What are good tests to propose different SEO agencies when you're trying to vet them?
-
We are trying to narrow down our SEO agency list and I was told to propose 5 different tests. I'm not sure where to start. I also want these tests to help me understand what these companies can do for mine.
-
Thank you!!! These questions are golden! I agree. It's important to see if they have a good understanding of how to measure and track our goals. We ultimately want to make sure that our investment in an SEO agency has a good ROI. Thanks again! I appreciate all of the help!
-
Another great answer, asking about Google Data Studio knowledge is also beneficial
-
I think that someone on your team should have a good understanding of Analytics. If SEO and tracking is important to you then you should have someone internally that can vet the process the agency is using. But if you don't, then I would ask a few additional questions. to the one's above.
"Now that you have an understanding of what we do as a company, what are some of the tracking goals you feel we need to be measuring going forward?"
"Besides Google Analytics, what other tools do you use to help track progress and metrics?"
"Do you have a Google Analytics certification and when was the last time it was updated?"
"Do you offer custom dashboards so we can look at an overview in "real time" vs just when we meet?"
"How often are metrics updated?"
"Can you show us an example of some custom reports or Analytics setup you've done recently?"
Things like this. What's really going to be the determining factor is how comfortable you are and how much you actually trust the person giving the info. The good and bad thing about analytics is that it's straight forward. There is no "secret sauce" per se. So you may very well get the same sort of answers from each of the agencies. I have a phrase I tell people all the time, "Always go with the guy you feel you can trust and whom you feel will do everything in their power to get it right if something goes wrong."
You'll also want to find out if they "interpret data". Having tracking setup is one thing, but being able to give you recommendations on what sort of content to write or what to expect from the data is key. I would ask questions that pry some of that out of them.
"What sort of recommendations have you made in the past based on the data you've found inside of Analytics?"
"Describe a time when you had bad news for the company you worked with and how did you help them overcome it?"
Hope that helps.
-
Hi Darin,
Do you know of a way I can test SEO agencies when it comes to their technical acumen? My boss wants to vet companies against each other, but I'm at a loss when it comes to proposing SEO "tests."
-
Any time. Feel free to comment on this post if you have any further questions and I'll be happy to help.
-
Hi Darin,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful response! That was very beneficial! I will definitely be including these questions in my next steps. Appreciate the help!
-
Thanks.
-
This is an extremely good, detailed answer
-
One thing that is important is to see how they track their activities/success. I'm finding more and more SEO agencies are not very versed in Analtyics, goal tracking and balancing busy work vs productive work.
A lot of the questions I ask are based on where you currently are in your website project?
Do they have a process for tracking the amount of work going into the project on a monthly basis? How will the two of you define success? What is their content process? What is their overall philosophy on link building? How do you analyze the data and report it to us? How often will we meet to go over the data?
What case studies or references can they present? Have they done work in your specific field before? Do they have other clients you may be competing with?
What is their onboarding process like? How long does it take to really ramp up the project? How many hours per month or how many resources will be allocated to our project from the agency? How are turnaround times for questions that we have along the way? Who will be our account manager? How much time do you need from our internal team to help with your efforts?
Is there a contract? If so, what is the opt out policy if we feel the work isn't being done? How long is the contract? Does the contract itemize what is being done on a monthly basis?
I personally don't know of a test but these are questions I would ask. I would want to make sure the team handling my website is VERY versed in analytics and tracking. I think this is very overlooked by many companies whom hire agencies.
I haven't watched the video in a while but I know Rand did a whiteboard Friday on this a few years back. Link attached to the Moz video.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adding Tags in the blog is good or bad?
Hi Friends, In my blog I used to write unique content in between 300 to 450 words and add the related tags up to 15. When I research about adding tags in the blog I come across this video from “Matt Cutts” says Is it worth spending time on creating tags and categories? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A96yDPqa2rs Key Points from Matt Cutts Video are given below: No Need Tags - In general, Google figure out what your post is about, so don't worry too much about it. So my question is do I need to remove all tags from my blog or can I reduce the tag count to 5 alone? Currently I am using 15 tags to each post, is there any dis-advantage by adding tags like this? Let me know your suggestions? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | zco_seo0 -
Different Categories, Same Meta Description?
I've heard that having duplicate meta descriptions is bad for SEO and can even be the cause of penalties. However, a duplicate meta description would make sense for different categories on many sites. So I'm wondering what the best solution is for a case like this? One of my sites has around 150 topics, and each topic page is exactly the same, aside from including only things that are related to that specific topic. So why would I want to create 150 different meta descriptions? Not only is it time consuming, and nearly impossible to create 150 unique descriptions for the same type of content, but it also serves no purpose for visitors coming from the search engines. A logical approach would be to use the same meta description and just switch out the topics in the description... but then all of those descriptions would be 95% the same - and I imagine Google might see that as spam. So... suggestions?
On-Page Optimization | | JABacchetta0 -
Lower case and SEO
Hi I have a client who wants his whole site to be in lower case with the exception of his company name. Absolutely everything. I just want to check whether or not this will effect the way Google sees the site? Does anyone have any idea? ........ and do you have any experience or data to support your views? Thank you PH
On-Page Optimization | | PH2920 -
SEO for luxury brands!?
Hi all, It is widely known fact that you will be a bit in trouble if you will need to do SEO for luxury brand that is not willing to sacrifice design, layout etc. for SEO purposes. So basically - there is no content to optimize and there is almost no keywords to rank! 😉 Just wondering - how would be the best to approach such kind of terrible situation? Regards, Jungle
On-Page Optimization | | Jungles0 -
What are the best eCommerce sites from an SEO perspective?
We're working hard on improving our website right now, and would love to get the community's examples of the best eCommerce sites out there, from an SEO and a general customer-centric design perspective...
On-Page Optimization | | reddogmusic0 -
Geo-targeted content and SEO?
I am wondering, what effect does geo-targeted "cookie cutter" content have on SEO. For example, one might have a list of "Top US Comedians", which appears as "Top UK Comedians" for users from the United Kingdom. The data would be populated with information from a database in both cases, but would be completely different for each region, with the exception of a few words. Is this essentially giving Google's (US-based) crawler different content to users? I know that plenty of sites do it, but is it legitimate? Would it be better to redirect to a unique page, based on location, rather than change the content of one static page? I know what the logical SEO answer is here, but even some of the big players use the "wrong" tactic. I am very interested to hear your thoughts.
On-Page Optimization | | HalogenDigital0 -
URL STRUCTURE & RE-WRITING
1.) I need a suggestion from you, please help. How should be the Directory/URL structure if I am offering servicves in many cities of UK/US. /<service>/
On-Page Optimization | | younus
/<service>/<state>/
/<service>/<state>/<city>/ OR /<service>/
/<state>/<service>/
/<state>/<city>/<service>/ Thanks for your time.</service></city></state></service></state></service></city></state></service></state></service></service> What exactly mean by 'URL enforce writer' to rewrite the URL.0 -
Recommendations for a good FAQ system
Hi I am looking for an FAQ system that is seo friendly, naturally 😉 , so wondered what other people use or would recommend for a website that's isn't using a cms like wordpress etc. Basically looking to add the question as the title and the answer as the page content to get the pages indexed. Thanks in advance. Trevor
On-Page Optimization | | TrevorJones0