How to check the SEO specialist you hired? Evaluating the SEO strategy

How do you understand what the SEO specialist you're working with offers and how well they do their job? In this article, we will tell you what you should pay attention to in order to evaluate the SEO strategy and the work of the contractor.

What to look for in an SEO strategy

Here are a few important aspects that will help you understand whether everything is going according to plan, or whether you should think about changing a specialist:

1. Fuzzy goal

A strategy must be built on a clear goal, otherwise it becomes meaningless. Increasing traffic or getting to the top of search results are not goals in themselves, but intermediate steps.

The main goal of a business is to attract customers and increase sales. Therefore, the goal of an SEO strategy should be focused on growing targeted traffic and getting to the top for queries that lead to conversions.

Goals could be:

• Increase website visibility by 40% for key commercial queries.
• Double search traffic on an information portal in a year.
• Increase organic traffic by 25% within 6 months.

2. There was no audit, just a strategy

If a contractor does not conduct a preliminary site audit, their strategy may be superficial. Before developing a strategy, it is important to conduct a thorough analysis of the site, target audience, competitors and other factors that will help to correctly formulate goals and methods.

The audit includes the following stages:

• Collection and formation of a semantic core.
• Evaluating website positions and visibility for search queries.
• Technical audit.
• Analysis of page content and meta tags.
• Checking the site structure and internal linking.
• Analysis of external links.
• Assessing user behavior on the site.
• Analysis of competitive sites.

Once the audit is completed, the SEO specialist should provide recommendations for improving the site based on your goals.

3. The tasks are too general

It is necessary to clearly formulate tasks and indicate deadlines for their completion. For example, the task “Perform internal optimization” is too vague and does not give an idea of ​​​​what exactly needs to be done.

An example of a correct task: “Optimize meta tags on product category pages by the end of the month.” This is a specific task with clear deadlines and objectives.

4. No priorities, no deadlines

If the strategic plan does not have priorities and clear deadlines, the specialist may spend a lot of time on unimportant tasks. It is important that critical activities are performed first and not just to generate reports.

5. No forecasts or, conversely, loud promises

Expected results for traffic, conversion and sales must be predictable and reasonable. A good specialist will always present graphs or tables with forecasts based on an analysis of current data and seasonal factors.

It is important that forecasts are realistic and do not promise immediate results. For example, a graph that illustrates the expected increase in traffic and conversions based on specific activities will help you measure progress and see dynamics.

We welcome your questions and feedback!

If you have any additional questions, you can write to the SEO studio "SEO COMPUTER" at info@seo.computer.

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