If you do SEO in-house for your online store, it’s resource intensive. If you hire an eCommerce SEO company to handle it for you, it’s expensive.
So, understandably, you want to make sure you’re putting your money in the right place, with the right SEO experts, especially considering the positive impacts a long-term, data-driven campaign can have on your organic traffics streams.
Reading client reviews, before you hire an eCommerce SEO agency, can go a long way toward hedging your bets.
You just need to know you’re doing it the right way and considering everything you need to.
Was the Review or Testimonial Posted on Their Website?
One of the first questions you have to ask when you’re reading a review of an eCommerce SEO company is if you found it on their website.
You’re probably going to find that most of them will be – which is fine, up to a point. You can and should read high-quality reviews and testimonials that appear on the company’s website.
But you also need to be savvy about one thing: You need to keep in mind that client reviews that appear on the company’s website may be biased.
Sometimes companies offer discounts or special privileges for positive reviews. If a review was traded, you have to keep in mind that it could have an unnaturally positive slant.
This is not universally a bad thing, as an eCommerce SEO company that is willing to give a little extra for a positive review may ultimately work in your favor.
All the same, you need to be aware that some reviews you read may be biased.
Give Slightly More Credibility to Reviews Posted on Other Sites and Forums
With this last bit of wisdom in the rearview mirror, you should obviously assume that reviews that appear off of client websites should be considered more credible, all things considered.
Part of the reason for this is that companies have more or less no authority to tamper with negative reviews that don’t appear on their website.
This means what you see posted on third–party forums like Clutch or Google is more likely to be authentic and reputable.
Again, this is no guarantee, but it’s a fairly reasonable assumption.
Note the Specificity of the Review
Something you should also look for is detail. Five-star reviews that say “GREAT” or “Excellent service” might sound good, but what do they really tell you?
The more detail you can glean from a review, the better it will help you make a decision in the long run.
Look for thorough, detailed reviews that call out special points about customer service, project management, keyword research, competitor analysis, and quality of content.
All of these things should be of considerable importance to you if you’re getting serious about hiring an eCommerce SEO company to improve your online visibility through the search engine results pages.
Similarly, you can take very negative reviews without any substance with a proverbial grain of salt. You can (and should) strongly consider other negative reviews, though (see below) but only if they are detailed.
Pay Close Attention to Spelling Mistakes and Composition
It might sound bad, but you should consider the quality of the review itself.
Is it littered with spelling mistakes, missing or additional words, or grinding grammatical errors? Was it clearly typed in haste? Is it in all caps?
Anything that strikes you as unprofessional, in a word, is unprofessional. Be cautious about borrowing any credence from a review that looks like an email that you would not send.
Take Negative Reviews Seriously, Too
Last but not least, you should very carefully read the most negative reviews, at least the ones that are fully fleshed out.
If you can sift through the most common client complaints, you might be able to form a picture of what it might be like for you to work with this SEO agency.
Moreover, if the negative review is legitimate, and the company was faulted for poor service, oversights, or missed deliverables, that is understandably something you would want to know before hiring a digital marketing team for eCommerce marketing strategies like SEO.
