After starting your e-commerce website, you’ll want to grow traffic and drive potential customers to your website. There are many ways to do this, and one important way is with Search Engine Optimization. Some make it sound easy, but SEO is a difficult and long-winded task. You’re essentially competing for visibility for your e-commerce website with hundreds (if not thousands) of your competitors.
Depending on the competitiveness of your industry, you may be able to maintain sufficient SEO strategies in-house. But for many companies and industries, this is not the case. You’ll need to either outsource and have a company representative manage the outsourced tasks, or you’ll need to hire a reputable consultant who can handle most, or better yet, all of the work autonomously.
When hiring a SEO consultant, there are a few key things you should always look for:
Ask for a list of current and/or past SEO clients.
You’ll want to see what kind of work they are capable of and you should aim to be impressed. They may not be able to provide specific analytics, but you should be able to gauge their ability to improve rankings and their ability to expand the potential audience.
What’s their SEO strategy for your company?
You should avoid hiring search engine optimization consultants who refuse to discuss their methods. They should be able to offer a detailed plan on their strategy to grow your search engine presence. The should also be able to offer at least some semblance of a timeline for results.
Do they adhere to webmaster guidelines?
Make sure you bring on an expert SEO consultant who abides strictly to Google’s publicly posted webmaster best practices guidelines. By using tactics that are against the rules, you risk being stuck with low search rankings and demotions. In some cases, Google can even ban your website.
Do they guarantee page one rankings?
Avoid anyone that guarantees you page one rankings on Google, Bing, or Yahoo. This is a guarantee that even the best SEO company can not make because they don’t control the search engine algorithms. Also avoid anyone that says they have insider knowledge or a relationship with Google of any kind.
How will they measure & report improvements?
Every SEO consultant should have a way to gauge and measure their success. They should show results of the work they are putting in. They should be experienced in Google Analytics or a similar tool with which they will track success or decline.
These are just a few helpful questions that will help you choose the perfect SEO consultant. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, you’ll achieve the results you want and you’ll see your e-commerce business succeed and reach its full potential.
