Thinking about hiring an eCommerce SEO agency to generate higher organic visibility for your eCommerce website?
Make sure you don’t get any of these answers to any of the questions you ask before hiring. They’re all red flags that you’re probably about to get ripped off.
1. We don’t have writers (or we outsource writers)
Content is one of the four main pillars of SEO, but truthfully, it’s the single most important one. As SEO evolves, it’s merging with content marketing and the role of copy has become even more central.
Since copywriting constitutes the single most important pillar of SEO, don’t hire an SEO agency that takes it lightly.
Ideally you want to hire an agency that has in-house copywriters who are themselves eCommerce SEO experts, specifically a team of writers that has demonstrated experience with your industry. This is the most critical aspect of eCommerce SEO services, don’t take it lightly.
2. We don’t do any linking
While copywriting may be the most important aspect of SEO, link strategy is still important as backlinks indicate to search engines that your website is an authority and can even generate referral traffic.
There are some agencies that don’t do any linking, and while you can get organic results without it, it’s not going to be as effective as if there were one.
Ultimately, you want to work with an agency that posts copy with backlinks on high-DA websites, preferable with domain authority scores above 30.
3. Results will take (insert timeframe here) long to develop
Run for the hills if an SEO agency tells you how long, specifically, it will take for results to develop. The thing about search engine optimization is that it is invariably a long-term game, full stop.
There are no get-rich-quick schemes, but more importantly, there isn’t a one-size-fits all approach. No expert, regardless of experience level, can tell you precisely how long it will take to generate results.
4. We don’t have developers
Development is only one small aspect of SEO, but it impacts technical website performance, and that in turn is one portion of SEO.
While they don’t constitute a focus, considerations like website speed, security, and UX, which impact how a user interacts with a website, including how long they spend on a page and what actions they take, are ranking signals in SEO.
Oftentimes, it takes the skill of a developer to troubleshoot those issues that impact SEO from a technical perspective.
5. You don’t need experience with a specific eCommerce platform to be proficient in SEO
This last one is more of a pink flag since it is actually sort of true. SEO is not platform specific. The problem arises when you don’t know how to make technical adjustments of a platform to improve SEO.
Therein lies the rub. While you don’t absolutely have to be a platform expert to optimize a website’s online store for SEO, it definitely helps when you’re making technical optimizations.
If you get any of these answers to any of the questions you pose to an eCommerce SEO agency, keep looking.
There’s no guarantee that these answers will prove that you’re going to hire a flop, but you’re likely going to be in for a headache – and that agency likely won’t get you to the tops of the search engine results pages anytime soon.
Hire an Experienced eCommerce SEO Agency
All in all, you want to hire an eCommerce SEO agency that’s had several years of experience – this alone is a testament to their customer service and the sorts of results they furnish.
Start with a search through the organic SERPs. Never hire an SEO “expert” that doesn’t have good organic rankings.
Then, be patient. As stated, it takes quite a bit of time to get a website to rank through SEO efforts.
