Should You Hire SEO Experts for Your Business?

by Lindsay Pietroluongo April 6, 2025 Reputation Management Blog

In this article, we’ll explain the role of SEO experts and explore if SEO services are a worthwhile investment for your business.

We live in a digital world. That means that regardless of how great your product or service may be, you won’t succeed if your brand isn’t found online.

Enter the world of search engine optimization (SEO), a must-have strategy for improving the visibility of your website in Google Search to increase organic — read: unpaid — traffic.

As a business, you can’t afford to miss out on optimizing for the Google algorithm and other search engines. According to nearly half of internet users (over 45%), one of their main reasons for going online is to research products and brands.

Let’s discuss SEO strategies, what an SEO company can offer you, and how to make the right choice for your business.

NetReputation provides search engine optimization services to help you build and protect your digital presence. Call us at 844-461-3632 to learn more about creating an SEO strategy, or fill out the contact form below for a free consultation.

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

We touched on the definition of SEO above, but here, we’ll get into it a bit more.

SEO is the process of optimizing your site to gain higher rankings in Google Search and other search engines. Higher Google rankings mean more organic traffic will go to your site, which in turn increases brand awareness, conversions, revenue and more.

An SEO strategy has a number of elements, including:

• Backlinking
• Content creation
• Internal linking
• Keyword research
• Page speed optimization
• Technical troubleshooting

Overall, SEO involves your content strategy as well as technical SEO aspects. Together, these elements help search engines to understand, trust and recommend your site and pages to users.

Search Engine Optimization vs. Digital Marketing

While there’s crossover between SEO and digital marketing, they’re not the same. SEO is the part of digital marketing that strives to improve a site’s visibility in organic Google search results.

Digital marketing is a broad term that includes a variety of online marketing efforts, SEO and beyond. Other digital marketing strategies include email marketing, running paid ads on Google and Facebook, and social media marketing.

While the goal of SEO is to improve organic rankings, the goal of digital marketing is to successfully promote a brand through both free and paid channels.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO focuses on a geographical area, like a city, neighborhood or region. The purpose of local SEO is to have your business show up in the same area where people are searching for the services or products you offer.

Businesses that benefit from local SEO include:

• Boutiques
• Cafes and restaurants
• Contractors
• Churches
• Event planners
• Gyms
• Hair salons
• Medical practices
• Photographers
• Real estate agents
• Schools
• Spas

Local SEO can benefit all types of businesses, from franchises with several locations around the globe to a small store that’s just opened. And it’s a necessary part of your strategy if you’re running a geo-based business — 91% of consumers say their overall perception of big brands is impacted by reviews of local branches.

A local SEO strategy involves a few unique techniques that regular SEO may not include, such as:

• Collecting and managing online reviews
• Creating Apple Business Connect and Google Business Profile accounts
• Ensuring your NAP information (name, address, phone number) is the same everywhere
• Listings in local directories
• Using location-specific keywords in your content strategy

If you want to attract clients or customers in a specific geographic area, you’ll want to take advantage of local SEO. Learn more about our local SEO services here, and call us at 844-461-3632 to speak with an expert.

What Are the Benefits of SEO Services?

Professional SEO services have major advantages for brands that want to improve their online visibility, attract more unpaid traffic, and increase revenue. Key benefits of SEO include:

• Higher Rankings: SEO helps your website rank higher on Google, allowing more users to find your content online.
• Increased Traffic: By targeting certain keywords discovered during the keyword research phase, SEO can attract quality traffic from users searching for exactly what you offer.
• More Conversions: SEO can improve a website’s conversion rates. Conversion rate is a digital marketing metric that shows how many people take a desired action on your website, like making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
• Current Google Techniques: SEO pros stay on top of Google updates to ensure your rankings stay high even as search engines evolve.
• Better User Experience: SEO strategies include creating a site that’s easy to use, and having a fast, mobile-friendly website improves the user experience.
• Expert Insights: SEO experts closely track rankings, traffic, conversions, ROI and more, providing you with detailed insights and knowledgeable guidance.
• Troubleshooting: With regular SEO audits, which are part of any professional SEO package, you’ll be able to find and fix technical SEO issues before they have a chance to negatively impact performance.

Over time, businesses with consistent SEO efforts can see substantial growth.

Plus, by outsourcing your SEO efforts, you don’t have to worry about learning such a complex topic. You can focus on other areas of running your business while your online presence grows.

At NetReputation, our SEO experts work with businesses to help them build and take control of their online presence. Give us a call at 844-461-3632 to learn more.

On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO

SEO falls into two broad categories: on-page and off-page. Let’s discuss the two types, as they’re both crucial parts of an SEO plan.

What Is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO controls the content on your website in order to help Google understand your site and rank it highly. Components of an on-page optimization strategy include:

• Writing well-structured, quality content that’s relevant to your audience
• Using keywords in titles, headings, content, URLs and metadata
• Adding alt text to images for accessibility
• Improving site performance, like speed and mobile-friendliness

In general, on-page strategies make your website easy for Google and users to understand.

What Is Off-Page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to the optimization efforts that occur outside your website. These strategies focus on building authority and trust with Google and users. Components of off-site optimization include:

• Generating positive online reviews and ratings
• Getting backlinks from reputable websites
• Increasing social media engagement and shares
• Working with influencers or PR experts to increase brand awareness
• Writing guest blog posts that mention your brand

Off-page strategies are used to build your reputation and relationships across the whole internet, not just your website.

White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO Services

White hat and black hat SEO take two very different approaches to search optimization. Essentially, white hat SEO is ethical and search engine-approved, while black hat SEO is unethical, risky and often punished by Google.

Furthermore, white hat practices build authority and trust with search engines while creating a better user experience. On the flip side, black hat practices will damage your credibility, trust and online reputation.

Examples of white hat SEO include:

• Thoughtful Content Creation: On-page and off-page content is created with the user’s needs in mind.
• Proper Keyword Usage: Keywords that are relevant to the content are used enough for optimization without overstuffing to manipulate search results.
• Organic Link-Building: Guest posts, targeted outreach, and creating shareable content lead to natural link-building.

Examples of black hat SEO include:

• Content Scraping: Google wants to see original content, which is why scraped content (meaning content copied from another site) can hurt your rankings.
• Hiding Text: By using the same color for a website’s text and its background, you can hide keywords. This lack of transparency misleads users and tries to trick search engines into ranking the content for those hidden terms.
• Link Popularity Schemes: This tactic falsely inflates how many backlinks point to a website in order to trick Google into thinking the site is more authoritative and relevant than it actually is.

White hat SEO reduces the chance of being penalized by a search engine. On the other hand, unethical SEO “experts” who rely on black hat strategies can damage both your website’s performance and your professional reputation.

Here’s the biggest reason to avoid black hat practices: When SEO strategies violate search engine spam policies, your site may no longer rank highly, or it could be removed from Google’s index altogether. If your site is removed from Google, it’ll be practically impossible to be discovered by your audience online.

What Additional Services Do the Top SEO Experts Offer?

Top SEO experts don’t simply offer a basic, one-size-fits-all SEO strategy to every client they work with. Instead, your SEO team will gain a deep understanding of your SEO needs and create a customized solution that’s tailored specifically to your business.

In addition to knowing the ins and outs of SEO tactics, experts may also do the following:

• Specialize in different types of SEO, like local SEO, international SEO, technical SEO, etc.
• Help you recover from Google penalties that have impacted your search ranking.
• Provide SEO training to your team if you plan to handle some or all of your SEO in-house.
• Follow the SEO industry closely to stay on top of changes, especially updates to Google Search algorithms.
• Combine SEO advice with other digital business techniques, like online reputation management (ORM), content strategy and more.

When you work with SEO experts, you’ll see higher organic traffic than if you were to try to learn the ropes of SEO on your own. Overall, there’s a significant return on investment (ROI) when you hire SEO professionals.

You can take control of your online reputation, increase website traffic, and make the most of search algorithms. Call us at 844-461-3632 for more information.

How To Choose the Right SEO Experts for Your Business

It’s always smart to research a few SEO companies before deciding to hire one. Most companies present themselves well at the start, but digging deeper to get an idea of the experience you have with them will help you make an informed decision.

Here are a few ways to vet an SEO company before moving forward:

• Ask About Proven Results: SEO companies that have a solid track record should have tangible evidence of their success to show you. Ask about examples of their work, case studies, statistics, etc.
• Verify Information: Compare what the SEO company tells you to other sources you find. For example, make sure that the services and pricing they offer match what’s advertised on their website. It’s also smart to speak with past clients of the SEO company to hear about their experiences.
• Read Online Reviews: Aside from the testimonials that SEO companies share on their websites — which will always be positive — check out feedback on third-party sites like Google and other review platforms.
• Be Wary of Solicitations: If an email from an SEO company drops into your inbox out of nowhere, be cautious. Unsolicited emails like these don’t typically point to a reputable, trustworthy company that has a solid history behind it.

We offer SEO solutions for individuals as well as businesses. Get started today with a free consultation with one of our experts. Call us at 844-461-3632 or fill out the contact form below.

NetReputation’s SEO Experts Can Help

When you invest in SEO services, you invest in a long-term, evergreen strategy that will bring your business and website sustainable growth. Over time, savvy SEO tactics will continue to increase website visitors, which can lead to more conversions and revenue.

At NetReputation, we provide a broad range of services, including SEO, to individuals and businesses who want to create, grow or repair their digital reputation. Whether you’re prioritizing your personal or professional online reputation, our solutions and team of experts can help. Learn about our SEO services here.

Call us at 844-461-3632 or fill out the contact form below to speak with an SEO expert today.