Search Engine Optimization

Digital marketing is a balance. Yes, you need to have great content marketing and content creation that is well-optimized, but you also need to focus on conversion. Because what good is it to send people to your website if they aren't taking action? A Michigan SEO company or Alabama SEO company may only focus on what will get you to rank in Google but lose focus on balancing your content to entice visitors to take action and contact your business. A full-service marketing agency and SEO company like HLM has all the teams, including an expert SEO team, to give you the right balanced approach to search engine optimization. Link building is essential but done correctly by creating quality content people want to link to. You can't fake it in SEO, and an SEO company that is only focused on getting you ranked may take liberties that could negatively affect your business in the long run. SEO is essential, but it shouldn't be where all your marketing services are focused. You'll get more bang for your buck by diversifying your digital marketing investments across search engine optimization, social media marketing, and paid search advertising. Conversion optimization can not be understated, as getting people to take action is even more important than getting them to your site in the first place.

What the Top SEO Companies have in common

Content optimization: If there's one thing all the best SEO companies can agree on, it's that content is king. Quality content that educates and helps customers best find a solution to their problem has always been and will be the #1 driver for search engine optimization success.

Link building: All of the best SEO companies also agree that quality links to your site are important and that quality wins over quantity when it comes to your backlinks.

What the Top SEO Companies do differently

Content optimization: While we can all agree that content is king, many SEO companies differ in their approach to how they create content. Some focus very much on the length and how many keywords are within your content. Some say all that matters is the user. SEO companies should balance the following items when it comes to creating SEO-optimized content:

Focus on converting your users
Increase and balance your content length
Research and generate a list of keywords
Factor in sentence structure and the grammatical composition
Optimize on-page inner linking
Reading level and comprehension are critical to target your identified audience

Link building: Some SEO agencies take the approach that you should sit back and wait for people to link to you, and many other SEO agencies believe you should reach out to others who might benefit by linking to your site. At DB, we feel it should be a proactive approach to letting others know about your content to build your domain authority in the fastest and most productive way.

If your SEO company does not provide this, you should look for an SEO company specializing in your business.

A search engine optimization company analyzes your site, competitors, and market to determine what content needs to be added, what parts of the structure of your website need to be modified, and what keywords most people are searching for to determine what needs to be completed. The more closely your content and site are structured to meet the needs of people searching for your targeted keywords, the better chance you will have to rank when all optimization points are working together. Search engine optimization companies look at several components and signals to identify in what order different web pages should rank in the search results.

Like anything, with SEO agencies, you can find costly options and cheap SEO firm solutions. The search engine optimization industry is genuinely an industry where (typically) you get what you pay for. SEO agencies with higher price points are can usually deliver all the strategy components they feel necessary to get you results. The cost of SEO services can also heavily depend on your goals. For example, ranking well for airline flights requires much more effort than ranking locally for holiday lighting services. We always say your goals best determine the price and should lead with an SEO strategy first. Until the due diligence has been done to investigate a plan of action to get your company visibility, merely throwing out a cost number doesn't make much sense. If your main focus is on a local SEO strategy to get ranked in your local market, you'll find that the return on your investment in SEO can be pretty high, and SEO services are much more affordable than you might think.

Absolutely. A digital marketing agency can deliver top SEO services and take a more comprehensive approach to your SEO strategy by bringing in experts from other teams like content marketing, web design, and advertising. With every SEO agency comes differences in skill set and discipline, but most have visibility as their primary SEO effort. An SEO agency with a wide range of marketing services can bring a robust strategy to increase your traffic with proven off-page and on-page SEO efforts.

No. SEO company, SEO agency, and SEO firm all mean the same thing. SEO providers will use different terminology to separate themselves from competitors.

Content marketing is the ongoing content creation on your site through blog posting and then promoting those posts through emails or social media channels. Content marketing focuses on a specific topic and draws more interest by educating customers on specific information. SEO content optimization focuses on creating content for specific long-tail searches for a specific need. SEO content optimization can be very advantageous when focused on common questions people ask about your industry. Content optimization is assessing your content for structure and keywords and identifying any gaps to fill or opportunities to maximize. Content optimization is enhancing your current pages to make them more readable and specific to the problem your content addresses.

The best SEO agencies will have content marketing as part of their SEO services to maximize search engine rankings because "content is king." However, you want quality content. That takes time and research to develop, which isn’t very cheap. And if it is cheap, it likely won't work. When you're serious about getting more organic search traffic to your site, content marketing needs to be a part of your strategy, and the right SEO company will be able to provide this as part of your SEO services.

A search engine optimization company uses organic search. Organic search refers to the "free" listings that show up on a search engine result page (SERP). These are listings in the organic search section where if you are listed, you do not need to pay each time someone clicks on your company. Paid search refers to the "paid" listings at the top of search engine results pages where you must pay each time someone clicks on your company. The benefit of organic search is that you can get much more organic search traffic without spending so much, but it takes significantly longer. The advantage of paid search is that you can be at the top in quickly.

Local SEO focuses on your business ranking well for searches within your local marketing. Local SEO is best for businesses that serve local customers generally within a certain radius the customer (or you) are willing to drive to provide your services for customers. Local SEO differs from traditional SEO because its primary focus is to reach the top of Google's local maps pack. The maps pack is where Google displays recommended company listings with different kinds of information, including directions, links, and customer reviews. If a search engine detects a customer's search is local oriented, the maps pack is often shown to recommend local businesses. Local SEO cuts through a lot of unrelated organic search traffic for your company. Imagine you provide roofing repair in Detroit, Michigan. You're not likely interested in ranking well for people searching from Phoenix, Arizona, as you probably wouldn't drive hundreds of miles to install or repair a roof. The focus of your local SEO campaign strategy would make more sense to be on the Detroit area, where you can serve those customers.

Most basically, it's the work that goes into getting you to rank well in search engines like Google. Standard SEO efforts include tactics like link building, keyword research, meta descriptions, technical SEO, and ranking factors.

And there's a big difference between "optimization" and "optimized." SEO is like working out. Not all workout programs are right for everyone; they largely depend on your fitness goals. If you service customers locally, DB will approach optimizing you with local listings much differently than if you're a manufacturing company with nationwide services. And like working out, it's not something you do once or only for a few weeks; it's something you stick with to get the best results and for the long-term health of your company.

Search engines like Google know customers will only use their search engines if they get quality results. Google's job is to find the companies it feels are of the most quality.

A great SEO agency like DB is your digital spokesperson using various tactics to communicate with search engines like Google, all the things that make you a great company to recommend to customers.

Like any decision, you're placing a lot of trust in experts in an industry you may or may not be familiar with. When evaluating trust, we recommend looking for signals like customer reviews and diversity of work.

Here are some good questions to ask:

Is the SEO company I'm considering known for effective SEO services?
Is the SEO company I'm considering capable of understanding my industry in my market?

We recommend choosing between the SEO providers you connect with most. Every DB project starts with a kickoff call where our expert team brings their industry experience and learns what's unique about your company and customers. This is the first step in maximizing your SEO campaign's performance.

Both. SEO is great for the long-term health of your company to protect your online reputation and ensure you build an asset (your website) which can consistently attract customers and produce new sales opportunities. PPC is great when you need leads now. If you're in a market with well-established competitors, which might take several months to outrank through SEO, PPC can help you get more sales opportunities as quickly as possible. PPC does cost more than search engine optimization due to the competitive bidding of advertisers, which is why most companies choose to have both strategies in motion at the same time to get leads now while growing their company for the future.