How to work with an SEO agency

Finding a good SEO agency is hard. But even once you’ve found your SEO company (even if it might not be frag.co.uk!), there are a few important points to remember.

1. Keep Informed!
Remember your SEO agency is on your side! They want you success as much as you do. Many clients feel uncomfortable letting an outside agency handle their content and keywords; but to maximise their efforts, you have to let them do the work you’ve hired them to do.

Naturally there is another side; the SEO agency should be keeping you well informed of the benefits of changes and suggestions, and ensuring they’re within budget. Regular communication is key to ensuring both sides are working the best way they can.

2. Content, Content, Interesting Content
The worst, and most common error that I’ve seen is for a company to launch a blog, and then rarely update it. I could argue for hours over the benefits of regular blogging, but unless it’s updated regularly, then it’s often best to concentrate elsewhere.

Alternatively, most SEO agencies will be more than willing to help you write more articles and content that are relevant to your business and interesting to your customers.

A recent book review on BoingBoing, of John Briggs (the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets) latest book says;

Want to be a successful blogger? Every new endeavor requires a period of ascetic dedication. You must write a minimum of 1,000 words a day.

Some bloggers make this their ceiling, but many make it their floor. Either way, you must produce on a daily basis. How do you do this? You can crank out, perhaps, three posts of a few hundred words each in the morning and three in the evening. Or you can write one big post. Either way, do the word count. Why is this important?

You won’t always make 1,000 posts, but it’s important to have a goal. Even we don’t always achieve 1,000 words per day; but we’d recommend a minimum of 500 words – updated at least once a week for a blog to be beneficial.

3. Involvement
Although your SEO agency may need uncomfortable access to your business, it’s important not to give too much free reign – your business is constantly changing, and your SEO agency should be asking questions.

If your agency aren’t aware of what your goals are and who your target audience is, they’ll be hard pressed to help improve your business.

4. Regular updates
Social networks transfer billions of links and content each day, and search engines are constantly crawling websites to determine importance. Great content is the key to a successful conversions, and this builds your online reputation. Without regular updates and content, your SEO and company aren’t going anywhere.

Most sites and companies do make regular changes to the business, and this should be reflected online and in SEO. Don’t let your site become unmanageable – there should be regular guidance along with the regular updates – from both sides.

No-one knows your company better than you. You provide the direction, and your SEO partner will provide the assistance to achieve it.

Any further tips? Leave us a comment!