When to Hire an SEO Partner
Whether you’re building a website from the ground up or maintaining a legacy corner of the internet, the fundamentals of search engine optimization (SEO) should be present in every piece of content that you touch. While marketers have long known about the power of best practices and the importance of optimizing content for search, a rapidly evolving landscape has left many wondering where the goal posts are and how they can best attract their target audience. Today, building blocks such as internal linking and keyword choice remain as important as ever, but as search engines like Google finesse their approach to finding the most relevant content for its users, many marketers are finding themselves struggling to sort through the complexity of SEO changes and are playing catch up to remain on top.
In today’s search engine optimization landscape, it is easy to get lost in the necessary twists and turns that encompass website optimization. Sometimes, marketers can solve the issue at hand, such as producing high-quality content, but other situations require a seasoned partner. So, when does a performance problem require SEO expertise? Here are ten times when marketers should consider hiring an SEO partner
1. Redesigning, migrating, or consolidating your site
During the process of updating a website, there are always risks hidden behind navigation changes, redirect mapping, or copy refreshes. For example, a navigation change might unknowingly create a chain of invalid URLs without the proper redirects, resulting in lost traffic and rankings. It is important for website owners to understand how each change could impact their SEO efforts. SEO experts can highlight what content can be removed from the site, and what must remain to support overall performance
2. Organic traffic, conversions, or overall site performance is tanking
When organic traffic is decreasing, it is important to get to the root cause of the issue. However, it is not always an easy fix. Rather than go down the rabbit hole to find the solution, an SEO partner can run down a prioritized checklist to uncover which organic performance factors could be impacting site traffic. Perhaps the site was hit with an algorithm update, or a change to the search landscape. Did a competitor hit the market or drastically increase their paid spend? What about a technical site issue that went undiscovered for months? An SEO partner can sort through these considerations to diagnose dips in performance.
3. Difficulties with paid search performance or engagement
Paid search has many strengths, like capitalizing on high-intent search traffic and helping a brand’s website appear higher on the search engine results page (SERP). So, when paid search performance or engagement drops, marketers often panic. But how can marketers flip the switch on this medium? Partner with an SEO expert. Between recommending landing page optimizations or outlining solutions to improve site speed, SEO experts can review a brand’s current performance or engagement levels and propose a solution. By removing these roadblocks, paid search efforts will be set up for greater success.
4. You have a small internal SEO team, or a marketing team tasked with many roles
SEO requires time and ongoing effort that cannot always be fulfilled by a small internal SEO team, or a marketing team tasked with many roles. The search landscape is filled with a sometimes overwhelming number of obstacles and opportunities; using a subject expert removes the guesswork of implementing a strong SEO strategy. Instead of adding another task to an already-at-capacity team, partnering with an SEO partner can be a more efficient way to surmount roadblocks and improve organic visibility.
5. New competitors are entering the market
New competitors entering the market can be daunting. As more companies fight to be on page 1 of the SERP, it can be a challenge to increase visibility of a brand’s website. This is where an SEO partner can jump in and bring forward competitive insights. By analyzing known business competitors and identified SERP competitors, an SEO partner can help marketers understand where your brand sits in the competitive landscape. With this competitive knowledge, marketers can implement their SEO partner’s recommendations to help their brand rise to the top of the search engine results page.
6. Launching a new website, site section, or product
During the process of launching a new product, site section, or even an entirely new website, many think design first, then SEO strategy second. However, web design and SEO are so closely linked together, it is hard to create a successful foundation without both. Both should be planned for and optimized together. For example, when drafting copy for this new addition, an SEO partner can work in conjunction with a brand’s web design team to ensure the new copy and design implemented align with SEO best practices. The perspective that an SEO partner can bring to the table allows new websites, site sections, and/or product launches to go off without a hitch.
7. Rebranding, splitting, or combining brands
The decision to rebrand, split, or combine brands involves rethinking all the content surrounding them. Marketers may know what content to keep, but what about the SEO equity built up over time across said domains? What about a redirect and internal linking strategy? Rather than risk wiping out the SEO equity gained or SEO strategy in place, bring in an SEO partner to help you navigate these changes so performance is not inhibited.
8. Your business has multiple physical locations or brick-and-mortar stores
In the case of multiple physical locations and brick-and-mortar stores, a local SEO strategy is required to ensure strong organic visibility. Why? A local SEO strategy can increase organic traffic as users search for the stores closest to them. A strong local SEO strategy requires support from an SEO partner who understands the intricacies of local SEO. For example, your new SEO partner may be able to help your brand boost awareness of its brick-and-mortar locations by optimizing Google listings or improving internal linking structure. An SEO partner can step in with all the knowledge and expertise to put your business in front of the eyes searching for it.
9. Your paid search ads are flagged for site speed issues
Site speed is a popular topic among digital marketers; in fact, it’s now a Google ranking factor. But site speed is not just for organic search — it’s also a top consideration for paid search success. To ensure your paid search ads are being fully leveraged, check the files on the landing page to see if they are too large, review the coding in your website, or simply pull in an SEO partner. Fully diagnosing the cause behind slow site speed can require marketers to go hunt down the answers. But an SEO partner knows what to look for as the typical culprits for slow site speed. So, save yourself a headache and keep your paid search ads profitable — partner with someone who has the SEO expertise.
10. Never completed a technical SEO audit
A technical SEO audit examines all the technical SEO elements of a brand’s website. It surfaces all technical SEO issues that could be reducing organic search traffic or general website success. In order for all the amazing content you have written to be fully indexed and findable by search engines and users alike, it’s critical to bring in an SEO partner to identify any and all technical SEO issues. Without having an expert examine your website, you might never know your site is not up to Google’s standards or that low word count is ruining your website’s ranking. Having an SEO partner perform a thorough technical SEO audit will help remove any snags hindering your success.
An SEO partner can leverage their wealth of knowledge to provide top-tier recommendations to elevate your website, campaigns, and business. Rather than exhausting your energy or valuable dollars to fix performance problems related to poor organic search performance, partner with an SEO partner to work as an extension of your team to elevate your success.
