When to Hire an SEO Company: 6 Questions You Need to Ask Before Hiring SEO Services

Last updated: October 23, 2023

Even though 75% of businesses invest in search engine optimization (SEO), many question whether they should consider hiring an SEO company.

On this page, we’re exploring when and why you should hire an SEO company, the benefits of doing so, and what questions you should ask to ensure you find the best agency for your needs and goals. So just keep reading!

If you’ve already decided that you want to hire an SEO company, but need to find the right agency, consider WebFX.

We offer award-winning SEO services, plus created more than $3 billion in revenue for our clients in the past five years. Call us at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today to learn more! Want to watch a video with tips for choosing an SEO agency? We’ve got you covered.

Keep reading to learn about some common SEO questions for hiring an agency!

Key takeaways

• You should consider hiring an SEO company if your team is stretched thin or if you aren’t driving the SEO results you hoped
• Hiring an SEO agency helps you focus on other business tasks while driving impressive results for your business
• Full-service agencies can help you with several digital marketing campaigns, including SEO
• Determine whether you want SEO to be a long-term strategy for driving revenue and if your chosen agency has experience working in your industry

Why hire an SEO company?

So, when should you hire an SEO company? It’s not always clear when you should consider partnering with an SEO agency to further your goals.

Here are a few reasons why you should hire an SEO expert:

• You want to improve your SEO strategy and results
• Your team is stretched thin or you don’t have an in-house SEO team
• Your website isn’t driving traffic
• Your site isn’t ranking in the search results
• You have the budget to hire an SEO agency
• You or your team lacks extensive SEO knowledge and expertise

If you or your team don’t know the ins and outs of SEO ranking factors and search engine algorithms, it could be time to consider hiring an SEO agency who spends their days researching these things.

Or if you don’t have the in-house team to implement an SEO strategy or just aren’t getting the results you want, an SEO agency can help you create and manage a strategy that drives traffic and revenue.

Benefits of hiring an SEO company

When it comes to deciding whether you should hire an SEO agency, you’ll want to understand the benefits of doing so.

Here are five of the biggest benefits of hiring an SEO company:

1. SEO will improve your website
2. SEO companies have experience
3. SEO companies get the best results
4. Outsourcing your SEO lets you focus on what you do best
5. Full-service companies can help with more than just SEO

1. SEO will improve your website

As you may already know, search engine optimization has become crucial for your website. In the past, only those in specific industries with high amounts of competition may have needed SEO to see their websites take the top spot in search engine results pages (or SERPs). But every industry has competition, and SEO has become necessary to reach potential customers or leads.

Without SEO, your website may never gain the exposure it needs to rank highly. Unless your site is properly optimized to load quickly, target the most relevant keywords, and directly compete with others in your industry, you may find that it is extremely difficult—or altogether impossible—to increase your sales online without investing a fortune in other marketing tactics.

An SEO company (and its organic SEO services) can help you implement the methods that are crucial for improving your visibility in searches, improving your chances of reaching potential customers or leads, while reducing the amount of money you need to spend on marketing.

2. SEO companies have experience

While you may know the basics of SEO, or have been reading articles and blog posts about the topic for quite some time now, you may not have much experience in actually optimizing your website. Or you may be learning SEO as you go, trying different tactics on your site to see what works. Does this sound familiar?

The success of your business shouldn’t be based on experiments or guesswork. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s actually possible for SEO to damage your site rather than help it. For example, link building can certainly help your authority, but the wrong kind of links can result in your site being penalized—and even removed from search engine results as punishment.

SEO companies have the knowledge and experience necessary to make smart decisions for your site that result in increases in your ranking and visibility, not decreases. They also typically have experience working with a variety of clients in different industries, allowing them to appropriately handle your unique ranking situation, needs, and expectations.

Partnering with one of the top SEO companies also ensures you’ll know how to handle unexpected changes, like algorithm updates or even penalties. SEO agencies have experienced these many times before, and can guide you through each potential issue smoothly and quickly.

3. SEO companies get the best results

As we already mentioned, you don’t want to leave the success of your business up to chance, or potentially damage your website. Even if you mean well, or do a great deal of research, it’s possible that you simply won’t be able to achieve the same level of success online as an SEO professional.

An SEO company with many years of experience will be able to evaluate your website, your goals, and your competitors and create a comprehensive plan to increase your visibility in search. They’ll be able to track your progress and adjust their plans to ensure you’re on the right path to achieving the best results, no matter how long that takes.

4. Outsourcing your SEO lets you focus on what you do best

If you’ve been reading about SEO for a while, you may be wondering where you’re going to find the time to optimize your website, write new content, and build links. You may also be concerned that you aren’t knowledgeable enough to handle these tasks, or that you won’t be able to accomplish them quickly enough to make a difference in your site’s visibility.

If you work with a professional SEO company, you’ll be able to focus on doing what you do best—running your business—while they take care of the rest. You’ll also be less stressed about how your website is performing in search because you’ll have the knowledge that a group of professionals is handling it for you.

5. Full-service companies can help with more than just SEO

Finally, if you opt to work with a full-service Internet marketing agency, as opposed to a company that provides strictly SEO services, you’ll be able to lean on them for all of your online marketing needs. Anytime you need help with website content, advertising, inbound marketing, web design, or anything else, you’ll know exactly where to turn.

Full-service companies also often provide discounted pricing for customers who scale up their business from a simple SEO plan to a full-service package. As you grow your business relationship with them, you’ll hopefully find that they are able to meet your needs in a timely manner, and are able to help you grow your own business and meet your broader goals—not just improve your search engine visibility.

Many full-service agencies offer bundled packages for companies looking to perform SEO, inbound marketing, content marketing, or a website redesign all at the same time, so be sure to ask about a custom plan!

6 essential questions to ask when hiring an SEO company

We’ve outline the six most important questions you should ask when hiring an SEO agency to ensure you find the perfect partner. Check them out below.

1. Do you use other digital marketing strategies?
2. Do you want to use SEO as a long-term strategy for generating revenue?
3. Can you do SEO yourself?
4. Do SEO companies work in your industry?
5. Do you have the budget to hire SEO services?
6. Does your current SEO strategy under deliver when it comes to results?

1. Do you use other digital marketing strategies?

A complete, 360-degree approach to digital marketing can help your business maximize its online success. That’s why many companies not only invest in SEO, but also supporting SEO services like voice search optimization, video marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Your company’s decision to invest in a comprehensive web marketing strategy can have a tremendous influence on whether you hire an SEO company to not only manage your SEO strategy, but also coordinate it with your other Internet marketing tactics. So, does your business use other digital marketing strategies?

Yes: If you hire an SEO company that offers a suite of digital marketing solutions, you can maximize the impact of your online marketing strategies. They can help your business develop a cohesive plan that coordinates your efforts, which can lead to bigger (and better) results for your company.

No: Even though SEO is a powerful strategy by itself, you can amplify its results by investing in additional web marketing strategies. Research the value of strategies like content marketing, social media marketing, and even email marketing and see how they can help your business.

2. Do you want to use SEO as a long-term strategy for generating revenue?

SEO is a proven digital marketing strategy for generating long-term revenue. Our custom SEO strategies, for example, have helped create more than $3 billion in revenue for our clients. They’ve also provided clients, like Reynolds Building Solutions, with qualified, high-value leads. As your team researches the possibility of hiring an SEO company, you need to think about your business strategy. If your company sees SEO as a long-term, ongoing investment, then partnering with one of the best SEO companies can help your team maximize the return on investment (ROI) of your SEO.

So, do you want to use SEO as a long-term strategy for generating revenue?

Yes: For many businesses, it makes sense to use SEO as a long-term, ongoing strategy for generating revenue, because that’s what SEO does. Hiring an SEO company helps your business earn more from SEO by providing you access to advanced marketing tech, experienced SEO specialists, and more.

No: If your company doesn’t plan to make an ongoing investment into SEO, reconsider your strategy. SEO requires several months to show results. Looking at SEO as a short-term, one-time thing sets your team up for failure, which doesn’t help you or your business.

3. Can you do SEO yourself?

Like any other digital marketing strategy, SEO requires resources for in-house management. A few examples include:

• Talent
• Technology
• Time

For many businesses, talent and time provide the biggest challenge. You don’t have a massive marketing team, and they don’t have an open schedule. While they can discuss and plan an SEO strategy, it’s a challenge to implement and manage that strategy on an ongoing basis. Even companies with an extensive amount of resources for online marketing can discover challenges when managing their strategy in-house. A competitive industry, a lack of specialized team members, and more can make overseeing your SEO strategy internally a headache.

So, can you do SEO yourself or does your company have limited resources for managing your SEO strategy?

Yes: A lot of companies, especially small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), struggle to provide their staff with all the resources necessary to market a company. From talent to technology, it’s a challenge. That’s where hiring an SEO company can help, as they provide all the resources needed.

No: If you’re part of an established business with plenty of resources for managing an SEO strategy, then you’re probably looking to hire an SEO company for another reason. Expertise, for example, can motivate a lot of brands to partner with a reputable SEO agency.

4. Do SEO companies work in your industry?

A competitive, as well as saturated, online market can make succeeding at SEO difficult for your company. Even if you have minimal competition offline, you may discover a host of competitors when it comes to search results on Google, Bing, and other search engines. When that happens, your business needs to make a decision about how to compete.

You can approach the challenge in-house or hire an SEO company that specializes in your industry. While your team may save money upfront working on the problem internally, an SEO agency can help your business resolve it faster, which can lead to a quicker ROI.

So, do SEO companies work in your industry, and is it a competitive market?

Yes: For enterprises, as well as SMBs, a competitive market can make SEO a tremendous challenge. If you want to compete, you need the industry’s best. That’s why you hire an SEO company, which provides you with a competitive strategy, plus the talent and tech to succeed.

No: If your company operates in a niche market, you have a unique advantage when it comes to SEO. In some cases, however, your business may encounter other challenges, like an overloaded staff that doesn’t have the time or the experience to optimize your site, which is when an SEO agency can help.

5. Do you have the budget to hire SEO services?

Before your business can consider hiring an SEO company, you need to look at your budget. While your funds may cover the price of low-cost SEO services, which often cost $100 or less per month, they rarely provide the results you want, like an increase in sales or quote requests. That’s why you want to compare your budget to the price of affordable SEO services. This comparison can help your team see if it’s feasible to hire SEO services. If it’s not, you still have options for launching and creating a successful SEO strategy.

So, does your business have the budget to hire an SEO company?

Yes: When company decision-makers are willing to invest in professional SEO services, you want to hire an SEO company. With a reputable and trusted SEO agency, your business can take your SEO strategy to the next level. You can accomplish and earn more, which impacts your bottom line.

No: If your business doesn’t have the funds to hire an SEO company, you can take steps to maximize the performance of your strategy in-house. For example, you can use free online training courses or hire an SEO consultant to learn more about SEO and how to improve your approach.

6. Does your current SEO strategy under deliver when it comes to results?

No matter your industry, you want SEO to provide results. Companies want to do more than rank number one in search results. They want those rankings to drive quote requests, product sales, phone calls, and more. If your SEO strategy doesn’t do that, then you have a problem. That’s why many businesses will hire an SEO company, like WebFX, because we understand that your focus goes beyond a number one ranking but to your bottom line as well. Even strategies with average performance can benefit from the expertise of an agency or consultant. That third-party perspective can help your company uncover new opportunities, which can maximize your strategy’s performance.

So, does your current SEO strategy underdeliver?

Yes: While SEO does take time to deliver results, your company should start to see results after six months. If that doesn’t happen (and your team can’t find anything wrong with your strategy), consider hiring an SEO company or investing in SEO audit services. Both can help you discover and fix SEO issues.

No: Many businesses invest in SEO services because their strategy underperforms. Some, however, want to hire an SEO company to maximize the performance of a so-so SEO strategy because of operating in a competitive industry. Either way, an SEO agency can help your company earn more from SEO.

Looking for an all-in-one SEO audit tool? You’ve found it.

SEO Checker provides data on key metrics to give you:

• Complete SEO score
• Content Grade
• Site Speed Analysis
• and more.

Check My SEO Now!

Please input a valid URL (ex. webfx.com, www.webfx.com)

Ready to hire a top SEO company for SMBs?

With more than 1020 testimonials, plus a client recommendation score that exceeds the industry average by 488%, WebFX is a trusted SEO agency for SMBs. When you hire our SEO company, you receive a dedicated account manager, plus the expertise of more than 500 SEO specialists. Discover how our award-winning agency can help your business grow by browsing our SEO services today. Or, if you’re ready to chat with our team about your company, you can contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to request a free quote!