Search engines use algorithms to find search results for customer queries. While it is difficult to know exactly how these algorithms work, they use a 3 step process to give you the results of your query.

Step 1: The discovery stage (crawling)

In this stage, search engines find new pages and record information contained in these pages. Changes and updates to previously visited websites are noted and new pages are identified in this stage.

Step 2: The filing stage (indexing)

In this step, the search engine evaluates the content that it has crawled, and decides whether to add it to its index or not. If a web page or content is indexed, it is filed and stored for future use. For a website page or content to be indexed, it must be original, add value, and have inbound links.

Step 3: The retrieval stage (ranking)

In this step, the search engine uses ranking signals to sort and rank the content that has been crawled and indexed. These signals depend on 3 things – technical optimization, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization. Some examples of ranking signals include the loading speed of the web page, keyword presence in the title tag, etc.

When a business hires an SEO consultancy, they must agree on the key metrics that the SEO strategy is expected to impact. When there is visible, measurable growth on these metrics, we can say that the SEO campaign is working.

An SEO report is a summary of how each of these is performing and usually includes parameters such as organic traffic to the website, conversions, backlinks, and overall website health. The parameters can differ based on the SEO goals of the business.

SEO Consulting refers to the planning, designing, implementing, and monitoring the SEO strategies for businesses. This is done through activities such as web analytics, content strategy, web marketing, link building, keyword strategy, etc. The goal of SEO consulting is to help businesses be ‘found’, stay competitive, and stay relevant by improving the website and social media content.

While social media does not directly influence how websites are ranked, it is a powerful tool that can influence SEO and increase brand exposure such as through sharing links across various social media platforms. Social metrics such as shares, likes, and comments can indirectly increase the visibility of content thereby improving organic search rankings. When content is shared or liked, it is a testimony to the trust, loyalty, and awareness of the brand.

• Featured snippets
• Core web vitals
• Local search
• AI

It is the practice of optimizing a website or blog for international search engines. This will help businesses to target certain markets or specific languages for their company. International SEO helps in increasing brand awareness website visibility and website traffic.

Local SEO is a search engine optimization technique designed primarily to increase a website’s presence inside a particular geographic region. Local SEO will assist in making a business or service visible in Google’s local search results when a potential customer searches for one nearby. Businesses that have a physical location or cater to a particular region benefit from local SEO.

An SEO company is an agency that performs specialized and customized SEO campaigns to improve the ’findability’ of businesses. They help businesses to optimize their websites and along with focused SEO strategies, help in improving the visibility of businesses in web searches. This will ensure that the traffic to the website is more relevant and will yield better results.

• SEO companies have greater expertise in various SEO activities. They can easily make changes to a current campaign and get the results that you desire.
• They can track these changes better as well and over time, know exactly what works for your business and what does not.
• They are better equipped to understand and adopt the changes that are being continuously made to the SEO space.
• SEO is a crucial activity. Sometimes even a punctuation mark can impact the results of a campaign. Hence it is best to leave it to someone with experience.
• Practice makes perfect and hence SEO companies can get you better results, faster.
• They can easily manage different types of Ads, multiple platforms, and other crucial bits of your campaign with ease. An in-house employee might not be well equipped to handle so many different moving parts.

• How long have you been doing SEO activities?
• What is your specific SEO strategy for my business?
• How do you work with backlinks?
• What KPIs do you track?
• Do you follow Google’s best practices for SEO?
• How familiar are you with Google’s algorithms?
• What results can I expect and by when

Depending on the number and type of services delivered, SEO costs in India can vary from Rs 5000 to Rs 25000 per month. This is the pricing model that is most frequently employed in terms of SEO. There are many factors that determine the monthly outlay such as the geography to be covered, the population, the number of keywords in each region, and other factors.

SEO activities can take at least 6 months to get visible results. Some websites can see results in as early as 4 months but 6 months is a safe duration to expect consistent results from your SEO strategies. Also, SEO results grow over time.

Being completely honest about what you are doing and having a greater degree of client participation in SEO activities can help a great deal in deriving good results in a shorter period of time. And good results always make an SEO company stand out.  The best partnership is when the client knows what activities are being undertaken, how it impacts the SEO rankings, what results to expect, and when. Be transparent and keep the communication with the client flowing. Focus on consistent and long-term results rather than short-term gains.