FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Hire An SEO Agency?
Hiring an SEO agency can seem like a daunting task; How do you know who is good and who is not? Search engine optimisation is like any other industry, there are those who know what they’re doing, and there are the cowboys. But if you use the following 5 questions in your search you will quickly be able to sort out who is who and make your decision on who to hire.
You should try searching the phrase “SEO Toowoomba” and contacting the people that seem to keep coming up in the top results. If they can achieve these results for themselves they will know what they are doing and you will just need to ensure they are ethical.
Once you have a shortlist of contacts you can now make contact and ask the following questions to ensure they are ethical and the right choice for your business:
1. What past successes have you had?
Any good and experienced SEO consultant will be able to give a few examples of companies they have worked with. Many will be able to offer you case studies and client testimonials to back up what they claim. It is important to go through their results to ensure that they are correct and that the companies are in good positions on the search engines.
2. What will you do for me?
Search engine optimisation is an on page and off page process and should involve the optimisation of your website and link building to be effective. You should also consider if you would like the SEO consultant to make all site changes for you or whether you or your web team will be making the changes. If you are expecting them to make the changes ensure that the SEO consultant you choose can make the changes and is skilled to work with the technology your website is built on.
3. Can you guarantee results?
This is a trick question as no one can guarantee you top results or first place listings in the search engines because they do not own them. If someone tells you they guarantee first page ranking run. These people are either lying, or using ‘black hat’ tactics. ‘Black Hat’ SEO is ranking by tricking Google’s search engine robots. These methods usually get you quick results, and then Google blacklists your site and you’re done. A good SEO consultant will be able to guarantee an increase in your current online presence, which eventually may lead to you being in first place for highly competitive keywords. You can’t guarantee it though, all the SEO can do, is put in the work.
4. What reports will I receive?
This will differ from one consultant to the next. Digimark provides a quarterly SEO campaign strategy, complete with Keyword position, ranking strategy and link building strategy. A monthly report is also sent out to each client with results from Google Analytics, showing the amount of traffic that is visiting the site and where those visitors are coming from. If reports are not provided by an SEO, they are not being transparent with you and this should throw up a red flag.
5. What happens next?
Search engine optimisation is an ongoing process of testing, measuring and optimising. It is not something that can be done once and left alone so you should expect to have a quarterly campaign with your SEO consultant where they are optimising, link building and reporting on a quarterly basis. This is crucial for long term growth and success so be wary of anyone telling you they will do it once and that is all you need.
The bottom line is if you have any reservations or something doesn’t sound right with your potential SEO agency, don’t use them and keep on looking.
Hiring a Website Designer vs Using a DIY Option
How Long Does It Take To Design A Website?
Our basic website design, without content, usually takes four weeks. This assumes that all the requirements are provided immediately and that you are able to provide revisions quickly.
Do You Include Hosting?
The service covers the website build and the site’s launch as well as 30 days of support after launch. Name registry, hosting, and server costs are exclusive of this service. However, we would be more than happy to suggest a few hosting providers that provide great products and quality customer support.
What Technologies Do You Use To Build Your Websites?
We use WordPress along with premium WordPress themes. Our themes are built with HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and PHP. All our themes also use Page Builders which allow our clients to easily add posts and pages, with unlimited layouts, through a drag and drop user interface, without the need for coding knowledge.
Why WordPress?
Our Web Design services are built on the WordPress content management system (CMS) because:
- It is the most flexible and easiest to use open-source content management system, with worldwide community support.
- It has themes with responsive web design that provide optimal user experience across devices so that users navigate the website with minimal re-sizing and scrolling.
- Its Dashboards use page builders that: provide a drag and drop interface; allow easy creation of responsive column-based content; and, have more than five (5) pre-designed widgets, e.g. Galleries, Testimonial, Blog Feed and many more.
Why Won’t You Launch On A Friday?
Development best practices discourage the launching of sites on Fridays. As most sites represent a business that runs on weekdays only, weekend launches may cause unforeseen errors that cannot be addressed in real-time as our staff and most clients do not work on weekends.
Do You Build Websites That Are SEO Friendly?
We will build your site based on architecture that’s optimised for SEO.
Where Will You Build My Website?
We create your site on our own servers first and would only upload to your own server after the final quality assurance and revisions have been completed.
How Many Changes Can I Make Before Incurring Additional Costs?
- There are three revision points for you. First is generally around 2 weeks for approval of the content and mockups. The next revision is at the 4-week mark for approval of the design. The last is before launch.
- Please note that any revisions on the last round would have to be minimal and not amount anymore to design changes or work that would take more than half a day to execute.