Should You Hire an SEO Expert in 2022?

People often ask us if it pays to hire a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company to help drive more traffic to their website. Our answer is often the same: “If they promise to guarantee that your site will be on the first page of Google, then an emphatic ‘NO.’” Only an unethical SEO pro would say that, and any spammy technique that violates search engine policies will result in a permanent ban.

Frankly, the most important SEO ranking factor is content. Social signals, backlinks, HTML code, responsive design, and finally a high ranking domain name support strong content. 

WORDS! The words used on all pages, the photos that enhance those words; your headers and sub-headers, article title and descriptions, lists, blogs and even how a form is labeled all contribute to SEO strength.

This is why every website that ActiveCanvas builds begins with a content strategy. Before one pixel is spent on design and color palettes, we spend considerable time building knowledge and writing content that we know is strong and that will rank high at Google. (There are other fine search engines, but Google sets the standards, so we pay attention to their algorithms).

Google is and always has been very clear about this. Their search algorithm prioritizes high-quality content that genuinely helps consumers understand your brand and interact with it. In fact, if your website uses any “click-bait” (content whose main purpose is to get a get a click regardless of relevance) or that uses too many misleading keywords, your site will be demoted, not promoted, and could be banned or ignored by Google, Facebook and others.

We recommend an SEO audit every year or so just to be sure that the online conversation you are having with potential and current customers is still compelling content that meets all the Google SEO standards. When we focus on your audience instead of “clicks” you have an SEO-friendly website that people actually want to read. And that’s good for your bottom line!

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