You are going to hand over your website to a person you don't know well. So, it won't be a wise decision to faith blindly in the profile and portfolio he has submitted in support of his experience. You may have some questions to ask him and check whether or not he will be able to proceed with your business on the track you want. The article unearths 10 Essential and Best Qualities of a Good SEO Consultant you should be looking for when hiring one.
A matter of fact that time has come to Hire Dedicated SEO professionals / SEO consultants to get the results done. However, before indulging in the qualities and qualifications of a dedicated search engine optimization agency or expert, let me throw a sharp light on Panda and Penguin updates in brief.
Why Do You Need a Dedicate SEO?
With the changing business demands and organizational needs, business owners are highly reluctant to set up an entirely new infrastructure for search engine optimization in the existing setups. Hiring dedicated SEOs is the best option for organizations to accomplish the ever-growing SEO requirements. The many benefits of hiring dedicated SEO include:
- Quick and great results
- Best value for the money
- Efficient control and monitoring
- Competent reporting structure
Essential Qualities of a Good SEO Consultant
A dedicated SEO services expert covers the entire project outline and defines the comprehensive architecture in which the process of optimization takes place.
1. Must Be Updated With Google Algorithm Updates
In an era when Google has made things tough by introducing Google Panda and Penguin updates to curb unethical SEO practices, I won't believe that a consultant quotes him unfamiliar or having the basic knowledge of the updates. These two algorithm updates have become the key players behind every individual search engine optimization process.
We will discuss the nature and behavior of these updates the other day. Make these updates an inevitable turf for the selection. A Good consultant must have comprehensive knowledge and details about these updates. He should have the ability to find the right cause behind the penalty and must have an aptitude to tackle the issues as per Google standards. If he comes right on these expectations, give him a green signal else go through another profile.
2. Relevant Technical Experience
As an internet marketing expert, I do believe that SEO is an art of technology and not everyone is the master. However, I admit that it is not a full-fledged technology but an integrated combo of various activities together. An SEO Consultancy must be familiar with certain very important and pivotal SEO standards and basics. You can term it SEO skills if you want. The skill set includes:
- Extensive Knowledge of Meta Tags
- Theory and Technical aspects behind the server-level redirections
- Information architecture to support SEO activities
- Knowledge of URL naming conventions
- Content conventions and knowledge of thin and spun content
- Ability to handle 404s and server codes
- Basic knowledge of optimized coding
- Basic knowledge of responsive web design
By listing the qualities I don't suggest that a single person should handle all the activities crudely. What I believe is that a consultant should have an idea about this stuff so that he can extend the helping hand whenever asked from his team.
3. Knowledge of Content Marketing
Post-panda, it has become more evident to establish an authority on the topic. An SEO consultant or an SEO agency whichever you prefer can't do this without having a core team of SEO content writing experts, bloggers, content analysts and other content producers.
SEO is living in the tough times with Panda and for a long term strategy, quality content is the backbone. Trust only those content producers who can develop high-quality and relevant content consistently. A good consultant has a team of writers who write equally well on below listed strategies below.
- Viral Marketing
- Guest Posting
- Relationship Building
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
4. Upper Hand in Social Media Marketing
For an SEO, command over the facets of social media is equally important. Being an SEO expert a consultant can't underestimate the valid importance of Social Media Marketing. Social media directly impacts the ranking and exposure and helps a ton in relationship-building measures.
It also plays a crucial role in link-building as well. A professional optimizer or consultant must understand some of the basic social media aspects to do well with the campaign.A consultant should emphasize on building influential bond with social media to invent more authentic and valuable content via social media.
Having massive reach of primary social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and MySpace is very mandatory for a consultant as it extends an opportunity to build community, groups and networks of like minded people and professionals.
5. Knowledge of Penguin Proof Link Building
In the light of the recent Penguin update, this is a question worth asking. If you are still dancing around the decade-old link-building techniques, this is high time to go ahead with advanced ones for log term business results. Ask him if he still relies on one or all of the below-listed activities for back-linking purposes:
- Submits sites on countless useless directories
- Submits articles to article directories
- Submits guest posts on blogs with no credibility or reach
- Still works with unethical and automated link-building tools
If he answers yes, show him the rear gate of your office. He will ruin your entire campaign. An SEO Agency or consultant always uses ethical methods when it comes to building links whether reciprocal or one way. Rather than acting unethically, he should do the following:
- Guest posting on only those blogs where traffic (referral and targets) is quite high
- Building relations and collaboration with influencers
- Leverage the maximum potential available in social networks, forums, and advertisements
- Using link building strategy that sends referral traffic
6. Familiar with Popular SEO Tools
If a consultant doesn't use enough tools throughout the campaign and performs things manually, it can create a big hole in your pocket. You may ask him the number and type of tools he is using throughout the campaign. Make sure that he is not using these tools for building automated links, producing automated content, and creating social media campaigns.
Rather, he can use tools like Google Analytics to track results and ROI, tools to measure the increasing competition, tools to discover the audience needs, and tools to explore influences, targets, etc.
7. Has a Great Track Record
In an agency, you can spot a good number of Google SEO Services professionals who endorse themselves as experts. Maybe they are true to some extent but you need to be cautious while choosing one of them. Being good is different from being recognized. An expert could have a good knowledge of techniques and strategies prevailing in the domain but offering solutions as per the clients' needs and requirements matters the most.
8. Knowledge Of The Market Trends
Internet marketing is a highly volatile marketplace with plenty of updates, inclusions and exclusions taking place with each passing day. That is why a professional must be up-to-date on the emerging techniques, tools, and trends in the market. Obsolete tricks and strategies hardly may extend any help to the organizations. For instance, knowledge of Guaranteed SEO services is good enough but ethical ways to execute it, are also very significant.
9. Perspective towards Problems
The need of the hour is a bunch of people who must not think of SEO as a ranking mechanism but think of marketing with its deeper roots. An individual must have an accumulative knowledge base of the entire social media landscape, web analytics, and web development. In most of the business scenarios, a long-term perspective yields good results indeed.
10. Technical Mindset
Being technical hardly means a person who knows how to make a rocket. SEO is of course not rocket science but a comprehensive mechanism integrating various modular activities to formulate a single one. A dedicated SEO professional must have a good knowledge of several aspects like Google Top 10 Rankings and SEO research. Understanding the big picture is very important for the professionals in the domain.
Conclusion
There may be some roadblocks and hassles that come across during the campaign execution. An eminent professional takes every challenge with the same maturity. He knows how to tackle the bottleneck and proceed with the campaign in the right direction.
Listed above is the formal points and attributes that you may seek in a search engine optimization professional. You may however go for the deeper scrutiny of the candidates as per your questionnaire and business model.
Tarun Gupta, CEO of Brainpulse Technologies, is a prolific author and digital marketing specialist. His insightful writings span SEO, content marketing, social media strategy, and email campaigns, offering invaluable expertise to businesses worldwide. Tarun’s contributions continue to shape the digital marketing landscape, guiding success in multiple niches.
