“Do I Need An SEO Agency?” (Spoiler Alert: Yes!)
If you’re asking yourself, “Do I need an SEO agency?” the answer is almost certainly “Yes!” Why? Any business owner or marketer savvy enough to ask this question probably already knows the value of Search Engine Optimization, has some budget to direct towards new initiatives with significant ROI potential, and lacks time to develop the expertise and conduct the analysis necessary to implement and continually upgrade your website’s SEO successfully.
What exactly is SEO?
In case you’ve heard of SEO but don’t feel 100% clear on what it is, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It essentially describes trying to get search engines to like your content while keeping it readable, helpful, and appealing to humans. More specifically, SEO optimizes your content to help it rank in search, appearing higher up on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for a particular search query and making it more likely that people will click on your link and visit your site.
Why do I need to rank in search?
Ranking in search equals gaining visibility for your business. There’s a joke in the SEO field that says the best place to hide something is on the second page of Google SERPs (because no one ever goes there). You likely started a business because you saw a need and wanted to fulfill that need for your customers. Search works the same way: You should approach creating content (even if it’s just your company website) with a view to finding out what your customers are searching for and be the one that gives them whatever that is. SEO can make that happen for you.
If you need more data to back up the importance of ranking in search, listen to this: according to the SEO training and link-building strategizing website Backlinko, nearly one-third of users click on the search result in the number one spot on a Google SERP. Your business needs to rank in search to even be near the top spot, let alone snag the top spot for your business.
Do I need an SEO agency to rank in search?
Ranking in search is no longer simple. Today, you can rank in search on your own, but only by devoting a tremendous amount of time to the SEO process: researching keywords, planning content, drafting, reviewing, and refining that content, publishing that content, gathering data about your results and using these insights to guide your next trip through this entire process. Additionally, the search landscape is constantly changing as technology, regulations, and customer behavior change, so SEO best practices must evolve continually. Do you and your employees have time to do all this while fulfilling your other responsibilities to keep your business running? This is a critical question when trying to determine whether to hire an agency to handle your SEO.
Do I need an SEO agency to stay competitive?
In this digital economy, your competitors may already use SEO to boost their visibility and conversions. However, even if they aren’t, SEO may represent an area where your investment of time and resources can give you a competitive advantage. Surprisingly, an April 2020 report by data-supported business advice website The Manifest found that 70% of small businesses did not have a plan for how to use SEO.
You may have heard the adage “failing to plan is planning to fail,” which applies to digital marketing. People conduct approximately 99,000 Google searches per second, and without SEO, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. SEO can ensure your content gets found by those who want to see your business. Also, while Google dominates the search engine market, other search engines may play a role in bringing customers to you, so you need SEO expertise to understand how to facilitate this.
Now that you have a deeper understanding of the value of SEO, you need to answer “Do I need an SEO Agency?” with information about what an SEO agency can offer that makes the investment worthwhile.
What can an SEO Agency do for me?
A digital marketing agency with proficiency in SEO can evaluate your current content (such as your website), conduct research on your behalf, and craft a content plan tailored to your business’ needs. This can involve recommending and making changes to your website’s metadata, writing long-form content like blogs that attract your potential customers and keep them on your site longer, building your site’s backlink profile to encourage search engines to rank your site higher for specific queries, and more!
Additionally, effective SEO involves careful analysis of results such as the click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate for different types of content to determine what works best and meets your goals.
How Google and other search engines rank sites constantly change as they update their algorithms, in order to provide the most relevant answers to their users. For example, at least 200 factors may go into determining a ranking on Google.
The advantage of hiring an experienced agency to handle your business’ SEO is that it frees you and your employees up to run your business. Another key benefit is that agencies serving multiple clients have more ability to purchase licenses to top-of-the-line software to assist with SEO, an expense that may not make sense for a small business.
Obviously, only those within a business can decide how to allocate your time and money in the business’s best interest, but we hope to serve as a resource for you as you make this decision. Check out Online Optimism’s SEO Management and Marketing page to get a better idea of this agency’s SEO services.
Need SEO assistance in New Orleans or beyond?
Online Optimism is an experienced digital marketing agency with roots in New Orleans, and we know New Orleans SEO. Like the internet, Online Optimism can meet you wherever you are to optimize your website to rank in search. Check out our SEO case studies to see the results our SEO work can deliver, and look around our other digital marketing services. Then, contact us when you’re ready to start working with an agency for your SEO needs!