3 Ways To Tell If Your SEO Consultant Is Taking Advantage of Your Electrical Business

1) Reporting

One of the most used tactics to take advantage of a client is to falsify or skew the reporting numbers. It is an easy trap to fall into. We see other industries like politics, skew numbers all the time to make something look favorable. It is not difficult to take one set of reporting numbers and spinet to make them look different ways or tell two different stories. Let’s take a look at a frequent reporting metric that is often skewed by SEO Consultants, traffic.

Poor Traffic Quality Reporting

When looking at organic traffic to our website, a spike can seem like a big win for an SEO consultant. However, if that traffic fails to convert, then the SEO has not provided your electric shop with any favors. To use traffic as a proper reporting tool, you have to observe the quality of the traffic. To determine the traffic quality, you look at elements such as duration of visit, pages per session, and the ultimate conversion rate. After all, when it comes to running an electrical contractor business, the bottom line is the return on investment (ROI).

2) Lost Empathy Towards Your Business

At the beginning of a marketing contract, both parties are often excited and eager to grow the business. There is a special momentum at the start of a contract that I refer to as the “honeymoon stage.” As time passes, this excitement and eagerness begin to fade for a lot of Marketing Consultants and SEOs. Of course, the business owner typically maintains a high level of excitement and eagerness to grow it. This fading is where the rub happens.

There are many marketing consultants and search engine optimization professionals who maintain their excitement and zeal. However, there is an overwhelming amount of professionals who do not.

Here is a list of things you can look for to determine if your SEO has lost interest in your electrical business

The SEO is…

  • Often late to meetings; or no shows
  • Comes to meetings unprepared
  • Says a lot of words, but no results
  • Blames other contractors or website conditions
  • Does not set clear goals
  • Does not establish or hold to Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
  • Does not listen to or acknowledge your (electrical contractor) input

3) Shop Around

Digital marketing has a high pace of change. The environment in which we all operate often changes rapidly. With these frequent changes, the demands of the electrical contractor business can improve. Often business owners find themselves in a position of having too much help or not enough. The workload in the task needed to accomplish your goals may have doubled or more since you originally signed up for the contract with your SEO consultant. You may not be able to reach your goals at the current rate you’re paying. On the other hand, you could have a decrease in the difficulty of the SU work required to reach your goals. In this case, you may be able to cut back a bit on the amount you’re paying.

I recommend shopping around and inviting a few competing agencies to quote you based on the current environment. I recommend being upfront with the agencies you are requesting a quote from by letting them know you have an existing SEO consultant working with you. Let them know you’re entertaining the idea of increasing or decreasing your budget based on their ability to reach your goals. I would recommend doing this once a year or six months if you have a particularly bad experience.