Forge Search Marketing

Demand Results From Your SEO Company

After having sat through several sales pitches, conference calls, meetings, proposals, and other tedious tasks that companies and managers often deal with to select an SEO company, it is only fair that you demand results. We have spoken a lot of companies that used SEOs in the past only to find that behind that expensive contract and fancy looking “report”, there was absolutely no information of substance, nor was ROI excruciatingly tracked.

Just like when investing in any marketing campaign, results should be tracked in order to determine the ROI of that campaign and see how it compares to other endeavors you and your company are engaging in to drive sales. You wouldn’t spend $5000 on a radio advertisement and not see how many leads or sales you received from it, would you? Similarly, you do not want to spend $10,000 on an SEO campaign only for them to say, “Oh yeah, things are going great! Traffic is up 200%!”

Establish KPIs and Hold Them To It!

In the initial discussions with the SEO practitioner(s), you need to establish Key Performance Indicators that will be tracked and measured on a consistent basis. Tracking organic rankings and traffic is not enough. If you are selling a product or service online, obviously leads and sales are KPIs that you want to track – after all, that IS why you are employing an SEO, is it not? Also, keep in mind that you may need to discuss conversion rate optimization versus search engine optimization and see which part of your online presence needs the most emphasis to increase your bottom line the most efficiently. As we’ve said before, there is no point in driving traffic if the problematic issue is a poorly designed website or landing page.

After having decided on the KPIs you want to track, hold the SEO company to it and demand results. You are more than likely spending a considerable amount to get your website where it needs to be when it comes to being found and you need to make sure that money is being spent effectively. If anything seems shady on your reports, ask questions. Ensure that both you and your SEO practitioner are tracking conversions on your website and make sure you know where your traffic is coming from. Compare notes and don’t be duped into believing that they are doing excellent work just because they say so!