Mediaboss Marketing

If you employ, or are in the process of hiring, an SEO or PPC consultant or agency, these six points will help you assess whether they're doing their job.

Many business owners employ search engine optimization or paid search consultants which are sometimes the same people. However, many business owners don't actually take the time and spend the energy to actually audit the activities of their own consultants or the agencies they work with.

Properly and periodically auditing your own SEO and/or PPC specialist is essential for business owners not only to make sure they're maximizing the effectiveness of your budget, but also to ensure they're targeting the types of leads and traffic that will benefit your company most.

What's more, recognizing the way each SEO and/or PPC consultant works and the metrics they prioritize is equally essential and agreeing upon and understanding the reporting metrics are equally important. After all, search consultants tend to start with an audit of your overall digital presence; you should start with one of your own regarding theirs as well.

Knowing what you don't know is only the beginning. Obviously, you don't need to be an SEO or PPC expert (we're assuming that's at least part of the reason why you're outsourcing in the first place), but previous successes are just the beginning when it comes to building your long-term relationship with a particular consultant or agency.

Start by understanding what your own goals and success metrics look like. Then, evaluate what your consultant or agency's success metrics are. Having a similar definition of success will make for a positive working relationship.

A key element of the working partnership will be learning how to read and understand the reports they provide. This starts with agreeing on the software, metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and any other benchmarks that are valuable to you before you initially engage their services.

They should be able to walk you through their reports, answer questions, and easily address concerns. Googling the various metrics, KPIs, and other terms they use to see how other SEO and PPC consultants define them can be a helpful way to educate yourself in the field.

Also, take a careful look at their initial audit of your website (not to be confused with your own auditing activities described in this piece, as well as your personal ideas and opinion of their services), benchmarks, and opinions regarding your Web presence, along with any other analysis they can provide.

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How to Audit Your SEO & PPC Agency or Consultant