Stop Paying for Fluff: How To Choose a SEO Agency [Tips From a 7-Figure Agency Founder] 

Authored by: Landon Murie, Founder and CEO of Goodjuju Marketing

Key Takeaways

• I’ll teach you a simple system for evaluating and choosing a local SEO agency, so you don’t end up throwing your money at something that looks good on paper but is a total waste of time.

• Learn some of the local SEO strategies that my company has tested to be the most impactful. I’m talking about site structure and content optimization, site conversion optimization, Google Business Profile perfection, the right reviews strategy, earning local backlinks, and PR work. You’ll know exactly what a reputable agency should be focusing on.

 

An SEO Agency Founders Guide To Finding a SEO Agency That Will Drive Results

As the CEO of a digital agency, I’ve reviewed marketing strategies and spends for well over 400 home service businesses in the last few years, and the pattern is always the same: many small businesses are throwing money (or had been) at SEO Agencies that looked impressive and had regular reports to make you feel like something was going on, but delivered zero to minimal measurable results and organic traffic.

The reason why tons of small business owners fall for fluff-filled red flags marketing agencies over tried-and-tested revenue-generating agencies is often because without clear communication and honesty to help them understand, they just can’t make an informed decision about SEO, and don’t know who’s just got shiny plans and good branding, vs who has the local SEO efforts, know how, and success stories with years of experience delivering real results for local businesses.

I’ve laid out a pretty simple systematic approach that helps local service businesses (or any small business really) weed out the smooth talkers from the right SEO agencies with teams of SEO experts that will actually deliver.

The 4-Question Filter (Interview) For SEO Agencies

Before you give the go-ahead to any digital marketing agency or search engine marketing, every company should pass at least 3, ideally 4, of these super-important questions for your business:

• “Can you tie this activity directly to new customers or revenue within 4-6 months?” If the answer involves phrases like “building brand visibility” or “long-term marketing and business growth” then you might be looking at potential hype and fluff. Agencies and white hat SEO consultants that focus on results can show you exactly how and when their previous campaigns have driven higher rankings, leads, growth, and hit SEO goals.

• “What specific goals will this achieve and how will we measure success?” The right SEO company won’t talk about things like “engagement” or “reach”, they talk about specific metrics like local map positions, SERP positions, lead generation, customer acquisition costs, click through rates, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value.

• “What results can you show us and/or references can we speak to?” My SEO Agency has great reviews, lots of proven client results, and value packed plans, but even WE have people ask sometimes if they can call some of our clients. Since we already have past clients who’ve told us it’s fine if a potential client wants to call them, we always give them references. A red flag is agencies that focus more on their creative process than on historical results and search rankings.

• “What are the contract terms and what incentive does your agency have to deliver?” We recommend month-to-month contracts where agencies have to deliver results every month to keep your business, and you can cut them loose if they’re not getting the job done. Also, get clarity and check who your point of contact is, know all the team members, and the contract regarding who owns the website.

How Much Does SEO Cost?

If a local SEO agency has their SEO pricing at more than $1,000/mo, but the plan does not include at least 4 of the 6 ranking factor services we’ll cover below, ding ding ding, red flag. These services below are what we have seen and tested to really move the local SEO needle across all the algorithm changes, and are harder to do than just “write content each month” and/or even worse “re-optimize your on-page SEO each month” (This would likely have negative results).

Real SEO work, real results.

Here’s a closer look at our list of critical local SEO related strategies:

1- Making Sure Your Website is Locally Optimized and Conversion Focused

Your marketing agency should make sure your website has the on-site SEO needs taken care of and is well optimized for local search queries specific to your target audience and city/area. Saying that your website should look modern and fresh is hopefully already understood.

How?

• Finding the right local keywords to target, tracking those keyword rankings (you can use Google Search Console for free), and building your pages/content around them. Targeting your main keyword on your home page and other specific keywords on their own unique optimized pages with helpful, unique, quality content about your business and services. Your home page should clearly target and spotlight what you do, where you do it, how you do it, why you do it, and who you are. Your content should be written for people, not search engines. Manipulative hacks like “keyword stuffing” look horrible and go against Google’s search engine guidelines.

• Optimizing site speed and mobile responsiveness to improve user experience, and in turn, improve stats like time on page.

2- Along With On-Page SEO, Your Agency’s Website Design Should Build Trust and Engage Visitors:

How?

• Featuring clear, compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) like “Get Your Free Consultation” or “Get Your Free Quote” and make these specific to your niche. You should also list a few key benefits of WHY they should want this “consultation” and what they will learn or achieve

• Displaying trust indicators like certifications, awards, and client reviews.

• Make it easy to navigate your site to reduce friction for potential leads/clients.

 

3- Keeping Your Google Business Profile Up-to-Date For You

Your marketing agency should have your Google Business Profile (GBP) fully filled out and optimized to maximize your local search exposure business goals. Google prefers active profiles that are full of the right info. This includes keeping your business hours, contact info, and service descriptions up to date.

How?

• Posting geo tagged photos of your team, office, cars, and projects/services to build credibility with customers and show Google that your business is active, transparent. and local (geo tagging).

• Responding quickly to customer reviews, showing them you care. This is one of those SEO best practices, so they should be doing this without you having to ask, bottom line.

 

4- Helping You Get a Consistent Flow of Authentic Client Reviews

Their marketing team should have already tested and selected a great reputation management system to help drive more 5 star reviews on Google, measure client experience as a key performance indicator, and catch feedback from those unhappy clients before the problem gets worse and they post a negative online review.

Common best practices:

• Setting up review requests by email or SMS shortly after a service’s done, or at “peak of satisfaction” with clear instructions on how to leave a review.

• Guiding your customers to mention specific services and your location in their review – this makes a big difference in local search relevance.

 

5- Increasing Your Local Search Authority by Earning Local Mentions/Links

Your agency should help with building your brands’ local authority and overall domain authority by implementing strategies that earn you backlinks and mentions from reputable local businesses and sources.

How?

• If you know other business owners personally, your agency can request to write a blog for them that will include a mention/link from one of their web pages to yours. These can be easy wins, and so powerful.
• Helping you find opportunities to sponsor or participate in local events, getting you featured on local news or community websites.

• Reaching out to local bloggers, chambers of commerce, and industry associations to see if they’ll let you write a guest post or be listed in one of their directories.

 

6- Doing Strategic Higher Level PR to Build Your Brand More Credibility

Your marketing agency should use targeted PR initiatives or their own proprietary strategies that help your brand get mentioned/linked to from higher authority sources with real traffic growth (think Forbes, SearchEngineLand, etc). Keep in mind, this is hard to do and will not be included on lower priced SEO plans.

How?

• Pitching stories about your company to higher-end niche websites and media outlets that carry a ton of trust and authority.
• Getting your company in industry publications and authoritative online sources relevant to home services (or whatever niche you are in)
• Using their agency expertise and connections to help you earn you high quality backlinks or even just brand mentions

Keep in mind: This is hard to do and time consuming, meaning agencies spend a lot of money to be able to do it, and will not be included on lower priced SEO plans.

 

7- Creating Content Clusters to Be Seen as a Trusted Authority

If you are going to write content or pay for content, might as well get the most bang-for-your-buck right? Your marketing agency should come up with a solid content plan that focuses on service-specific blog posts and resources that go in-depth with content strategy and link back to main pages.

How?

• Figure out which key service topics and subtopics (long-tail keywords) people are searching for, like “how to do an eviction in las vegas?”
• Produce in-depth articles, how-to guides, FAQs and case studies on those topics to show your business team are experts and build trust.
• Create a link from these blog posts (interlinking) to your main location service page (like home page) and other location pages to create a strong internal linking structure that builds stronger topical relevancy for each page.

By finding and working with an SEO agency to implement these targeted, results-driven strategies in a systematic way, you can really build up your local service business’s exposure in the map search results.

The local map search results are where my agency clients get 85%+ of all their new leads, and are growing well because of this.

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Author: Landon Murie is the Founder and CEO of Goodjuju Marketing, a local SEO agency since 2018 that helps property managers, roofers, HVAC, and plumbers get more leads and grow. We build SEO optimized websites that convert, provide value-packed local SEO plans that drive up rankings and exposure, and provide our own custom CRM that helps our clients reach all their leads fast, track pipeline, and close more deals.