Make sure that the Birmingham SEO agency has a track record. Ask for examples from large clients to see their work. Most companies will provide examples from at least two large clients. These examples should be genuine and show long-term results. If they don’t have any, it could be that they haven’t delivered for large clients in the past or don’t have the experience necessary to do high-level SEO.

Begin with Personas

Creating personas is a great way to understand the demographics of your customers. They help you better understand who your audience is and what they want. Personas can be broad or detailed. Some companies use a more abstract approach while others use demographics and customers to create personas. The key is to make your personas as precise as possible and keep them updated to remain relevant.

A buyer persona is a great way of focusing on your audience and developing effective content marketing campaigns. This is especially important if your goal is to expand your customer base or add new features to the product. Buyer personas can help you find the right keywords and improve your SEO strategy.

If you're a new brand, you may not have enough data to build a persona yet, but you can still create one by looking at analytics data. You can use analytics data from social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest to create a persona. Similarly, website analytics can help you find out more about your target audience.

A good SEO agency should place emphasis on personas. This includes gathering information and conducting interviews. They should also explain the process for developing a buyer persona. The hiring team will be able to better understand the customer they are trying to attract once the persona has been created.

Plan Your Keyword Research

Keyword research identifies popular and relevant search terms and phrases. By leveraging this research, you can create content that will attract more qualified leads and increase your visibility to potential customers. In addition, keyword research allows you to target seed keywords or specific keywords that your target audience uses to search for products or services.

Using the Google Keyword Planner can help you do basic keyword research. This free tool allows you to see search results for specific keyword phrases and can be exported to an Excel file. It also offers a tool called Answer The Public that allows you to see what people are searching for using a seed keyword.

Google's "People Also Ask" feature can help you brainstorm questions to target audiences. This section appears when you type a phrase or general keyword. It displays the most popular questions and phrases.

Find Gold in the Long Tail

Before you hire an SEO company, you need to understand the power of long-tail keywords. These keywords have high search volumes, which can increase your organic traffic and establish your industry authority. These keywords require a different approach, and a different set of skills. The best way to find gold in the long tail is to use tools and research to uncover the keywords you should be targeting.

Study your Competitors

A solid SEO company should have knowledge of social media platforms and how to use them to promote your business. These platforms can increase brand awareness and help you attract new customers. Look for companies that have a track record of success with social media campaigns. To learn more about the company's experience, you can read customer reviews. Communicate with the company that you are interested in hiring.

It is important to study your competitors to know how well their website is doing. You can do this by looking for average ratings and customer reviews. To see how the company handles negative feedback, you can also look for negative reviews. If a company has a lot of negative reviews, then it may be a good idea to avoid them.

SEO is a dynamic field and is constantly evolving. You should ensure that you hire an SEO company that is up-to-date on the latest developments in the search engine industry. Ask about the Google Panda and Penguin updates in 2011 and 2012, the Hummingbird update in 2013 and the BERT update in 2019. Ask the SEO company you choose to hire about Google search central. They will be able to provide you with a detailed report on progress.

It is also vital to study the SEO firm's work process. Make sure they schedule regular discussions and updates. This will help you monitor progress, ask questions, and tweak your SEO strategy.

Blog Consistently

Creating relevant content is essential for SEO. Google loves fresh content, so blogging can help your site rank well for keywords related to your niche. Remember to write for your audience, focusing on their needs, problems, and issues, and try not to over-use keywords. Instead, use a keyword strategy that incorporates your primary keywords into your title, body copy, and url. These keywords should also be included in your meta description.