Top SEO Companies & Services

Search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO, is an important component of building a strong digital presence and connecting with more potential customers. It refers to the process of enhancing a website's performance on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. With common tactics such as local SEO, link building, and content creation, SEO is a multidisciplinary practice that mainly aims to help businesses appear when customers look up relevant keywords

Basically, SEO is split into three major categories — on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. The first one, on-page or on-site SEO, focuses on optimizing websites and their content to become more visible for search engines. It maximizes techniques such as optimizing internal links, URLs, and title tags to boost organic traffic.

Meanwhile, off-page leans more towards activities and tactics off of a website such as link building, managing branded searches, and content marketing. Technical SEO, on the other hand, is centered on more advanced tactics and different aspects such as improving site speed, supporting user experience, and working on structured data.

Aside from the three main types of SEO, full-service SEO agencies typically offer the following services:

1. Keyword Research: The process of identifying the right keywords to best reach the target audience and help the website become more visible. It requires specific tools and knowledge to successfully recognize which keywords should the strategy focus more on.
2. Competition Analysis: Refers to researching the company’s industry and competitors to gather crucial insights. It will help understand the strategies and tactics of rival brands, pinpointing what keywords they focus on and what content and back-linking tactics they apply.
3. Website Audit: The method of evaluating and assessing how websites perform, identifying errors that hinder the website’s performance and ranking on search engines. It usually covers technical aspects such as website crawlability and indexing.
4. Content Creation: It is a creative and strategic process of creating compelling content that attracts target users through search engines. SEO content includes product pages, blogs, shortlists, and infographics.
5. Monitoring and Reporting: Refers to consistently monitoring and observing the performance of SEO campaigns, gathering insights by assessing key metrics and reporting for transparency. Monitoring is important to ensure that the business gets the optimal return on investment (ROI).
6. Personalized SEO Strategies: After researching the company and its website's performance on search engines, SEO experts create personalized strategies that are tailored to support the needs and bridge gaps. Having a custom strategy not only provides the client an edge but also makes sure they are getting the best solutions that address unique needs and goals.

5 Reasons Why Businesses Need SEO

1. To increase visibility and boost organic traffic
2. To improve user experience by improving load times, navigation, and content
3. To build credibility, establishing trust between the business and its customers
4. To drive targeted traffic and conversion rates
5. To position the business for long-term and sustainable growth online

What to Look for in an SEO Firm?

Before you hire a SEO partner for your project it's important to do your due diligence and carefully scrutinize respective firms. Here are some factors to consider when looking for a full-service SEO firm:

1. Portfolio & Expertise
2. Communication Style
3. Geographic Location
4. Budget

Portfolio & Expertise

Essentially, an SEO provider's portfolio is their resume that showcases their experience and success working on similar projects. Reviewing their portfolios gives you an insight into how they perform and how well they deliver on their partnerships.

Additionally, assessing their portfolio will give you an idea of the scope of services and how well they execute those services. Of course, business owners need to know what type of services you need so looking at their portfolios will help you identify if they offer necessary services for your business.

It's also helpful if they have clients under portfolios that are similar or within the same industry as your business. This gives you a feel for how experienced they are in your industry and if they have success with your target audience.

Communication Style

Compatibility is big when it comes to working with a service provider. When assessing prospective firms, it is important to know or see if their culture, communication style, and support structure suit your business.

Imagine the headache of coordinating with a team that does not complement your communication approach or company culture. Matching with a team that suits your style will ensure effectiveness, avoiding misunderstandings and aligning both parties on the project goals.

Geographic Location

SEO projects inherently require location knowledge whether it's international or global. Depending on the nature of your project and business, you should consider the geographic location of the SEO firm.

For example, if you’re targeting local consumers, consider hiring a local SEO team that has experience navigating your market. Their deep understanding of local consumers, market trends, and competition can give you more value. On the other hand, if your business is expanding to more markets, working with a remote SEO team or outsourcing a service provider from that location can be beneficial. It ultimately depends on your needs and goals.

Moreover, you should be mindful when hiring a team from a different country or region because time-zone differences might impact collaboration. If you choose a service provider abroad, see if they have a good track record working with clients in your time zone to ensure that they can accommodate your schedules.

Budget

Financial viability is one of the biggest concerns of running a project with service providers, especially considering that SEO isn't usually a one-off project. As you search for a service provider it's important to match with a partner that fits within your budget to avoid spending beyond your business’ financial capacity.

When you discuss your project with them they should be able to provide a clear cost breakdown to help you effectively allocate your resources and avoid unexpected expenses.

Moreover, sometimes the cheapest option isn't the best option when it comes to partnering with service providers. Since there are plenty of options, take your time finding the firm that brings the best value for your investment. That means the cause of their services should match the quality of their work and their support services.

Look For A SEO Firm With The Right Expertise

SEO is a pretty diverse service and every project requires different expertise, skill sets, and technical knowledge to successfully pull off. Here at the focus areas in SEO that you should weigh up:

• International SEO: The process of optimizing your website’s performance on a global or international scale, focusing on different languages and countries to drive organic traffic from your target locations. Just like geotargeting, international SEO is for businesses that are looking to expand their reach or penetrate foreign markets.
• Local SEO: Contrary to international SEO, local SEO is centered around attracting local consumers, helping any business that has a physical location in a specific area make themselves visible to prospective customers there. Local SEO is arguably one of the most important digital marketing strategies for small businesses or brick-and-mortar stores looking to drive foot traffic and sales.
• Link Building: A popular and effective SEO tactic that involves getting other websites to link to your website to boost its authority and help rank higher on search results. Consistent link building is important to establishing a trustworthy perception for your business, propping its relevance to browsers.
• Multilingual SEO: It’s often misconstrued as international SEO but multilingual SEO focuses on localizing your website’s content into another language. It prioritizes languages rather than location.
• On-Page SEO: The process of optimizing websites and web pages for both users and search engines. It aims to help the site rank higher on relevant search queries and drive strong organic traffic.
• SEO Content Creation: The key to a strong SEO strategy is content creation combines technical SEO strategies with creativity. It requires thorough keyword research, keyword optimization, and content organization.
• SEO Mobile Optimization: Also known as mobile SEO, it’s the practice of optimizing your website, strategy, and content to rank better on mobile search engine results pages (SERPs). It focuses on providing a better experience for smartphone and tablet users.
• Technical SEO: As its name suggests, technical SEO focuses on the technical requirements of search engines such as crawling, rendering, and website architecture.
• Website Migration: Basically, website migration is the process of transferring a website to another online location. In SEO, it means ensuring that the website retains its search engine ranking and domain authority so it doesn’t lose its online visibility.

5 Questions to Ask SEO Firms

Asking about their approach will give you insights into their process and how they personalize their solution to fit your website’s needs. By asking this, you’ll see if they truly understand your project, needs, and goals. Listen carefully to their answers and see if they already have a proven structure for analyzing and personalizing their SEO strategies.

Effective SEO teams don’t just execute, they should have a regular, transparent, and structured reporting process to ensure that all efforts remain aligned with the project’s overall goals. They should give you examples of how detailed their reports are, how frequent they will report to you, and what key metrics they closely monitor.

Adding a question about the tools they use gives you a glimpse into their processes and helps you see if they’re maximizing the latest and best tools. This question gives you a feel of how in tune they are with the latest trends as different innovations have become integral to the entire SEO process.

Project timelines are always a big talking point for outsourced projects. Asking when you can expect to see results doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re rushing them, it’s a great way for you to gauge whether they can provide a realistic timeline for you. SEO doesn’t deliver instant results, but it’s important to know their expected time frame to effectively track their progress.

Additionally, if they promise you concrete results in just a few weeks, don’t take that as a good sign. Ask them further questions as to how they can make that possible. Be wary because SEO typically requires six or more months to see substantial results.

If you think that mobile SEO won’t be helpful to your business, then think again because it’s one of the most important foundations in modern SEO. By asking about the approach to mobile SEO, you gain insights into how cohesive they can tie your web and mobile SEO efforts together.

How Much Should SEO Services Cost You?

As mentioned above, budget limitations and project costs are big talking points when hiring any service provider.

SEO services pricing will vary depending on a myriad of factors and on which agency you go with. However, most SEO projects reviewed on Clutch cost less than $10,000. The average cost for hiring an SEO service provider on Clutch is between $100-$149 per hour.

Of course, larger-scale or complex projects cost more than simple solutions. The common factors that impact costs are project duration, complexity of SEO strategies, and business industry. In addition to those, your project’s content requirements and the tools they’ll utilize will also influence the price tag.

Shortlist SEO Agencies With Expertise in Your Industry

Search engine optimization is an essential component of digital marketing, and it requires specific industry expertise and knowledge to be successful. Hiring an SEO team that’s proven in your industry will help ensure they can provide the best value for your investment.

SEO Services for Business Services Providers

The business services industry is considered one of the most competitive and crowded spaces, making SEO a crucial investment for them.

See, as the internet takes over, potential customers have become more reliant on search engines to locate reliable services or solutions. Enforcing effective SEO strategies can give businesses more visibility, especially if their competitors aren’t maximizing their search engine performance.

SEO Services for eCommerce Companies

Since the pandemic, the eCommerce industry has seen tremendous growth in terms of opportunities and competition. Consumers nowadays expect businesses to have a credible online presence, and appearing at the top of search engine results is a great indicator for them.

SEO is also important to eCommerce companies because it improves their user experience by improving page load times, information architecture, and mobile compatibility. These may seem like minor aspects but it helps strengthen customer satisfaction and boost retention rates.

SEO Services for Ad & Marketing Agencies

The advertising and marketing industries are naturally cutthroat, so SEO is crucial for them to establish their authority and credibility. Personalized SEO strategies can help advertising and marketing agencies be more discoverable, signaling to potential clients that they are the top options. By leveraging SEO, agencies are able to position themselves for long-term and sustainable growth in the space.

In addition to visibility, SEO is also helpful in gathering crucial market and consumer data that can be maximized to improve their advertising and marketing services.

SEO Services for Consumer Goods Companies

SEO is an absolute necessity for consumer goods and services, regardless of the company’s size or industry. A strong SEO strategy can help brands show that they are legitimate and of high quality. See, when consumers search keywords for products or services they need, their first instinct is to look at the top results. They often associate high search engine rankings with credibility and reliability, leading to increased sales.

Neglecting SEO can hinder businesses from growing, penetrating new markets, or standing up against their market rivals.

SEO Services for Healthcare & Medical Companies

SEO services, especially local SEO, are paramount to the entire healthcare and medical sectors — from medical research centers to local clinics. Considering how reliant patients have been on the internet to look up health information and healthcare providers, it’s important for businesses to grow their reach.

Google, the most popular and used search engine, sees over 700,000 health and medical-related searches per minute. That demand, along with the increasing competitiveness of the healthcare landscape, makes SEO a vital strategy to increase visibility and establish credibility.

Evaluating SEO Services

Assessing the performance and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial to understanding the benefits and yield brings. Consistently keeping an eye on relevant metrics assures you that the team is performing to their full potential.

Furthermore, closely tracking KPIs is important for gaining in-depth insights that can be helpful to improving existing measures and strategies.

KPIs for SEO Services

SEO can sound complicated for those who aren’t familiar with the processes. Knowing these metrics will help you responsibly track progress:

• Organic Traffic: This refers to the number of website visitors that come from unpaid search engine results, reflecting the visibility and authority of the website. The more organic traffic, the better your SEO strategy is performing.
• Keyword Ranking: This metric refers to the specific ranking or spot your website or webpage appears for relevant keyword search queries.
• Domain Authority: DA is the scoring system developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website will appear for relevant keywords in SERPs.
• Click-Through Rate: CTR is a metric that gauges how well keywords and unpaid ads are performing. In SEO, CTR is the number of clicks on webpage links divided by the total number of times the link appeared on search engine results.
• Mobile Traffic: Reflects the performance of your webpage on mobile search results. The number of visitors your site sees from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
• Indexed Pages: Indexing refers to the process of storing and organizing web pages in a search engine’s database so they can be displayed in search engine results. It’s a great metric to ensure that consumers can easily discover your website.

It’s important to match with a partner that complements your team, not just someone who brings deliverables. Reading through client reviews will give you insights into the quality of their service, their reputation with their clients, and the experience of their clients. Clutch collects insightful client feedback and ratings that can help you take a deeper dive into each service provider’s strengths and weaknesses. Every vendor profile on Clutch is complete with every content you need to have a good understanding of their work; aside from their client reviews, you can access their portfolio of work, company descriptions, and case studies there.

Clutch is committed to collecting client reviews through phone calls or online forms to help potential clients cut through the clutter. The team sorts the reviews based on quality and recency, while the ratings contribute to the vendor’s presence on directories.

Read through Clutch’s collection of verified reviews to confidently match with the right SEO firm for your website.