What are good tests to propose different SEO agencies when you're trying to vet them?
-
We are trying to narrow down our SEO agency list and I was told to propose 5 different tests. I'm not sure where to start. I also want these tests to help me understand what these companies can do for mine.
-
Thank you!!! These questions are golden! I agree. It's important to see if they have a good understanding of how to measure and track our goals. We ultimately want to make sure that our investment in an SEO agency has a good ROI. Thanks again! I appreciate all of the help!
-
Another great answer, asking about Google Data Studio knowledge is also beneficial
-
I think that someone on your team should have a good understanding of Analytics. If SEO and tracking is important to you then you should have someone internally that can vet the process the agency is using. But if you don't, then I would ask a few additional questions. to the one's above.
"Now that you have an understanding of what we do as a company, what are some of the tracking goals you feel we need to be measuring going forward?"
"Besides Google Analytics, what other tools do you use to help track progress and metrics?"
"Do you have a Google Analytics certification and when was the last time it was updated?"
"Do you offer custom dashboards so we can look at an overview in "real time" vs just when we meet?"
"How often are metrics updated?"
"Can you show us an example of some custom reports or Analytics setup you've done recently?"
Things like this. What's really going to be the determining factor is how comfortable you are and how much you actually trust the person giving the info. The good and bad thing about analytics is that it's straight forward. There is no "secret sauce" per se. So you may very well get the same sort of answers from each of the agencies. I have a phrase I tell people all the time, "Always go with the guy you feel you can trust and whom you feel will do everything in their power to get it right if something goes wrong."
You'll also want to find out if they "interpret data". Having tracking setup is one thing, but being able to give you recommendations on what sort of content to write or what to expect from the data is key. I would ask questions that pry some of that out of them.
"What sort of recommendations have you made in the past based on the data you've found inside of Analytics?"
"Describe a time when you had bad news for the company you worked with and how did you help them overcome it?"
Hope that helps.
-
Hi Darin,
Do you know of a way I can test SEO agencies when it comes to their technical acumen? My boss wants to vet companies against each other, but I'm at a loss when it comes to proposing SEO "tests."
-
Any time. Feel free to comment on this post if you have any further questions and I'll be happy to help.
-
Hi Darin,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful response! That was very beneficial! I will definitely be including these questions in my next steps. Appreciate the help!
-
Thanks.
-
This is an extremely good, detailed answer
-
One thing that is important is to see how they track their activities/success. I'm finding more and more SEO agencies are not very versed in Analtyics, goal tracking and balancing busy work vs productive work.
A lot of the questions I ask are based on where you currently are in your website project?
Do they have a process for tracking the amount of work going into the project on a monthly basis? How will the two of you define success? What is their content process? What is their overall philosophy on link building? How do you analyze the data and report it to us? How often will we meet to go over the data?
What case studies or references can they present? Have they done work in your specific field before? Do they have other clients you may be competing with?
What is their onboarding process like? How long does it take to really ramp up the project? How many hours per month or how many resources will be allocated to our project from the agency? How are turnaround times for questions that we have along the way? Who will be our account manager? How much time do you need from our internal team to help with your efforts?
Is there a contract? If so, what is the opt out policy if we feel the work isn't being done? How long is the contract? Does the contract itemize what is being done on a monthly basis?
I personally don't know of a test but these are questions I would ask. I would want to make sure the team handling my website is VERY versed in analytics and tracking. I think this is very overlooked by many companies whom hire agencies.
I haven't watched the video in a while but I know Rand did a whiteboard Friday on this a few years back. Link attached to the Moz video.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Image scale Error On page seo
I Have an Image Scale Error in Gtmetrix how to solve it which is the best way to solve it I tried many ways but it's not working.
On-Page Optimization | | AlexSmithh0 -
Paying someone for SEO help?
Moz has been very helpful but since my site was hit by Google Panda and I am getting very little organic traffic, I am thinking about having someone who really knows SEO take a look and give me some help. However, I have no idea how to find someone reputable. Any advice for hiring someone for SEO help (on a budget?)
On-Page Optimization | | 2bloggers0 -
SEOmoz and Wordpress SEO plugin
I made a lot of changes with Wordpress SEO by Yoast before I signed up with SEOmoz. But SEOmoz doesn't seem to see those changes. I am still being told I have multiple meta descriptions. I don't know why but SEOmoz is seeing the default meta description and not the one I wrote using the Yoast plugin. How can I get SEOmoz to see those changes? Edit: Google has not updated all the changes I made with Wordpress SEO.
On-Page Optimization | | dealblogger0 -
Different Categories, Same Meta Description?
I've heard that having duplicate meta descriptions is bad for SEO and can even be the cause of penalties. However, a duplicate meta description would make sense for different categories on many sites. So I'm wondering what the best solution is for a case like this? One of my sites has around 150 topics, and each topic page is exactly the same, aside from including only things that are related to that specific topic. So why would I want to create 150 different meta descriptions? Not only is it time consuming, and nearly impossible to create 150 unique descriptions for the same type of content, but it also serves no purpose for visitors coming from the search engines. A logical approach would be to use the same meta description and just switch out the topics in the description... but then all of those descriptions would be 95% the same - and I imagine Google might see that as spam. So... suggestions?
On-Page Optimization | | JABacchetta0 -
SEO NEWBIE!!!
I am trying to get my website (and business) to the top of the search engines..just like everybody else here. 🙂 I have no idea what I am doing and I have to do this myself, because I do not have the extra money to hire somebody to do it for me. So, my question is... Where can I go to figure out how to do this? I don't know some of the "lingo" used. Like it slow crawled my sites and it wants me to fix a few things and I don't know what it is talking about. HELP!!! Becky
On-Page Optimization | | BeLaRouge0 -
Don't understand this ... :-(
Hello, I'm going nuts as I don't understand what's going on with this domain of a client. We have this classical htaccess redirect from http://domain.com to http://www.domain.com But I'm getting Page Authority for both domains, and the non-www, which shouldn't be crawled, is gettting higher PA .. http://www.myanamar.rundreisen.de - PA 34 http://myanamr-rundreisen.de - PA 36 I attach a file, you see there that google robot is recognizing the 301 redirecht from non-www to www ... But, the site isn't doing good at all in google, it seems the home page has a penalty ... duplicate content due to non-www and www home page? So it would be great if somebody has a hint for me ... my client is losing trust in me Thx! GbDC4.jpg
On-Page Optimization | | hgw570 -
Tool to creat a good XML sitemap
Hello lads, I need to creat a XML sitemap for a website so I can add to Google Webmaster and Bing Webmaster. What do you guys recommend? Tks in advance! PP
On-Page Optimization | | PedroM0 -
SEO Plugins for WordPress
Hi, Mozzers- I'm re-evaluating my SEO WordPress Plugins. What are your favorites and why? Are there others that you avoid and why? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | lhc672