<\/p>\n
SEO Consulting Company Responsibilities<\/h2>\n
A professional SEO company<\/a> has several important roles and responsibilities to help their client\u2019s website.\u00a0 This article will discuss roles, responsibilities and types of SEO services<\/a> provided by an SEO agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n Your responsibility as the person in charge of hiring an SEO company is to have an understanding of search optimization so you can talk intelligently with a prospective search optimization company.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Google’s article Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide<\/a> is a great place to start.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does an SEO company do?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are the responsibilities of an SEO agency?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow do I know if my SEO company is doing a good job?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n …<\/p>\n Prior to starting any optimization work, the SEO agency needs to understand what it is the client wishes to achieve.<\/p>\n The most common SEO goals stated by clients are:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n If you do not know what you hope to achieve from search engine optimization, then please take a moment to understand common goals for SEO.<\/p>\n Rand Fishkin’s article The 6 Goals of SEO: Choosing the Right Ones for Your Business<\/a> will help.<\/p>\n …<\/p>\n The website navigation (menu) is critical to the potential success of a website.\u00a0 Both website search engine rankings<\/a> and conversion rate are directly impacted by the menu items. If too many options are available, a visitor may become confused by the menu\u2019s complexity and simply leave for an easier to use website. This relates to the user experience (UX).<\/p>\n It is important to identify whether a client\u2019s website is using sitemaps because they help search engines crawl (visit pages of) a website, which helps to have more pages indexed (included in the search engine).\u00a0 Most important are XML (eXtensible Markup Language) sitemaps.\u00a0 An additional option is an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) sitemap.\u00a0 If a website does not have a sitemap (preferably the XML sitemap), the website is not properly optimized for search engines.<\/p>\n A professional SEO company must review the quantity and quality of a website\u2019s existing content.\u00a0 What text\/copy is being used on the various website pages?\u00a0 How are the website\u2019s pages connected\/related to one another?\u00a0 Much of the success of search engine optimization depends upon the quality and amount of text on a page and the number of pages (size) of a website.<\/p>\n Another part of an SEO company\u2019s responsibility is to understand the competitive landscape in which a client is competing.\u00a0 Typically, larger websites (those with more pages) will rank better than smaller websites. And, larger pages with more content on the page will out-rank thinner pages with little content.\u00a0 Content management is critical to the online success of a website.<\/p>\n The user experience of a website is critical to its success.\u00a0 If a visitor lands on website and does not like the way it looks, they will leave for another website.\u00a0 If a website is difficult to use, a visitor will not spend time trying to figure it out.<\/p>\n As previously mentioned, time on site and click through rate are important factors to Google and toward ranking well.\u00a0 The user experience, therefore, is critical for rankings.\u00a0 Additionally, a desirable website design<\/a> with attractive images and use of color, will encourage more conversions (taking a desired action such as filling out a form or making a purchase).<\/p>\n Higher rankings and more traffic are the primary reasons why a client hire\u2019s an SEO expert, therefore, the expert better know how to look at the technical elements of a website that are important to ranking well.\u00a0 Among these success factors are elements like the load time of a web page (website speed) and whether a website is mobile friendly (responsive). There are several technical aspects related to a website\u2019s code, template and plugins\/extensions that must be analyzed and understood in order to optimize a website for better rankings.<\/p>\n For more information, please see ahref’s article How to Do a Basic Website Audit to Improve SEO and UX (in 10 Steps)<\/a><\/p>\n …<\/p>\n There are several on-page optimization opportunities.\u00a0 An experienced SEO professional will know all on-page elements to optimize in order to improve rankings.\u00a0 Keyword stuffing (listing the same word or phrase over and over again to the point that the readability of a page is poor) is not proper on-page optimization.<\/p>\n In addition to on-page optimization opportunities, an effective SEO company will know what off-page optimization factors positively influence rankings.\u00a0 The most important part of off-page SEO is building links, referred to as backlinks, to a client\u2019s website.\u00a0 Backlinks are considered by many SEO consultants<\/a> to be the most important aspect of search engine optimization and critical to achieving higher rankings.\u00a0 Because backlinks are so important, it is often an area that is abused or done incorrectly.<\/p>\n Acquiring backlinks should be the natural result of writing intriguing, quality content that is of interest to readers.\u00a0 When a website contains useful information, other website will be more likely to reference the information by providing a link to the page from which it originated.\u00a0 Wikipedia, for example, obtains much of its information from other websites and provides a link (reference) to the source of the information.\u00a0 When these backlinks contain the desired keywords in the anchor text (the backlink\u2019s clickable words, typically underlined), this helps improve rankings.<\/p>\n Another primary area of off-page SEO is social media.\u00a0 While high organic rankings can generate significant traffic to a website, so too can social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.<\/p>\n A professional SEO consulting company should analyze a website\u2019s current rankings to help establish a strategy of the keywords on which to focus.\u00a0 The likelihood of improving rankings and traffic are greater with keywords\/terms that are already ranking, therefore, this is a very good starting point from which to begin website optimization.<\/p>\n To learn more about keyword research, see MOZ’s article Keyword Research: The Beginner’s Guide to SEO<\/a><\/p>\n …<\/p>\n Backlinks are considered by SEO consultants to be the most important element that help rankings.\u00a0 An SEO company should be analyzing the backlinks (backlink profile) to a client\u2019s website.\u00a0 Poor quality backlinks can hurt a website\u2019s rankings by impinging upon the credibility and authority of a website.<\/p>\n When a backlink comes from an unrelated website, it may send a mixed-message to Google.\u00a0 If, for example, a client\u2019s website is about automobile repair, it should have backlinks from other auto related websites.\u00a0 Links from un-related websites may dilute the search engine\u2019s understanding of what your website is about and, therefore, may hurt rankings for automobile related keywords.<\/p>\n A professional SEO agency will help remove poor quality backlinks.<\/p>\n As eluded to above, good quality links to a website should come from other topically related sites.\u00a0 In addition to being related to a client\u2019s site, the backlinks should come from credible websites with high page and domain authority.\u00a0 Links, for example, from the Huffington post are very good because this website is highly respected.\u00a0 Links from high quality websites reflect well on the website to which they are linking.<\/p>\nQuestions this article addresses:<\/h4>\n
Table of Contents: SEO Company Roles & Responsibilities<\/h2>\n
1. Understanding Client Goals & Objectives<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n
2. Website Audit: Identify State of Current Website<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n
3. Keyword Research: Identify Terms for which a Website Should be Ranking<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n
4. Backlinks: Analyze Current Backlink Profile<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n
5. Competitor Analysis: Identify Client\u2019s Website Ranking Potential vs Competitor Websites<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n
6. SEO Reporting: Monthly Review of Analytics & Company Goals<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n
\n\u00a0Learn more about the different types of SEO services<\/a>.<\/h4>\n
Roles & Duties of SEO Companies<\/h2>\n
1. Understanding Client Goals & Objectives<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/webolutionsmarketingagency.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SEO-Goals-2020.jpg\")
The approach an SEO consulting company might take to achieve a client\u2019s goals can only be created once a clear understanding of objectives is achieved.\u00a0 It is from this understanding that an SEO expert is able to strategize and implement an effective SEO plan that will meet the client\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n2. Website Audit: Identify State of Current Website<\/h3>\n
Navigation & URL Structure<\/h3>\n
![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/webolutionsmarketingagency.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SEO-Agency-Website-Audit.jpg\")
A simple, intuitive menu structure encourages greater use and engagement by the visitor.\u00a0 Google is aware of metrics like \u2018time on site\u2019 and \u2018click through rate (CTR)\u2019.\u00a0 All other things being equal, a website that has more time spent on site by a visitor or a greater number of clicks to other pages on a website, will rank better and likely receive more traffic than a website with lower time on site and CTR.<\/p>\nSitemaps<\/h3>\n
Content<\/h3>\n
Layout \/ User Experience<\/h3>\n
Website Speed & Other Technical Factors<\/h3>\n
3. Keyword Research: Identify Terms for which a Website Should be Ranking<\/h3>\n
On-Page SEO<\/h3>\n
![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/webolutionsmarketingagency.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SEO-Company-Keyword-Research.jpg\")
To achieve superior rankings, an SEO marketing agency must know what keywords to focus on in order to properly optimize the content of a web page.\u00a0 Keyword research helps identify terms that have high search volume and a likelihood of the visitor taking a desired action (conversion) such as completing a form, making a call or placing an order.<\/p>\nOff-Page SEO<\/h3>\n
Current Keyword Rankings Report<\/h3>\n
4. Backlinks: Analyze Current Backlink Profile<\/h3>\n
Poor Quality Backlinks<\/h3>\n
Build Good Quality Backlinks<\/h3>\n