To answer the question “What is an SEO company?” we must clarify what SEO is.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It gathers techniques that optimize web pages to increase their online visibility.
SEO companies help businesses promote their products and services. To understand more about the process, read our complete SEO guide.
What is an SEO Company?
An SEO company is an agency that helps brands increase their online visibility.
It gathers SEO experts in various fields, including:
- Web designers
- Web developers
- SEO strategists
- Copywriters
We must differentiate SEO companies from SEO freelancers. Agencies typically have a higher reputation, more skills, and can leverage their SEO tools at scale.
SEO Company Services
SEO companies are expected to cover all SEO tasks.
While few agencies only specialize in copywriting or link building, full-service SEO companies handle these 3 areas:
- Technical SEO
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
Let’s break down each of them. Here is a list of services related to technical SEO:
- Web audit
- DNS domain and hosting
- Indexability
- Robots.txt
- Sitemap.xml
- Web protocols
- Wireframe and architecture
- Breadcrumbs
- CWV (Core Web Vitals)
- URL structure
- 404 pages and redirections
- Web malwares
On-page SEO includes the following services:
- Page title
- Meta description
- Subheadings structure (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
- schema markup
- Content
- Media files
- ALT texts and captions
- Internal links
Finally, off-page SEO services focus on this:
- Referring domains
- Anchor text
- Backlink relevance
- Guest posts
- PR campaigns
- Directories
- Social mentions
- AI citations
SEO company services aim to improve keyword rankings and attract high-quality traffic to web pages.
You can learn more about SEO services with Prodima.
How Can an SEO Company Help Your Business?
An SEO company should bring qualified clients to the business. That’s the ultimate goal.
SEO agencies achieve this by working on proactive search intent. Unlike online advertising, where users are passive, web traffic from SEO tends to have higher purchase intent by nature.
Let’s compare social ads with SEO.
On social platforms, users browse until they see sponsored content at some point. In almost all cases, such ads are not desired in the first place. People’s engagement is often low.
However, with SEO, online users actively search by typing a query (keyword or key phrase). If they click on the result that benefited from SEO, they are more likely to convert.
Search Engine Optimization is one of the most efficient ways to run a digital campaign. Over 95% of the world’s web pages don’t receive any traffic. SEO companies address this huge bottleneck.
SEO Company Costs
SEO companies often charge higher fees than freelancers because they offer more value. Besides, while an indie SEO expert may not care about their reputation (sometimes leading to scams), an SEO agency must deliver significant results.
A company outsourcing its SEO to a dedicated agency should expect monthly retainers. The minimum time commitment is 6 months for established websites or 1 year for brand-new domains with no history.
Monthly fees depend on these factors:
- Industry
- Language
- Competition
- Keyword difficulty
- Search intent
- Website shape
For example, it costs more to optimize a low-authority website than it does to optimize a 20-year-old domain.
There is no standard pricing for SEO services. Everything needs customization due to numerous factors.
Optimizing a single web page may cost anywhere between $500 and $2,000.
If we can group web pages under a single category, optimizing this cluster can cost around $2,000 per month. Again, for more competitive markets, pricing can be much higher.
How Does an SEO Company Work?
We can break down an SEO company’s process into three main tasks.
We will detail each of them below.
SEO Strategy
Before implementing anything, the SEO company must develop a strategy.
To do so, we must consider these steps:
- Market research
- Competitive benchmark
- Website audit
This analysis allows the SEO agency to build a plan of action.
It defines the to-do list based on the services we described above.
SEO Execution
The SEO strategy identifies the items to work on during the implementation phase.
Depending on the SEO ecosystem, the constraints, the budget, and the priorities, the SEO company may work on the following execution tasks:
- Web fixes (based on the audit)
- Keyword research
- On-page implementation
- Content marketing
- Blog articles
- Guest posts
- Link acquisition
SEO execution is not only time-consuming but also permanent. We never finish optimizing a website, because the environment is constantly changing.
For example, even if a web page reaches the #1 position on Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page), it doesn’t mean it will stay there forever.
Competition may react. Search engine algorithms may update. The industry may face significant turmoil. We recommend always being ready to adjust the SEO settings!
SEO Reporting
Measuring SEO performance is crucial for identifying areas for improvement.
As we explained in the execution phase, SEO never ends. We must monitor the campaign progress and actively update the strategy based on the latest market trends.
To properly collect, report, and analyze data, the SEO company must focus on these KPIs:
- Keyword rankings
- Organic traffic evolution
- Online mentions (from AI, from social, from other entities, etc.)
- Conversion rates (on the areas that SEO is boosting)
Many SEO marketers also consider other metrics, such as bounce rate, engagement rate, time on site, etc.
At Prodima, we do not recommend wasting time on them because they are mostly irrelevant to evaluating SEO performance.
For example, spending more time on the site doesn’t necessarily mean online users appreciate our content more. Don’t you prefer someone spending 20 seconds on your website making an actual purchase, rather than someone spending 10 minutes reading your blog before leaving without taking any other action?
SEO Company Benefits
An SEO company provides invaluable skills that many businesses struggle to access on their own.
The benefits of outsourcing include:
- SEO expertise
- No need for talent recruitment, training, or management
- No need for purchasing SEO tools (agencies use them at scale)
- Better vision of digital trends
- Saving time to address core business matters
- Commitment to deliver actual results
Working with an SEO company gives organizations access to the most up-to-date techniques for optimizing web pages.
How to Choose an SEO Company?
Cooperating with an SEO agency implies long-term commitment.
SEO takes time to take effect. Businesses must select the right partner.
Unfortunately, there are many more bad SEO companies than good ones.
To save your money, follow these recommendations for choosing a professional SEO partner:
- Check their websites (if they don’t do what they preach, that’s a red flag!)
- Review their list of SEO services (offering “SEO” along with 25 other non-related services looks fishy)
- Visit their portfolio (case studies provide a good vision of their capacity)
- Look for citations in local media and AI tools (if they are good, they must appear there)
- Read their articles (if they have no blog section, forget about them)
- Browse their reviews (5-star only look unnatural, and search for detailed reviews, no single lines that are probably fake)
You should never stick to one SEO provider. Compare at least 3 different offers.
Keep in mind that the brief phase experience is crucial. If they don’t look professional when they pitch their SEO services to your company, do not expect much better after you sign the contract.
And of course, you can trust Prodima as your SEO company partner. Send your SEO brief, and we will demonstrate our value!
