10 Semalt Rules For Effective Cooperation With An SEO Agency: How To Support Its Activities?
Search engines optimization increases significantly the chances of acquiring a sale, but it is not a guarantee. It is worth knowing that it is not only the changes in Google and the agency's work that determine the effectiveness of the positioning. Many important issues related to the positioning depend also on you. How can you, as a customer, influence the effectiveness of your website positioning on Google?
What are the factors that influence the positioning?
When your website is visible in the top ten Google search results for selected phrases, thanks need to be given to the positioning. But why your website and not any other? The factors that determine this, are called ranking factors. The agency takes it into account when planning activities. A good positioning strategy prepared by an agency is a big part of your website's success.
However, even the best agency cannot guarantee the results. The continuous improvement of the algorithm by Google is also of great importance. What has recently made the site in the top 10, may not work today or even lowers the site's visibility. So your agency's efforts can unexpectedly backfire. This is, of course, an extreme example, but none of us have any influence on the actions and decisions of Google.
However, there is one more important area that affects SEO effectiveness - it is your attitude and the quality of cooperation with the agency. What can you do and what are the mistakes, you can avoid? See the most common reasons that slow down the achievement of the effects in the positioning, and that is up to you.
1. Careless at the SEO brief stage
An SEO agency knows about the positioning, but it doesn't necessarily know a lot about your business, the industry in which you operate and your clients. Therefore, its knowledge should be based on the responses to the brief obtained from you.
At this stage it is already happened that the client does not have time and gives only general, laconic answers. After all, the agency has to position, not create a new business plan for you, right? Nothing could be more wrong. Selecting phrases, planning the sequence of actions, acquiring links - all these activities must be in line with your business strategy.
Here, the time savings are only apparent. But today, you need to give the right information to the SEO agencies about your company; otherwise and in a few months you will drown in corrections on the website that result from inadequate phrases, an incomprehensible style to your clients and promoting products that you were planning to withdraw anyway.
2. Postpone the implementation of the website changes necessary for the positioning
A preliminary audit at the beginning of cooperation with an SEO agency may reveal many errors and shortcomings on your website. It can concern both the optimization of the website for the positioning and the functionality that affect significantly sales.
Usually, in the first month of cooperation, all the weaknesses of your website that could interfere with the development of the positioning effects are eliminated. You can get a long list of recommended page changes from the agency that your site administrator should make. This task can be overwhelming and time-consuming, but it is essential. So do not hesitate to implement the recommendations from SEO agencies such as Semalt. Remember that the agency may start operating today, but these actions will not be effective if the website has serious shortcomings
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3. Communication problems between the SEO agency and the client
This point actually applies to the agency and the client equally. Efficient communication is essential. The agency must be clear and understandable about its activities and ask you questions in such a way that you know what's going on, even if you are unfamiliar with internet marketing. Finally, the agency should take care of the continuity of communication, efficiently reply to emails, not send you back with a receipt when you call with questions and have time for you.
What should the communication look like on the client side? The agency will often need your approval for various activities or small information, make sure that the agency receives it quickly. Otherwise, you delay the actions of the positioners. If you have comments on the work of SEO specialists or copywriters, it is not enough to express your dissatisfaction.
In order for anything to be improved, we need constructive criticism, that is, a specific indication of what does not suit you and why. Then only the agency can change its operation and implement some elements in accordance with your expectations, if of course it will still be in line with SEO principles.
4. Reluctance to technical and marketing topics
It's not you, who position the website, so why do you need knowledge about the positioning? It comes in handy. You pay for specific activities, so it's worth having at least some basic knowledge to understand SEO reports. Basic knowledge of the positioning will also allow you to take a realistic look at the investment in internet marketing.
You will avoid disappointment related to excessive and unrealistic expectations. You will know what to expect and how long to wait for the first results. The agency should inform you about all this, but it happens that entrepreneurs are so reluctant to technical and marketing topics that they do not want to hear at all about how the positioning is going.
It's not like the agency likes to work with clients who don't know anything. On the contrary, an educated client is a conscious partner in action. This is why it is important that the customer has basic knowledge of Internet marketing. We say this because we want everyone to understand what we do and why.
5. Inappropriate prioritization in SEO
The agency will conduct activities based on the brief and current information from you. Remember that SEO takes time. So prioritize in the long term. If it's May and you want to conduct a sales campaign in June, the positioning will not work.
It is much better to carry out short marketing campaigns using Google Ads or Facebook Ads. If, on the other hand, you have a goal to increase sales over the next year and select specific offer elements, and this is a realistic goal for the positioners. What else is it worth to prioritize in the positioning? An effective tactic is to focus on products and services that are already in great demand. Thanks to this, you will see the effects faster, and in the second place you will work on the problematic, the niche elements of the offer.
Do not forget that the main goal of our activities is to earn a profit for you. Building the popularity of an unknown product or the image of a new brand is only a side effect and, in our opinion, this is not what the positioning serves.
6. SEO copywriting - text acceptance
An important activity in the positioning is to create optimized and enriched content for your website, with the right phrases.
It is difficult to take an objective assessment of someone else's texts. What one person might like, might not be liked by another. You will probably receive new texts for approval periodically before publishing it on the website. It is important that, instead of dismissing the text, add comments to it and highlight sections that do not suit you. From those remarks, the SEO copywriter will be able to make appropriate corrections.
Finally, the waiting time for your approval is also important. Do not delay the acceptance of texts. Remember that the sooner they get to the page, the faster they will work on its positions in search results. When you pay for SEO, you also pay for the creation of SEO content. Until nobody gets approval and publishes it, you're actually wasting your money. So the fate of the texts is somewhat in your hands.
7. Lack of consent on the SEO's important changes for the website
Are you one of those website owners who have invested a lot in its design and can't imagine anything going to change? You run the risk of not getting the expected profits from such a site.
Not every nice website is functional, optimized for sale and for Google at the same time. The website is a sales tool. Sure, it should be attractive, but also easy to use and visible in Google search results. For the positioning, it is primarily important that it contains texts with phrases and is technically optimized. The technical optimization is not visible to the users, so it is not associated with customer resistance. Adding new text fields is reluctant, but it is worth understanding that without such changes, the website lags far behind the positioning of the competition.
8. Lack of willingness to invest in the website
The agency can perform SEO for you at the highest level. However, the positioning will primarily generate an increasing number of visits. What is next? The user acquired on the website should find what he was looking for, navigate easily through the website and finally find an attractive offer.
The visual aspect may not be the most important in the positioning, but it plays an important role in sales. Not all SEO agencies pay attention to it during the positioning, but after all it is about to obtain sales. Simultaneously with building traffic to the website, we will analyze whether this traffic generates sales and what possible obstacles make it unprofitable.
We can propose a change of the layout, suggest a menu rebuild, show similar stores and websites, but with lower prices or other benefits. High positions are not enough, so for the website to be successful you must be ready to invest in its continuous improvement, adaptation to trends and, above all, to the needs of the users.
The next points concern mistakes that you may make unknowingly and thus cancel out all the results generated by the agency so far. We have dealt with such situations ourselves many times. Months of our work were lost, and the client was frustrated that the investments so far had been wasted. What is the reason for such unpleasant situations?
9. Making changes to the website without consulting the SEO specialists
You may be convinced that changing one text or URL is not a big deal. A minor cosmetic touch that no one will notice. However, for the positioning, even a small change can be a revolution, if it concerns a well-positioned subpage that generated most of the traffic.
The positioning is closely related to the elements such as a specific URL address and specific content on the page with phrases. Changes in this regard should be made in consultation with the SEO specialist who will introduce, redirect or say what scope of changes is accepted and will not threaten the position of the website.
10. Changing the entire site without consulting SEO
Are you planning to change your domain, your brand or even your company name? Report it to the positioner who will plan the work in such a way that the results achieved until now could be transferred to a new domain.
The order of work should look like this: you implement a new website, create content on it, but the old website is still available. Taking this in account, the positioner has a chance to implement redirects and maintain the achieved results.
Summary
These are probably the most common difficulties faced by positioners. Many of them result from the lack of knowledge and ignorance of customers, so it is a good investment to share knowledge with customers and delegate a contact person who will be able to communicate the activities in simple language.
The visibility of your website depends to a large extent on SEOs, but as you can see, there are also a number of aspects that remain on your side. It is worth being ready to spend a bit of time working with the agency and be opened to support, especially in terms of knowledge about your company, offer and customers.