One way to retain more customers and investors to monetize your business is by implementing an effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. SEO is a highly technical digital marketing strategy that’s best entrusted to SEO professionals or SEO agencies.
If you’re looking for prospective SEO agencies, it’s crucial to get an SEO proposal that’s clear and actionable. An SEO proposal refers to a sales pitch to convince you (the client) that the company’s SEO agency perfectly fits your business.
Here are the important things one must consider when receiving an SEO proposal:
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Components of a Winning SEO Proposal
While SEO agencies usually use the SEO proposal template, it’s still important to ensure that the content of your proposal is customized to your needs.
It may be appealing to receive a lot of services but if those are not going to give you more leads, customers or traffic that at the end you can convert into money then you’re basically wasting funds.
A winning SEO proposal should include the following:
- Introduction and Summary: The SEO agency should include introducing their services and reasons why they’re credible to handle your SEO.
- Shows Specific SEO Insights: A winning SEO proposal should include specific insights the SEO agency has gathered about your current SEO performance. You want an SEO agency that understands your business’ goals and emerging problems.
- Solutions and Deliverables: This SEO proposal section should include the projects and tasks the SEO agency will be doing for your next SEO campaign. Do they offer link building solutions? How do they carry out a content strategy? Will they manage your social media marketing?
- Live results: The proposal should also outline if you’ll be given live access to the SEO dashboard to also check results.
- Goals: Every SEO proposal has a set of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goals. For instance, a SMART goal goes something like ‘increase organic traffic by 40% at the end of the year’ or ‘build 15 new backlinks over two months.’
- Timeline: A winning SEO proposal includes a timeline so you know when to expect results. The proposed solutions should be broken down into measurable and specific milestones.
- Pricing Options: The pricing section shows all pricing for their services. Choose an SEO agency that can offer several pricing options so you have a greater sense of control over the SEO investment process. With clearer pricing details, you can easily weigh if the SEO services offered will be right for your budget. But of course, better aim to get excellent SEO quality than cheap SEO.
- Call to Action: A good SEO proposal ends with a strong call to action, directing you on the next steps. This section will find the SEO company’s contact information and the actionable steps you need to take to start working with them.
SEO Metric Tracking Using Analytics
In an SEO proposal, it’s important to know how the SEO agency will keep track of your SEO metrics. Data analytics is commonly used to perform this task–using software programs or online tools with automated data analytics capabilities.
The SEO proposal must clearly outline the following:
- The parameters that the SEO company can track or measure, like bounce rate, mobile traffic, and site speed.
- SEO tools the agency used to track key performance indicators (KPIs), like Google Analytics.
- The schedule of SEO reporting, such as real-time, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
- The communication methods that are used in reporting for sounder sales and marketing decision making.
Your SEO Needs
While an SEO proposal outlines comprehensive SEO services, you might not need everything. That’s why you have to assess the SEO needs of your business. It should start with identifying your current struggles, such as poor traffic, low conversion, lead generation rates, or high bounce rate.
Here are some key questions to ask yourself when assessing your SEO needs:
- What are the strengths of my current SEO strategy?
- Do I need a comprehensive SEO marketing campaign?
- Do I have a problem with enticing more people to my website?
- How many links should I get every month to increase traffic and boost sales?
SEO Agency Check
In a sales proposal, you’ll be able to assess the reputation of an SEO company. It should contain the company’s vision and mission statements, guiding principles or core values, awards or certifications received testimonials and case studies.
You can gauge an SEO agency’s expertise and experience by taking a closer look at how they present their SEO proposal. An SEO proposal will help you understand the SEO perspective and specialization of an SEO company, such as link building, content marketing, social media and SEO integration, and considering the application of SEO trends.
Value Presentation
A winning SEO proposal must be able to defend the value it can provide to your business. For instance, the proposal should show a comparison between the SEO and paid ads (e.g., pay-per-click or PPC) budget.
A good SEO company can present in the proposal the estimated cost per click (per keyword) and the cost of an X number of potential customers earned through paid and organic search, giving you a good perspective of organic rankings.
Here are the advantages of considering value presentation in an SEO proposal:
- Recognize the value of a company’s SEO services in attaining your business goals.
- Determine if investing in specific or advanced SEO services is worth it.
- Gives you assurance and peace of mind that your money, time, and effort won’t be wasted since you’re dealing with experts.
- Make a sounder decision about the SEO problems you need to focus on and resolve. By knowing the value of each SEO services being offered to you, you’ll be able to choose the best SEO proposal that’s tailor-fit to your SEO needs.
Conclusion
When you receive an SEO proposal, it’s important to check if the proposal possesses winning proposal’s qualities. It should clearly outline all aspects, like a business or sales proposal, including goals, timelines, and pricing.
The SEO agency should have clear goals, understand your business, and use relevant SEO tools like SEO PowerSuite, SEMrush or other to help you attain your objectives.
It would also help if you consider your SEO needs because not all proposals can target your business needs. By taking a closer look at how the value is presented, you can make a better decision as to whether to accept or decline the SEO proposal.