You’ve heard their pitches, you’ve reviewed their proposals, and you’ve selected an SEO agency and signed on the dotted line.
Now what?
How an SEO Campaign Starts Rolling
Once a contract is signed for an SEO campaign, a few things should happen very quickly:
- An introductory meeting (live or phone) with your campaign manager — that is, the agency person who will coordinate the campaign and serve as the focal point for all communication.
- An introduction (live or phone) to the key personnel who will be working on your campaign — this will likely include a technical SEO specialist to steer strategic and tactical decisions, and an analyst/researcher to collect, review and interpret data. A good agency will want you to know who is doing what type of work.
- Keyword research will be conducted by the agency, to identify the focus keywords for the campaign and their priority. You will be asked to review the list and provide suggestions if you have them.
- The creation of an initial to-do list, to complete any prep work that is needed to support the campaign. Usually the list involves making various changes/tweaks to your website to improve its SEO readiness. These changes can sometimes be fairly major. For instance, phone and form tracking may need to be installed, and content for product/service pages may require extensive rewrites or even restructuring in the site navigation.
- As a corollary to the previous point, a workflow plan will be laid out to determine who on your end and who on the agency end will execute changes to the website.
General SEO Campaign Expectations
Beyond initial startup tasks, the agency you have selected should do certain things month in and month out. Probably the most critical:
- You should see detailed (yet understandable) reports every month that explain what type of work was done, and campaign KPIs — particularly organic traffic and conversions.
- Monthly or quarterly reports from the agency outlining tactical or strategic adjustments that have been made to the campaign to improve its effectiveness.
- Clear, straightforward communication of any negative developments in the campaign, such as increased pressure/strategic changes from competitors and difficulty in making progress toward campaign objectives.
In short, a well-managed SEO campaign oozes transparency and nimbleness combined with an efficient execution process in all respects.
Would you like to discuss your next SEO campaign? Please contact us now. We’d like to learn about your challenges and help you uncover new opportunities to attract relevant traffic and high-quality sales leads.