SEO is a very important and technical subject that requires collaboration and assistance from an expert. For a website to rank highly in search results, the website needs keyword planning, a good user experience, backlink qualities, and a complementing social media strategy.
To improve the search qualities of their websites, businesses tap on the expertise and experience of SEO agencies. The process of choosing such agencies requires going through multiple proposals and pitches sent to you. It’s extremely important to get it right because the agency’s choice will reflect on subsequent business revenue and position in the industry.
Below are ways to assess the quality of an SEO proposal.
1. The Introduction of the Agency
A quality proposal should have a section that introduces the business. The aspects of their competence, the team, areas of operation, and work modalities should be covered here. Also, the introduction should be able to create a positive impression.
Below are some of the elements you should look for in the introductory part of an SEO proposal:
- Who the agency is: The agency should give a brief history of the agency, including their years of operation. The section should also explain the services they offer and other broad aspects, like their mission and vision.
- Experience: A quality introduction should contain the various clients served, different industries, and the general experience in the business. Look out for any testimonials attached from clients served, which reflects the agency’s honesty and confidence to execute the operation.
- Tools: The technical requirements of SEO demands that agencies use creative solutions and tools. Look out for any special methodologies and tools employed by the agency to conduct effective SEO strategies. An agency that has put resources and time to create a working tool shows the competence and important know-how in the industry.
- The Team: The introduction should provide the team that’s tasked at handling the job. Look out for a rich mix of experience and various professionals like web developers, designers, and content production team. The depth and quality of the team represent the agency’s ability to handle the job.
You can also check available resources on the internet, like SEO proposal generator and more, to get additional knowledge on scrutinizing an agency. A quality preliminary examination improves the chances of getting a better SEO profile in your business.
2. The Technical Aspects Of The Proposal
After getting a hint of what the agency is, next is to assess their technical ability to perform the job. It would help if you’re also keen to know which methodology will be applied, either White hat or Black hat methodologies. Google algorithms penalize black hat strategies, such as keyword stuffing or private link networks and cloaking. Hence, it’s advisable to hire agencies that are transparent in their methodology.
Below are some technical methodologies you should look for in a quality proposal:
- Overall Report: A quality proposal should outline the general or preliminary direction to be taken to uncover the SEO issues. As a business, you get an overview of what you’re doing right, quick wins, and the major changes to be undertaken.
- The Keyword Strategy: Keywords play an important role in content marketing strategy and an objective basis to align your website to the buyer’s intent. The proposal should give specifics on discovering new keyword insights, able to determine whether the content is keyword optimized, and spot other complex issues, like keyword cannibalization.
As a business owner, you should be looking at qualitative and new additions that your business can reap from the prospect.
- Back Link Audit: The frequent Google algorithms updates give precedence to a natural link profile. The prospective relationship should be geared to obtain quality outbound links and internal links.
The proposal should include how to discover the current backlink status and the methodology to solve the issues found.
- Content Review: The importance of content in any online strategy cannot be over-emphasized. The proposal should give you signals on improving content quality, consistency, and other creative ways to make content that’s geared to solving customer’s needs.
A quality proposal could also include promoting the content to other channels, such as social media, press releases, and other third-party sites.
- Site SEO: To determine a company’s technical ability, a mention of the site SEO is important. The proposal should include details on improving site accessibility, redirects, mobile responsiveness, and other aspects like website navigation.
3. Include Quantifiable Goals
The effectiveness of a working relationship can only be enhanced when there’s accountability in place. The proposal should, therefore, include a measurable action plan. The ultimate objective of the measurement is to be ranked highly in search engine result pages.
Below is a demonstration of how the measurement can be achieved:
- Broad Objective: If the business doesn’t appear on the first pages on several keywords, the proposal could include such a modality. The proposal could also include a general improvement in search engine rankings.
- Specific Goal: A good agency will commit to improving the organic traffic by 45%, for example. After a preliminary investigation, they could commit to producing 40 backlinks in 1 month.
The measurements are vital in channeling the right efforts and setting a yardstick to measure the progress.
4. Timelines
SEO is a continuous exercise that businesses must engage in to guarantee business continuity. However, an agency relationship’s nature is based on a performance contract, which can be renewed from time to time.
The proposal should include how much time they’ll require to achieve the agreed results. Timelines help to economically apply resources and determine at what point to terminate or extend the contract.
5. Service Charge
For the proposal to be complete, it must include the fees required to complete the SEO process. The section should give the terms of payment–upfront, installments, deposit. It should also include each of their services’ prices.
In this part, the agency should also reveal other additional tools that must be procured at the business cost.
Conclusion
The process of selecting an SEO Dayton agency is as important as the work to be done; hence, a detailed proposal is vital in making the right decision. A quality proposal should give you hints on their work methodology, the competence of the prospective agency, and their confidence to handle the job.
It would be best if you looked at how the proposal addresses technical aspects, such as mobile responsiveness since a detailed explanation will give you hints on how your website will benefit from the engagement.