StartupTalky

Tag: seo agency

  • How to Spot an Ineffective SEO Agency?

    The global agencies SEO services market which was worth USD 41.97 billion in 2021 is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.7% to reach a total valuation of USD 108.89 billion by the year 2026. The primary factor driving this growth is the increasing number of people using smartphones and internet services. This has made access to information and video content easy thereby requiring to optimize the search, positively impacting the SEO services market.

    What is SEO Agency
    Signs of an Ineffective SEO Agency
    Conclusion

    What is SEO Agency

    Simply explained, an SEO agency is an external company that acts as an additional marketing arm with a goal to increase visibility in searches across devices and audiences as well as enrich user journeys through websites to increase the conversion rates from prospective to customers. An SEO agency helps a business achieve –

    An effective SEO agency would deliver on all the above-mentioned points through-

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    Signs of an Ineffective SEO Agency

    The market of SEO agencies is saturated with SEO agencies being probably present in every area. Due to its crowding, it falls to the business owners to research and choose the SEO agency that best fits their needs. Having said that, there are a number of signs that must not be ignored in the quest for an SEO Agency. These are the warning signs that indicate the SEO agency’s ineffectiveness and highlight their incompetency.

    Making Tall and Unrealistic Promises

    This is probably one of the most significant signs of an incompetent agency. For instance, a promise of permanent or long-term holding the number one position for certain keywords is a promise that is as unreal as it is impossible. Rankings are consistently shifting due to the sheer volume of the changes that various websites are making to their content. As and when competitors make changes to their online content, the various search engines are updating their results pages as well.

    Owning a Business’s Data and Logins

    A demand of this nature coming from any SEO agency should raise many red flags as this is an attempt to gain full control over the business’s logins, data, and reporting. This kind of demand can appeal to business owners with the mindset of allowing such agencies to handle the entire gamut of SEO-related work because they are being paid to handle it. However, this can prove dangerous as such data and logins can be used to keep the contract valid. Such a move from the business owner can also land the business in a legal dispute and also can be costly due to creating new logins and adding new tracking codes to the business website.

    Thin and Low-Quality Content on Their Site

    As competitive as the world of SEO is, usually the content on SEO sites is extremely engaging and ranks higher in gaining audience attention due to effective keywords. However, what also factors in the ranking of a particular page is the length of the content and its details. Hence if the SEO agency’s own content on their page does not meet the criteria for high-ranking pages, it is a warning sign for any prospective client to move away from that particular agency. Another concern is when SEO agencies do not provide important and detailed explanations of complex concepts like SEO, PPC, and the pricing matrix. The co-relation is simple – if they cannot produce strong content for themselves, they are incapable of producing strong content for anyone else.

    No Maintenance and Only One-fixes

    Optimizing a website for the best possible results isn’t a one-time task. It’s an ongoing and never-ending maintenance process. And a good and effective SEO agency knows it. SEO trends are continuously evolving and changing due to consistent shifts and change in search engines and users. SEO agencies who do not consistently update, upgrade and maintain their sites cannot offer effective strategies to their clients.

    No Understanding Of the Industry or Competition

    SEO is a marketing technique and thereby sensitive to different industries and the competition within them. If the agency does not take the initiative to understand the industry in which the business operates as well as the competition it faces, it cannot offer an effective solution or strategy to achieve high-ranking content. If an SEO agency does not understand the business, its clients, its concerns, its USP, and more importantly its competition, it is an agency that should not be considered.

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    Unclear Approach Methods

    SEO agencies, although different in their ideology, follow a set of best practices that are based on ethics and delivering value for money to the client. Any SEO agency that tries to hide its method of operating is, most likely, engaging in questionable practices like cloaking, link schemes, keyword stuffing, and unrelated directories. Such practices are most likely a waste of money and do not contribute towards any discernible results for the business.

    Conclusion

    SEO agencies are everywhere and hence, weeding out the effective ones is a process that might be time-consuming. However, it is always to the advantage of the businesses and their owners to ascertain that the SEO agency working on their behalf is genuine, engages in ethical business practices, and showcases deliverable results backed by realizing it.

    FAQs

    What is an SEO agency?

    An SEO agency is an external company that acts as an additional marketing arm with the goal to increase visibility in searches across devices and audiences as well as enrich user journeys through websites to increase the conversion rates from prospects to customers.

    What does an SEO agency help a business to achieve?

    An SEO agency helps a business achieve –

    • Better visibility
    • Better traffic
    • More leads
    • More conversions
    • Better ROI

    What are the signs of an ineffective SEO agency?

    Below are the signs of an ineffective SEO agency –

    • Making Tall and Unrealistic Promises
    • Owning a Business’s Data and Logins
    • Thin and Low-Quality Content on Their Site
    • No Maintenance and Only One-fixes
    • No Understanding Of the Industry or Competition
    • Unclear Approach Methods

  • Should you Outsource your link building campaign?

    Hey, let me share a story with you first.

    It was the early days of my SEO career. I used to work for a Digital Marketing agency. I was handling a brand new website there.

    As the website was new, thus my primary focus was working on on-page & technical SEO. I spent most of my time building Content strategy and fixing Site architecture.

    But there was pressure from the client-side, as they want to strengthen their link profile too.

    Whereas, Our Agency did not have the resources to build high-quality relevant links. Thus, they outsourced the complete Link building work to another agency.

    End of the first month, they have created around 60 links. ( Most of them were profile links, blog commenting and web 2.0)

    End of the 2nd month, they doubled the number of similar kinds of shitty links.

    But DR remained 0.

    There is no significant improvement in the 3rd month as well.

    As a result, My agency lost the client.

    But, It does not mean those profile links, blog commenting and web 2.0 do not work today.

    It still works, Only if you are doing it strategically.

    Thus, before outsourcing your link building campaign, ask the following questions to yourself.

    1. Have you just started working on your brand new website?
    2. Do you have the budget to hire a professional link builder, a professional content writer and the maintenance cost of tools?
    3. Are you passionate about learning different techniques of Link building & want to pursue a career upon that?
    4. Do you have the time to invest in a link building campaign?
    5. Is your business heavily dependent on SEO?
    6. Do you know how to hire the right link building service provider?

    Let’s jump into the first question.

    1. Have you just started working on your brand new website?

    If yes! Then you must focus on your content and on-page SEO first. I have seen people crazy about building links while they are just starting.

    At Startuptalky, we were able to generate 5000 daily pageviews without building significant links. (We got some natural links due to our quality of content and created very few profiles and blog commenting links.)

    Links work as fuel to your traffic. Thus build a strong foundation with your content and proper On-page SEO first, and bring decent organic traffic. You can always invest later in Link building to boost your traffic and Domain Authority.

    2. Do you have the budget to hire a professional link builder, a professional content writer, and the maintenance cost of tools?

    If the answer is yes, then go for it and launch your link building outreach campaign.

    If the answer is no, then simply outsource. You need professionals to bring results and get your ROI back. Else, end up losing your money and time.

    If you are passionate about link building, then do it by yourself. You can explore this field in your own way and may end up with your own link building methodologies.

    If you don’t have time or you have other important tasks to run your business smoothly. Then outsourcing to the right person or agency is the best option for you.

    5. Is your business heavily dependent on SEO?

    If SEO is the core of your business. Then always hire an expert. Not just to build high-quality links but also to ensure that you are not building spammy links which may affect your website badly. No matter what Google says, Link is still a key factor to outrank your competitor and scale your website traffic.

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    If you are about to hire a link builder or any agency, here are a few questions you should ask them.

    1. Ask about their process. How will they create links?

    2. Ask them to share some relevant sites from where they will create links for you. Then check and verify the quality of those websites.

    Check the right metrics
    Check the right metrics 

    3. Always ask for sample links and check their indexing status.

    4. Confirm the duration of the live links.

    5. Avoid people who send you the list of hundreds of profiles, directory submission, and PBN  links. Also, ignore who offers you guest posts in bulk on low-quality irrelevant sites with cheap prices.

    6. Ask about their previous clients or any successful case study. You can cross-check the backlink profiles of those websites. It may give you an overview of their links.

    7. Always focus on quality over quantity.

    Conclusion

    However, you need to understand link building is not a one-time investment. It’s a process. It takes time and money.

    Thus don’t invest in link building randomly. Keep tracking and measuring the KPIs. Analyse what results they are bringing.

    According to my experience, there is no single way to get success in SEO. It’s about finding the winning process that will work best for your website. Till then, keep experimenting and keep hustling.

    FAQ

    Link building is a search engine optimization technique that increases your search engine ranking. Having a good number of links to a website indicates that the content there is valuable.

    You can expect to pay around $100-$250 per hour or $2,000 – $8,000 per month on average.

    Yes, Link building is a crucial part of any successful SEO strategy.

  • Digital Marketing Business Ideas | Online Business in 2021

    Digital marketing is gaining immense popularity among entrepreneurs, marketers and consumers. While entrepreneurs and marketers use digital marketing to reach out to a large target audience, consumers life has also become easier as they can explore and buy products and services easily. As a result, there is high scope for success in digital marketing business ideas you can start online like SEO agency and web/app development.

    So here, we have compiled a list of best digital marketing business ideas, which are popular and profitable too. You can start them all online.

    Best digital Marketing Business Ideas to start Online:

    Blogging Agency

    Blogs are the arteries carrying the weight of digital marketing. Existing from the time the internet was introduced in the 90s, blogs are an effective way of marketing products and services on the internet, mobile phones and other mediums. The quality and influencing capability of these write-ups are defined by the minds that produce them. Hence, there’s a dire need of professional content writers comfortable in delivering content over an array of topics.

    So if you have flair for quality content creation, then a blogging agency is a suitable startup plan for you. You can later diversify your income plan when you have a good amount of audience.

    SEO Agency

    A lot of companies proclaim being experts in SEO and thus there’s a lot of competition in this domain. But if you’ve worked on real-time SEO projects and have enjoyed success, then optimization can be one of the best business ideas to make money. In in the SEO industry, success depends only on two factors – prior experience and conversion rate i.e. increase in incoming traffic.

    Social Media Agency

    Virtual presence on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is imperative in bolstering brand identity and awareness among people. Every business irrespective of the size and area of operation must be present across different social media platforms to attract target customers. Managing social media accounts in different platforms, and keeping these accounts updated is an exhaustive task. In this scenario starting a social media agency is a profitable business idea. Along with that, if you learn a few things about Social Media marketing and the paid ads on social media, then you can build a good clientele. Many small businesses which are coming online don’t know how to use the social media and its ads effectively. So, you can approach them easily generate a lead.

    Additionally, If you are a social media enthusiast, you can also earn money by selling products to your friends and followers on social media platforms. You do not even need to keep a stock of products to sell online. There are many Dropshipping apps available like Meesho, Shop 101 etc. You just have to download the app and share the products shown in your social media accounts, and you earn commission on every product sold.

    You can also promote affiliate links and make money whenever someone buys from your affiliate link. Almost all the ecommerce companies provide affiliate links. Today, social media is one of the best business and there are various possibilities of making money through it.

    Mobile and Web Application
    Development:

    Organizations want to expand their market reach beyond the realms of laptops and computers. This implies transporting an entire website to a mobile screen, with no delay and failure in rendering.

    As such,mobile/web app development can be a successful digital marketing business plan. The USP is to distinguish oneself from the numerous companies already involved in app development. An example is creating applications that don’t breach the privacy of the smartphone user. This is slowly becoming a necessary feature in the light of various data breach incidents that have occurred in recent times.

    Also, there are many businesses which need to get online to expand their business. According to a study (2018) 6 out of 10 small businesses do not have a website. In fact, 35% of those business owners think their business is too small to be online. You can easily target those business and tell them how easy and profitable it is to be online.

    Video Marketing

    Static images as advertisements are gradually being replaced by short video clips. And it makes sense as well since people are prone to be enticed by a 10-second ad when compared to an image trying to convey the same message, promotion or idea. According to a study, organic traffic improves by up to 157% with added video content. So, if you can form a team that has innovative digital marketing ideas and specializes in creating amazing videos for promoting clients, then video marketing consultancy is your niche to launch a startup.

    PPC Strategist

    What a PPC strategist do is to come up with the best keywords for the PPC campaign. Pay-per-Click campaigns are expensive and can quickly burn through the budget if not implemented carefully. So, companies need highly experienced strategist who can do deep research and come up with the best keyword for the PPC campaign. If you can convert a $2 fee paid to a search engine for PPC into a $100 lead, then you should lend your expertise to others by conjuring a PPC strategy company. Companies pay the PPC strategist their quoted prices.

    Cloud Consultancy

    Cloud services offered by providers such as Amazon, Microsoft etc. have made life easier. Whether large storage or high-performance virtual machine is needed, cloud computing satisfies all kinds of requirements. And as more and more companies shift their entire operations online on a cloud platform (especially startups), cloud consultancy is the need of the hour. With a large number of vendors to choose from, companies may not be able to make the right choice and need professional guidance for cloud computing. In such a case, starting a cloud consultancy can be a profitable startup idea.

    However to rise up in ranks as a consultant, one needs to have the latest certifications and skills, and above all, the desire to learn and improve daily since cloud computing is making tremendous progress and innovations with each passing day.

    Web Analytics Company

    Analysis of data obtained through incoming traffic on a website can reveal surprising and useful patterns. Using the power of AI, ML and business analytics experts in these domains can help websites boost productivity, income and effectiveness. If you’re an analytics expert or can assemble a team which specializes in same, you can create a startup providing web analytics services and solutions.

    Websites, blogs, and similar platforms often fall prey to copyright and infringement suits due to plagiarizing content for digital marketing. For example, bloggers tend to copy answers from forums like Quora, without giving the actual writer due credits and recognition. Situations like these open up an entire money making domain to legal experts dealing with copyright and trademarks and thus makes a good digital startup.

    As such if you are one such ‘cyber lawyer’, then use your skills to start a business in saving website owners from unnecessary copyright violations!

    This was our list of top digital marketing business ideas. Comment below if you have any of the listed startup. If not, which kind of Digital Marketing Startup are you most interested in and why?