Working With a B2B SEO Agency Is Easy

You launch the website and triumphantly throw open your double-glass French doors, your business logo smack-dab in the center.

After weeks or months, or years of dreaming. After researching and knowing in your gut that everyone needs your products or services…

Crickets…for weeks.

You forgot a crucial step in business planning: Including a marketing strategy. You didn’t create awareness about your business early.

You didn’t build consumer anticipation so they’d be ready to click the call or buy buttons or rampage through your physical store like it’s Black Friday.

A B2B SEO agency would have helped you begin placing ads and creating social media content to ensure people knew about your business launch.

Here, we will provide some tips on choosing an SEO agency and how to effectively work with them.

Understanding the Role of a B2B SEO Agency

An SEO agency ensures that your company is visible to users and search engines and that search engines understand your brand, business, services, and products.

But, there is a lot that goes into this, so SEO agencies also:

Ensure your website is structured well so users and search engines can navigate it easily (technical SEO).
Interpret user behavior in search engines and your site to better understand your audience and its needs (keyword research).
Help plan a content strategy to reach your audience on their preferred channels.
Help to create the content to execute a successful content strategy (content creation).
Develop relationships and share your content across the web, growing your reputation and creating awareness (link building).

The best B2B SEO agencies will help your site rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs), enticing users to click into your site.

Once there, the B2B SEO agency’s content strategy takes over and ensures your visitors understand the benefits of choosing your company, services, or products.

This form of online marketing is immensely beneficial due to its relatively low cost, high return on investment, and potential effect on revenue.

How to Choose the Right B2B SEO Agency

SEO is an online marketing buzzword, and most business owners and decision-makers have heard it, but it’s not always fully understood.

So, it’s a good idea to reread the section above or shoot an SEO professional questions so that you fully understand how SEO benefits your business.

When you comfortably understand the benefits of working with a B2B SEO agency, it’s time to choose one that’s right for your business.

Determine Your Needs and Goals

You can easily assess your current SEO status by simply opening an incognito window in Chrome or an InPrivate window in Edge. Then, search for your brand or company name or any of the keywords associated with your services or products.

When the results page appears, count how many results are above your company.

Typically, businesses or those who have yet to begin their SEO efforts will not rank on the first page.

Remember that the farther you are from the top three to five search results, the lower your visitor rate drops. This can significantly impact revenue.

So, if you want to rank highly but have a lower budget, you’ll work with an SEO team to implement technical SEO, content creation, and backlink outreach.

When using a lower budget, the trade-off is remembering that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. So, it may be months before you see an ROI.

If you have a large budget, you can add paid advertising to your SEO efforts to boost awareness about your company.

Once you’ve determined your goals, you can begin looking for an agency to help.

Research and Shortlist Potential Agencies

If you’re the business owner on record, SEO agencies have probably begun to reach out to you. Most of us use email campaigns to drive awareness about our services, to show our experience, and tout our past successes.

If you haven’t received emails, simply search for “seo agencies” or “b2b seo agencies” and begin to narrow your choices down.

You may want to look for agencies near you, or you may be drawn to attractive-looking names or websites. I would recommend you immediately look at the agency’s portfolio of work and their case studies.

Case studies are descriptions of how a business has creatively used its experience to solve problems. Really good case studies are fun to read and provide detailed information that you can use to determine whether partnering with a company is right for you.

Naturally, you should also read their reviews and testimonials. These tell you what other companies have experienced in their working relationship with the agency.

Evaluate Their Expertise and Approach

During your meeting with a B2B SEO agency, ask about their strategies and methodologies. Their answer will give you a further sense of their level of knowledge.

You can use this information together with their case studies, reviews, and testimonials to decide if they’re right for you.

Consider Their Communication and Reporting

If you only have a basic or passing knowledge of best B2B SEO practices, you can ask about their communication and transparency to better help you decide on an agency.

A willingness to meet with you regularly and provide transparent progress reports are foundational aspects of professional agencies. You should check their reviews and testimonials from their other clients to ensure the agency you’re considering excels at this aspect of the partnership.

Of course, you’ll have a budget, and I’d recommend talking about your budget versus what the agency can provide. Any agency will tell you they can work with your budget, but it’s the goals and timeline expectations that you must agree on.

Remember that SEO and content marketing is a long game and results are determined over weeks, months, and years.

However, there are some technical SEO aspects, backlinking efforts, and content writing strategies that benefit from larger budgets.

Otherwise, give your agency time to organically grow your online brand reputation.

Questions to Ask a Potential B2B SEO Agency

When meeting with a B2B SEO or content agency, use these questions as a script.

What is your experience in our industry?
Can you provide case studies or references from similar clients?
What SEO tools and techniques do you use?
How do you measure success and ROI?
What will be the timeline for seeing results?
How often will we receive updates and reports?
What are your policies on contract terms and cancellations?

Working Effectively with a B2B SEO Agency

You’ll find your agency easy to work with because you’ve made the effort to ensure it’s an agency you like and understand.

Once the partnership is formed and structured, you’ll need to follow the basic rules of collaboration while remembering that the B2B SEO agency is an expert in its field.

You’ll recognize most of the following bullet points because you already employ them as part of your organization:

Establish clear communication channels. Set expectations for regular meetings and updates. Designate a point of contact on both sides. Establishing communication rules keeps the lines open.
Set realistic goals and expectations. It’s difficult, but understand that SEO is a long-term investment. A good SEO content agency will help you set measurable and achievable goals.
Be open to collaboration and feedback. The agency should allow you to share insights about your business and target audience. Conversely, be receptive to the agency’s suggestions and expertise.
Monitor progress and provide feedback. Your agency will expect you to review reports and analytics regularly. This review allows you to provide constructive feedback so they can improve the strategy, if necessary.
Maintain a positive relationship. It’s important to recognize and celebrate milestones and successes and address concerns promptly and professionally.

You’ll notice these are the same rules and procedures you would follow when working with employees of your own company.

Choose a Transparent, Professional, and Talented B2B SEO Agency

Choosing the right B2B SEO and content agency can drastically change your business fortunes.

Ranking higher in search makes the difference because users want to find solutions quickly. SEO agencies ensure you get in front of your audience and position your company’s services or products as the best solution to a user’s search query.

But remember, driving organic traffic to your site takes patience. You won’t see results overnight, but you should start seeing them after a month, and you’ll really start reaping the benefits after month three.

If you’ve chosen an SEO agency that makes you feel important and comfortable, none of this will be an issue; in the end, they’ll provide a high ROI and drive your revenue, proving you made the right decision.

We’d like to elaborate on our services and show you how our B2B SEO and content marketing services will help grow your brand. Visit our SEO and content marketing pages for more info, or setup a meeting now.