10 Actionable Tips to Hire SEO Experts in UAE
With nearly 25,000 new business licenses issued in Dubai alone in Q1 2022, the competition is getting fierce among UAE business owners. You must utilize the power of SEO and hire SEO experts to rank on top of search engines if you run a business in the UAE.
Frankly speaking, it’s difficult to find passionate SEOs who can help you achieve your goals with their skills and experience. But we are here to help you out!
Being in the SEO industry for around seven years, we know what clients must do before hiring SEO experts. Here are our ten proven tips for hiring professional SEO experts who can save your money, time, and effort.
1. Write Down Your Goals and Expectations
SEO isn’t all about trying to rank your website on the first page of search engine results. A customized SEO strategy can also help you improve your business and achieve your business goals. So before you proceed to hire SEO experts, you should ask yourself these questions?
- Do I want to increase raw traffic on my website?
- Am I planning to get more sales through SEO?
- Do I want to improve branding through SEO?
- Do I want to attract more leads with SEO?
- Is SEO going to increase my ideological influence?
After you pinpoint what goals you want to achieve through SEO, you then have to move on to setting your expectations.
Setting clear expectations will help you define benchmarks that you can aim to achieve through your SEO strategy. For example, if you are looking to hire an SEO expert for organic ranking, you should find someone who has a proven track record of boosting their client’s SEO rankings in the past.
2. Find Experts through Job Boards
SEO agencies and freelancers offer their services via freelance marketplaces. Here are some of the leading platforms you can check to hire SEO experts:
- UpWork
- Fiverr
You will have to post your requirements on a gig job board. Hiring SEOs through these portals is easier as you can scrutinize the proposals you receive and respond to those who fully understand your requirements.
Here is a snapshot of SEO gigs placed on UpWork:
Source: UpWork.com
It takes longer to find experts through gig job boards. It’s better to assign your SEO needs to an agency if you don’t want to spend countless hours on freelance marketplaces. You can contact us to ask about our SEO services, and we’ll show you how we can optimize your website’s SEO.
3. Scope out Testimonials
The best thing that can help you hire SEO experts is reading the reviews left by their previous clients. These reviews can help you gauge the strengths and weaknesses of SEOs throughout your hiring process.
You need to be careful when reading reviews of SEOs. Some SEO agencies/freelancers might rely on fake reviews to attract more customers. Fake positive reviews might trick you into hiring someone who cannot help you achieve your SEO goals.
Here are some tips to help you find fake SEO reviews easily:
i. Scan for Certain Words
Someone who relies on Black-Hat SEO techniques will use phrases like “guaranteed 1st-page rankings” or thousands of visitors daily.” Remember, “If it’s too good to be true, it’s not true.”
ii. Analyze the Flow of Reviews
Fake reviews mostly talk about how a specific person at an SEO agency helped them. On the other hand, real reviews talk about the scenario and how an SEO agency fixed the problem.
iii. Assess the Profiles
Be wary of the “Traceless CEOs” who are nowhere to be found but on the website of an SEO scammer. Verify that the person posting the review is a “Real” person.
iv. Be Wary Of Unrealistic Achievements
No SEO agency has a fit-it-all strategy to overcome their clients’ SEO challenges. Reviews that claim how an SEO agency brought amazing results in a short time frame are mostly fake.
4. Check Their Portfolio/Case-Studies
Once you’re done confirming the authenticity of an SEO agency after reading its reviews, it’s time to explore its portfolio and case studies.
Skilled SEO agencies pride themselves on bringing real results to their clients. An SEO agency/freelancer who has worked for clients across industries will prove their worth through portfolio and case studies.
Another cool thing about case studies is that they help you find someone who has brought results for companies like yours in the past. For example, if you run a startup, you can hire an SEO expert for a startup business by comparing the case studies.
In most cases, you won’t have to ask an SEO agency/freelancer to send their case studies, as you’ll find them easily through their website.
You can check the Featured Case Studies at Google Search Central to learn what’s included in a proper SEO case study.
Source: Google Search Central
What is a Good SEO Case Study?
What sets a good SEO case study apart from a bad SEO case study? The presence of a strategy. Any fake SEO guru can boast of bringing outstanding results for their clients. However, only a true “specialist” can prove what they claim by showing a strategy.
Remember that most SEO experts sign NDAs with their clients and cannot mention their clients’ names in their SEO case studies. So an SEO case study might still be credible even if it doesn’t mention the client.
5. Get a Detailed SEO Audit of Your Website
Good reviews of an SEO agency shouldn’t encourage you to hire them right away. Before you hire SEO experts for your website, you should analyze their skills by asking them to do an audit of your website.
Source: Semrush
The way an SEO expert audits your website shows how they will create and implement an SEO strategy for your website.
Proper SEO audit of a website comprises of:
- On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO
- Technical SEO
i. On-Page SEO Audit
On-Page SEO comprises techniques like content optimization, adding HTML tags, images, etc. On-Page SEO audits will pinpoint the mistakes that can affect your rankings. The SEO expert will suggest how they will fix the problems and make your website pages.
ii. Off-Page SEO Audit
Off-Page SEO includes all practices that are implemented “off” your website. These practices include the creation of backlinks, brand mentions, guest blogging, etc. The SEO auditor will highlight if your Off-Page SEO practices are not up to the standards.
iii. Technical SEO Audit
Technical SEO covers “technical” aspects that make a website discoverable through search engines. An SEO audit will also explain if a website needs technical tweaks to fulfill the SEO standards.
SEO Audits and Hiring Process
Asking an SEO agency to do an SEO audit of your website doesn’t necessarily mean you have to hire them. We offer a free SEO audit of your website, and you can decide whether you want to hire us or not – no strings attached.
6. Analyze the Offered Packages
When you start exploring the market to hire SEO experts, you shouldn’t be inclined to hire an “affordable” SEO guy. To get the best value for your money, you must compare the SEO packages to make a better choice.
But how much does it cost to have someone do SEO? The short answer is; It depends.
Some self-proclaimed “SEO gurus” are willing to do SEO for $50 only. On the other hand, a skilled agency might ask for thousands of dollars to do SEO for your website. As a rule of thumb, it’s better not to hire someone offering SEO services at “dirt cheap” prices.
Remember that there’s no “all-in-one” SEO package that can fulfill all of your SEO needs. You should only hire an SEO agency who can offer different SEO packages.
For example, our Basic SEO package starts at $200 per month. Our Corporate SEO package is offered for $1000 monthly. You can easily compare the packages we offer on our SEO Packages page to buy the one that suits you most.
7. Review the Tools They Use
Not all SEO tools can provide the same results.
There are a plethora of free and paid SEO tools that provide different results. An SEO campaign might not produce the best results if free SEO tools were used to execute it. This is why you need to ask an SEO expert what SEO tools they use before you hire them.
Most of the free SEO tools aren’t worth the time and effort.
For example, no free analytics tool can beat the accuracy of Google Analytics. The same mantra applies to keyword research. Most free (or cheap) keyword tools don’t come closer to paid keyword research tools like SEMRUSH.
So before you sign that contract, you need to learn what SEO tools will be used.
Free ≠ Bad
We don’t say that all free SEO tools are “bad.” Some tech startups offer genuinely helpful SEO tools for free and then move on to a subscription model to stay profitable. The SEO agency/freelancer you’re going to hire should be able to describe why they use some free tools to get the SEO job done.
Here are some of the best free SEO tools that SEO experts use:
8. Ask How They Create and Execute Strategies
Finding the mistakes that hurt your website’s rankings on SERPs isn’t all an SEO expert should do. They also have to create an actionable SEO strategy and execute it properly to help you achieve your SEO goals. One of the best tips for hiring an SEO consultant is to understand the creation of an SEO strategy.
Here are the four pillars of a great SEO strategy that brings results:
i. Keyword Research
Keyword stuffing doesn’t matter in 2022 anymore, but choosing the right keywords does! Content stuffed or “spammed” with keywords will no longer rank on SERPs thanks to changes like Google Helpful Content Update. However, an SEO expert still has to find the best keyword to answer the queries of your target audience the right way.
ii. Link-building Approach
High-quality backlinks pointing to your website prove your authority to search engine bots. Before you hire an SEO expert, you should ask them how they will build relevant, high-quality backlinks for your website.
Source: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/types-content-links/
iii. Competitor Analysis
Detailed competitor analysis is the backbone of any SEO strategy. The SEO expert you hire must start with competitor analysis to find where you can perform better than others. You should ask how an SEO expert will analyze your competitors before hiring them.
Source: mention.com
iv. Content Creation
It will become easier to hire SEO experts if you compare the content creation strategies of different SEO providers. Remember that good human-first content is the most important ranking factor, and the SEO expert you hire must know how to create persuasive content.
9. Don’t Fall for Obvious Traps
Getting SEO results overnight is IMPOSSIBLE! Nobody can magically rank your website on top of SERPs with a magic wand. You should never hire an SEO consultant who relies on Black Hat SEO to bring quick, unstable results. Here’s a “Spamdexing” looks like:
Source: sucuri.net
When you hire SEO experts, you should scan out anyone who claims to bring quick SEO results. Any sensible SEO expert will understand your SEO goals first, and then they will tell you how long it will potentially take to achieve those goals. Here is how to spot an SEO scammer:
10. Ask How They Will Send Progress Reports
Progress reports enlist the efforts taken by an SEO expert and the results their strategies have produced. Before you hire SEO experts, you should ask if they send a monthly or quarterly SEO progress report to their clients.
Source: pitch.com
But how can you spot if an SEO report is legit or not? Here is what a good SEO report should include:
Understanding an SEO report is simple only if it’s devoid of jargon and clearly outlines the steps taken by an SEO expert. You should ask the SEO expert you want to hire if they can forward you a copy of the SEO report they have sent to their previous client. Reading that report will make it easier to decide if you should hire them or not.
Conclusion
You can hire SEO experts easily if you follow all the tips mentioned in this blog. Please leave a comment below if you have any queries or suggestions.
We are here to help if you cannot hire a dedicated SEO expert because of your busy schedule. You can also email us if you want a one-one-one consultation with our SEO expert without paying a single penny!
