Top 10 questions to ask your SEO provider?

<h3 style=”transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out 0s;”> n n Are you a business owner looking to engage the services of a SEO provider? How do you choose and compare different SEO providers?n n</h3> n<div style=”transition: none 0s ease 0s; display: block;” data-rss-type=”text”> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Irrespective of the way you found the SEO company be it referral or a friend of a friend, it is very important to ask your SEO providers the right set of questions, so that you as a business owner can take well informed decisions. Ultimately it is your business and right providers can give it wings. We have prepared a list of Top 10 Questions to ask your SEO Providers.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <ol> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n Do you adhere to search engines webmaster guidelines?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n Can you guarantee #1 rank on Google?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n Who will have the ownership of online properties you create?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n What if our site gets penalized because of your actions?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n Will you share with us all the changes you make to our website?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n Will you work with my direct competitors?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n How do you plan to do link building?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n Reporting – when &amp; how often?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n How do you measure the success of a SEO campaign?n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”font-weight: bolder; display: initial;”> n n Anything else you are concerned about?n n </span> n </li> n </ol> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Let us look at each of these questions in detail and which answers will be the most beneficial for your business.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <br/> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q1: Do you adhere to search engine’s webmaster guidelines?n n </span> n </h2> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </h2> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n To understand the correct answer to this question, you first need to understand what are search engine’s webmaster guidelines? In simple terms, they are policies created by search engines and are applicable to their respective search engine only. Each search engine has their own set of policies which they refer to. This policy set is known as webmaster guidelines. So Google will have its own set of policies, Bing will have its own set and so on. Search engines often update the policies on their websites and it is expected that SEOs know and are aware of webmaster guidelines.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n What will happen if your SEO provider violates these guidelines? Violation of search engine guidelines can result in your site not ranking well, or your site being completely removed from search engines index, resulting in your customer not being able to find your business. This is often referred to as search engine penalties. Here is a link to the webmaster guidelines for most popular search engines.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <ul> n <li> n <a href=”https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/webmaster-guidelines” target=”_blank” style=”display: initial;”> n n Google Webmaster Guidelinesn n </a> n </li> n <li> n <a href=”https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a” target=”_blank” style=”display: initial;”> n n Bing Webmaster Guidelinesn n </a> n </li> n </ul> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n As a business owner it is absolutely critical that everybody working on your website absolutely follows search engine’s webmaster guidelines to avoid being penalised by search engines.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Q2: Can you guarantee #1 rank on Google?n n </span> n </h2> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Search engines like Google &amp; Bing considers a variety of factors to rank webpages. Google uses over 200 signals to decide which page ranks where. Nobody can guarantee #1 rank on Google. You should be wary of providers that allege a special relationship with Google or priority submit to Google. All these are red flags and you should move away now. There is no priority for anything and all the services for all search engines are at no cost to businesses. The only time they charge money is for paid advertisements, which is completely different to organic rankings.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q3: Who will have the ownership of online properties you create?n n </span> n </h2> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n As a part of normal SEO process, sometimes SEO providers need to create online properties on behalf of their clients or they can take control of your existing online properties to ensure they are setup correctly. For example, in case a business does not have a Google My Business listing (yes it is rare, but still), your SEO provider might create it for you; this Google My Business listing then becomes one of your online properties.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Whilst all of these are legitimate business processes, what needs to be understood is what happens to these online properties once the relationship ends. The online properties can be valid legal entities and all representation made online is made on behalf of the business. So it becomes absolutely critical that the business also has the ownership of all online properties. In an ideal scenario:n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <ul> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n your SEO providers can create the business entities but they should do so using your email addresses as the primary owner.n n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n then you as a business owner can give them access rights, less the ability to delete the property or change ownership.n n </span> n </li> n </ul> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q4: What if our site gets penalized because of your actions?n n </span> n </h2> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Once a site is penalised by search engines, it can take months for the penalty to be removed and it is still not guaranteed which violation caused the penalty in the first place. Simply speaking any violation of the search engines webmaster guidelines can result in penalties. So to rightly identify the penalty the webmaster guidelines needs to be checked for each page of your website.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Penalties can result is loss of business and loss to your business brand and can have far reaching effects on your business. In such a scenario it is extremely important to clearly define the responsibilities of your SEO providers and the consequences of their actions.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <br/> n </p> n <p style=”line-height: 1.5;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q5: Will you share with us all the changes you make to the website?n n </span> n </h2> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Your website is the online representation of your business. Be it brick or mortar store, a professional office, online presence of your brand or anything else. Any representation made online is made for the business, so it is absolutely critical that any statements or claims are made properly and correctly represented align with your business.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Your customers trust you for all the representations made and expect you to deliver on those representations. In best cases all changes that are made online must be pre-approved by the business owners or responsible stake holders and must be clearly documented.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q6: Will you work with my direct competitors?n n </span> n </h2> n <p style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Each business can have its own set of online and offline competitors. In the best interest of the business it is very important to find a provider that does not work with the direct competitors for that business. Imagine your SEO provider is trying to rank both you and your direct competitor at the same time for the same set of keywords, they cannot do justice to your business. To get the best possible results for your campaign, it is absolutely critical you find a provider that does not work with your direct competitors whilst working on your business. There is no way to fully ensure this and the best possible way is to ensure you take written undertakings.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <br/> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q7: How do you plan to do link building?n n </span> n </h2> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Search engines like Google use links on other sites to find your website. They also use these links as a part of their ranking signals. Good quality websites with good quality content have links pointing to them. SEO providers often do link building to increase the reach of your website. Your website link building should not be measured in the number of links you have, instead it should be measured on the number of quality links that you receive. For example, if you supply to the government a single link as a supplier from the government website is of more value than 100s of low quality links. The same goes for news papers, industry associations, chambers of commerce etc.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Submitting to directories, blog commenting, etc are all examples of poor link building techniques and should be avoided at all costs. The other downside of poor link building is that your site can get penalised because of poor link building.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <br/> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q8: Reporting – when &amp; how often?n n </span> n </h2> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n As with any campaign, it is necessary to have clear and easy to understand reports. The reports do not have to be fancy as long as they include important pieces of information. A basic report should absolutely include:n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <ul> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Starting rankingsn n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Current rankings across major search enginesn n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n All the work done including on page &amp; off page optimisation with date &amp; timestampsn n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Proposed work for the following monthsn n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Traffic reportsn n </span> n </li> n <li> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Can include data from Google Search Console, Bing Webmasters, Google My Business, etc.n n </span> n </li> n </ul> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Any information that is ambiguous or general in nature, should be avoided. Along with the information that needs to be included, it is also important to know when will be reports be sent out, in what format they will be sent and how often they will be sent.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: bolder;”> n n We recommend reporting at least monthly reports in PDF formats with information to be able to check the reports.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <br/> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q9: How do you measure the success of a SEO campaign?n n </span> n </h2> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Before the start of the SEO campaign, as a business owner it is very important for you to identify what concludes a successful campaign. Is it rankings, leads, conversions or anything else.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n At the same time it is also very important to align your businesses campaign success parameters to match with your providers success parameters. This way, you can be rest assured that your SEO provider is working in the right direction to achieve the objectives for you.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <br/> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <span> n n n n </span> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <h2 style=”line-height: 1;”> n <span style=”display: initial; font-weight: var(–e-global-typography-primary-font-weight);”> n n Q10: Anything else you are concerned about?n n </span> n </h2> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n <br/> n </span> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n Use this section to ask your SEO provider about any questions or concerns you may have now, during or after the campaign. Your SEO provider should be able to provide you answers to all your questions and concerns before, during &amp; after the campaign. As a business owner, you have full right to ask as many questions as you may have and it is the duty of the SEO provider to answer them.n n </span> n </p> n <p> n <br/> n </p> n <p> n <span style=”display: initial;”> n n I hope you find this information helpful, should you have any questions related to this blog, please let us know and we will get back to you.n n </span> n </p> n</div>

About Pulkit Agrawal

Pulkit Agrawal is the founder and managing director of UR Digital. Pulkit has over 15 years experience in SEO for small, medium and some large sites globally. Today he leads the SEO team at UR Digital. He is also an Advisor at Realise Business for Digital Solutions (formerly ASBAS), Top 50 Small Business Leader 2022 and Top 20 Australian Digital Marketers To Work With in 2022. When not helping with SEO, Pulkit can be found playing and building his Monopoly empire.