Summary: <br> How to reach out to Ruth Burr Reedy:<br> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthburr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> </a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ruthburr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> </a> <a href="https://www.upbuild.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a><br> Can you trust your SEO company?<br> Ruth Burr Reedy helps you navigate the flash and promises of SEO companies when trying to hire a SEO service agency for your business. Ruth brings 12 years of digital marketing to the table, including two years at Moz leading Inbound Marketing and now works with <a href="https://www.upbuild.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UpBuild</a>. On <a href="https://dev01.sureoak.com/podcasts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this week’s episode</a>, she explains what you need to know internally before you even start looking, why SEO guarantees are not as good as they seem, and the top three places to start looking for an SEO company.<br> WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU LOOK<br> You hear that SEO is important. Everyone should do SEO. Right?<br> So, you’re looking to hire an SEO agency.<br> The very first step is not an external one. The first step is to ask yourself:<br> Why?<br> Many companies feel they need an SEO agency because of the buzz around it. Yes, <a href="https://dev01.sureoak.com/seo-best-practices-techniques/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SEO is an essential digital marketing tool</a>, but you need to know what you want to get out of it.<br> Ruth offers three questions to ask yourself before you look when hiring an SEO company:<br> <br> * What are you trying to do?<br> * How are you going to know if it’s working?<br> * What’s your budget?<br> <br> You may want to increase revenue, drive traffic, or <a href="https://dev01.sureoak.com/event-marketing/">promote an event</a>. “The better the idea you have of what you really want out of the engagement, the more successful the entire engagement will be,” explains Ruth. If you want to see your SEO score today, try our <a href="https://dev01.sureoak.com/tools/seo-checker-analysis-tool/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SEO checkup tool,</a> from our <a href="https://dev01.sureoak.com/seo-tools" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">suite of free SEO tools</a>.<br> When it comes to the timeline, remember that <a href="https://dev01.sureoak.com/seo-ranking-factors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SEO is a long game</a>. It may take months to see results. In Ruth’s experience, the first three months are agency research, auditing, and coming up with recommendations. Then, a launch date is set for when the company implements the recommendations. Once live, it may be a couple months before you start seeing SEO results.<br> Results may come sooner, but not always. “There’s a reason why a lot of agencies will not do an engagement for less than 6 months.” It’s difficult for SEO companies to demonstrate value on a shorter timeline than half a year.<br> TOP 4 RED FLAGS FOR SEO COMPANIES<br> When you’re hiring an SEO company, there are four things you have to be seriously wary of:<br> 1. Guaranteed rankings<br> This red flag might seem surprising, but Ruth explains that there’s a good reason why the best SEO companies won’t make ranking guarantees:<br> “Google is a third party, no one has control over that.”<br> Companies can guarantee #1 rankings, but they won’t be valuable rankings. “I can get you a #1 ranking tomorrow. It’ll be for ‘I love brand new cheap carpet’. You’ll get 1 click a month, but technically, it’s a #1 ranking. It’s not going to make you any money.”<br> 2. Vanity metrics<br> Vanity metrics make you feel good. It’s a nice company ego boost to rank higher, get a link from a cool website, or see increased traffic.<br> However, unless those metric changes bring in money (or other value), it’s not a good return.
