Hiring an SEO agency can feel a bit mysterious. Business owners not familiar with search engine optimization strategies might not always understand what they’re paying an agency to do. While you certainly don’t need to know all the details, you will want a general understanding of how SEO works.
Let’s take a look at what specific strategies and techniques an SEO agency will use to boost your brand.
The Importance of Customized Strategies
There’s no one set of strategies used to optimize a site. Instead, the SEO agency will help you develop both long and short-term strategies based on your specific needs. One of the first steps in creating an SEO plan is to define clear goals.
Optimization strategies don’t show results overnight. You might not see significant results until six months or even a year after implementation. Clear, specific goals help you measure results.
An SEO agency will help you analyze your online business and develop goals. Maybe your products sell well, but not many people know about your brand? Increasing your brand’s social media presence and guest posting is a great way to build brand awareness. Maybe site traffic is high, but conversions are low? Developing a customer profile and conversion funnel will help increase sales.
Are Your Current Optimization Strategies Working?
Once your goals have been determined, your SEO agency will take a look at the current strategies being used on your site. Are those strategies helping you meet your goals?
There are a ton of SEO techniques available. You might have a great system in place for boosting brand awareness, but your goal is to increase conversions. An SEO agency will make sure the techniques used match your goals.
If you’re just starting a partnership with a new SEO agency, you might think your site will be rebuilt from the ground up. But that’s not always the case. A good SEO agency will keep what’s working while adjusting what isn’t.
Common Strategies
While the SEO strategies used will be unique to your brand, there are quite a few general strategies which are likely to be implemented. Here are some common examples:
HTTPS or HTTP/2 Upgrade
Data is sent between a browser and a website using Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, more commonly known as HTTP. Unfortunately, HTTP is not considered secure. Your SEO agency will upgrade your site to HTTPS, which is the secure version of the protocol.
HTTPS has two benefits. First, potential customers feel more comfortable visiting a secure site. This is especially important when users are entering personal and financial info. Using HTTPS also helps increase your site’s position in the search engines.
True Mobile Optimization
Roughly 60% of all internet searches are conducted with a mobile device. Mobile optimization should be a major goal for basically every website.
True mobile optimization involves both design and content. The site needs a responsive design which is easy to navigate on a smart device. The site also needs content which is displayed appropriately on mobile devices. Content originally created for desktop might need to be re-written to fit the needs of mobile users.
The Three Types of SEO
A professional SEO agency will focus on the three main categories of SEO:
On-Page Optimization
Keywords, internal links and other content directly on your page.
Off-Page Optimization
Social media pages, advertisement and other content such as guest posting which increases brand awareness and drives traffic.
Technical Optimization
This includes all the behind-the-scenes functions such as site speed, mobile friendliness, HTML/XML sitemaps and more.
If traditional SEO strategies aren’t leading to an increase in traffic and conversions, the fault often lies in technical SEO. Your SEO agency will check into these commonly under-optimized technical areas:
Schema Markup
This structured data helps search engines categorize your pages.
Link Structure
This one’s a bit unknown. If two different links exist as the same page, search engines will consider it duplicate content.
For instance, your marketing newsletter might include a link to a product page. But your Facebook page also includes a link to that same product page. These two links will be flagged as duplicate content. SEO professionals will be able to create effective marketing campaigns without accidental penalties.
Final Thoughts
Not everything an SEO agency does is easy to see. Plus, some of the technical aspects can be difficult to understand at first.
You want to work with SEO pros who are dedicated to your needs. They should be easy to reach. Also, they should be committed to always keeping you in the know. Your SEO agency should identify clear, understandable goals for your business – and then implement strategies to achieve them.
Check out What Does an SEO Agency Do? for more information on finding the right agency for your needs.
Interested in learning more about how the Snap Agency uses on-page, off-page and technical optimization strategies to take your business to the next level? We’re always happy to explain how we can help!