As a business owner in Plano, you want to make sure you are reaching all possible clients from as many sources as possible.

Hiring local SEO experts will give you a boost in your online traffic, which will help to increase your sales.

But what should you keep in mind when finding the right expert for you? SEO is a constantly changing and growing practice, so you want to ensure that the SEO services in Plano that you hire for will have all of the skills necessary to take care of your company, if they will work with what will fit your budget, and if they will be able to stay flexible as your SEO needs change.

We here at SEO Blue work hard to keep up to date with the latest needs of SEO for companies, and we look forward to helping you discover the local SEO talent in Plano. Let’s get digging into things that you should know before hiring for SEO services.

Step one is always to do your research and ask questions! You can use word of mouth as well as various online sources to check out the reputation, quality of work, etc. of your potential SEO expert. Here are the key things you need to check out:

Past Work

The experience of your potential local SEO expert is a big factor that you should consider when looking for someone to handle your company’s SEO needs.

Yes, you may get lucky and find a newbie who happens to be incredible but, more often than not, you will want someone who has at least some solid experience under their belt.

See how many years they have been in the business, what kind of ratings they have, if you can preview any of their past work, and other things like that.

These are all key aspects that can show how viable an SEO expert is and whether they have handled the types of SEO work your company needs before and how well they accomplished that work.

Testimonials

In that same vein, you always want to check the reviews of the agency you are looking into. Are the clients that they have worked with happy with the results they achieved? Did they like the customer service given by the local SEO expert they hired? What did the high and low reviews give as their reasoning?

Something you will want to watch out for is a company that has a ton of negative reviews, obviously, but you also want to be wary of a company that has a ton of positive reviews in a short amount of time. This is a potential red flag as it could be them trying to boost their rating with fake reviews.

You should also see if you can chat with any longer-term clients with your potential expert to see why they’ve stayed with the company. When a company can maintain clients long-term, it must be doing something right!

Niche

You will always want to make sure when hiring local SEO experts that you have found someone who can work with your specific niche.

You have a specific clientele looking for specific services, and a good SEO expert will understand this.

Whoever you choose for your SEO services in Plano needs to understand your target audience, find out what they need and how to best connect to them, and achieve maximum conversions for your company.

Process

Another big thing to consider is what the processes used by your potential SEO company are. Do they use white hat SEO techniques? This is definitely a good thing because it means that they are sticking to the rules of proper SEO etiquette and search engines much prefer that…in fact, several search engines issue penalties and de-rank websites that use black hat techniques.

Do they focus on just one element of SEO or several? Just one or two elements will not do much good for your company, while trying to focus on too many may result in lower quality results. Find a company that will take on your specific needs and works across the best SEO techniques to get that job done well.

Does the company offer reporting so that you can check on the progress of the work? Being able to track progress through reports and audits is a great bonus.

You will also want to make sure that your potential hire has a firm grasp on the basics of SEO techniques: backlinks, use of best keywords for search, etc.

Strategy Call

Many companies for SEO services in Plano offer a free consultation call. This brief call will usually consist of discussing your company’s needs and coming up with a strategy to take your SEO program to the next level to help increase your company’s profits.

Contract Terms

Do you think you’ve found the best local SEO expert and are ready to hire? Your next step will be setting up the contract terms between you and your future SEO partner. What should you include in this contract, you may ask? Here are some key items to include:

• Scope of project: What SEO services are needed? PR campaigns, backlinks, website optimization, etc. Make sure to outline exactly what you’re expecting from your project and the timeline that the project will take.
• Deliverables: This refers to what you expect to receive during and after the project such as reports and content. This includes research reports, website audits, competition research, content creation, etc. This will be the best way to keep track of the progress and success of your SEO project.
• Subcontractors: Will the company you are hiring be hiring others? If so, that needs to be stated upfront.
• Responsibilities of the client: This is where your end of the deal is going to be laid out. You will need to do certain tasks or allow access to various sections of your business in order for the SEO experts to do their job. They should lay out what they expect from you clearly in the contract in order to make sure you can be prepared.
• Payment: Will this be billed on a flat rate, monthly rate, or hourly rate? Will you be paying per month or at the end of the job? What will the payment method be? Will there be any additional fees if there needs to be any project restructuring? These all need to be clearly defined within the contract.
• Cancellation: Will there be a cancellation fee to keep in mind? If so, how will that be calculated? Are there set accepted reasons for the project to be canceled? Cancellation policy details need to be clearly outlined in the contract and understood by both sides.

There are absolutely other factors that you may want to check into when hiring local SEO experts in Plano, but these are the most crucial to bear in mind. At SEO Blue, we want to make sure your company is in good hands. We’re happy you stuck around through the whole article, and we hope you’ve learned some helpful tips. If you are ready to start looking, check out our blog for more great information, and keep us in mind when you’re ready to hire!

Based in Texas? We also provide services in Sugar Land, Flower Mound, Frisco, and The Woodlands.