One of the most common questions business owners ask themselves is, should I hire an SEO consultant or do my own SEO?
The driving force behind doing the work yourself is generally to save money, but is that a false saving? If it means you’re not getting the best use of your website, and you’re failing to attract new customers or a higher ranking, then you’re actually wasting money. Try Link placement service
If you can’t decide whether to hire an SEO consultant in 2019, ask yourself these questions:
If your answers are Yes, Yes, No, No, then you need an SEO consultant!
SEO is a Long Process: In order to work successfully, your SEO strategy needs to be constantly evolving to reflect both your business goals and the current market. SEO is not something you can simply dip into when you have the time.
Properly formulated and delivered, an SEO strategy is rolled out over an extended period. SEO content must be posted regularly and consistently to see sustained results.
SEO is Continually Evolving: This is not a sales pitch! The goalposts move on a daily basis, especially with Google’s increasingly frequent algorithm updates. Major algorithm updates, such as Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird, can drastically affect a business’s ranking overnight.
An SEO consultant has his or her finger on the pulse at all times and can quickly react to these damaging changes. They also know which updates you need to worry about, and those you don’t. It’s the knowledge and experience you need to keep your business on top.
The Right Tools for the Job: If you choose to run your own SEO strategy, you could pay out thousands of dollars for the right high-end tools. When you hire an SEO consultant, they already have everything needed to do the job – and they know how to use them.
Proven Results: Ask your SEO consultant to share success stories with you. SEO experts can show you that their methods work by producing proven results. Not only that, they will actively monitor your account to ensure you are achieving the best results.
More Attractive, User-Friendly Website: Yes, hiring the right SEO consultant will also improve the look and feel of your website. In order to fully understand your organisation, your product and your SEO needs, your consultant will carry out an SEO audit of your site. This will reveal any issues that are currently affecting your ranking.
The SEO audit will look at things like broken links, unnecessary coding, content and page speed. This will improve your ranking and attract more potential customers to your website.
Keeping Google Happy: Google is now the biggest search engine in the world and has a lot of power. In fact, when you think about it, Google can make or break your business. There are a whole lot of mistakes a website owner can make, that will negatively affect ranking.
A professional SEO consultant knows the mistakes not to make. For example, you need to avoid poor quality content, overuse of keywords, hidden text and links, plagiarism, repetition, blatantly commercial content and more. Your SEO consultant will ensure you use methods that are legitimate and acceptable to search engines.
Better Local Search: Never underestimate the power of Local Search. Done well, Local Search SEO will boost your customer numbers and therefore your sales. There are some simple ways to make Local Search work for your business, such as customizing your meta description tags, using online directories and citations, making better use of GMB (Google My Business), and optimizing your local reviews.
According to Google, 4 out of 5 shoppers use search engines to find local businesses. If your business isn’t listed correctly and consistently, you’re missing out on a huge sales opportunity.
As for those online reviews, nearly 85% of people they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. And it’s not hard to collect those reviews, either – you only have to ask! 7 out of 10 customers will oblige.
Value for Money: One of the main reasons you should hire an SEO consultant is value for money. Yes, you have to pay for their services but your return on investment will make it more than worthwhile.
Why? Because when SEO is done well it dramatically boosts your organic search results, which has to be better than relying on paid advertising.
Most SEO experts will recommend a mix of paid and organic promotion to ensure total coverage. However, a well written fully optimized blog will give you a far better ROI than a paid advert.
SEO in 2019: Ditch those bad habits; you will not get the results you desire if you simply stuff poor quality content full of single keywords. For starters, badly written content will affect your ranking. Secondly, the very nature of keywords has changed.
In the past, if you sold shoes, your main keyword would be ‘shoes’. With less people using the internet, and fewer competitors, that would have worked for you. Today, you not only have to compete with thousands of other shoe shops, but you’re dealing with a savvier internet user.
It’s all about the User Experience: your potential customer doesn’t want to land on a website and wade through endless pages of shoes to find what they want. Therefore, they will search for things like ‘black high heels’ or ‘men’s leather work boots’.
SEO in 2019 will focus more on the use of key phrases that better reflect what the shopper is searching for. SEO experts will concentrate on understanding your audience. What do they wish to buy? How do they like to view products? Do they prefer text or images? Do they like interaction?
This approach will ensure that your website delivers the best User Experience and attracts more customers. Who could ask for more?
BIO: Neil McNulty is the founder and owner of Suncoast Web Solutions. He has over 20 years’ experience working with business owners and organizations of various sizes. The areas of Neil’s experience and expertise include Internet Marketing, Website Development, Website Design and Website Hosting. When he isn’t working with customers he is either working on his own websites or with family.