How ready are you for the digital age? Do you think you can do it on your own? Or have you reached the point where you are looking for an SEO partnership?
Technology has shifted the way businesses operate and market their products. It has been a challenge for most business owners to continue using traditional marketing while learning digital marketing.
You might have been working and strategising your SEO internally, and I salute you for that! But, it comes to a point when you stop seeing results, and perhaps that’s the time you need to hire an SEO agency for partnership.
Hiring an SEO agency is essential to help you design your web position and improve your strategy. But, how can you tell that the time has come? Let’s talk about the warning signs that suggest your agency needs an SEO partnership.
Understanding SEO Partnership and Other SEO Providers
Now that you can quickly determine when your agency needs an SEO partnership, it is time to differentiate SEO partnerships with other SEO providers.
White label SEO providers can be differentiated as vendors, platforms, and partners. Let’s take a quick look at their difference.
Vendor
Vendors are limited-scope service providers. Most often, they offer limited services or only specialises in one. Freelance web developers are among the vendors. They only operate on a transactional basis. Since they are mostly freelancers and offers limited services, you cannot guarantee the quality of their deliverables, especially if it is not their expertise.
After the vendor finishes their deliverables and what’s agreed in the contract, that’s it. Thus, you cannot expect any support from them. It would be a jackpot to find a vendor that still accommodates after the contractual agreement.
Platform
Platforms are moulded from automation. It is a software system that helps automate digital marketing processes. Thus, if you want a quick fix with minimal involvement with agents, this is the solution for you.
However, this is not the best choice for a long-term solution. Due to automation, platforms offer limited personalisation. Your campaigns and strategies are drawn from little resources. That’s why platforms may not help you dominate and perform well.
Partner
Limited and automated services are not what you will find in an SEO partnership. Partners act similarly to your in-house team. Your partnership team is composed of experts in different fields, and you discuss with them your digital goals.
In SEO partnership, they handle the client’s campaigns on your behalf. With every aspect of your operations, your SEO partner touches and improves them. You can tell that your partner is also as invested in your success.
Choosing an SEO partner who can build a rapport and foundation with their agencies is essential. In Blue Water Digital, we emphasise the essence of communication. We believe that effective communication help defines and measure the partnership we have, and it is a key factor to achieving a successful digital performance.
Warning Signs to Know You Need an SEO Partner
We all know how crucial website traffic is, but you know what’s more important? Lead generation and conversion are derived from web traffic. If your business is not growing, you might want to check the SEO strategies you have applied.
Here are the warnings signs signalling you need to find an SEO partner:
SEO is Not in the Priority
Let’s start with the most obvious: not prioritising SEO is a warning sign.
You invest in having a business website to create relevant pages to reach out to more potential customers. It gives you the medium to talk about your products, services, and common inquiries. However, without SEO, your website becomes hard to find.
Most users do not go beyond the first page of the search results; that’s why it is crucial to be on the first. Search engine optimisation helps your website reach the highest SEO rank. A well-optimised website appears on the first page of the Google search engine results page.
You have to remember that search engine optimisation is a long-term investment. Results are not delivered immediately.
Reduced Organic Traffic
Google algorithm continually evolves. Although most updates are noticeable, there are instances where algorithm updates affect your website performance dramatically overnight.
There are two possible reasons why your organic traffic declined overnight: it could be a configuration error or Google penalty.
If you are confident that it’s a configuration error in the robots.txt file or the sitemap, you only have to undo your last actions that may have caused the decline. Meanwhile, the Google penalty needs a different approach. It is a grave consequence for those websites caught using black hat techniques or wrong practices.
However, if you are unfamiliar with these types of situations, that’s the sign you need an SEO expert’s help to identify the problem and solution. Identifying the reason for the organic traffic drop is the key to recovering your web position.
Sales Only Come from Organic Traffic
As we have mentioned, search engine optimisation and organic traffic are essential factors for sales. That is why your website cannot afford a drop in web traffic. If your website only relies on organic traffic, it might be challenging to work your way out.
In this case, hiring a reliable SEO agency is a significant investment. The applied strategies help your website recover; invite more website traffic, and improve lead conversions. Don’t worry! What you have invested in SEO partnership bounces back tenfold.
Overwhelming Workload
On-page and off-page SEO significantly help your business grow, but developing strategies take most of your time. You have to devote several resources to apply the strategies effectively. Time and skills are possibly both limited resources, and lack of them results in a dramatic decline of your website positioning.
That’s why if your in-house team is overwhelmed with SEO tasks, it is best to hire an SEO agency. It allows your team to focus on your internal tasks while the agency devotes its time and expertise to the technical work.
Invisible Website
You might have wondered how your well-designed website is not attracting any visitors. So, what could be the problem?
Although your website appearance is attractive to potential audiences, it might be the SEO perspective that’s lacking. Websites without the right structure and elements do not have an impressive SEO rank. So, how to become visible on Google search?
An SEO agency can easily determine what’s wrong in this situation by performing a website audit. By then, they will recommend the most suitable website structure and help you optimise content.
Unaware of the Competition
Mind your own business, they say. However, minding your competitor’s business in search engine optimisation is your business.
You have to conduct a competitor analysis to study what made them rank better than you. It gives you new ideas and strategies. If you are with the right SEO agency, they conduct comprehensive competitor analysis and gather unique strategies.
Not in Local Listing
Google adapts its search results to the location of your business. Let’s say you are from Australia. Once you search for an SEO agency in Australia, Google brings you the list of agencies based in Australia.
Search engine optimisation intends to make your business appear on search engines; thus, it also appears in local search results. Set up a business listing on Google My Business. An optimised listing makes you top the search results for local businesses.
If you do not know how to optimise your local listing, it is best to partner with an SEO expert.
No Client Review
Client reviews are trust signals; these are your business’ success stories. However, it is often overlooked by some business owners.
When a potential customer searches for your business but finds little to no client review, the customer may not transact with you. That’s why it is best to ensure your customers leave a review. Here are a few tips on how to encourage customers to leave a product or service review:
- Make your business visible on Google My Business and social media pages. These pages and listings allow customers to leave reviews, and they are a great indicator of trust for Google.
- Listen to client feedback; whether it is a positive or negative one, your response is crucial.
- Be responsive to customer inquiries or interactions.
- Treat customers well.
If you manage to do these things consistently, there is a higher chance your customers will leave a good review of your products and services.
Lacks Social Media Presence
These days brands reach out to their target audience and stay close to their loyal customers through social media.
You can post engaging content on your social media pages and link them to relevant pages on your website. It helps the target audience understand more of your brand. The accessibility social media presence brings more customers and lets you interact with them. Moreover, loyal and potential customers become more confident in reaching out to your brand.
Find the Right SEO Partner
It is not hard to find an SEO agency; there are thousands of them, but finding the right one that offers the needs of your business is different. We listed a few considerations when looking for an SEO partner.
Look for Reviews from Previous Clients
Looking for referrals and listening to reviews are the most common way to find a reliable agency. No SEO agency would claim they are not good at what they are doing, and most claim to be experts in their field. That’s why you need to double-check reviews from their previous clients.
You can check their Google My Business listing to read client experiences. These references and success stories give you a good impression through other clients’ satisfaction rates.
Ensure SEO Agency Offer Custom Services
Search engine optimisation is complex, and it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. SEO agencies that only offer fixed services are not reliable. They either use black hat SEO techniques or do not have the required expertise to handle complex projects.
An agency must consider the nature of your business and propose strategies that need to be done to your website.
Verify Optimisation Actions
Experts recommend web owners work with on-page and off-page optimisation. You have to verify the optimisation actions the agency can offer; do they focus only on on-page or off-page? It would be best if they could apply both optimisation strategies.
On-page SEO optimises website elements that you can modify, creating relevant content and adding keywords to rank on search engines. Meanwhile, off-page SEO are the elements that you cannot control, such as building backlinks from other authorised websites.
Ask Objectives
You have to understand that it takes time to experience the results of SEO actions. That’s why aside from being patient, it is best to ask about the agency’s objectives. Asking their objectives would give you an idea of how long it takes before seeing the first results.
A reliable SEO agency has already planned the things to achieve and estimated the minimum period to see the first results. If the SEO tasks are employed well, it boosts your website traffic and increases your SEO ranking.
The right objectives and SEO actions undoubtedly positively impact your website.
Final Takeaway
Think of this article as a checklist; does your agency need an SEO partner? Do not wait any longer! Hire a reliable SEO agency.
Remember, a reliable SEO agency treats your website like its own. Learn more about the white label SEO partnership by reaching out to us.
