Whether you are looking for SEO packages to improve the ranking of your website or you are looking for white label SEO services to serve your customers under your brand name, in both cases, you need to make sure that the SEO provider is worth investing. The strategy for creating effective backlinks is incomplete without compelling content, influencer marketing, and better public relations. Besides, a profitable keyword strategy to increase organic traffic now requires user intent research, rich content marketing experience, and deeper insights into priorities of Google ranking algorithms. Thus, you need to be more conscious while hiring an SEO company.

Here is a list of questions that you should ask an SEO company before buying any affordable SEO packages.  

1. What does your SEO package include?

Based on what your business benefits from, you should focus on the SEO packages that best align with your business. For instance, if you want to improve your website’s ranking, look for a package that involves blogging, website speed, long-tail keywords, UX, Mobile-First Index, etc. However, if you are mainly focusing on increasing your reach through ads and campaigns, ask about a package that offers your services and products’ descriptions, and relevant classifieds. No matter if you are choosing a Basic or Platinum SEO package, it should be aligned with your SEO goals.

2. What kind of approach do you use to achieve the desired SEO results?

There are mainly three approaches to SEO:

• Technical SEO
• User Experience (UX)
• Off-Page SEO

Most companies usually work on one approach, especially when the cost is less. But, nowadays, only one approach is not enough. Choose a company that uses a holistic strategy and can combine all three approaches to deliver results.

3. Which metrics do you use to determine if your approach is working for my business or niche?

One SEO solution is not effective for all businesses. Just like every business is unique, the metrics that define SEO success vary with businesses and their niche. While SEO companies usually come up with certain common goals, their success metrics should be what defines success for your business. If a company guarantees the ranking of your website on the first page, they are more likely to use black-hat SEO techniques and it is not good for you in any way.

4. How long will it take you to provide expected results?

Effective SEO takes a significant amount of time in showing results. However, an SEO company should be able to provide you a time-frame for results. Generally, you can start seeing the impact of SEO within 6 months. Plus, the time duration also depends on the health of your website.

5. Do you also pay attention to mobile-first indexing? Will it be included in my SEO package?

Since the majority of users check your site and content on their mobile phones and Google also gives priority to mobile-first index, you should ensure that the SEO Company includes mobile-first indexing in your package.

6. How do you work on link building strategy?

Note that a single high-quality link from an authoritative site is more valuable than thousands of low-quality purchased or machine created links. So, ensure that the SEO Company believes in link earning strategy and building relationships with credible sites, influencers, and editors rather than just link building.  

7. What kinds of tools do you use for SEO?

The SEO Company you are considering should be able to describe what tools they use for keyword research, monitor rankings and backlinks, crawling, and competitor analysis and why these tools are better than their counterparts. Don’t fall in the trap when they just say they have great SEO tools.  

8. Will you provide a report to us on a weekly or monthly basis? Can you provide a sample for us?

This is the most important question to ask. Ensure that they report to you on a weekly and monthly basis. Ask for the sample of report to see if you can easily understand what their metrics are showing.

9. How do you stay up to date on the latest trends in the SEO industry?

Partner with an SEO company that stays up to date at least with information posted by Google on its Webmaster Central Blog. A company in which SEO pros follow popular industry blogs and participate in SEO forums and conversations in addition to Google’s official blog page is a much better choice.

10. What do you need from us to ensure effective results?

An SEO company should present you with a list of questions about your audience, industry, goals, KPIs, digital platforms you use, and access to your Google Analytics. If a company asks too little about your business, its SEO plan is more likely to fail to deliver desired results.

Asking these questions and evaluating their answers will help you find a company with affordable SEO packages that deliver long-term success to your business.