A meeting is booked with a potential new SEO expert. You’re preparing your notes, maybe a little powerpoint presentation… But when it comes to what to ask SEO consultants you hit a brick wall. Understanding what an SEO professional can do and what they are specifically qualified for is key to ensuring your next SEO campaign is as successful as possible.
Often, when looking for an external SEO or marketing consultant, whether it’s a freelancer or agency, you will want to speak with them before signing up for services. Not only is this beneficial for you and your company, but also for the SEO consultant as it’s a much better way to understand your business and more importantly, your marketing goals.
Funnily enough, we know a thing or two about what to ask SEO consultants, so we’ve created this helpful guide to help you get the most out of your meetings and your marketing specialist.
What does an SEO specialist do?
An SEO expert is someone who specialises in search engine optimisation for websites. It is a specific form of digital marketing and when done correctly, can have a huge impact on website performance and search visibility for a business. Learn more about SEO for businesses here.
An SEO specialist will be able to offer a variety of different optimisation skills including on-page content improvements, developing a keyword strategy and making technical fixes for a website. An experienced SEO specialist will have worked on a variety of sites, like eCommerce, events and start-ups, so they can tailor optimisations to best fit a mixture of target audiences. Once you’ve learnt about their previous experience, knowing what to ask SEO professionals should become a bit clearer!
What to ask SEO consultants when looking for services
Here are some questions to ask an SEO consultant at your initial meeting (These are especially useful if this is your first time hiring an SEO consultant) :
- What were your initial thoughts when taking a look at the website?
- What does an SEO audit look like?
- What CMS access will you need to implement improvement on the website?
- What type of websites have you worked on before?
- How long do you think it will take before we start to see some progress?
- What measurements and KPIs will you use to review progress?
Of course, these are just some of the many questions you could ask your SEO expert, but these are ideas that help to cover a wide range of points during the initial stages of a campaign.
Depending on the goals and objectives for your campaign, you’ll want to have a chat with your new, or prospective seo expert to get to know how they would approach your site, their SEO strategy and how they’d make improvements. They will be able to then provide you with proactive solutions and advise on the best methods to achieve the best results.
A good SEO consultant will review your website before meeting with you and potentially perform an initial site audit to uncover any technical concerns that will need to be addressed.
How to hire an SEO expert
If your business is new to digital marketing, then the thought of hiring an SEO expert might seem a little daunting. You’ll find a good and experienced SEO consultant at a digital marketing agency or alternatively, by approaching a freelancer. Engaging with an agency is often a more beneficial option as it comes with a wider selection of marketing experts, services and experience available.
The best way to hire an SEO expert is to simply get in touch with a reputable digital marketing agency or freelancer. Taking a look at reviews, case studies and even their social media platforms is a great way to see what type of clients they’ve worked with and the projects they have managed in the past.
If you’re in need of a new SEO consultant, or interested in the work we do for our clients, get in touch with the team at Carrington today. We’re happy to help find you the right digital marketing solutions for your business.
