Company owners and their digital marketing managers often ask how they can find the best SEO company in Boston. The first consideration of SEO is your goals. While company priorities vary, the primary goal is typically to get to the top of the Google search engine page result (SERP), above your competitor, for more traffic and, if done correctly, a higher conversion rate.
How to Choose the Best Boston SEO Company
There are five initial qualifications you should the beginning of your search:
1. Does that SEO company have a Boston-Area Location and Local Employees?
Choose an agency that understands what’s most important to customers in your town and surrounding areas and has insights into your competitors and local market.
2. What do the Boston SEO agency’s onboarding and recommendations look like?
During onboarding, you and the agency will discuss your digital goals, budget, resources, expertise, current program, and expectations. After a full assessment, the agency should be able to present a well-defined set of recommendations and be able to explain why these goals will be effective.
3. Does the local Boston SEO company have solid planning?
Your agency should have “SMART” plans, translated as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. An agency should be able to build a consistent plan that includes this information and be willing to address any questions or concerns you have.
Does the Boston SEO agency clearly lay out the terms of engagement?
You and the agency may agree on scope-of-work and contractual terms. However, sometimes an agency and client aren’t right for each other. For this and other reasons, we recommend not signing on with an agency that insists on a long-term agreement (more than three months).
Does the Boston SEO company have a solid reputation?
Of course, you want results such as leads and conversion. But that’s not all it takes to have effective results. If you’ve worked with any type of vendor, especially a previous SEO agency, you know the importance of leadership, responsiveness, communication, and other factors. Find out about their clients’ experiences and if the agency has received any awards, read reviews, and look for client testimonials.
For example, if you research Ladybugz you’ll find these and other customer review and industry awards:
Boston SEO Client Testimonials
“They come to the table with solutions to your problems and a strategy for growth. Our website traffic and leads have more than tripled since hiring this agency.”
“They optimized the website in a way that it’ll show up organically to people who’re searching for our type of service. They’re very results-driven and communicative.”
Boston Best SEO Awards:
- A Top Rated SEO Agency (SEOblog)
- A Top Digital Marketing Agency (Clutch)
- #8 in Most Successful Women Agency Owners (Cloudways).
See More of Ladybugz Interactive’s Awards
Dig Deeper into the Boston SEO Company’s Process
If the agency has won awards, has good reviews, and clients are happy, find out about the process they use to achieve top SERP rankings for clients. It’s a positive sign if the agency can confidently talk about its process—watch out if they can’t.
If you are knowledgeable about SEO, go further for the details. If SEO is new to you, see if they can explain the process to you in a way that makes sense. Pay attention to their communication style and see if the agency’s style and individual personalities are a good fit for your company.
Seven SEO processes that are critical to your success
It doesn’t just matter what is done to boost SEO. It also matters how it is done–the process. Weak processes in areas such as strategy, planning, implementation, workflow, and follow-up often lead to confusion, frustration, and disappointing results.
Find out how agencies handle the SEO process, with special attention to these seven areas:
1. Keyword Research:
Google pays attention to keywords and phrases to index the contents of a webpage and serve up the most relevant page based on a user query. A well-developed keyword strategy increases page ranking, conversion, and organic search traffic.
Questions to Ask:
How does the SEO agency perform keyword research, how do they plan and implement a keyword strategy, and what methods do they use to refine the keyword strategy over time?
2. Targeted Content:
One of Google’s top factors in ranking listings is high-quality original content that is relevant to the user’s search, including the location of the business.
Questions to Ask:
What resources does the agency have to provide original content that is tailored to your local customers and created to achieve maximum high-quality traffic and conversions?
3. Website Health Optimization:
Website health is a factor that Google cares about. The health of your website and its performance will affect how Google ranks you. A web design agency with the resources to continuously improve website architecture, front- and back-end SEO, fix bugs, and speed up performance will help your website get seen by more customers.
Questions to Ask:
How do they address website performance, including speed, functionality, security, content quality, and site architecture?
4. Conversion Rate Optimization:
Converting more leads to high-value landing pages will directly increase your sales. An agency should have a process to continuously identify ways to increase conversion so that your website has the best results for leads, contact forms, phone calls, purchases, downloads, and other website goals.
Questions to Ask:
What is the agency’s process, and what tools do they use to gather data, analyze data, and refine website strategies to boost conversion rates?
5. Local SEO strategies:
Local SEO requires a different strategy. Proximity is a factor in Google’s search algorithm, even when the search doesn’t include a city name or “near me” in the search term.
Questions to Ask:
If your customers are located in the Boston area, what is their knowledge and experience with SEO? What strategies does the agency use to attract highly qualified leads from nearby areas who are likely to convert? Do you use tools designed for local SEO?
6. Agency Experience:
To maximize SEO results, a Boston SEO agency should have a deep knowledge of design, content, and technology—and how to employ these elements to create an effective website. Experience also leads the way to successful project management, communication with clients, and the ability to work successfully within the agency and with clients.
Questions to Ask:
Is team leadership experienced? What is the background and experience of the team members that will be assigned to you? Does their experience include Website and SEO strategy, Boston area SEO expertise, project management, reporting, design, content creation, website health optimization, and back-end development and maintenance?
7. Results:
An agency is worth the money only if you get satisfactory results that you can build upon. Determining success is based on the goals you have set and your unique set of circumstances. You and your agency should agree upon a clear set of goals, with a plan for measuring and analyzing metrics and other factors.
Questions to Ask:
The questions here are related to finding out about the agency’s reputation—which is tied directly to SERP ranking, leads, and conversion. Results may also refer to smooth and effective planning, accurate implementation, communication, and responsiveness.
Once again, testimonials are a good source for checking agency success. Consider these testimonials on the Clutch Website (where our overall rating is 5-Star, the top ranking).
“Since partnering with Ladybugz Interactive Agency, the company’s first-page keywords have increased by 150%, while organic keywords have grown by 55%. This has translated to an increase of over 70% in booked appointments from organic traffic. Our site health score is now 98!”
“The help and training they provided us has helped us implement new methods into posting on our social media accounts to get more traction. Since Ladybugz has done our websites our website inquiries have greatly improved as well.”
“The team established a seamless workflow through prompt customer service — they were very responsive throughout the process. They also boasted a personable attitude.”
Use a Targeted Local SEO Strategy
Every organization that interacts with a specific region can benefit from local SEO. This strategy is vital to companies that want to attract in-store traffic, online or phone orders, appointment bookings, clinic visits, or other business from local consumers.
How to Build an Effective SEO Strategy Unique to your Business
Local SEO is our Boston agency’s specialty
The Ladybugz Interactive team consists of top digital experts in their field, with team leadership that has a total of 25 years of experience ranking clients on Google through freelance and agency work.
We are Boston’s leading local SEO experts, with the knowledge and research capabilities to conduct successful local SEO programs in any geographic area.
