What To Ask A Montreal SEO Agency Before Hiring

If you have a business you want to grow locally, chances are you’ve likely found ways to tap into an industry that can bloom with the kind of market you have. However, if you’re looking for ways to improve your overall appeal to your audience, then your digital marketing game should have a bit more of that “oomph” factor to offer to your prospects. Part of this is through a good search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, something a Montreal SEO agency could offer to you.

 

Local Is In, With The Right Leverage

Perhaps it’s helpful to backtrack to realize how big of a number SEO can contribute to businesses. According to Hubspot marketing numbers, 81-percent of shoppers actually do research online before buying anything, and in fact 30-percent of ecommerce in the United States is composed of doing “window shopping” online. Interestingly, 72-percent of potential customers who do local searches ended up visiting stores within five miles of their location. As such, if you want to take advantage of this lucrative opportunity, you need to amp up your digital marketing game. Particularly, you may want to leverage on your SEO through the help of a digital marketing agency.

 

Let’s hypothesize: For instance, if you’re in Montreal, just what should you ask a Montreal SEO agency before hiring? How will you take advantage of your local strengths?

• What credentials can they show you? Aside from telling you what their skills are, just what can they show you as “proof” of their skill set? The maxim “show don’t tell” also applies for your prospective SEO agency. Who have they worked with in the past, and what form of campaigns have they done? Were these prolific campaigns you were impressed with?
• Have they worked with a local-based campaign before? Digital marketing agencies may have the basic skill sets needed to run a campaign, but have they run one in a local setting? This is important because local-based campaigns work differently than ones leaning for a global audience. Local-based SEO means marketing your brand for an audience in an area. This means utilizing tools such as geolocation, local-based keywords, as well as metrics that work differently than your usual campaigns.
• What do they think about your parameters and goals? Your company will most likely have a different objective than other companies, especially when execution of digital marketing campaigns comes to play. Try to explain what sort of outcome you want to happen should you get yourself paired with the agency you’re talking to, and try to see how they receive your idea. It doesn’t matter for now if they agree or disagree with your projections for your company, but what matters is if you find them receptive of the ideas of their clients and how they can balance their own creative ideas with the agenda their clients have.
• Are their skills fit for your needs? You may have most likely been presented with what this company can offer you in terms of digital marketing campaigns, but are these skills fit with your objective? Digital marketing agencies may have an overall underlying goal of boosting brands, but they do it differently. The company to go to is the one that can help boost your business with the tools you know you can benefit from.
• What should you do? Have them do a sample pitch. Regardless of their answer to the above, what do they think is the optimal strategy for your local SEO needs? It’s up to them if they want to do an entire pitch or just a friendly discussion, but take note of how they compose themselves and how they present their ideas to you. If this is a company you think have expressed themselves well, then perhaps this is a company you can work with.

 

The Takeaway: An Intricate Balance Of Skills And Objectives

Perhaps the takeaway from all of this is to ensure the Montreal SEO agency you’re hiring is not just up for the task, but up for the task your company needs. Not all businesses have the same approaches to their campaigns, and having an agency that knows the intricacies of what you want and balance it with what they think you need is a partner to keep for your digital marketing needs. An SEO agency that has not just the skills to perform but also the skills to adapt is something that can turn the tables over and win you your desired output.

 

Julia Harrison

Julia Harrison has a passion for both web design and content writing, which perhaps motivates her to push for both creative and informative pieces in the fields of digital marketing and its related subjects. As a contributor for sites like Comhar SEO, Julia explores concepts related to content marketing and digital marketing especially in the online scene, and makes sure her concepts, no matter how technical, can be easily understood by readers.