The Pure SEO Team
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So, you think you need an SEO Provider? Someone who knows all the ins and outs of Google to get your website to the top of the page? You aren’t alone. Search engine optimisation is a highly sought after service as businesses scramble to get ahead in a tech-dominated economy. But with so many options for SEO providers out there in New Zealand, it can be difficult to know who is going to be the best at delivering results for your business.
In this
Top Tip #1: Does their own website rank on google?
This one is an easy tip for you to uncover yourself, through some simple, search engine sleuthing. SEO is an easy industry to decipher the experts from the rookies, because all you have to do is see which provider is ranking themselves when you search for SEO on google.
A top tip to sleuth even further is to test out multiple relevant search terms, and see if they rank for not just one, but multiple terms that are relevant to their industry. If an SEO provider can’t gain rankings for their own website, how can you expect them to do great things for yours?
Top Tip #2: Do they use Google’s best practices?
Google has best-practice guidelines for every element that makes up overall SEO, and they are constantly being updated as Google grows and develops. Using google best practices properly and in accordance with Google’s terms and conditions is more commonly known as “White Hat” SEO. You’ll want to make sure your provider is engaging in these practices, as opposed to “Black Hat” SEO.
White Hat guidelines prevent businesses from using deceptive loopholes to gain unethical rankings, which can be heavily penalised by Google and even cause websites to be banned from being indexed into search engines.
One way you can tell if the SEO provider you are looking to use is implementing White Hat SEO methods is to have a close read of their website content or one of their current clients’ website content. Look out for black hat elements such as keyword stuffing – where content is so full of keywords that it sounds unnatural to read. Cloaking is also a common black hat method – where the intended use of the website is not the same as what search engines rank it for.
Top Tip #3: Are they transparent about your results?
Once you’ve done your behind-the-scenes sleuthing and think you have found some good options for an SEO provider, the next thing you are most likely to do is to enquire with the company itself. During this step, it will be crucial that you find as much information on finer details of their services as possible before you sign any contracts.
This stage is where you can cut out a bunch of SEO providers, as it is important to be sure of a company’s transparency. You may get inkling of this when depending on how much detail they go into the SEO practices they’ve used for their website.
If you aren’t getting a clear enough pitcture, just ask them directly. An ethical provider will explain most things straightforward about their processes and offerings.
The biggest key to learning if a provider has good transparency is to ask them how they measure their results. Ultimately with an SEO provider you want to be able to see concrete, real-time results. You would be surprised at how many agencies will skimp on the reporting side of things, giving you limited access to the results you can actually see and no way of telling if they are doing any work at all. They do this so that they can continue to charge you for SEO when it may not be working or you may not need it.
Generally, SEO reports will tell you how you are ranking for multiple keywords, how this compares from month to month, where your site is improving and what pages are gaining the most popularity. This means you can know exactly where you need to be heading and how much work still needs to be carried out. Reports are an extremely important part of SEO work and should be mandatory from the position of your provider.
Look No Further than Pure SEO
We hope our Top Tips have given you some valuable insight into how to choose an SEO Provider. If you’re on the hunt for an SEO Provider that ticks all these boxes and works hard to provide clients with results that work, get in touch with us today to see what we can do for you.
