hire an SEO expert

I have outlined why I recommend a search engine optimised website build and why SEO is important for business growth but who do you choose when you want to hire an SEO?

Obviously Atlantic Management is a great choice for your web development and SEO, don’t take my word for it though, you want to do your own research and come to your own conclusion.

As I have mentioned in other blogs in the past, Search Engine Optimisation can be super challenging, and take a tonne of time and skill but in some cases, you may not need 6 months of ongoing SEO services.

Sometimes all you need is an Audit and a technical tuneup and a bit of 1 on 1 training.

How can you tell who is an SEO expert and who is a scam?

Most days I receive at least 1 email from a random overseas company offering to get me to page 1 of google… Often for $99 a month with guaranteed placement in the top 3. They tell me my site has lots of technical errors…

As a technical SEO, I know my site doesn’t have a lot of technical errors. I know the things I need to fix in time.

Atlantic Management is a relatively new site created in the local area I grew up in and have recently moved back to. No, it doesn’t rank where I want it to and yes I know what needs to be done but why is an SEO agency contacting another SEO agency in this way?

It’s because its a scam and these emails are spam.

Recently an old email that is no longer in use was getting around 10 of these spam emails daily.

Hire an SEO expert using google

A legit company doesn’t need to scrape emails and spam random email lists offering ridiculously cheap deals.

A legit SEO will be using SEO to get their leads so if you need an SEO, check google :)

For your search, I would suggest using either – Your niche or your location + ‘SEO’ ie ‘Nowra SEO‘ ‘Tradie SEO’ or ‘hospitality SEO’ then get in touch with a few SEOs and see who you want to work with.

Great SEO is a collaboration so you should be talking to your SEO regularly. With new clients I always start with a once-a-week call, then once we are vibing, the calls are fewer.

Search Engine Optimisation is optimising a website. It is not only optimising the website but also optimising content for keywords you wish to see on Page 1 which is why it can be a very difficult and time-consuming task.

Keywords are the words someone uses to *find a page on the internet’

The Google Algorithm changes daily and is unknown so it’s a big puzzle!’

Whilst the old way of selling SEO was to sell 5, 10 or 20 keywords in a package, it’s just a way to package up a sale nicely,

You want your website to rank for as many keywords as possible every keyword can bring 1 new client to your site and that 1 new client could be your best regular ever :)

SEO in 2020 is about increasing your organic traffic not trying to get in the top spots for 5 words of your choice.

Google has around 1 billion sites on its index so nowadays ranking and staying on page 1 is a lot of work.

I do a minimum of 10hrs a week of reading & probably another 10hrs a week of testing to make sure that what I am doing works in today’s version of the google algorithm.

You have to spend money to make money

Whilst it’s not impossible to do the work yourself, if you want page 1 rankings, expect to invest a lot of time and money.

The cost to hire an SEO expert

No specialist in any industry is cheap. SEO provides excellent ROI long term but if you need something right now, SEO isn’t going to cut the mustard.

We often hear about niches, that is when someone works in a small area of a certain industry. Some SEOs are niche-specific or some specialise in just 1 particular part of SEO such as local SEO or maybe they do forensic SEO audits.

If you choose someone with experience, the ROI on your spending will be worth it. You want an experienced but also someone with a competitive nature who will bring opportunities to your business that only someone with knowledge and know-how would think of.

A digital agency, such as Minx, spends thousands of dollars each year on SEO tools.

We also need to outsource occasionally to specialists to help us with technical issues that we cannot fix in-house. These technical specialists generally cost a minimum of $150aud per hour.

Tools such as SEMRUSH are helpful in managing your own SEO but you need to learn how to learn SEO concepts, and technical concepts and learn how to use the tools for them to benefit your website.

Most website owners are aware that SEO is vital for acquiring new clients but SEO is thrown about so often by digital agencies where a salesman is trying to get you to sign on the dotted line so he can make his sales target and get his annual bonus.

How can you tell if an SEO is an expert or a dud?

White Hat SEO

White Hat is playing by the rules, complying with guidelines and doing the right thing. White hat SEO takes more time and work BUT it means google won’t penalise your website.

For your site to have great search engine results, it will take time and effort and technical know-how. SEO is not something you do to a site; for great SEO results you need to work alongside your SEO company

Grey Hat SEO

This term is used for SEO strategy for sites sitting on the google fringes such as gambling, Adult Sites, Pornography and CBD etc. Whilst these are legal industries in many countries, google treats these businesses differently.

The work I do is lots of white and some grey. Google shows different SERPs (search engine result pages) for different Services.

A normal search engine page will have up to 12 different elements, for grey niches, there is only Organic search so it’s competitive AF to get those spots

Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO is the term for using underhanded, dodgy SEO tactics to get sites indexed and ranked high, quickly.

This type of SEO goes against all Search Engine Policies so while your site may do well short term, it will be penalised and your domain name banned from Search.

How much does SEO cost?

SEO services for businesses used to be pretty easy, to rank was pretty easy, so it was also easy to package up SEO in a monthly amount. 5 keywords for $500, that kinda thing.

Google has changed, and become a lot harder and more time-consuming so SEO pricing has changed too.

In the past 6 months, Google has been making an insane number of changes. It’s hard to rank number 1 unless your website is technically pretty awesome.

If I haven’t built a client’s website, the first thing SEO job I do is a technical audit. IMHO there is no point starting on any SEO strategy, KW research or on-page work as if the site is free of technical technical issues. Backlinks won’t fix a site if google isn’t interested in crawling or indexing it.

Many website owners have no idea how their website has been built and unfortunately the way a site is built is of primary importance to Google.

Site speed is of vital importance to ranking as is the quality of the website coding Read the Official Google Blog Post on Page Speed

After spending a crazy amount of hours working on some client sites this year, where the site owners cannot why it is so much work, I have learned that whilst everyone wants to rank no.1 they have no idea what it takes to get there.

Basics of organic search and SERPS

1. Google has market share so we mostly target google for search but there are other search engines to include in your online marketing efforts
2. Google personalises your search so your google results will be different to my google results and both will probably be different to actual google results
3. Google is local so if you are in Sydney, the results will be different to if you are using google in Melbourne
4. Google index’s Mobile-first so your mobile UX is of primary importance
5. Desktop results are often different from mobile results
6. Google ranks individual pages

Time frame to see results

All business owners want page 1 at the very least which is easier said than done.

As a general rule of thumb, It takes a minimum of 3 months of work to see some SEO results, 6 months for better results and a year to see full results.

Whilst it’s much easier to throw up an advertisement for $200 and get instant results, SEO is more expensive short term but long term the cost is definitely worth it.

Social platforms and advertising sites come and go. Your own website is your forever home

What should I look for in an SEO company?

1. Technical SEO and website development skills should be top of your list. Google asks for quality. Your website build is IMHO the most important part of the SEO process these days. A great UX and a lean build + hosting quality is often the difference between page 1 & page 2 results.
2. A company with knowledge of your city and country will have a better understanding of your market, niche, and competitors.
3. Find someone who is competitive, lives and breaths SEO and can explain how SEO works to you. Ensure the SEO company can explain what they are doing and what they can deliver in an understandable way.
4. You should be speaking to your SEO at least once a month, I prefer a weekly check-in tho and some clients speak to them almost daily
5. Avoid promises of a quick solution. A Google ban is the last thing you need
6. Avoid companies that make guarantees about page 1 positions. That is impossible.
7. Avoid companies spamming social media or email. If an SEO company has the skill they have long-term clients, they will have more than enough requests via search to not need to use spamming sales techniques.
8. Choose a company that will teach you how to understand Google Analytics. If they are doing their job they are happy to show you that they are. Dodgy SEO companies have been known to use doctored reports.
9. Do some research. Check out your competitors, and find out what some of the common SEO terms are used and what they mean.
10. Limitless Keywords. Google determines the keywords you rank for. You want your site to have an increase in quality organic traffic and not get hung up over the position of a few keywords that you think clients are using