Why You Should Consider Hiring a Technical SEO Consultant

Without the help of an SEO consultant, getting your site on the first page of Google search results is nearly impossible. This is because Google and other search engines regularly change their algorithms so only the most relevant content ranks on top. That's the trick–figuring out what parameters the algorithms use to rank web pages.

Fortunately, technical SEO consultants understand the secrets of the algorithms. You can easily hire a professional SEO expert or agency to keep your website updated as search engine algorithms change. These experienced SEO professionals can get your website to the top of search engines so that your business can remain competitive.

If you're frustrated by your search engine results and don't know what to do, hiring a technical SEO expert can be worth it.

Watch this video to learn how Digital Authority Partners tackles Technical SEO!

What Exactly Is a Technical SEO Consultant?

Technical SEO consultants understand the code and other technicalities of a website. They have the expertise to technically optimize your website and its architecture to make it faster for visitors and to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index.

However, SEO experts also use high-ranking keywords and great content to drive traffic to your website. The bottom line is, you need both great, keyword-rich content and great website architecture. Those two elements work together to bring increased traffic and business to your website.

While you need an SEO expert, finding a reputable Chicago technical SEO agency can be a challenge. The fact is, there are a lot of people online posing as SEO experts. In this blog post, we'll look at what you need to consider before hiring a technical SEO expert. 

Why Business Owners Need to Hire a Technical SEO Agency

You're an expert in your field, but you're probably not an SEO expert. Even if you used a website builder yourself to launch your site, you may not know what's behind it. To technically optimize your site, you may need to access the code or backend. Optimizing your site may also require specialized plugins. The fact is, SEO optimization can be complicated, requiring specific technical and network expertise. 

As a business owner, you likely know how to market your business, you know how to appeal to potential customers. The problem is getting your message in front of those customers. By hiring a technical Chicago SEO agency, you can increase your chances of getting your products and services in front of your audience.

Hiring a Technical SEO Expert Can Make All the Difference

The biggest reason to hire an SEO specialist is to get your website on the front page, where people can easily find it. Inbound marketing converts visitors into customers. With optimized inbound marketing strategies, your website connects with customers. Moreover, your message meets the needs and speaks to these potential customers.

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While backend website technicalities are not obvious, they play a role in getting your message across. If your website runs slowly, many visitors will simply click away. As a result, a slow-loading website can cause thousands of dollars of lost business every month.

An online marketing strategy needs to be based on three things:

• Attract potential customers – A technical SEO consultant can optimize your website to target and attract customers who are willing to buy your products or services.
• Engaging content and design – SEO copywriters can place optimized content on your site that visitors will enjoy. This increases user engagement, increasing the likelihood they'll buy from your site. A technical SEO expert also makes sure your website is easy to navigate and also has a theme that appeals to your audience.
• Retain customers – Finally, every successful marketing ends with happy, loyal customers. Of course, that also depends on the quality of your products and services. But a well-managed website with a great user experience will also encourage customers to keep coming back.

Hiring SEO Freelancers

Now you’ve decided you need an SEO expert, the next step is finding a good one. Don't rush the process. Check out each candidate carefully. 

Among the best places to find an SEO specialist include:

     1. Freelance Sites

• Indeed – This freelancer site has a lot of very talented candidates. Also, you can use filters to sort out candidates with specific areas of expertise and talent.
• Upwork – This very popular freelancer site has many SEO specialists that go through a stringent verification process. You'll know that you can trust freelance SEO specialists here. You'll also be able to read feedback and reviews they've received.
• Freelancer.com – This platform is similar to Upwork with its large and varied talent pool. You'll post your job, your budget, and freelance SEO experts will post their bids.
• Fiverr – This freelancer site has thousands of technical SEO consultants. Their prices are posted, but you can also make special requests. But due to the sheer number of technical SEO consultants here, you'll need to look through many profiles to find just the right candidate.

     2. Social Media 

Many professionals use their social media profiles to advertise their businesses, including SEO experts. You'll also be able to see feedback on their posts. If you're already on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit, use the platform to find a technical SEO expert.

     3. Google It

A simple Google search can lead you to a top-ranking technical SEO consultant; if they got their website to the top of Google, they can rank your site too. It's proof they know what they're doing. Using Google to find a technical SEO consultant could be the best way to assess their skills.

     4. Ask Other Website Owners 

Asking your friends who run high-ranking websites is a good way to find a solid, trustworthy technical SEO consultant. By asking the people you know and trust, the consultants they recommend will likely fit well with you and your business.

Basic Questions to Ask Your SEO Candidates 

Do your due diligence and carefully evaluate each candidate. Look closely at any feedback and reviews they've received and make a few picks. Next, ask for examples of their work. 

After you've narrowed down your candidates, the next step is to conduct interviews and ask each candidate a few questions. This will help you to evaluate their skills and get a feeling for if you can work with them. Hopefully, hiring a technical SEO expert will be an ongoing relationship.

The following are a few questions to ask your potential technical SEO consultant.

     1. Can You Summarize How You Optimize Websites?

Asking them to share a few tips and tricks for improving your website’s performance will allow you to assess a candidate’s proficiency. 

Try to see if they'll be able to find crawl errors, fix 301-redirect chains, and consolidate subdomains. A competent technical SEO expert will understand the questions and answer them. You'll need someone who can offer a range of technical SEO skills.

     2. What Tools Do You Use for a Technical SEO Audit? 

Ask your candidate which SEO audit tools they use. Search SEO audit tools to acquaint yourself with the most popular, such as SEMrush and Moz. These tools crawl your sight in a similar way to the search engines and they can assess a website’s performance. Some tools also compare a website's performance to its competitors. Does the candidate know about the latest technical SEO audit tools? 

     3. Ask How They Measure Their Progress 

This is very important because even the best technical SEO can take weeks or even a few months. You need to know how each candidate evaluates their success as your pages climb to the top.

Ask each candidate to share the parameters they use to measure a website’s performance. Also, ask about the tools they use. Ask to see the details of what they do to see for yourself how they can produce consistent results. 

     4. Ask to See a List of Their Clients 

Any experienced technical SEO consultant will be able to show you their past successes. They'll show you successful websites, how they boosted Google PageSpeed scores or executed a successful CMS migration.

     5. Finally, Ask a “Trick” Question 

Ask if they can guarantee that your site will rank number one on Google. The honest answer is, no one can guarantee a first-page ranking. If they say yes, they guarantee you'll rank number one, move on to the next candidate. 

The fact is, technical SEO experts can only improve a website’s performance. If they guarantee you'll rank on top of Google for your keywords, they're either lying or using unethical and potentially banned SEO methods. Ensure that they only use ethical technical SEO methods and ensure that they understand and adhere to Google’s guidelines.

     6. Do They Stay Up To Date on Algorithm Updates and SEO Issues? 

Search algorithms are always changing, and you'll need a dedicated technical SEO consultant who keeps abreast of the trends. Ask your candidates about how they keep up with changes to the algorithms. As the algorithms change, ask what they'll do to update the website.

     7. How Often Will You Receive Reports? How Will You Communicate? 

Better technical SEO doesn't happen overnight. But, you do want to see steady improvement in your website’s performance. Ask if your technical SEO candidates will send regular reports and how often: weekly, monthly, quarterly? You need to be able to track the progress and improvement of your site's performance. 

     8. How Much Do You Charge?

Before you hire a technical SEO expert, you need to know how much they charge and how they like to be paid. Some consultants charge per project and others bill regularly. Naturally, depending on a candidates’ skills, their prices will vary.

More Technical SEO Questions: 

If you need to hire an advanced technical SEO expert, you'll need to ask them technical questions. We'll go over the answers so you'll know what you're asking.

     1. What is a Robots.txt file used for?

A robots.txt file is a simple text document placed into the root level of your server. It can be used to exclude pages on a site from being indexed by search engines. This is useful for pages that have been deleted; if a search engine cannot find a previously indexed page, that's bad for your site.

    2. What Is 301 Redirect? Why would you use it? How is a 301 different from a 302 Redirect?

A 301 is a permanent redirect of an inactive or deleted page to a new page. A 301 redirect can also redirect a retired domain name to a new domain. On the other hand, a 302 redirect is only temporary.

     3. What are canonical tags?

This is a meta tag placed on a webpage to let the search engines know the preferred version of the site. It's also used to reduce the occurrence of duplicate content.

     4. Can search engines crawl Javascript?

Yes. This can be tested using Google's Search Console to fetch and render your website to see if the various elements display correctly.

     5. Can search engines crawl text contained in PDF Files?

Yes, search engines can read, crawl, and index PDFs, such as downloadable forms and eBooks. PDF files often appear in search results.

Should You Hire an Individual or a Chicago SEO Agency? 

An individual SEO expert can work more closely with you and might be more affordable. On the other hand, a Chicago SEO agency has an entire team of SEO experts covering every aspect of website optimization. An agency can offer a more comprehensive menu of services compared to an individual SEO expert.

Some advantages of working with a technical SEO agency can include:

     1. Cost

With a technical SEO agency, you sometimes get more for your money. This is because a team of experts with different areas of expertise divides the work on your site.

In this way, a reputable SEO agency can be more cost-effective than an individual, freelance SEO expert.

     2. Professionalism and Experience 

A Chicago SEO agency only hires the best people for their team, so their clients benefit from the skills of the most experienced, professional SEO experts. Your website will be in good hands.

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A dedicated and experienced team of SEO experts is on hand to cover every aspect of internet marketing. They'll write SEO optimized content, work on link building, and of course, technical optimization. As this team of experts works on your site, your SEO will continually improve. 

     3. Agencies Often Provide Other Digital Marketing Services

An SEO agency can provide other services beyond technical optimization. They might offer copywriting services, or, they might be able to redesign your website. Also, they can offer social media advertising or Google ads.

How Much Does Technical SEO Cost?

The price of a technical SEO consultant varies quite a bit. Ultimately, the cost may determine which way to go. 

• Hiring a full-time, in-house SEO professional can cost nearly $84,000 per year.
• Working with an SEO agency costs between $75–100 per hour, totaling $1,000–3,000 per month.
• On average, freelance technical SEO experts charge between $200 and $225 per project. 

Better SEO Equals More Business

Follow these suggestions to find a competent and experienced technical SEO consultant. They can help your website run faster for a better user experience. Moreover, it will make it easier for Google to rank your site at the top of search results.