Questions to Ask a B2B SEO Agency: Find the Best SEO Services

by | Oct 19, 2022 | Tech SEO

Questions to Ask a B2B SEO Agency: Find the Best SEO Services

Questions to Ask a B2B SEO Agency: Find the Best SEO Services

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to building a brand online. Most, if not all, of the companies that occupy top spots on Google search results already engage in the art of SEO.

However, in the last few years, it has become increasingly challenging to address every facet of the SEO process.

As the scope of their projects began to bloat, many businesses decided to team up with professional B2B SEO agencies to shed a part of their workload.

Consequently, the market has become filled with numerous B2B SEO companies trying to woo as many firms as possible to explore their offers.

If you are looking for a strategic SEO partner, you must find a way to sort the wheat from the chaff. Asking the right questions is a good starting point. 

Join us as we go through some of the most crucial questions to ask a B2B SEO agency before you cut a deal, and contact us to see what services we can provide for you! And if you want to explore more you can also checkout one of our partner in this space for affordable SEO Services

What Can I Expect From a B2B SEO Agency?

Before going any further, let’s take a step back and clarify what you should expect from the SEO company you agree to work with.

First of all, the organization should be home to a vast staff of SEO experts.

The representatives you speak to must know the B2B SEO industry inside out and stay up to date with the latest trends. Because the SEO landscape is an ever-changing one, they also need to be able to explain how they plan to cater to your individual needs while operating within the confines of the current market.

Furthermore, you should expect good customer service. After all, trust is a two-way street. If you trust the company to do the job correctly, it is not unusual for you to look forward to receiving detailed reports on the campaign’s progress.

Every professional B2B SEO agency will keep you in the loop with frequent updates and answer all your concerns. If the organization starts to ghost you or refuses to be transparent about its process, it is a huge red flag.

At the same time, you should look for companies that offer an individual approach to each client. This way, you can be sure that the provided service will meet your needs and you will be satisfied with the results.

HotPepper is an example of such a company! Thanks to our expertise, we can provide you with a custom-made SEO strategy and deliver to the specs. Check our offer!

What Questions Should I Ask an SEO Agency?

With that out of the way, now is the time to laser in on the details.

While the promises of higher rankings and more organic traffic are attractive, you should not let them cloud your judgment.

Asking the right questions prior to signing on the dotted line can help you make a sound decision and avoid throwing your hard-earned money out of the window.

1. Is Hiring an SEO Company Worth It?

At face value, this question may seem too open-ended to offer anything substantial. However, it is an excellent opportunity for a B2B SEO agency to pitch its unique selling proposition. Thanks to it, you can learn more about the company and its strong points.

Pay close attention to the aspects company’s representatives focus on. Do they talk more about technical SEO and on-page strategies, or are they more excited about off-page SEO?

Even though modern SEO requires a holistic strategy to succeed, some preferences are most likely in play. Uncover them, and you will have a fuller picture of what a B2B SEO agency in question can do for you.

2. Does Your B2B SEO Agency Have Experience With My Industry?

Another essential question is how much experience an agency has with your industry. It is much easier to work with someone who knows what your business goals may look like and how difficult it is to rank in your niche.

To grow your site’s authority in search engines’ eyes, you must join forces with an agency that understands your industry well. It will help you create an SEO strategy tailored to your target audience, grow your organic rankings, and secure more sales.

Do not be afraid to ask the agency to share a few examples of their client success stories. It will give you more insight into what kinds of businesses succeed while working with it and if it is the right choice for you.

3. Does Your B2B SEO Company Use White Hat SEO Practices?

The best B2B SEO agencies only use white hat techniques. These practices guarantee that search engines will see your website for what it is — a place full of useful content, products, and services worth promoting further.

White hat SEO practices include:

  • Writing relevant and high-quality content.

  • Driving organic traffic by acquiring backlinks from authoritative sites.

  • Utilizing effective keywords.

They are the backbone of search engine optimization, and every agency worth its salt uses them to help their clients.

On the other hand, black hat techniques are aimed at tricking search engines into ranking your website higher. They go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and may severely harm your SEO performance.

Black hat methods include:

  • Buying links from link farms.

  • Stuffing too many keywords in articles.

  • Creating doorway pages.

Safe to say, you should NOT add them to your B2B SEO strategy.

Basic principles from Google's Webmaster Guidelines

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/webmaster-guidelines

Whether you run a local business or operate on a global scale, working with an agency that offers white hat B2B SEO services is the way to go. It ensures you will improve your search engine rankings without running the risk of receiving a Google penalty and harming your site.

At HotPepper, we take white hat SEO strategies very seriously and consistently improve our knowledge to only engage in best SEO practices. Check our services or book a free consultation call with an SEO expert to learn how we can help you grow!

4. When Can I Expect To See the Results?

After your in-house marketing team has hit a glass ceiling they cannot break for quite a while, you may be eager to receive good news. Unfortunately, your B2B SEO partner will most likely be unable to provide an exact time frame for delivering tangible results.

And even if they do offer a rough outline of when you can expect your SEO plan to bear fruit, you should not treat it as the definitive answer.

The primary reason why this is the case is that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Sure, the B2B SEO agency you choose may drive results, but do not expect a drastic change overnight.

The quickest gains are usually achieved by fixing a site structure. If your website is free from technical issues and an SEO company promises fast results, you should be wary and inquire more about their practices.

5. Can You Share Some Client Testimonials?

SEO companies that are the cream of the crop always have a string of satisfied clients who can vouch for their professionalism and effectiveness. To see if you are dealing with such an agency, you should ask for some client testimonials.

The opinions of other people who collaborated with a B2B SEO agency can help you understand how it works and what SEO strategies they will most likely use in your case. Besides, it is an excellent method to determine the strengths of a particular company.

Does it excel at link building, content creation, or understanding user intent? How does it handle integrating search engine optimization into already existing business procedures? Can it build a large number of links?

Answering these questions will help you choose the most profitable SEO partner to improve your sales by driving more search traffic to your website.

6. How Do You Conduct Keyword Research?

Finding the right keywords is a crucial part of any SEO strategy, whether it revolves around on-page optimization or off-page activities. Without it, improving a site’s organic search rankings is much more challenging to achieve.

As such, companies that offer B2B SEO services need to know how to conduct effective keyword research.

It is not as simple as plugging a term into a keyword research tool and calling it a day. Instead, it requires a deep understanding of the user intent behind this term and addressing it in the best way possible.

A reliable company will target keywords that benefit your business the most. It will spend some time preparing a detailed plan before it launches a campaign.

Thanks to it, it will give itself time to analyze traffic, look for easy-to-rank-for keywords, and combine efforts with your marketing team to establish the most suitable course of action.

7. Does Your B2B SEO Company Offer Additional Services?

Working with a team of SEO experts is a significant advantage on its own. Nevertheless, you can get more out of your cooperation if you team up with a company that offers more than just regular run-of-the-mill SEO services.

The more digital marketing services an agency offers, the better. It gives you a wide range of techniques and methods to utilize in order to convince Google and other search engines that your website is worth shining a spotlight on.

For example, link building can help you achieve higher rankings by driving valuable traffic from trustworthy, niche-relevant sites. Conversely, making your website more user-friendly is a straightforward way to encourage your target audience to stay there for longer, substantially boosting your organic rankings.

Ultimately, what elements you choose to implement into your SEO strategy depends on your goals and unique circumstances. So, make sure to express them and go with the SEO company that can provide you with the most options to build a cohesive campaign.

8. What Tools Does Your B2B SEO Agency Use?

Finally, no company can offer full-scale B2B SEO services without using a helpful set of tools. Content creation, link building, establishing new sales funnels, and other methods are virtually impossible to complete if not for the tools that make them much more manageable.

The organization you choose should use several well-known SEO tools to give you the best shot at reaching the top of search engine rankings.

For instance, Ahrefs and BuzzStream are link building tools that can help companies run successful SEO strategies. Similarly, solutions like Google Search Console are indispensable to monitor your website’s presence in Google and get more qualified leads for the sales team.

How Do I Choose an SEO Agency?

A company that delivers measurable results in the form of high website traffic and an improved position on Google search results is a good choice for a partnership. The questions above can help you estimate where you should place your trust.

However, it is not the only component.

To create a winning team, you must work with people who fit your approach well. If the SEO strategy they offer does not gel with your vision, you might want to look into other B2B SEO services to find the right match.

Hire a B2B SEO Agency That Delivers

Whether you want to engage in link building to get high-quality links or have some general SEO work done on your website, joining forces with a group of B2B SEO specialists is a wise move. It can help you increase organic traffic and get more exposure for your brand.

Additionally, thanks to improved website traffic and organic search click-through rates, you can outperform your wildest dreams, blowing your sales quota out of the water and propelling your website to the top of the charts.

If you are interested in working with a team of dedicated B2B SEO experts, HotPepper.agency is who you should turn to! We can provide you with on-page and off-page solutions that yield outstanding returns. Contact us to see what SEO strategies we can come up with to make your business stand out from the rest!

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