Marketing services

A few years ago, not many people understood the purpose of using search engine optimization strategies for a business’s website. After all, Google can simply find a local business on its own, right?

It turns out that that’s not exactly the case. Google makes up at least 65 to 70% of the search engine market share, because 93% of all internet users will start their usage with a search engine, they’re most likely to head to Google. Businesses that don’t have sites optimized to show up in Google’s keyword search results, however, won’t get discovered by the average consumer.

What’s a small business to do? It turns out that hiring a search marketing company is more necessary than ever before these days. In addition to seeking quality website design services and using techniques like email marketing, businesses also need to make sure that they can get to page one for their desired search terms.

By hiring a search marketing company to handle their search engine optimization services, they should have access to a number of marketing and website consulting benefits that can bring more high-quality leads. The first trick, however, is ensuring that that business is getting the best SEO services that they can receive.

What should small businesses expect from an SEO company? Here are three features that they won’t want to miss out on.

  • Easy-to-understand reporting tools: Business owners who need to stick to a budget need to be able to measure the ROI of their SEO. That is, they want to see a return on their investment by monitoring the changes in their organic website visits and search term rankings. A quality SEO agency should be transparent about how they analyze this data and where that businesses links end up.

  • High-quality link placement: Back in the days when SEO used to be about the quantity of links, it was possible for businesses to buy hundreds or even thousands of links from an SEO agency. That might have tricked Google’s rankings for some time, but eventually it led to sweeping algorithm changes for the search engine that actually punished sites that used these tactics. Today’s SEO is about the quality of the link, so the domain authority of each website linking to a business’s website is now measured by Google. The higher the authority, the more reputable a link — and a business — appear to be. A good SEO firm should be able to deliver high quality links rather than thousands of poor quality, spammy ones.

  • Content, pay-per-click advertising, design, and other bonuses: Contrary to popular belief, SEO isn’t just about number-crunching and data. It also has to do with having a well-designed advertising campaign that is diversified across the web. Businesses should ask their agency about the branding and advertising strategies that they use to get great links and get the word out about that business.

Have more questions about gaining leads and having a well-optimized website? Be sure to speak to a search marketing company about how you can see quality SEO results for your small business.