Did you know that SEO drives 1000% more traffic to your website than social media does?
SEO is essential to your marketing strategy, whether you’re a small business, a freelancer, or an e-commerce store. And if you aren’t an expert in SEO, then hiring an SEO expert is the right option for you.
But how do you know how to choose an expert? The key is to look for the right qualities, ranging from experience to communication style.
Keep reading to learn all about the eight most important qualities to look for in an SEO expert.
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The first thing most people consider when they’re looking to hire an SEO specialist is experience.
While anyone can say that they’re an SEO expert, you need to look at the specific strategies they’ve used for their clients.
Does the expert use the same strategy for each client or create a strategy tailored to the client’s needs?
It’s always a good idea to ask for references and look at the specialist’s bio. How many years of SEO experience do they have? What specific results have they gotten for clients? Do they have a section for SEO tips like creating sitemaps on their blog?
This is a telltale sign of whether someone is an actual SEO expert or just calling themselves one. A proper SEO expert must have a detailed working knowledge of all three levels of SEO:
Technical SEO refers to the structure of your site and how easily search engines can crawl it/find it. On-page SEO includes optimizing keywords so people can find your site on a search engine.
Off-page SEO refers to everything that happens off your website to build its authority, such as link building and social media strategy.
A true SEO expert needs to know how to optimize all three of these levels to increase your website’s ranking on search engines.
A vital skill for an SEO web expert is marketing. Marketing skills are essential because once you get the technical elements of SEO done, the rest of your website still needs to draw in customers and help you make sales.
For example, your blog post could be optimized for SEO but have boring, unengaging copy that makes users want to click off your page.
So even if they found you through good SEO, you need someone with marketing skills to help you keep your customers on your website.
Check the SEO specialist’s portfolio or blog and see if they have any marketing-specific knowledge. They might include a tutorial on writing persuasive blog posts or showing how to add product categories to your e-commerce website’s menu.
No matter how good an SEO expert is, they still need to understand your business and its goals. Otherwise, the campaign won’t get good results.
Remember that every SEO campaign has to have a goal in mind. The goal isn’t only to optimize your site for SEO but to do something, such as increase sales or get people to book a consultation with you.
Your chosen SEO expert should be able to integrate your SEO goals with the goals of the digital marketing strategy for your business.
Strategic thinking skills are vital in today’s digital business world, where so much depends on analytics, gathering data, and making plans based on that data.
A strategic-thinking SEO expert will evaluate the goals of your business and focus on other important factors, such as company reputation, growth, your target audience, and how you compare with your competition.
They will combine these goals with your traffic and sales goals to craft a custom SEO strategy for your business.
SEO isn’t only about implementing a strategy and then hoping for more sales. Every SEO campaign needs to be measured to see if it’s working and if anything needs to be changed.
SEO specialists need to be familiar with a variety of tools because the tools all do different things. For example, SEMRush is a full suite of SEO tools, while Answer the Public helps experts understand what keywords people are searching for.
An experienced SEO specialist has a set of SEO tools they’re familiar with to help them get clients the results they need. Make sure to check if the cost of using these tools is included in the specialist’s fee or if this will be a separate payment.
No matter how good someone is at SEO, they need to have good communication skills.
Imagine how confusing it would be if an expert told you to change something and didn’t tell you why or how it would benefit your business.
Not only do you need to have an excellent freelancer-client relationship, but the expert needs to be able to clearly communicate to you why you need to make specific changes to your website.
This is why reaching out to an expert before hiring them is so important. You will get a good sense of their communication style in your initial interactions with them and know whether they’d be a good fit.
Finally, the expert should fit your company culture, whether you’re a solopreneur or a small firm with ten employees.
The expert’s personality should blend well with the personalities in your company because the expert will likely interact with more than one member of your team.
The expert should understand your organizational style, have integrity, and have experience working with different people and personalities.
SEO can make all the difference between making a sale, getting traffic, or finding your perfect customer. By hiring an SEO expert, you’ll speed up this process and ensure that your SEO strategy is in capable hands.
If you find yourself typing “SEO expert Denver” or “SEO expert greater Denver area” into your search engine, then look no further.
At Brown Surfing, my Denver SEO services are professional and backed by years of hands-on experience. Contact me today to jumpstart your website’s SEO strategy.
Have any questions or comments? Write them below!
Thank you so much for explaining this! Very educational material!
It’s my pleasure, Vivian. I’m happy to hear you found the article helpful!