Picking the Right eCommerce SEO Company for You

eCommerce companies have a lot of plates to spin to keep things running smoothly and more importantly, growing. Between dealing with suppliers, logistics, customer support and marketing it can become incredibly overwhelming and quickly escalates into a team job. It is nearly impossible to run a reasonably sized eCommerce website by yourself.

One aspect you might want to unload on to others is the rather technical and deep topic of SEO. Learning about, understanding and most importantly, keeping up with search engine algorithms takes a lot of time and effort if you want to actually be able to rank pages effectively.

So how do you separate the genuine Google juice gurus from the hordes of wanna be SEO experts who just watched a few videos on performing SEO services and even more videos on selling SEO services and pick the right eCommerce SEO company for you?

eCommerce SEO company red flags

It can be incredibly easy for someone not-in-the-know about eCommerce SEO to be dazzled by a word salad of initialisms and acronyms into thinking that the person they are talking to actually has a clue what they are talking about. So here are some tips to spot a charlatan…

Look at their website

Seems obvious but still worth a mention. A digital agency should present themselves perfectly as their web presence is not only a reflection of them, but their abilities. Check to see that the page looks perfect on mobile and desktop. Look for spacing, spelling and grammar errors. It may sound weird, but SEO is a very meticulous skill that requires a lot of attention to the finer details and this should be reflected in their work.

Look at their past

SEO has become an allure to people who want to get rich quick and easy, fueled by YouTube ads and the appeal of doing little and charging a lot. Unfortunately, the people sold on this dream were lied to about how hard it actually is to achieve impressive results. They think they can delegate to third world countries where they will perform tasks that do nothing to please Google but gives them something to put in reports. You need to avoid these people. They don’t normally last too long so a good way is to look at how long their agency has been around. Look at when the domain name for the website was bought, look at when their social media pages were created. If they haven’t been around for a long time then dodge them. Try to find the companies that have passed the test of time.

Their approach

How and why did they contact you? In this one I am going to assume that you have been approached by them as this is so insanely common now. I personally would never promote my services to someone unless I genuinely thought I could benefit them. If they haven’t called you with reasons as to why they think they could help benefit your specific business, using points that prove that they have done their research on you, then give them a miss. An eCommerce SEO company that is just playing a numbers game and peppering the industry until they hit something are probably not a good fit for you. You want companies that are looking for you, not just hammering their call button until someone sounds interested.

What to look for

Well, you could try looking for “eCommerce SEO company” on Google. I mean, this has to be the greatest test for an SEO company there is. And don’t get fooled by any of the ads! Use a different search term for that.

Social proof is obviously a big one. A reputable company with a good success record should have a strong portfolio of websites they have worked with in the past that you can check out, and even reach out to yourself for references.

Have a look on their social media pages and website where companies are reviewed as well, if they have reviews hidden then run! But do try to remember that, as with everything, reviews might tend to lean towards the bad side and make the company seem worse than they are because people who are happy go about their lives, people who are upset go online to complain about it.