Deciding to hire an SEO agency can feel like quite a big decision. It’s a significant investment of both time and resources and the beginning of a partnership between you and an SEO provider. There’s also a lot of conflicting information out there about which provider you should choose - an SEO agency or a consultant or a freelancer, how expensive SEO services can be and whether it is worth hiring one at all. 

What you need is a sign. How about ten? We’ve put together this list of the top ten signs that it’s time for you to bite the bullet and hire an SEO agency. 

 

1. You’re ranking poorly or not at all

Getting your website to rank for relevant, high-value keywords is the number one priority of any SEO strategy. SEO is all about bringing qualified leads directly to your digital doorstep by serving up content that people are already looking for. The trouble is, search engine results pages (SERPs) are a competitive place: unless you’re on the first page, you’re unlikely to win the attention of those all-important users. If your website is floundering somewhere beyond the second page, it’s time to bring in experts who can help you where you need to be.

 

2. You’re getting little to no organic traffic

It’s one thing to get to the top positions on SERPs, it’s another thing entirely to get users to click through to your website. And if your result isn’t getting clicks, or users are clicking through only to exit moments later, search engines will consider that result to be low value and push you back down the rankings. There are a number of reasons that rankings might not be converting into web traffic - for example, you could be ranking for a low-volume keyword or an informational one that is better answered by a competitor - but an SEO company can help you figure out exactly what is happening and, more importantly, how to fix it.

 

3. Your organic traffic isn’t converting

In SEO, rankings and traffic don’t hold value on their own. After all, why are you doing all of this? To attract customers and increase revenue. Rankings, traffic, backlinks… all of that is just a means to a much more important end. If you’re getting tons of visitors from organic search, but none of them are converting into leads, that’s an SEO problem too. This is often the case with websites that rank for a large number of informational terms, but few commercial ones, websites that have a poor on-page experience and those that are difficult for users to navigate. SEO and web development are deeply integrated, so a proper SEO agency will be able to help you solve your conversion issues. 

 

4. Your online presence is or should be a major revenue stream

For an increasing number of companies, a website is either a major part of the business or it is the business itself. This is true of eCommerce companies, online marketplaces, blogs, professional service companies, enterprise websites and even local businesses, who can significantly increase footfall just by having a well-optimised website. If your site is a critical factor in the success of your business, you simply cannot afford to not hire an SEO agency. 

 

5. You’ve experienced a sudden drop in rankings

It is a common misconception that SEO is a one-time job. Businesses often look to agencies and other search professionals to “SEO their website”, as if there were a checklist we follow and once it’s complete, you’re set for life. But search engine algorithms are somewhat fickle mistresses, changing tack on a near-constant basis. In 2020 alone, Google made 4,500 updates to its ranking algorithm, with the vast majority of these updates not being announced or explained to the public. It’s up to SEO agencies to simply figure them out. Any one of these changes can significantly impact your website’s standing in SERPs, and without an expert on-hand to navigate the choppy search engine seas, you’ll probably be left scratching your head. 

 

6. You’re in a competitive niche

Is it a little crowded in your corner of the business world? Then it’s going to be a little crowded on SERPs as well. There are only so many terms that search engine users can use to look for certain types of businesses, so in particularly competitive niches, hundreds of businesses can end up competing for the exact same term, creating inevitable winners and losers. We often see this with businesses in SaaS, certain areas of eCommerce and professional services. Make no mistake: the top-ranking websites aren’t there by accident. They all have SEO agencies helping them earn those prime positions and if you expect to oust them, you’ll need one too. 

 

7. You don’t have a content strategy

In the online world, content and SEO are not separate entities: they are very much two parts of the same beast. After all, on the most fundamental level, it is content that search engines are indexing and evaluating and it is content that gets served up to users on SERPs. Trying to do SEO without a solid content strategy is about as effective as trying to build a house with no frame. Plenty of people also underestimate the level of expertise that goes into creating a winning content strategy: “I can do that!” they say. But SEO content marketers have years of irreplaceable specialist knowledge and industry experience, as well as access to the very best tools. You’re better off just hiring an agency with the means to do both SEO and content marketing. 

 

8. You have a weak backlink profile

Now, backlinks are a bit of an SEO minefield. They are grossly misunderstood by a large number of people, and black hat SEOs love to exploit this misunderstanding for their own personal gain. The biggest misconception is that more backlinks = a stronger backlink profile, which gives rise to spammy link-building services. When we say “a weak backlink profile”, we are talking about the quality of your backlinks as well as the quantity. Search engines can low-quality backlinks with their robotic eyes closed, so it’s important to focus on earning natural, relevant backlinks. That’s why we focus on digital PR as a way of getting our clients placements in highly authoritative online publications. In fact, we are the leading digital PR company in the UK.

 

9. You’re doing DIY SEO

Please, just stop. There are two types of vultures in SEO: the black hat SEOs who dupe their clients into trusting them and run off with their money before the negative consequences come back to bite them in the butt, and the self-styled SEO gurus convincing already-overworked business owners that they can compete with fully-fledged agencies for top positions if they only invest in their online course. DIY SEO is not a realistic option for anyone hoping to truly optimise. It can help you understand search engines and make sure all your SEO i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, but it cannot help a legitimate business outrank competitors who are investing in proper SEO services. 

 

10. You don’t know what the following terms mean

• Topical authority

• User intent

• Natural backlinks

• Digital PR

• Internal linking

• Page experience

In 2022, no SEO strategy has a chance of success without covering these bases. Search engines are far more than simple keyword-matching machines: more and more, they’re designed to mirror human behaviour. These six terms are some of the most important factors in making sure your website appeals to humans and search engine bots alike. And no, you can’t just look up the definition to keep up to speed. You have to know how to implement these elements across your entire website, which takes time, expertise and a lot of practice - not to mention an entire, fully-resourced team of people. Save yourself the trouble; just hire an agency. 

 

Hire Reboot Online

Reboot Online Marketing is an industry-leading provider of SEO and digital PR services. We have a highly-skilled team of 60+ specialists in the various pillars of search, including technical SEO, link-building, content and digital PR and distinguish ourselves with our eye-catching campaigns and in-house SEO experiments. We routinely earn high-quality placements for clients including Uswitch, eToro, OnBuy, Just Eat and Money.co.uk in high-DA regional and national publications such as the Daily Star, the Mirror and OK! Magazine.

 

For more information, check out our case studies or get in touch with us today.