Last Updated on July 6, 2021 by
When starting, many business owners have a habit of wearing every hat and shouldering every operational responsibility. Others force duties on their employees even though they are not qualified or skilled in the work.
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), there are certain elements that you can do easily, especially in your early growth phases. But after a certain point, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or expect too much from your web designer. So when is it time to consider hiring an SEO management service?
Below are nine signs that it’s time to hire an SEO agency.
1. Increased Workload
Many businesses seek the services of an SEO firm when they can no longer handle their online marketing in-house. Developing an SEO strategy takes effort and time. It involves a lot of off-page and on-page actions that increase as your business grows.
As you start to grow and scale your business, you eventually begin to spread yourself too thin. What’s more, even if you have in-house marketers, they may not have the necessary skills to cope with the demands of SEO. Hence, it may be time to outsource your online marketing to an SEO specialist, even if it’s merely some aspects of a campaign. It leaves you free to concentrate on other areas of the business.
2. Your Costs for Paid Online Advertising are Too High
Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns (think AdWords or display marketing) are an effective means of boosting your traffic. However, they can be an expensive way of getting traffic to your website, especially if the cost of the ads is higher than the resultant sales and revenue you receive, and you get little or no ROI. PPC can be tricky. It must be monitored, updated, and tweaked regularly.
On the other hand, SEO is a lumbering beast that takes some time to get going but gains momentum. Therefore, when you begin building your organic search engine rankings, you will realize a rise in targeted traffic without the associated cost per click. An SEO company can help you augment your online marketing efforts significantly and get a higher ROI.
3. Your Site is Not Ranking
It’s a huge red flag when you cannot rank on the search engine result pages (SERPs). If you cannot see your site even after using specific long-tail searches, your online marketing strategy is not working. If you cannot improve your site’s ranking despite putting in the time and effort to do so, then it’s time to consider hiring a professional SEO management service to help out.
4. Your Reputation is Under Attack
Reputation management is one of the more challenging aspects of SEO. People buy from businesses they trust, and SEO is not only concerned with ranking high in search engine results but can also help you get negative things off the front pages.
An SEO management service can help you bury anything negative using ethical white hat tricks. A professional SEO service provider has the resources and technical know-how to start creating a positive buzz around your business and website. An SEO strategist can also assist you in responding directly to consumers and customers, whether it’s on your blog, review sites, or social media platforms, to rebuild your reputation or set the record straight.
5. You are Getting or Switching to a New Website
Switching to a new website, for whatever reason, can mean starting from zero. After years of building your old website and growing its online presence, moving to a new site may result in a massive drop in rankings.
An SEO agency can help with your move by offering design suggestions to make your new website mobile-friendly with modern design sensibilities and sleek user experience. An SEO consultant can also help out with your navigation, build you a new linking structure to your old detailed content, and prevent you from leaving hundreds of your pages orphaned.
6. You Cannot Keep Up with Search Engine Updates (or Have Received Warnings and Penalties)
Managing your website and ranking or SERPs requires you to stay up-to-date with search engine policies, regulations, and updates. Failure to follow these guidelines, making mistakes, or using black hat ranking techniques can result in stern warnings or penalties from search engines.
Google makes regular updates to its ranking and search algorithm, and its crawlers are quick to spot mistakes or black hat SEO tactics. For example, websites that implemented its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) program for mobile search capitalized on the update immediately.
Hence, hiring an SEO management service will help you remain up-to-date with the ever-changing online search environment and capitalize on the changes.
7. Your Content is Not SEO-Friendly
Despite providing high-quality content on your blog or website, none of your work ranks high in SERPs. It means that you have not correctly optimized it for search engines, and hiring an SEO management service may be your solution. You should optimize all your content using white hat SEO tactics (proper use of keywords, Meta titles and descriptions, correct headings and titles, optimal content length, and more).
8. You have Done Everything You Know on Social Media
It’s common for new companies to develop much of their online audience through social media platforms. But when these numbers reach a plateau, it’s a sign to outsource SEO services. Social media is an intrinsic aspect of many people’s online experiences. But to leverage these media, you need to identify and build the right target audience to create leads that your sales team can convert.
The number of likes, shares, and mentions that your social media posts garner does not automatically translate to higher sales or company growth. An SEO management service can help you build a captive audience by leveraging the work you have already done and get immediate benefits from search engines.
9. You are Not Tracking Your Ranking or Performing Content and Gap Analyses
Content research and gap analysis should inform your content creation process. It’s best to track keywords and your website’s ranking to plan your content and determine your topics. Check regularly for content gaps, both on your website and in your industry. Working with an SEO agency allows you to get more out of your time, money, and content creation efforts because it offers direction based on careful analysis and research.
Over to You
If your business or website shows any of these nine signs, hire a search engine optimization service ASAP. The right team can help your site rank higher in SERPs and gain more business.
The right SEO team will know how to conduct keyword research and an SEO audit and use a backlink and targeted keyword to increase website traffic. A fully managed SEO service can aid in creating more brand awareness and provide a well-thought-out SEO plan.
Are you looking for a quality SEO service? Nimbletoad can help. We are a results-driven digital marketing agency that specializes in local SEO, content marketing, web design, and PPC. We have SEO packages that can help you in your SEO efforts.
Contact us today to schedule a meeting and let us help you develop an SEO strategy and SEO campaign to gain more organic traffic.
Drew is an avid photographer whose images have won many awards.In fact, all of the images on this site were taken by him.
When he is not helping Nimbletoad's clients stand out online you'll find him surfing, hiking in the mountains, or fishing off the coast for yellowtail.
He lives in Vista, located at the northern tip of San Diego, with his wife Brooke and their three dogs Nora, Oliver, and Fin.
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