that exclusively deals in your sector, the agency will require time to learn about it. Aside from that, they will require time to research the specifics of your particular firm, including its goods and services, employees (including any in-house staff who may be contributing to marketing), policies, history, and so on.

All of this must be factored into the informal agreement or formal contract. You can expect to be charged for it, and you should know how much time the agency thinks appropriate for an initial period of research, with the knowledge that they will continue to assess your brand and market prospects over time in order to build strategy.

Unless you are engaging an agency merely for a one-time service, your collaboration with them should begin with a comprehensive business assessment and a comprehensive competitive assessment so that strategy is based on data rather than guesswork.

5. May I read a customer report that has been anonymized?

Every local business will have distinct expectations and demands in terms of the data its marketers produce, but all brands must be certain that they will receive reports that are understandable rather than just overwhelming. Ask to view one or more anonymized, actual client reports before hiring a local SEO. Examine them carefully. Now is the moment to clarify anything in the reports that you don't understand.

Some clients want detailed data that capture every particle of traffic and every variation of search phrase on every day of the week. Others might rather see high-level statistics with action items for the agency or customer. Whatever your requirements are, be certain that the reporting style offered by the marketers is a suitable fit, both in terms of substance and frequency, and that modification is available if you want anything not included in the examples.

Feel free to inquire about the tools and software that the agency use, and to conduct your own study into the quality of those items. You may also inquire whether the agency white-labels tools or has proprietary technology. A competent agency would communicate with its clients in an open and honest manner.