How to know if your SEO company offers white hat solutions
Things in the digital marketing industry are changing rapidly, such as consumer expectations, technology, SEO optimization, digital marketing, etc. But the most common question is:
What does an SEO company do? And why do you need one?
SEO (search engine optimization) is a necessity for digital marketing success. It consists of a set of rules to optimize the website, improve rankings and increase traffic. The process boosts online visibility, making your site faster, more user-friendly and easier to navigate. Hiring an SEO agency is essential for your business. Consider the statistics- 93 % of online experiences begin with a search engine, with nearly half of them clicking on one of the first three listings.
When building a strong online market presence, it’s critical to partner with an SEO company who utilizes white hat techniques. Website building is an essential phase of digital marketing. The SEO company will be responsible for keeping the site running, attracting a foreign audience, increasing leads, and maximizing conversions.
What is white hat SEO?
White hat SEO refers to the use of website optimization strategies, techniques, and tactics that are approved by Google and other major search engines. The objective is to provide users with the best search engine results while maintaining the webmaster guidelines.
As a white‐hat, you will generally expect the company to:
- Create a website that stands out from others
- Comply with Google’s guidelines
- Optimize search for humans, not search engines
- Create quality content that people want to read and share
What goes into white hat SEO solutions?
There are over 200 factors that go into what makes a page rank well on the search engine results page. An SEO will need to focus on them. Some significant ones are:
- Security- It’s the difference between HTTP and HTTPS. Even if your site doesn’t deal with credit card payments, Google prefers those that are secure.
- Mobile friendly- Nowadays, mobile search and local search are inextricably intertwined. There is a higher demand for information on the go.
- Speed– How fast web pages load on your site
- Content- The quality and length of your web pages’ content will have an impact on the customers. This means that the content needs to be useful and reach out to the right audience. Data should be valid and accurate.
- Link Building– There should be a presence of social signals and quality backlinks that point back to your website.
- Keyword- Keywords on the site need to be informative and definitive to activate the information retrieval system. They need to be placed in naturally wherever possible so that it doesn’t seem odd.
- Adaptability- it needs to incorporate the latest developments, such as voice search, to reach a greater audience.
- User experience (UX)- This emphasizes ways to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through ease of use and pleasure acquired in the interaction with a product. By determining the user’s intent, a methodology is developed for smooth navigation.
How to choose the right one?
An SEO company can influence your website and ultimately your business. And since this is a long-term partnership, you need to be sure of who you’re picking. They should increase ratings, leads, organic traffic, calls or web forms, sales, and revenue. White hat SEO requires hard work and time. The aim is to produce a quality website with valuable content alongside an excellent user experience.
The contract should also include the following services:
- Website structure analysis
- Website content analysis
- Conversion rate analysis
- Optimization of onsite content
- Off-page online analysis
- Optimization of off-page factors
- Optimization of website code and structure
Signs of a bad SEO company
Not all firms live up to their promises. An incompetent SEO agency can do considerable harm to your business, especially if it doesn’t offer white hat solutions. Look for the following red flags when selecting a company.
- Speculative objectives
SEO is a form of marketing, and just like PR, you need to know what they are doing. They can’t do whatever they feel like without telling you. Demand that your SEO company explains everything. Review every site where they propose to obtain a link to and from, when you publish your content. Make sure it’s a positive reflection of the image you’re creating.
- Unclear communication
If the SEO company doesn’t talk about what they are doing and you can’t understand their explanations, then this isn’t a good way to start. There’s considerable value for personnel who can explain how something works, to non-technical people. If you’re willing to pay extra, you want to get services from someone who’ll keep you on the same page.
- Guaranteeing number 1 ranking
That sounds too good to be true. No one can make such a claim because SEO is part art and part science. Google algorithms are too obscure for an SEO firm to promise such a highly competitive term. It takes time to be successful, so look for the following attributes instead:
- The company understands your economics. It sets a realistic timeline for how long it’ll take to regain the money you invested in them.
- They inquire about goals and map out a credible plan to meet them.
- They have references of clients to demonstrate to you their experience with previous clients and proofs of positive ROI from them.
- Black hat practices
The most important thing to keep in mind is that it’s about quality, not quantity. The SEO company shouldn’t be using a computer program to generate hundreds of pages of garbage, duplicate content, or provide infographics with little value. This way you’re not going to get too far. The SEO needs to create an effective PR/content marketing to create meaningful inbound links. And the proposal shouldn’t focus on a price per inbound link.
- Too many clients
If a company manages too many clients at one time, it can’t provide quality services to all of them. Hence, it’ll start looking for shortcuts. Ideally, there shouldn’t be more than five or six clients at a time. Otherwise, the firm won’t be able to dedicate more than a few hours per week to your website.
You need to work with an SEO company that you can trust. Ideally, ask friends or family for a recommendation. And don’t forget to review their previous projects. It’ll give you an accurate idea of how diligent they are.
Chris Kinney
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