Search Engine Optimization is more important for your business than ever before. It’s increasingly common for people to search for businesses or topics online when looking for a service or product. If your business doesn’t show up in the first few results, it’s probably your competitors that people are finding instead. That’s why I’m writing this blog on finding a local SEO expert who can help to rank your website in Montreal, Quebec search results.
First of all, it’s important to work with an actual professional if you are trying to rank your website higher in the search engine results. SEO is an area where someone can actually do harm if it’s performed incorrectly and could cause your website to get a penalty from google if ‘spammy’ tactics are used. A digital marketing expert will be up to date on the latest industry standard best practices, so you aren’t risking hurting your website’s rankings.
It’s also important not to fall for online ads, whether it’s your hosting company saying they’ll perform SEO services, or a $5 Fiverr gig advertising thousands of backlinks to your website. These types of services are nearly always low quality, and won’t have much if any positive benefit. You wouldn’t trust a car mechanic to host your website, would you? So why would you trust a web host or a similar service to perform SEO? This type of service is usually an easy up-sell for these kinds of companies, but they really do very little to help your online rankings.
When working with a search engine optimization expert, you probably want to find someone that specializes in your local area. They’ll be more familiar with the area, and competition, as well as have resources unique to your area, like local websites where they can get you valuable links. If you’re working with someone in another province or even another country, they may not have the same resources to rank your website locally, and there could be other issues, like time-zone or communicating.
When you do hire a digital marketing expert, know that results won’t happen overnight. Google’s algorithm for ranking websites is slow to update, and they purposefully slow down how quickly rankings change to make it harder to influence their system. SEO tends to be a monthly, ongoing service, and you could wait up to 6 months to really see the results you’re looking for. But during all that time, your search marketing agency you’re working with should be optimizing your website and building valuable links to your site that will give long-term ranking power to your business and could push it up into the first results for your most valuable and sought-after keywords!
