How To Select The Right Digital Agency For You
Choosing a digital agency is noisy: reports, pitches and magic tricks everywhere. This guide helps you judge fit, proof and working style. Read what to watch for.
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How To Select The Right Digital Agency For You
We feel sorry for anyone trying to select a digital agency for their business. How could you possibly decipher all the information and promises out there? The industry is crammed with so much data, graphs, reports, blogs, seminars, articles and magic tricks. It must be totally overwhelming for someone trying to find the right supplier. Meta tags, alt tags, algorithms, blogs, podcasts, content indexing, CPC, SEO, CTA, PBNs, CTR, SERPs, Analytics, 404 error codes and the list goes on.
Choosing an agency is not the same as getting the work done. If the next step sits outside your team, SEO Sydney campaigns can cover the search side once you know who will own the relationship.
If you’re new to using digital marketing in your business, then it must feel awfully daunting. You know that your business needs to get into the digital and search engine space because many of your competitors are already there, but how on earth do you know where to spend the money, let alone selecting a digital agency to work with.
On the other hand, if you’re one of the many businesses that have been badly burnt by a previous SEO supplier, then we can empathise with your scepticism towards the outrageous promises made by many agencies. At GWM, we like to let our results do the talking. We have no lock-in contracts, cancellation fees or minimum notice periods, just a guarantee that we will keep on working, for free if necessary, to deliver on our promises.
Even the most resourced agencies have a lot to keep up with when you consider there are 200 ranking factors outlined by Google. Yes, two hundred and with algorithms being updated daily, not even Sergey Brin (the Google God) could possibly understand every SEO trick.
There are many digital agencies that will charge a fortune for their services with the promise of transforming your business. Many of these agencies may deliver on these promises and generate great leads for your business. However, we implore you to do your own homework and ask what you get for your hard-earned money.
So, what are the issues to be aware of when assessing a digital agency?
First Page Guarantee Scam
We regularly meet customers who have been burned by this experience. ‘SEO cowboys’ promise to get you ranked for longtail keywords that have no search volume and are easy to get ranked for. You will soon realise, these rankings will not bring you or your business any real value as no one is searching for those keywords. This type of scam often comes with a lock-in contract.
Lock in Contract Scam
This should be a red flag. Our philosophy at GWM is that the quality of our service should speak for itself. We believe that if a company is confident in the SEO services they provide and the type of results they achieve, there is simply no need for a lock-in contract.
They Don’t Take Their Own Medicine
They provide SEO services, but their own website is not ranking for any main keywords such as ‘SEO Sydney’ (if they’re located in Sydney) and similar keywords. Instead, these agencies rely on Google Ads to sell you their SEO Services. This should be a red flag.
Their Own Website Has No Backlinks
High authority backlinks play an important role in Google ranking, yet this is one of the harder ways to build your Google rankings due to the amount of work required. A simple check for you is to check the number of referring domains of an SEO agency before you hire them. If the number is under 300, it means that they’re not strong in this area, they don’t have the setup for creating quality backlinks and they most probably can’t deliver value to you. Download ‘Majestic’ Chrome extension to see the backlinks profile of a website.
Click here for more information: Download Majestic Chrome Extension
They Are Not Transparent About Their Service
Many SEO providers won’t provide full transparency about the techniques they use and which factors they consider to be the main ranking factors. This is usually an attempt to hide the fact that they don't have the resources available to build quality backlinks. We provide a dashboard of SEO progress for each of our customers so they can see up to the minute the work we are doing for them.
TOPSEOS Scam
TOPSEOs is a scam company that ranks SEO companies only based on the money they pay TOPSEOs on a monthly basis. In fact, you should also be very cynical about customer reviews in Google Reviews, as these are also often manipulated by some agencies to show only 5-star customer reviews.
What to ask your digital agency
We encourage you to do your homework and speak to a few agencies and get some quotes. Forget all of the promises you were made, once you’re locked into that contract, it means nothing. These are important questions to ask any digital marketing agency…
- The number of keywords that will be optimised
- The amount of quality content (words) to be created on a monthly basis
- The number of high-quality backlinks from high authority sites on a monthly basis
- Inclusion of local citations
- Inclusion of a technical audit of your current site
- Inclusion of link analysis and disavow
- Inclusion of Keyword research, mapping and distribution based on the target market, competitor site analysis.
- Inclusion of Google My Business Page Optimisation
- Inclusion of monthly Reporting Dashboard
And yep you guessed it, all of the above is included in the GWM most basic SEO packages.
Success stories
Ben Kierath
CEO and Founder of Hoselink & True Protein
"GWM has a genuine passion for you to succeed"
Ben Kierath chose Green Web Marketing for two of his businesses, Hoselink and True Protein. In the video, Ben explains the service he received as well as some extraordinary results.
Ben Kierath
CEO and founder of Hoselink and True Protein
Why businesses switch to GWM
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Trusted by 1,000+ businesses
Small and medium businesses have trusted GWM since 2016.
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Everything your business needs from one team:
- SEO
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"Within a Short Period of Time We Had 18 Keywords on Page #1"
GWM team is outstanding. Within a short period of time, we have 18 keywords on Page #1 of Google which is an outstanding results and good return on investment.
Ziad
CEO and founder of Total Appliance Repair Centre
"We Achieved Both the #1 and #2 Google Ranking for Our Key Search Term"
The talented people at GWM ranked our website on Page #1 of Google for some of our main keywords such as 'Corporate Training Sydney' in only two months.
Don't settle for average let us get you more leads!
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There are a million things I could say about GWM. They have a very strong understanding of best current practices with a genuine passion for you to succeed.
Ben KierathCEO and Founder of Hoselink & True Protein
Switching to GWM
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Contact Us
So, have we got your attention? Do you feel as though we could be exactly what you’re looking for? If so, get in touch with us. Send your inquiry to us, and a friendly member of the team will get back to you as soon as possible. Or, if you would rather not wait for an email and would like to call us directly, we encourage you to do so.
Our offices are in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Europe, so we encourage you to get in touch with the office that you think will work best for you based on your location. If you’re a little phone shy, don’t worry, our team is super friendly and will make you feel at ease within seconds, we don’t bite!
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FAQ
It helps you get found and chosen online. That can include SEO, Google Ads, social media, content, email and web design. A good agency starts with your goals and budget, then recommends the channels most likely to bring customers. At GWM, SEO is our core, supported by Google Ads, web design and social media.
Watch for long lock-in contracts before any results, vague reports, promises of page one in a fixed time, and agencies that won't say who does the work. Another warning sign is reporting that only talks about traffic and never about leads or sales. A good agency is happy to answer all of this upfront.
Location matters less than how well the agency communicates and what results it can prove. That said, a local team can be easier to meet and usually understands your market. GWM has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and works with clients across Australia by phone and video.
You can get started with us starting from $595/m. More than a thousand small and medium businesses across Australia have trusted us since 2016. Our work has lifted clients past well known brands including Bunnings and Officeworks. The final price for hiring an agency for SEO comes down to how much work your site needs. Phone 1800 170 681 and we'll send you a straightforward quote.