Knowing that you need to hire an SEO agency is the right first step toward building your online presence and growing your business.
But before you rush to hire the first agency that rattles off an impressive client list or promises “immediate” growth (not possible!), you need to know how to choose an SEO agency that makes sense for you.
We’ve written in the past about what to ask an SEO company before you hire them, and the article holds true today. It outlines the best questions to help you vet an agency’s reputation and performance.
But how do you decide which SEO agency to hire when you’ve narrowed your list to two great SEO firms?
Of course, SEO is a broad subject, and plenty of great SEO firms use different techniques to excel at SEO in distinct ways.
Some agencies excel at SEO for Fortune 500 brands, while others are better suited for smaller companies, startups, or mid-sized companies with small marketing teams.
Hire the wrong one and you could waste thousands of dollars per month. But hire the right one, and your business could experience exponential growth.
Here are five crucial factors to consider when searching for the right SEO company for your business.
1. SEO Expertise: Relevancy, Authority, and Crawlability
The first factor to consider is the realm (or realms) of SEO the agency has experience with.
By “realms,” what we really mean are the SEO principles that sum up the entire SEO universe:
- Relevancy
- Authority
- Crawlability
Every facet of SEO falls under at least one of the above, and some fall under two or three. In most cases, an SEO agency is skilled at one (or even two) of these facets, but has minimal experience in the third.
Many types of experts bring their specialized skills to SEO teams.
First, there are content strategists who are experts at keyword research, as well as content writers and content editors who craft exceptional content that ranks high in Google searches, drives traffic, and increases conversion rates.
Second, there are technical SEO experts who know how to improve a website’s structure and performance.
Finally, there are SEO experts who almost get into the web development realm by optimizing code and addressing crawling errors.
You can’t approach SEO by taking a broad approach and hiring just any team. Instead, think about the basic principles of SEO and where you could use some help — so you can hire an agency that has the specific expertise to get you where you need to be.
The Amazon Example
A few years ago, a potential client asked me what big-name companies we’ve worked with. I assumed they were looking for me to say Coca-Cola, or IBM, or Amazon as proof of our credibility. (For context, this business had only recently launched and was bootstrapping a startup with minimal funding.)
I couldn’t help but think that even if we had worked with Amazon, in no way would that have reflected our ability to work with them.
It’s sort of like “The Bonnie Situation” from the movie “Pulp Fiction.” When Vincent and Jules needed help cleaning up after a murder, they didn’t call a random housekeeper with a mop and a bucket of bleach. They called in The Wolf, a person who had specific knowledge of how to clean up and conceal a crime scene.
Hiring an SEO agency isn’t much different (although it’s much less stressful). You need to hire one that has the experience and skills to target your specific SEO needs.
Improve Relevancy and Authority With Intergrowth
A business like Amazon needs a very different set of SEO skills than a brand-new startup with zero organic traffic.
If Amazon needed to hire a new SEO agency today, they would likely see far more benefits from hiring a team that excels in technical SEO (Crawlability) than they would from hiring a team like Intergrowth, which has expertise in link building and content creation.
In fact, Amazon would see minimal benefit from link building because they get backlinks every day from hundreds — if not thousands — of other sites. As one of the biggest retailers in the world, Amazon already has better online visibility than any of their competitors. That means the best SEO agency for Amazon would be one that could help them reach more technical SEO goals.
If Andy Jassy were to reach out to us today and say he was ready to hire Intergrowth for SEO, it would be a tempting project to take on. But we only work on a handful of technical SEO projects at a given time.
We take on technical SEO initiatives for select clients, but the majority of our team’s expertise falls under the principles of Authority and Relevancy, rather than Crawlability.
The companies that find the most value in Intergrowth focus 80% of their efforts on content creation and link building rather than improving their technical SEO.
For most clients, we put most of our focus on creating content that ranks high on search engine results pages (SERPs) and drives website traffic. This is where the Intergrowth team excels and produces the best results.
2. Industry-Specialized Agencies vs Industry Agnostic Agencies
Next, consider whether you need the SEO agency to have experience with your particular industry.
All SEO teams fall under one of two high-level categories:
- Industry agnostic
- Industry-specialized
Industry agnostic agencies work with clients in a wide range of industries. They don’t specialize in one or two industries — they work with every kind of business under the sun.
Industry-specialized teams have a much more focused client list, working with clients in one or maybe two industries at the most.
There are pros and cons to both types of teams. In the next section, we’ll take a look at each.
Industry-Specialized Agencies: Pros and Cons
The biggest benefit of working with an industry-specialized SEO partner is that you can ramp up your SEO efforts a little faster.
There’s less time involved in bringing the agency up to speed on what your business does, how you make money, and how your business and industry operate.
Industry-specialized agencies already have a good general understanding of who you are, what you do, and who your target audience is.
Industry-specialized agencies can also shed more light on industry-specific best practices. We’ve worked with a dozen different insurance companies. If a new insurance client comes to us, we can share SEO best practices that work better (or worse) for other insurance clients that may not apply to other industries.
Industry Agnostic Agencies: Pros and Cons
The downside to hiring an industry-agnostic agency is that there will likely be a higher ramp-up timeline. You’ll need to bring the agency up to speed on who you are and how you operate.
With an agnostic team, you gain the valuable benefit of an outsider’s perspective.
Because the agency may not be as familiar with your industry’s norms, they’re more likely to ask questions and offer ideas and suggestions that can help you grow your business.
In some cases, those ideas may not be relevant, but in most cases, you’ll gain exposure to innovative ideas that no one else in your industry is thinking about.
Intergrowth: An Industry Agnostic SEO Agency with Specialized Experience
We work with a wide range of clients across a variety of industries. About 80% of our clients operate in the B2C space, specifically ecommerce and insurance.
In those specific industries, we have specialized expertise, but we also work with a handful of businesses that fall far beyond those realms.
Working with clients in different industries allows us to take what we’ve learned from one industry and, when it makes sense, apply it to other businesses.
This strategy has helped clients see incredible growth.
Before you hire an agency, think about how you want to approach industry expertise. Hire an industry-specialized team for a quick ramp up. Or, hire an industry-agnostic agency to give you an outsider’s perspective and deliver fresh, innovative ideas that differ from those of your competitors.
3. Content Management System (CMS) Expertise
The third factor to consider is whether the SEO agency has experience working with your content management system (CMS).
At Intergrowth, we’ve worked with countless CMS platforms, including:
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Webflow
- SilverStripe
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Joomla
- BigCommerce
- Ghost
However, 80% of our experience is in WordPress and Shopify.
It matters what type of CMS expertise an SEO agency has — especially if you want them to help you implement updates to your website.
We’re 20% more effective when we handle SEO work for businesses based on WordPress or Shopify.
Why?
Because we have so much experience using those systems.
We understand how to troubleshoot issues that arise with WordPress and Shopify, and we have experience with the plugins and applications that are most beneficial for specific use cases.
For WordPress alone, we have five plugins that we recommend installing for most client sites to maximize performance.
Because we’ve tested and used these plugins time and time again, we’re able to provide our clients with granular feedback about the pros and cons of each and which they should consider installing.
If you want to work with an SEO agency that can implement most of the changes on your website, then it’s best to hire one that’s already familiar with your CMS. Otherwise, the agency will need to lean more on your in-house web developer to implement changes.
If you plan to have your internal web dev team implement all your changes for you, it won’t matter as much if the agency lacks experience in your CMS.
4. The Type and Size of Your Organization
It can be easy to overlook, but your own organizational experience is the fourth (and perhaps the most important) factor to consider when choosing an SEO agency.
Who you are, who you have on staff, and what you need your SEO team to do are all key to choosing the perfect agency.
Think about the type of organization you are. Do you need an SEO expert who can convey complex ideas in simple terms to stakeholders?
Or do you need someone who can handle the work and show you results six months later?
SEO Agencies for Fortune 500 Companies
Fortune 500 businesses often have massive marketing departments. It can take a dozen internal meetings to get approval just to change a few title tags on their site.
Large companies and billion-dollar brands need an SEO team (or at least one SEO expert) that’s comfortable sitting in board meetings with a dozen other marketers.
They also need a team that has the bandwidth for weekly or even daily meetings to talk through SEO initiatives or get the stakeholders to sign off on making updates.
In other words, they need a team that understands the many organizational complexities at large companies and how to navigate them.
SEO Agencies for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses
As a smaller company with only one or two marketing employees, you’re better off working with a team that can simplify SEO for you. These agencies handle all the behind-the-scenes work and report back on growth.
Smaller businesses often work well with agencies that recommend what changes to implement, then implement those changes and check in on occasion.
We’ve worked with billion-dollar brands at Intergrowth, but our expertise is in working with businesses that generate less than $20 million a year in annual revenue.
We’re best suited to working directly with founders or heads of marketing to whom we can talk about how our ideas will help their business — and then take the lead on strategy and implementation.
Related: What Industries Shouldn’t Invest in SEO Content?
5. How Much Personal Experience You Have With SEO
Your personal experience with SEO is the fifth and final element to consider when choosing the right SEO agency for you.
Don’t forget to factor in how much involvement you prefer to have in the process.
Let’s say you’re already a seasoned SEO who understands SEO best practices and the tools needed to drive revenue from SEO. You’d be better off hiring an entry level or mid-level SEO expert than an agency who will charge a premium for deep subject matter expertise.
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There’s no need to pay a premium for a team of seasoned SEO experts if you already have your mind set on your business’ SEO strategy. As an expert in your own right, it’s better to hire an agency or full-time employee who can take care of the initiatives you delegate to them at a more affordable price point.
Companies that only have a basic understanding of search engine optimization should hire a seasoned SEO expert or agency that can recommend SEO initiatives that will best move the needle for your business.
Seasoned agencies will present you with those strategies, walk you through them, and implement them without requiring a huge investment of your time.
Intergrowth helps businesses that know they need SEO, but want an expert team to handle it for them. Our team excels at recommending SEO strategies, putting those strategies in place, and delivering results.
In Conclusion
There are many reputable agencies that provide high-quality SEO services, and they’re all a little different. The SEO agency you hire should possess the resources and know-how to help you achieve your business goals.
Consider the five factors we explored above to help you make an informed decision and avoid wasting resources by working with the wrong team.
To hire the best SEO company, think about the agency’s type of SEO expertise, the industries they work with, and how familiar they are with your CMS.
You should also consider how your business is organized, as well as your own personal level of experience with SEO.
Curious to learn more about working with us? Contact Intergrowth now. We’ll start with a complimentary consultation to determine your SEO needs.
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