Search engine optimization.
You’ve heard of it, you’ve heard of how useful it is for business, and you’re probably thinking of grabbing SEO services for yourself.
But unless you’re already familiar with how it works, you might be wondering…
“What does an SEO company do?”
Yes, they can get your website to rank higher in search engines.
And yes, they can bring a lot more traffic to your website.
But how?
What’s their process?
And should you grab their services?
In this article, we’re going to answer all those questions and more.
We’re taking you on an inside tour of what goes on in an SEO company.
Let’s dive in!
To understand what an SEO company does, it only makes sense to understand what SEO is first.
We took a quick look at this in our 5-minute guide to SEO, but let’s take a look at the basics once more.
SEO aims to push your website up search engine rankings for relevant keywords and bring more organic traffic into your website.
To get that, SEO companies use all types of strategies.
There’s a lot of work that goes into turning a poor website into one with excellent search engine optimization.
It involves everything from the content, to the graphics, to the code. It even involves outside influences like links.
Sound daunting?
Well, don’t worry, because we’re going to break down everything for you.
Alright, so what does an SEO company do again?
Let’s take a step-by-step look.
Everything starts somewhere.
For SEO companies, creating an SEO masterplan all begins with an audit.
Before an SEO agency can go in and optimize your site, they have to know what they’re dealing with first.
Most of the time, SEO companies don’t have to build a website from scratch. That’s why an audit is always the first step.
Quick note: if you’d like a FREE professional SEO audit on your website, sign up here!
To do this, good SEO companies use two methods: their eyes and their tools.
With years of expertise in what makes a good website, SEO experts can spot imperfections and errors in a website immediately.
An optimized website is there to serve its visitors and keep guests for as long as possible.
There are multiple ways to do this. And an SEO audit by the professionals will show you any way that your website is turning away potential customers.
But it’s more than just that.
SEO companies also use SEO tools to help them.
You see, there is a lot more than meets the eye.
With powerful SEO tools like Ahrefs, a good SEO company can pull out all the technical errors in your website.
If an SEO agency promises to bring you all the traffic in the world without doing an audit first, be wary!
What they’ll do may or may not work for you.
You see, with SEO, nothing is set in stone.
Every business and every website needs a different solution.
And you can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s broken!
That’s why a good SEO company will always do a comprehensive audit before doing anything else.
Important note:
ALWAYS talk with your SEO company before getting their services.
There are six essential questions you’ll want to ask before choosing one.
You want to give the SEO company you’re working with as much information about your business as possible.
Why?
Because every business is going to need a completely different SEO plan.
We always say this, but it never gets old:
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to SEO services.
The SEO services an SEO company provides for one business is going to look completely different from another.
That’s why the planning stage of SEO services is critical.
Without proper planning, you’ll either not get any results or waste a lot of time and money on the wrong things.
Now, you don’t have to tell an SEO company what to do.
SEO companies know their stuff. Once they understand how your business works, they can help guide you on the best course of action.
But never skip the planning step.
It’s critical to make sure that you and your SEO company are on the same page moving forward.
Failing to plan is planning to fail, after all.
Once the audit results come in, an SEO company will then plan on what needs to be worked on first.
Because get this:
You’re never going to run out of ways to improve your website’s SEO.
Ever.
The question becomes which is the most pressing item that needs work first.
Is it technical SEO?
Content?
On-Page SEO?
Digital PR?
There are so many ways it can go.
A good SEO company won’t dive into work immediately. They’ll take the audit, go over the results with you, and then craft out a master plan of the things that need their immediate attention.
Depending on the verdict of the planning, step 3 can go a lot of ways.
However, if your website is ridden with technical errors, there is one clear priority – technical SEO.
Technical SEO is perhaps the most complex field of all.
When you hire an SEO company, you’ll want one that has a solid understanding of coding and the other technical side of running a website.
Why?
Because even if everything else is perfect, search engines won’t rank your site if they can’t find it (or if they see so many errors).
An SEO company that doesn’t provide technical SEO is missing one of the most fundamental parts of ranking well on search engines.
So ask your potential SEO agency what they know about this.
Ask them if they can handle indexation, xml sitemap, crawl errors, schema markups, robots.txt, and other technical issues.
One of the most common problems in business websites is poor content.
Content marketing is the lifeblood of SEO.
Without good website content, there’s just no way you can rank for any keywords and get to your target audience.
We did create a comprehensive guide to content marketing that you can check out.
But let’s have a quick overview of how SEO agencies do this.
Again, the next course of action depends on the results of the audit.
If you have plenty of content already on your site, an SEO company might expand on that or rewrite several pages.
Or, they might perform deep keyword research and find keywords that have high-traffic with not too much competition.
Then, they’ll come up with an SEO strategy and content briefs for your company website, like this:
The Ultimate Content Marketing Guide for Business Owners
Introduction
What is Content Marketing?
Will Content Marketing Work for Your Business? (benefits of content marketing)
How to do Content Marketing for Business Owners
What You Need for a Successful Content Marketing Strategy
Conclusion
They’ll come up with all types of content that your website needs.
From big wins to long-tail keywords, a good SEO company will cover everything for you.
Content is king.
And there’s just no way you can ever rank in search engines without it.
That’s why whenever you’re hiring an SEO company, look for one that can provide awesome content for your site.
But say you already have good content.
Or say you’re a good writer yourself, so you don’t need anyone writing for you.
If that’s the case, usually the next thing an SEO agency will do is fix your site’s user experience.
One critical part of good SEO analysis is checking how your site looks from a human perspective.
Yes, the tools will pick up any technical errors that’ll prevent you from ranking.
But the human side is just as critical.
One of the main ranking factors for search engines like Google and others is dwelling time.
The longer people stay on your website, the more it signals to search engines that people find value in it.
This will push your website further up the search engine rankings.
That’s why aside from the content that goes into your site, you’ll also need to provide graphics, videos, tools – anything to keep people on your site longer.
A good SEO agency will have a designer on board.
They might even have a video editor or a programmer to build a tool.
Another thing that should NEVER be neglected is on-page SEO.
Unlike content and UX, you can’t see on-page SEO errors with your eyes – but robots can.
However, unlike technical SEO, dealing with on-page SEO isn’t that difficult.
On-page SEO has to do with things like meta titles, meta tags, internal linking, and external linking.
It has to do with the alt text of your images, as well as their file names.
Now, handling on-page SEO is an easy way to boost your search rankings.
However, it can get very tedious.
And it’s another task on the plate of SEO professionals.
They take the time to make sure everything is perfect and never publish any content without optimized on-page SEO.
Digital PR, also called off-page SEO, is the branch of SEO that deals with things outside your website.
We’re talking links, press releases, and ranking on Google maps (for local businesses).
We have a comprehensive digital PR guide that you can check out, but let’s go over the basics here.
The main thing SEO companies do when it comes to digital pr is link building.
Links from other websites are a strong signal to search engines that your website is an authority in your industry (whether that be tax preparation, short-term loans, SaaS, architecture, construction, or anything else).
However, these links can’t just be from any website.
A stray link from an unknown blog won’t do you anything. In contrast, a link from high-ranking and trustworthy websites in your niche will do you a world of good.
Finding and building links can be difficult, tedious, and very difficult to find a reasonable price.
But a good SEO company will do all this work for you.
Another essential part of digital pr is press releases.
Releasing news articles about your company and your site on news websites will help spread the word about you and get you more site visitors.
While press releases don’t directly affect your search engine rankings, the brand awareness this will create and the potential of new people visiting your site is always a good thing.
That’s why when you hire an SEO company; you may want one that does digital PR – especially if you’re in an industry that relies on prestige.
Last but certainly not least, reports.
A good SEO company doesn’t keep what they’re doing a secret.
And they don’t try to hide the results either.
When you hire an SEO company, get one that’s transparent with what they are doing and how things are going.
Working with an SEO company shouldn’t leave you in the dark.
It might seem a little discouraging at first reading the first few reports. After all, SEO takes a good 3-6 months to show any results at all.
But a good SEO company does not shy away from this.
They won’t only create an awesome SEO strategy, but they’ll also send you regular reports.
And there you have it!
That’s what SEO companies do.
They:
It sounds like a lot, and truly it is.
SEO is not easy. That’s why a tremendous amount of work needs to be poured in to help your business get that top spot in the search results.
But with a successful SEO campaign?
You’ll enjoy organic traffic streaming in on autopilot!
So what do you say?
If you’re ready to partner with an SEO company and help your business to the top of the search results, sign up for our FREE audit today!