Hiring a St Louis SEO Firm
Posted by David Kley, on July 2, 2014
Hiring a St Louis SEO firm can be a difficult task. As a company owner, you have to decide what is the best fit for your advertising, optimization and marketing needs. With so many companies claiming to be a local SEO expert, how do you know who to hire for your search marketing? First, SEO is not a cut and paste type of service, and finding the right SEO company to handle your website optimization can be the difference between being on page one, and not being relevant in consumer searches. Web Design and Company constantly gets asked "What makes your SEO company better than the competition?" Well, sometimes we are, sometimes were not. If your company is looking for quick fixes to rise to the top of search results, we may not be the best fit for that type of SEO management. Our strategies are both short and long term, focused on providing sustainable rankings for your St Louis business. We have put together a brief list of what you should look for when hiring a St Louis SEO firm, and how to judge if the company you are hiring is a good fit.
Is The SEO Firm Local?
Having a local company manage your SEO does make a difference. In our 12 years of search marketing, clients have come to us with all types of problems. One of them that is consistent is the lack of location familiarity. Hiring a large out of state SEO company to take care of your marketing needs takes away the personal investment, and the in-depth understanding of the local scene. For example: If you discussed the following St Louis areas: University City, Delmar, Soulard, Clayton, Ladue, Kirkwood, Ballwin, St Charles or Brentwood, would an out of town company really know the difference between them? Would they know the upscale nature of Clayton and Brentwood, vs. the artistic environment of U City and Delmar?
Knowing the locale of your audience can be key when properly targeting your user base. A user searching for a certain type of service within an area already has an idea of what they expect to see when your website loads. Does your website's design fit your user's expectations? More importantly, does your SEO firm understand that?
Do They Care About Your Success?
Ever had this happen? You call for an edit or with a concern about the rankings of your website. The person you are speaking to agrees to take care of your edits, or to address the aspects of your SEO concern. You get off the phone happy and hopeful that your concerns were heard, and that the problem will be taken care of soon. Days or even weeks later, nothing. Your ranking is stagnant, or your edit is not completed. Ever had your SEO firm not pick up or return your phone call to begin with?
If this has happened to you, you wouldn't be the first. Being a number on a long list of clients can be frustrating. Depending upon the firm handling your SEO, it may be days or weeks before your account is updated, due to a large client base, lack of optimization skill, or high workload. At Web Design and Company, we have a personal interest in your success. Having your website ranking high allows our SEO geeks the chance to do what they love most: Outranking your competition and showing off their skills. Our success and happiness is based around your results, and we extend every white-hat SEO method learned in our 12 years of experience to get you where you want to be.
Do They Have A Good Track Record
Making your own SEO website rank high in search results can be easy. After spending hours each day enhancing your content, generating backlinks, and promoting your brand through social media search engines are sure to take notice. But what happens when you have to make that happen for a client? What if you have 10 clients, all needing advanced SEO services, and a large time investment?
Seeing through the facade put up by small time SEO firms is difficult, as you are only looking at a website that hides the true nature of their business. If you look at the top ranking companies in St Louis SEO, you can see that they are small, one-man companies incapable of handling a large client base. If you are familiar with the local SEO scene, you would also see that these companies rose to the top of results within the past 4 months. Before that, they were nowhere to be seen. At Web Design and Company, we have held a first page ranking (usually multiple listings on the same page) for over 4 years. Knowing what is a quick fix, and what is sustainable can be the difference between ranking fast, and long term marketing success. Want to meet our staff? Head on over to our company staff page to see who you will be working with.
Do They Fit Your Business Model?
At your place of business, you have set standards and guidelines for all your employees and staff. These have been put in place to maintain your quality and customer service. You should think of your SEO firm in the same way, as an extension of your business. Communication and assigning tasks should be as simple as communicating with your own staff, and also share the same goals of furthering the company's success. Your SEO firm should take into consideration your company history, and find a way of making that applicable to users. Ever wonder why you find certain companies more "trustworthy" than others, simply by looking at their website and ranking position?
Do They Understand Sustainable SEO?
Last but not least, does the SEO firm really hold an in-depth understanding of search marketing, social ranking signals and ranking factors? Do they understand Webmaster Tools, Authorship, Analytics, Content Optimization and PPC? As with any advertising service, everyone claims to be an expert. Being able to separate who is a true authority on local and national SEO and who is just "in it for the thrill" will have a direct effect on your ranking position's sustainability.
We want to help you with your ranking goals and website ambitions. This isn't the part of the page where we try to convince you we are the best SEO company in the world, and throw a bunch of marketing speak your way. If you are still reading this, you have probably been looking for a company like ours. Let's get in touch, and see if we are a good fit. Call us at 314-499-8253 or if you are the strong silent type, use our contact form. We genuinely look forward to helping your business succeed online.