SEO agency – is it worth using its services?
Probably most people interested in Internet marketing have heard the acronym. What does SEO mean?? It's an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization, which means optimizing websites for search engines. It is a profession that you can do yourself or use the services of a specialized agency. Is it worth spending money on SEO agency?
What is SEO and what does it do?
As the website explains whitepress.pl The foundation of good SEO is SEO optimization. So the task of SEO is precisely positioning a website through its optimization. This is especially important in understanding what this field of marketing is and what its purpose is.
Who is a SEO specialist, what does he do?
SEO specialists, also known as positioners are responsible for nothing but your position. The thing is that not only in search engines, because it also correlates with the condition of your business in general. Not so long ago, before the pandemic, this was not so obvious, but now that most businesses have moved to the Internet, the competition has grown even more. How positioners achieve their goals? Many people associate positioning with writing texts for appropriate keywords. While they get a lot of things right, it's really a small part of what the industry's experts.
What in addition to keywords?
The positioning of web pages is greatly influenced by their content. Search engine algorithms analyze websites using crawlers, which They index it on the web. Ultimately, this procedure is to test content for merit and its usefulness to users. Hence the essence of keywords, which are designed to help the reader find interesting information. So far the most important thing on the page were words, but Alphabet is constantly changing the rules of the game, which only exquisite connoisseurs of the subject –positioners know.
In addition to optimizing for keywords, they are responsible for architecture of the whole website, which is most often based on format XML maps.
In addition, they pay attention to the whole link-building tactics, which effectively helps to build topical authority of the page, or what in Polish we would call its expertise. The linking scheme itself is also essential to track.
Dofollow links from valuable sources, nofollow links for repetition and unnecessary noise, 404 errors, 301 redirects i removing old or broken links. This is the essence of actions based on linking, but it is not everything.
There are entities that deliberately underrank their competitors by pasting their anchor content to low-value and spammy sources. The positioner's job is to track down and neutralize such activity.
Positioners also often decide how the page looks in general. The construction of the domain bar or the appearance of the source code also falls under SEO processes. Positioners determine what the link structure should look like so that it is attractive to both the search engine and the audience. They plug it into "analytics" and are able to measure its journey and effectiveness.
Analytics is something that specialists in this profession do not part with for a moment. They have to use it to measure the effectiveness of their actions. It is important that SEO actions do not give immediate effects, and the first fruits of an effective strategy may be visible even after many months of its implementation. However positioners know what they are doing, and that is because they keep their hand on the pulse, thanks to tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console, Ahrefs whether Semrush.
SEOs are also responsible for the parameters of page load speed, performance or security. They make sure that it has appropriate protocols, such as. SSL or TSL, but also to ensure that the page was not loaded with multimedia, which would affect its low responsiveness. So they take care of their compression and embedding in order for the bots to understand what they are dealing with (most algorithms understand only words). In 2021 – the year when they started to pay special attention to cybersecurity – they also introduced CWV indicator, the measurement responsible for responsiveness, security issues or encryption of the link.
What SEO agency does?
SEO agency saves its clients a lot of time, because it deals professionally with what they would have to devote all their time to. SEO services are not cheap, but the effects it brings are more than paid back. It all depends on what the client wants from the agency. The agency has a host of positioners who can accelerate the strategy at a significant pace, and even then, this strategy can be very long and sometimes even cumbersome. Specialists must pay attention to ranking factors, which include: user experience, links and mobile friendliness.
For Google, apart from the pages that look according to their expectations, the most important thing is how users behave on them. Hence, if the content is engaging, and users wander around our domain, so the bots will interpret it positively for our position.
Of course content marketing strategy can also be outsourced to an agency. The agency is also responsible for organizing an appropriate strategy of generating and acquiring links, as well as running appropriate "engines" on the website, that will allow it to perform optimally on tablets or smartphones, especially as mobile eats an ever larger piece of the pie.
SEO audit?
An audit is a document that helps determine the state of our positioning, which is the result of all the factors mentioned earlier. The agency is supposed to make such a document so that it knows where its potential client stands, and also so that it knows what strategy it should adopt to help it.
Don't forget about Off-Page SEO!
The obvious are the agency activities called On-Page SEO. As the name suggests, these are activities on the website, links, keywords, titles, meta descriptions, tags, xml and other technicalities.
The agency also has the means to go beyond this strict framework of these activities. These can also focus beyond a particular web domain. – Specialists can, for example, influence SEO by arranging relevant content, graphics and video on external sites.
They are also able to combine SEO with the rules of communication and image building in the network, which is the responsibility of Public Relations. – PR in combination with SEO constitutes SERM, i.e Search Engine Reputation Management. These are activities that cumulate the e-publisher's penchant for expert content and the positioner's drive to elevate it to the top of the user panel.
Among the most effective agency options is the use of marketing outreach. Outreach is, in the case of SEO, the search for relevant sites, people and institutions that can promote our content and products as an audience and influencer. It is something like SEO Influencer. They also do a great job sponsored articles, that agencies can enforce with greater ease than individual users.
Is it worth spending money on an SEO agency?
The answer, as always, is that it depends. Of course not everyone will need such a service, as many of the SEO services can be done by ourselves. However, it requires a lot of perseverance and time to perform actions, the effects of which we may not see for months, and in case of improper actions we may never see them or even harm ourselves. If we care about appearing in a high position, getting more traffic to our website or strengthening our image on the web, choosing the right SEO agency may turn out to be indispensable. It is worth taking this opportunity to look at the profile of the agency, its portfolio and reviews of satisfied or less satisfied clients. SEO specialists are also usually specialists in paid search results, so they will certainly know what positioning strategy to choose in our case.
SEO is not a cheap service, it does not bring quick results, and a lot of specialists are charlatans, which can effectively depreciate this field. Nevertheless, for the sake of our site, we should at least think about optimization if we want to have any relevance on the web.
A good position in the search engine will bring us great financial and image results, which positioners also know. – The cost of writing a blog entry may cost even 250 PLN. Publishing a valuable link costs from PLN 200 upwards. So these data alone show that positioning is not cheap at all, if we need such texts and links several times a month. Not to mention the additional costs associated with running a strategy –explains Anna Jaroszewska, Head of Content Marketing in White Press.
