​Search Engine Optimization is a long-term investment, and it can make your website grow as well as break or bury your website’s presence. It all depends on the strategy your SEO team utilizes. An SEO team or expert works diligently in the background to make sure your website lands on the first page of results for Google, Yahoo, or Bing, so any potential customers know you exist. This requires a good deal of time and effort, which many business owners are too busy to handle. This guide will share four tips to help you pick the best SEO expert in Houston.

1.  Your SEO Goals

It’s hard to know what to look for if you don’t know what you want. Before you can go out and interview SEO experts in Houston, you need to define your goals clearly. What areas of your online presence do you want to improve? Do you have a one year plan? Numbers or markers you would like to achieve by a specific date? All of these questions can be a little overwhelming, and if you aren’t entirely sure, then have a digital marketing analysis done first. You might require a whole new website before you can embark on finding the best SEO expert in Houston.

2.  Your Options

Know what your options are by starting with your network before outsourcing for SEO. Search your social media accounts — LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter — to see if any of your contacts have SEO experience listed in their profiles. If you have friends, family, or colleagues that run a business, ask if they have any recommendations. Forums, such as Reddit, and blogs can also help direct you to the best SEO experts in Houston. Be sure to read as many examples and references as possible, as these are testimonies of whether or not the job was done well. Make a list of your top picks.

3.  Your Budget

It can be a little difficult to determine the average cost of hiring an SEO expert in Houston. It depends on several factors: is this a one-time project? Do you need an individual or a team? How large is your audience? The best thing you can do to set a budget is to decide what you can afford, and which action items you want to prioritize. Then, you can begin calling your list of top picks and asking for quotes or scheduling consultations. Just be aware that you may have to pay for consultations, but some firms or individuals may offer free consultations.

4.  Ask Questions

There are a few ways to prepare for your consultation with an SEO expert. First, make a list of questions that you want to ask them. You will want to ask for a list of past and current clients so that you have some context. These references will help you gauge how effective the candidate’s skills are, especially for what you want. Be sure to leave with a solid understanding of how the candidate works — what is their process? What do they charge? What are their ideas? And finally, you want to ensure they are ethical and adhere to webmaster guidelines.

​If you have a new website, or you just need to get more traffic to your current website, hiring the right SEO firm can help. But, how do you know you are hiring the right SEO firm in Houston for what you need? And how do you know they’ll get the job done?

Services Offered and Techniques Employed

When searching for an SEO firm in Houston, your first step is going to be asking what kind of services they offer. The first thing they should do is a comprehensive audit of your website so that they can provide you with an initial assessment. This is going to include a proposal for the amount and type of work they will do to ensure that you reach a set level of ranking online for your website. This type of work needs to be viable in the long run. Some SEO firms will use techniques that work for short periods of time but will harm your sites exposure on search engines in the long term. Ensure they are thinking about the long game. Spamming is bad for your site’s image.

An SEO firm in Houston will need to know the proper keyword to focus on for their SEO campaign for your website, and this will be done through tools at their disposal. You should ask what kind of tools they use and get them to provide you with an analysis so that you know what their plans are with those keywords, and to get them to back up their results for the keywords they have determined.

Also, find out what kind of backlinks they can get for your website. Backlinks are important for ranking, and getting high-quality backlinks from websites relevant to your business’s industry or sites of authority gives the best results.

Cost and Timeline

You have a budget, and you need to ensure that when you hire an SEO firm in Houston that your money is going to be used well. A quality SEO firm isn’t going to give you a lump sum quote with their initial assessment but will provide you with a rundown of what they offer and build a contract with the pricing of those services based on performance expectations. As well, they should be able to give you a timeline of how long their services should take to get you results. SEO doesn’t happen overnight, so you should expect a timeline of about six months, otherwise they may be using underhanded techniques that will only hurt your site.

Reviews

If you are scouring the internet for the right SEO firm in Houston for you, then you should be looking through reviews on their services. If you can’t find any reviews, ask them directly for referrals. How many clients do they have and how long have they have kept their clients? You want a company that has good retention, as that means they are doing their job well and are keeping their clientele happy.

Progress Reports

Nothing is worse than being in the dark about your website analytics. The best SEO firms in Houston should be willing to provide you progress reports on deliverables. These reports can be monthly, or quarterly, but should include analysis of your website's traffic, and include what kind of content they have been creating to improve your website's ranking.

Looking for an SEO Firm in Houston?

If you are looking for one of the best SEO firms in Houston, then give us a call to set up a meeting.

​The internet is no longer an option for small businesses. It is a necessity. Without it, you could stand to lose out on a significant number of people and clients who are interested in your company but simply do not know that it exists. This is where contacting a local SEO company in Houston could help your business not only connect with new people but grow in unique and affordable ways. Here are some things to look for in an SEO marketing company and why picking the right one can help your company succeed.

Reasonable Goals

One of the major differences between a reputable local SEO company in Houston and a disreputable one is what they promise. SEO, like all kinds of marketing and advertising, is a mix of solid research, achievable goals and the ability to communicate those goals to you, the client. More simply put: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Real SEO marketing goals can help you achieve new heights of success, but it won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen without a solid plan in place.

The Right Practices

SEO marketing can benefit from a number of different tactics, from strategic website writing to blogging and ads in front of YouTube videos. In the short-term, they can sometimes even benefit from what is often referred to as “black hat tactics.” These tactics, while seemingly a good idea to help raise the portfolio of your online business, can lead to dreadful consequences, long-term, and even short term. A local SEO company in Houston that wants your business to succeed now and in the future will offer you strategies that are above board and effective, not black hat marketing tips that try and fool people and search engines into finding you.

BVM is a local SEO company in Houston that has effective, above board strategies and client communication to make sure that your next SEO marketing campaign is the best that it can be.

SEO marketing is fast becoming one of the most powerful and underused marketing tactics for small business. Rather than spending thousands on marketing plans that target large swaths of people with the hopes of engagement, SEO marketing heads to people who are already looking for what you offer. With the right local SEO company in Houston, you can connect with people in the area and around the world who are already interested in what you do, often at a price that is much more affordable than traditional advertising.

​Ch-ch-ch-changes

If you’ve been savvy enough to follow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies for any duration of time, you know one thing for sure: SEO services techniques change all the time. When it comes to local SEO, it’s more important than ever to ensure that you are optimizing your on-site and off-site SEO strategies to beat your competitors. If you’re not on top of the rankings, chances are your competitors are. If you want to grow your business, you need the best local SEO services in Houston.

Here are three Local SEO techniques that are guaranteed to work:

Page Titles

If you’re wondering what the “bleep” title and meta description tags are, don’t worry: it’s quite simple. Title and meta description tags are HTML elements that you can customize to reflect the content of your web page. In other words, it’s kind of a “mini-ad” for your business. When people search for services and products on the internet, the text of your title and description tags will be displayed in the search results. That way, not only will the name of your business come up, but potential clients can learn a bit about your business in the process.

If you’re not sure how to create or utilize title and meta descriptions, research the best local SEO services in Houston so that you can stay ahead of the competition and on top of the rankings. In the world of SEO writing, titles and descriptions is considered somewhat of an art form because, in a world of cutthroat competition, catching the customer’s eye—and ear—is tantamount to success. If your text isn’t compelling, creative, and descriptive, then you’ll miss out on valuable click rates. One key rule when it comes to creating title and meta-description tags is NEVER to waste any page space that doesn’t offer vital information.

Online Directories and Citations

Approximately four out of five people use search engines to conduct searches for local businesses and services. If your business isn’t coming out on top during these local searches, you can guarantee that your competitors are. One way to get your business listing online is to ensure that your business is listed with all its correct information on the top online business directories like Yelp, Citysearch, etc. There are many local business directories that you can get your business listed in. Take every opportunity you can to get your company listed and increase your customer base.

Always, always, always make sure that the information provided on these directories is correct and up-to-date. A wrong phone number or address can cost you a lot of business in the long run. If you’re not sure how to manage all your listings, contact local SEO services to find out.

Get it on Google

Google is the biggest search engine in the world. It’s so common that Google is used as a verb! If you want to maximize your SEO possibilities, it’s imperative that you get your business on Google right away. If people can’t find your business on Google, chances are they won’t find your business at all.