WordPress is a fundamental element of the online business world, and the importance of SEO can never be underestimated. With this in mind, it certainly makes sense that any company that relies upon WordPress for its online presence should ensure that its SEO approach is tailored to this CMS.
But as a business owner or website manager, where should you get started with WordPress SEO? How much should you spend, and what are the best practices? Are there any mistakes you must avoid at all costs? Read on to find out more.
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WordPress SEO services are expert insights provided by a specialist. Think of WordPress SEO services as the equivalent of taking your car to a garage that specialises in your particular manufacturer.
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The short and slight facetious answer is, “when you have a WordPress-based website.” It’s always recommended that a business seek out SEO professionals’ expertise and analysis to bolster online performance in a competitive landscape.
Inefficient and incorrect use of SEO in any CRM is bad news for a business. You’ll be wasting money and, more importantly, damaging your reputation with Google.
Factors include: years of experience of working in WordPress SEO; a good technical understanding of WordPress and SEO; a thorough knowledge of various WordPress SEO plugins; and a proven track record.
Whenever you bring a third party into your business to assist with your website, you’ll have an important decision to make – will you hire an independent consultant or bring in the services of an agency? Both approaches have pros and cons, so you’ll need to weigh up what will serve your business best.
Honestly, whether WordPress-based or otherwise, SEO services do not come with a set price tag. Every agency and consultant will have a unique rate card, and most will invite you to pick and choose what services you need.
To keep things a little clearer, follow our 8-step break down of hiring a WordPress SEO service provider to assist your business and help you achieve your online aims.
What are WordPress SEO services?
Building a website is not dissimilar to building a house; the flourishes may be personal, but they count for nothing without a strong foundation. In the world of web development, those foundations are provided by content management systems (CMS).
Happily, there are a range of free CMS’ on the market – with WordPress arguably being the most prominent and commonplace. WordPress remains at the top of the CMS tree because it’s so versatile, in addition to being packed with themes and plug-ins that can make a website pop and stand out from the competition.
In the hands of an expert, these plug-ins can be hugely beneficial. If you’re not familiar with the intricacies of WordPress, however, they can play havoc with many components of your site – including a carefully planned and prepared SEO strategy. It’s highly advisable to enlist WordPress SEO services if you’re using this CMS.
It’s also important to remember that SEO is about much more than just keywords and copy. How your site runs and is experienced by users are sizable components of any SEO strategy. Examples of WordPress SEO services include:
- A full review and audit of the structure of your WordPress site, ensuring that maximum performance is not being impeded, especially around loading time and page speed
- An investigation into the plug-ins that you have installed, ensuring those that you are using are serving you well – and that you’re not missing out on superior alternatives
- Investigation into your keywords, ensuring that you’re using the best examples in the most efficient manner, and reviewing your use of UX microcopy
- Creation of new content where necessary, including the use of infographics, to improve SEO performance
Overall, WordPress SEO services are expert insights provided by a specialist. Think of WordPress SEO services as the equivalent of taking your car to a garage that specialises in your particular manufacturer. A master of WordPress SEO is likelier to get your website tuned to perfection than somebody that specialises more in Magnolia, just like a Nissan garage will have more robust insights into the workings of a Qashqai than a Honda-focussed counterpart.
When should a business make use of WordPress SEO services?
The short and slight facetious answer is, “when you have a WordPress-based website.” It’s always recommended that a business seek out SEO professionals’ expertise and analysis to bolster online performance in a competitive landscape.
There are certainly some instances where the assistance of a WordPress SEO expert becomes more critical, though. If you are experiencing any of the following concerns with your website performance, seek the support of a professional WordPress SEO service provider:
- Drop in organic web traffic or noticeable slow of growth
- Slow or non-loading web pages
- Sudden and inexplicable bounce rates
- Underperformance of keywords, whether organic or PPC
- Drop in Google Quality Score
A business should also investigate WordPress SEO services when constructing a new marketing campaign, especially if this will revolve heavily around inbound marketing lead generation. This will help ensure that all site content is engineered to attract new visitors and encourage them to return.
The dangers of getting WordPress SEO wrong
Inefficient and incorrect use of SEO in any CRM is bad news for a business. You’ll be wasting money and, more importantly, damaging your reputation with Google. If our search engine overlords begin to question your domain’s expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, it can be a long journey back to the top.
There are other hazards to a substandard WordPress SEO strategy, too. Common examples include:
- Forgetting title and meta tags, which give Google’s boots something to trawl for
- Misusing keywords and thus misleading your audience – whether by design or accident, this will drastically impact your SEO ranking
- Failing to devise and integrate an appropriate backlinking strategy that befits a WordPress site and not including anchor text in these links
- Forgetting to include an XML sitemap, making it more challenging for Google to find and list your website
- Over-emphasis on Flash animation, which is not readable on mobile devices. Mobile unfriendliness is another huge no-no to the Big G
This is a lot to remember, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re new to WordPress, it’s easy to let some of these things slip through the net. That’s why it’s always sensible to bring in the services of a professional, thus ensuring your website performs as well as it can.
What makes a good WordPress SEO expert?
We’ll shortly discuss the process of identifying and enlisting WordPress SEO professionals to help you find the ideal support. Before we get this far, though, let’s confirm what makes somebody the ideal WordPress expert. Whoever you hire should boast the following credentials.
- Years of experience of working on WordPress, ideally boasting a website themselves constructed using this CRM
- Fundamental understanding of what separates WordPress from competing CRMs – for good or ill
- Experience and knowledge of all SEO plug-ins available on WordPress, not just the popular options like Yoast, and the ability to elucidate the pros and cons of these external plug-ins
- Willingness and ability to conduct a thorough and immediate website audit of your existing online presence, offering advice on what needs to be improved to maximise performance
- Proven track record of delivering SEO results, ideally within your business niche
Is it best to hire a WordPress SEO consultant, or a WordPress SEO agency?
Whenever you bring a third party into your business to assist with your website, you’ll have an important decision to make – will you hire an independent consultant or bring in the services of an agency? Both approaches have pros and cons, so you’ll need to weigh up what will serve your business best.
This table discusses the fundamental differences between the two methodologies to help your decision.
| WordPress SEO Consultant | WordPress SEO Agency |
|---|---|
| Usually, an individual that will work from your office or place of business – though could also work remotely | A team of people will work on your account, though you’ll be assigned a single point of contact |
| Will work on a contract basis, usually for a set period (i.e., three months) that needs to be renewed or otherwise upon expiry | Will agree to an initial minimum term but will then no longer be bound to a contract – relationship can be terminated at any time |
| Will specialise exclusively in WordPress SEO | Will usually have a range of other SEO services and packages to offer |
| Typically cheaper than an agency | Can be more expensive than consultants, depending on what you need |
| Will bring personal experience to your project | The presence of a team means multiple perspectives and insights |
| Can react immediately to problems and work directly alongside staff members | Will need to be contacted and alerted to issues, which will be actioned off-site |
| May need your business to provide or finance hardware and software | Will have access to all the latest and greatest SaaS packages |
| Will be entitled to employee benefits (i.e., pension and paid leave) after a while | Will always be a third-party, external relationship with no employee rights |
As you’ll see, bringing in the assistance of a WordPress SEO agency is likelier to yield positive results for many businesses. If you have substantial SEO needs and are considering seeking support in other areas of promoting your core brand identity online, it’s undoubtedly worth partnering up with an agency. If you’d like to contact us here at Creative.onl, we would be delighted to discuss our WordPress experience with you.
How much do WordPress SEO services cost?
Honestly, whether WordPress-based or otherwise, SEO services do not come with a set price tag. Every agency and consultant will have a unique rate card, and most will invite you to pick and choose what services you need. This will help you decide what areas to focus your SEO spending on.
You’ll certainly need to set a portion of your marketing budget aside for SEO – that’s beyond question. How high this core budget is will significantly influence how much you can spare to spend on WordPress SEO services. While it’s true that any business needs to speculate to accumulate, you should also be sensible here. It can take a while for SEO strategies to reap financial rewards.
How to choose a WordPress SEO Services provider
We’ve had plenty to say throughout this guide, so you’d be forgiven for feeling a little overwhelmed at this stage. To keep things a little clearer, let’s break down hiring a WordPress SEO service provider to assist your business and help you achieve your online aims into eight steps.
How to choose a WordPress SEO Services company
- Ensure that WordPress is the right CMS for your business
WordPress is the most popular CMS, but that does not necessarily make it the best choice for your business needs. Consider alternatives, consulting an expert if necessary, before committing to WordPress. You may find that SquareSpace, Wix, or Shopify are better geared toward serving your web presence.
- Build a WordPress website
The next step is pretty obvious, but we like to be thorough. You need to get your website built if your business is not already online. This is not a stage to rush, so take the time to study what your competitors are doing and build upon what is yielding results for them.
- Set goals and targets for the performance of this website
So, you have built your website – but why? What are you looking to achieve through this endeavour and your overall SEO strategy? You need to determine what success looks like for your business, otherwise you’ll struggle to understand what would be considered an appropriate return on investment.
- Decide if you need support from a consultant or agency
Remind yourself of the differences between consultants and agencies, and decide what approach will work best for your company. You’ll be looking in different places for these providers, so you must decide on your ideal support structure before going further.
- Investigate WordPress SEO service providers
If you have decided that you’re looking for an agency, your search could not be more straightforward – just take to Google and investigate different companies that offer WordPress SEO services (or, of course, just ask Creative.onl for a no-obligation quote.)
A Google search will typically also throw up some of the finest individual consultants that provide WordPress SEO services. However, if you’re keen on a local consultant who can work from your office, consider using sites like Fiverr or Toptal and filter by location. A local recruitment consultant may also have potential team members available. - Interview potential WordPress SEO service providers
Impressing you with experience and online patter is great, but there is no substitute for old-fashioned chemistry. As we’ll discuss in a moment, your working relationship with a WordPress SEO service provider does not need to be permanent, but if you make the right hire now, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble down the line.
This means that you need to meet with potential providers, shake them by the hand, and look into the whites of their eyes. Better yet, introduce your team members that will be working with this third party, such as an in-house graphic designer. These are the opinions that matter most. - Hire a WordPress SEO service provider
Eventually, you’ll need to make a decision and hire somebody to manage your WordPress SEO needs. This does not need to be a permanent relationship, so ensure either party can walk away after a while (three or six months, maybe.)
Remember that substandard WordPress SEO tactics can be very damaging, though, so don’t just hire somebody on a whim with a view to parting company if it does not work out. Do not settle – if nobody you interviewed sets your heart aflutter, return to step 5 and start over. - Share your goals and review performance
Remember those goals that you wrote back in step 3? Now it’s time to share them with your consultant or agency. Get something in writing to confirm you both agree the goals are reasonable and use these as a yardstick for performance going forward.
If your SEO service provider is not meeting their goals within an agreed timeframe, you’ll need to understand why.
Are they being hamstrung by your business practices in any way? Has the marketplace undergone unexpected changes? Has a huge Google algorithm update shattered the status quo and left everybody in your niche scrambling? Or are they simply not performing? If it’s the latter, part company and return to step 5 again.