Organic traffic is crucial to every business. Why? It drives in more sales and leads to growth for your company over time. Hiring the right SEO company to boost your traffic is one of the most critical marketing decisions you will make. Finding the right firm can propel you to rank higher in search engines such as Google, which could enable you to gain valuable traffic on your site.

Earning top page rankings organically could mean a steady, passive source of traffic for your site. The best thing about it is that you don’t have to pay for that, since landing on the top results page is an “earned” spot. The return of profits from this is enormous.

So, what are the key questions to ask a Charlotte SEO company before hiring them?

1. How long will it take to rank on Google?

Beware of companies who usually promise things like, “We’ll be able to rank your site within a month or two,” without doing much substantial research on your site.  The truth is, no one can guarantee that unless they’ve done a little researching on their part.

A great SEO company will only give you an estimate based on strategy and competitiveness of your particular niche. They will not promise top rankings in a short timeframe.

2. What’s your backlink strategy?

It’s a known fact that having quality backlinks will increase your chances of ranking well in Google. In fact, backlinks are the foundation of Google’s algorithm. The more authoritative websites that link back to your site, the higher the chance that you will rank up.

You can also measure your domain authority as this will help you know where you stand against your competitors. It also lets you know how hard you need to work to get to the top spot. At this point, it’s critical to ask the SEO company for a backlink profile as a proof that they are, in fact, building legit links on your website.

3. Do you follow Google’s best practices?

If you want to attain long-term growth, your site should follow a search engine’s best practices. Every year, different search engines have updates. They constantly change search and ranking algorithms in their system to gain better search results.

Best practices are the “golden rules” of each search engine ( Google, Bing, or Yahoo) and if these rules are violated in one way or another, your ranking will likely be penalized. Once that happens, it hits your ranking pretty hard, and you will probably be spending months or even years to get your site back on track again. It is going to take an enormous amount of recovery work on your part. That is why that it is incredibly vital to know if the SEO company you are hiring is strictly complying with these rules.

4. What tools will you be using?

Tools are a variety of applications that the SEO company will be using when it comes to search engine optimization.

The different tools are:

• Reporting tools. A custom report combines different SEO metrics such as analytics and keyword rankings.

• Research tools. These allow you to gather critical pieces of information in just minutes. One example is an app that offers keyword research as well as collects essential business prospects.

• Link building tools. These help you create hundreds or even thousands of links in just one click.

• Technical SEO tools. These allow you to find significant sites for a variety of technical issues.

5. What is your local SEO and blog strategy?

If the majority of your clients are coming from the local market, then your SEO should be appropriately optimized for it. Has your business been submitted to the local directory and are your title tags adequately optimized for the local market? Is your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistent in both your site and local directories?

How about the SEO company’s blog strategy? Do they come up with the most compelling blog posts that draw in readers? They should be. Creating high-quality content not only drives relevant traffic to your site, but it is also an incredibly powerful tool when your company  becomes a useful resource to your audience.

The Takeaway

SEO, like other business, is a long-term investment. It has the power to catapult from where you currently rank in Google to the top, potentially making or brekaing your business. These are several key questions to ask a Charlotte SEO company before hiring. If you’re looking for a good SEO company who can cater to your needs, Werank of Charlotte NC can powerfully optimize your content and boost your search engine traffic by attracting more leads. Hiring a good SEO company is vital if you want to be successful and grow your company over time.