{"id":16556,"date":"2026-09-02T11:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T08:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/do-you-need-an-seo\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T02:46:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:46:02","slug":"do-you-need-an-seo","status":"publish","type":"ar_kb","link":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/do-you-need-an-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you need an SEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"video-wrapper\" style=\"margin-top: 20px;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>As with many business activities, sometimes hiring a professional can be helpful. Deciding to<br \/>\n  hire a company or person to do <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/seo-starter-guide\/\">search engine optimization (SEO)<\/a><br \/>\n  for your website in Google Search is a big decision that can potentially improve your site&#8217;s<br \/>\n  visibility and save you time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure<br \/>\n  to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to<br \/>\n  your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website<br \/>\n  owners, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Review of your site content or structure<\/li>\n<li>Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript<\/li>\n<li>Content development<\/li>\n<li>Management of online business development campaigns<\/li>\n<li>Keyword research<\/li>\n<li>SEO training<\/li>\n<li>Expertise in specific markets and geographies<\/li>\n<li>Optimizing for generative AI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Advertising with Google won&#8217;t have any effect on your site&#8217;s presence in our search results.<br \/>\n  Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs<br \/>\n  nothing to appear in our organic search results. Resources such as <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\" class=\"external-link\">Search Console<\/a>,<br \/>\n  the official <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\">Google Search Central blog<\/a>, and our<br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/community\" class=\"external-link\">discussion forum<\/a><br \/>\n  can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for Google&#8217;s non-advertising search results (often called &#8220;organic search&#8221;).<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"deciding-on-whether-you-need-an-seo\" tabindex=\"-1\">Deciding on whether you need an SEO<\/h2>\n<p>If you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself. We recommend<br \/>\n  starting with the <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/seo-starter-guide\/\">SEO starter guide<\/a>,<br \/>\n  as it&#8217;s a practical guide to improving your site&#8217;s SEO and it describes much of what your SEO will<br \/>\n  do for you. If you decide to hire a professional to do the work for you in the end, it&#8217;s also<br \/>\n  useful to be familiar with these techniques so that you can be aware if an SEO wants to use a<br \/>\n  technique that&#8217;s not recommended or, worse, strongly discouraged.<\/p>\n<p>If you think that you still need extra help from a professional, continue reading about hiring<br \/>\n  an SEO.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"things-to-consider-when-hiring-an-seo\" tabindex=\"-1\">Things to consider when hiring an SEO<\/h2>\n<p>As with many business activities, sometimes hiring a professional can be helpful. For example,<br \/>\n  a great time to hire is when you&#8217;re considering a site redesign (the earlier, the better), or<br \/>\n  planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to<br \/>\n  be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an<br \/>\n  existing site.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some things to consider if you&#8217;re considering hiring someone to do SEO for your site:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Interview your potential SEO.<\/b> Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:\n<ul>\n<li>Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?<\/li>\n<li>Do you follow the <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/search-essentials-overview\/\">Google Search Essentials<\/a><br \/>\n        (previously known as Webmaster Guidelines)?<\/li>\n<li>What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your<br \/>\n        success?<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s your experience in my industry?<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s your experience in my country\/city?<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s your experience developing international sites?<\/li>\n<li>How long have you been in business?<\/li>\n<li>How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make<br \/>\n        to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning<br \/>\n        behind them?<\/li>\n<li>See if the SEO is interested in you and your business. If they&#8217;re not interested, find<br \/>\n        someone who is. Your SEO should ask questions about what makes your business unique, who<br \/>\n        your competitors are, how search results can help, and how your customers find<br \/>\n        you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Check your SEO&#8217;s business references.<\/b> Ask past clients if they felt that this SEO<br \/>\n    provided useful service, was easy to work with, and produced positive results.<\/li>\n<li><b>If your SEO offers to do an SEO audit for you, be sure to carefully consider what&#8217;s involved<br \/>\n    and only grant read access to Search Console (at this stage, don&#8217;t grant them write access).<\/b><br \/>\n    An SEO audit should be about giving you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate<br \/>\n    of the work involved. If they guarantee you that their changes will give you first place in<br \/>\n    search results, find someone else.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"warning\">If your SEO uses a third-party tool, keep in mind that Google doesn&#8217;t<br \/>\n        evaluate or endorse third-party SEO tools, and these tools don&#8217;t have access to Google&#8217;s<br \/>\n        internal ranking data. Be wary of tools that claim to be &#8220;acceptable&#8221; or &#8220;approved&#8221; by Google Search.<\/aside>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Evaluate your SEO&#8217;s recommendations and tools they use.<\/b> Before making significant<br \/>\n    changes to your site based on a third-party tool&#8217;s audit, be sure to check their recommendations<br \/>\n    against <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/seo-starter-guide\/\">official guidance from Google Search<\/a>,<br \/>\n    think critically about any claims or recommendations you hear, and make your own informed<br \/>\n    decisions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do they cite official Google documentation as supporting evidence for their recommendations?<\/li>\n<li>If they have advice on optimizing for AI experiences (also known as &#8220;AEO&#8221; &#8220;GEO&#8221; services),<br \/>\n        is their advice aligned with <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/optimizing-your-website-for-generative-ai-features-on-google-search\/\">Google Search&#8217;s<br \/>\n        official guidance on optimizing for generative AI features<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li>Do they use tools that are aligned with Google&#8217;s guidance?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that email you out of the blue.<\/b>\n<p>Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>&#8220;Dear google.com,<br \/>\n      I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search<br \/>\n      engines and directories&#8230;&#8221;<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for &#8220;burn<br \/>\n      fat at night&#8221; diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.<\/b> Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee<br \/>\n    rankings, allege a &#8220;special relationship&#8221; with Google, or advertise a &#8220;priority submit&#8221; to Google.<\/li>\n<li><b>Be careful if a company is secretive or won&#8217;t clearly explain what they intend to do.<\/b>\n<p>Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading<br \/>\n      content on your behalf, your site could be removed entirely from Google&#8217;s index. Ultimately,<br \/>\n      you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it&#8217;s best to be sure you<br \/>\n      know exactly how they intend to &#8220;help&#8221; you. If an SEO has FTP access to your server, they should<br \/>\n      be willing to explain all the changes they are making to your site.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>You should never have to link to an SEO.<\/b>\n<p>Avoid SEOs that talk about link popularity schemes or submitting your site to thousands of<br \/>\n      search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don&#8217;t affect your ranking in the<br \/>\n      results of the major search engines&mdash;at least, not in a way you would likely consider to<br \/>\n      be positive.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<aside class=\"important\">\n<p><b>Important:<\/b> While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs<br \/>\n    have given the industry a black eye by using overly aggressive marketing efforts or using<br \/>\n    techniques that violate <a href=\"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/google-bilgi-bankasi\/spam-policies\/\">our spam policies<\/a>, which<br \/>\n    may result in a negative adjustment of your site&#8217;s presence in Google, or even the removal of<br \/>\n    your site from our index.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<h2 id=\"reporting-issues\" tabindex=\"-1\">Reporting issues<\/h2>\n<p>If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.<\/p>\n<p>In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or<br \/>\n  unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit the FTC website to<br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/\" class=\"external-link\">file a complaint online<\/a> or call<br \/>\n  1-877-FTC-HELP.<\/p>\n<p>If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, file it at<br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.econsumer.gov\/\" class=\"external-link\">https:\/\/www.econsumer.gov\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision. Learn how to evaluate an SEO expert, check business references, and avoid common pitfalls with official tips from Google.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"ar_kb_kategori":[695],"ar_kb_etiket":[550,551,549],"class_list":["post-16556","ar_kb","type-ar_kb","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ar_kb_kategori-seo-fundamentals-documentation","ar_kb_etiket-agency","ar_kb_etiket-audit","ar_kb_etiket-hiring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb\/16556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ar_kb"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb\/16556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25590,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb\/16556\/revisions\/25590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ar_kb_kategori","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb_kategori?post=16556"},{"taxonomy":"ar_kb_etiket","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ar_kb_etiket?post=16556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}