From Last 7 years I have been involved in many situations to attract new SEO clients and oftenly how we are true if we are claiming ourself best SEO agency.
Having this most important question in my mind, I would like to share with my some experiences and thoughts that might help you if you are also looking to hire a new SEO agency.
The check list given below is quiet good to ask your upcoming SEO agencies when you are in process of selecting or interview with new SEO agency or firm.
In the Past, SEO had a bad image even some clients had bad experience with their SEO agencies. Many of agencies even experienced that pretendedly " Good Promise and Bad delivery".
I also noted that sometime there is not the fault of the agency, Search algorithm may also have changed and the previous strategy, approach and plan of action is no valid longer.
1. Will you please send me the contact details of your existing clients?
Any agency which is good and expert in client work field will be excited to answer this question with a list of contacts.
Reading testimonial, profile reviews of the happy clients id one thing. But speaking with them directly is another thing.
I will suggest you to ask direct speaking with their past clients. You also have to sure that the client to whom you are speaking will be of similar budget client and will be in relevant market.
If they are not providing this, Be cautious of their services.
2. Can we meet or talk to the team working on account?
Lots of agencies outsource the content writing, link building, Social Media services
In my experience and also the experience of clients who came to me from another agencies that did this, this is really a worse idea. How can you assure the work quality if it is outsourced?
Even more important, who is working on your project or for your business or brand. I would suggest you to face to face meeting by visiting their offices, SKYPE video call if you are hiring from freelance site.
Why there is a need to sign contact for 12 - 24 months?
Mostly agencies get clients to sign the contract so they get long term project.
3. Why do we have to sign up with no break out clause in the contract for 12 or 24-months?
Many agencies get clients to sign long contracts so they have a long time to ensure they get it right and deliver on what they promised.
In reality if you haven't seen positive impact or improvement with in 3 to six months from your SEO work then that work is not beneficial for you.
I would like to suggest mutual break point in contact, a good firm or agency always have trust and confidence on their results for you and also they have no issue to sign this type of contract.
And if they agree to do this then you have to ask that how many clients have exercised the break?
4. Ask about their biggest SEO client that they have lost in last 10 months and why?
We all know that all firm or agencies keep losing their client from time to time (Even me too) but you need to understand the situations or circumstances of the clients they had lost.
It's really a good sign of agency honesty that want to share such information.
5. Ask them for guarantee of their SEO performance?
Any SEO agency giving guarantee of their work should not be trusted. It's impossible to give guarantee for SEO results.
I would like you to go back question 1 and 2 which is more credible as compare to guarantee. If the company is giving guarantee I would like to ask question about their SEO work strategy - Is it genuine white hat SEO or Paid Links
It could be damage to your brand and could be in a row of future Gogole penelaty
6. What do we actually get for our monthly fee?
This question may be sound straightforward.
I will be very cautious if agency is charging on cost per link, as it also raise your website to Google Penalty. If you met the person working on your project and familiar with him/her then it's okay what they are doing.
It's really tricky to selecting an agency but keeping all these point in mind, you might make your process easier and more transparent.
I would like to hear your experience and thoughts on this, question you asked to agencies and how much successful they were?
