It may appear after doing some research that all SEO marketing companies are the same. They promise better online visibility and tell you how they are going to get you top rankings in Google. The difference lies in how they go about accomplishing these goals. Plus not every SEO services company offers transparency – which if they don’t, can take you down the black hat hole and get your site penalized. Let’s look at some of the key areas that separate the best SEO marketing companies from those who only make unsubstantiated claims, and how to tell the difference.

1) Top SEO marketing companies will prepare a custom proposal for you. What you want to see in this proposal is how the agency will approach your campaign – you want to gauge this company’s understanding of your business and your industry and how they will build a campaign that will help you achieve your goals. Specifically; if the SEO services company has experience in your vertical, they should discuss it and talk about the results they achieved for their clients. It’s important that real numbers are attached to these explanations, such as ‘attained 50% more sales over previous year and double the number of pre-teen clients within 6 months.’ These types of specifics will let you know that the agency is serious about tracking outcomes, and that it knows the metrics that matter to your business.

2) SEO marketing companies that only talk about rankings are missing the big picture. Rankings are great and can drive a substantial amount of traffic. But putting all one’s eggs in the search engine basket isn’t wise. Diversifying leads and nurturing them to conversion is the hallmark of a top SEO services company. Once you find an agency you feel comfortable with, sign up for a multi-faceted campaign; i.e., organic search, email marketing, PPC – in this way there will always be some traffic coming in from at least one source at any given time.

3) We’ll get you lots of links. That’s the mantra of some SEO marketing companies, and it pays to do a bit of digging to ensure this claim isn’t just that – an empty promise. If you sign up for link development activities, be sure first to discover exactly where these links will be coming from and who will be doing the work. It is much more costly to have a company perform a link cleanup later. Some SEO firms will employ unscrupulous link developers so they can show clients a big spreadsheet full of links every month. Check the links on the spreadsheet. See where they go. If you find any suspect websites, bring these to your agency’s attention.

4) Find the SEO marketing company that offers the best content creation and distribution package. High quality content has never been more in demand, and you want your agency to create top content for your website. By content we mean web copy, images, infographics, video and more – quality and diversity matter. You also want your agency to discover the forms of content that your audience prefers and to take risks to pioneer with new content forms. Work with an agency that will focus on placing content on your site and also distributing some content via social media. Ask the agency how they plan content strategy and how engagement will be tracked. An agency that cannot provide this information doesn’t deserve to be on your short list. It is through high quality content shared in places where people can easily interact with it (your agency will need to perform research to note the networks that your audience prefers) that your brand message will resonate online.

5) Be ready for promises that sound too good to be true. The old saying applies to SEO firms: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Some SEO companies don’t care what they say to prospects as long as they get them to sign a contract. The top agencies don’t do a hard sell, they are confident in their abilities and do their best to create a great match between their services and what the client needs.

All SEO marketing companies are not the same. Organically serves clients in Gatlinburg, Sevierville and throughout Tennessee and the Southeast, plus we offer powerful national campaigns. Discover how Organically offers uncommon solutions to your online marketing challenges.