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Last Updated August 8, 2023
Ready to supercharge your online presence? Then it’s time to hire SEO experts who can get you there.
Here, you’ll find:
- An SEO expert’s role in building a business’s online presence
- How an SEO expert can help drive business growth
- Top SEO experts to consider
- What qualities to look for when hiring an SEO expert
 HawkSEM The SEM agency challenging what is to help you create what’s next. |  Ignite Visiblity Industry Leading Performance-Based Digital Marketing Agency Focused On Bringing Certainty To Digital Marketing. |  Overthink Group A team of writers, strategists, and SEO consultants helping brands discover what to say and how to say it. |  Wpromote The largest independent performance marketing firm across Streaming TV. | |
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| Best For | B2B/B2C, ecommerce, SaaS, finance, healthcare, education, professional | SMBs, enterprises | Startups | Small businesses, medium businesses, and medium enterprises |
| Rating | 4.9  | 4.9  | unranked | 4.5  |
In organic search, higher rankings get you more clicks, which translates to more traffic – and more potential leads.
But you need more than just a working knowledge in search engine optimization (SEO) to thrive in this competitive landscape.
This is where hiring an SEO expert comes into play.
Top 6 SEO experts to consider in 2023
The internet is swarming with SEO agencies and freelancers who offer a wide array of services at drastically different price points. We did a little bit of digging around so you don’t have to.
For this list, we chose the best SEO experts based on:
- Agency specialties and niche
- SEO services offered
- Notable clients who can vouch for their performance
Let’s get to it.
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HawkSEM
Since being founded in 2006, HawkSEM has worked closely with countless clients and have generated positive results that contributed to their overall growth.
Over the years, we have built an impressive body of work – and the results speak for themselves:
- DILO increased their organic clicks by nearly 50% in just six months
- Career Group Companies enjoyed 71% more page views on their job listing pages
- MileIQ grew their year-over-year (YoY) organic site traffic by 125%
The list can go on, but you get the point.
HawkSEM delivers predictable revenues, sustainable growth, and measurable results through our proprietary ConversionIQ System.
We are able to accomplish this by first learning about what your business needs and then using data to figure out the best tactics to employ for long-term sustainable growth.
Best for: B2B/B2C, ecommerce, SaaS, finance, healthcare, education, professional services
SEO services:
- Technical SEO
- On-Page SEO
- Ecommerce SEO
- Local SEO
- Conversion rate optimization
- International SEO
- Content strategy
Notable clients:
- Microsoft
- Verizon
- Direct TV
- Zephy
- Swimsuits Dirt
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Ignite Visibility
Led by the coveted Digital Marketing Strategist John Lincoln, Ignite Visibility aims to provide the most effective digital marketing solutions through its own proprietary forecasting system.
It swears by its “high touch customer experience” mantra and believes in long-term partnerships with its clients. This is evidenced by the company stating “Increase Value Over Time” as one of its core values.
This SEO company is also an expert in integrating SEO with your social media marketing strategy, promising comprehensive results.
Ignite Invisibility is able to deliver organic traffic by boosting on-page performance, fixing backend issues, and tailoring your content strategy to align with SEO – and taking it to another level by applying a multichannel digital marketing strategy,
Best for: SMBs, enterprises
SEO services:
- Ecommerce SEO
- Digital PR & link building
- International SEO
- SEO consulting
- Local and national SEO
Notable clients:
- Tony Robbins
- Army & Navy Academy
- Sharp Healthcare
- TKWW – The Knot Worldwide
- Experian
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Overthink Group
Overthink Group is a B2B SEO company focused on increasing your rankings through high-quality content. It mostly caters to startups and up-and-coming businesses, helping small business owners reach their growth goals through SEO.
With its tagline being: Growth via Content, this content agency stands by its content strategy and is 100% dedicated to driving organic traffic by building up your content library.
It has also simplified its core service offerings in the form of comprehensive content packages tailored to your specific needs. So whether you’re building your content library from scratch or need continuous content production, this content agency has you covered.
Best for: Startups
SEO services:
- B2B SEO
- Content development
- Competitor insights
- Comprehensive SEO reports
- Content strategy
Notable clients:
- Ellevest
- Pushpay
- Harper Collins Publishers
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Wpromote
Wpromote is a full-service digital marketing agency that has built an excellent reputation for producing results from their organic marketing efforts.
They have worked with some notable brands over the years, including Hibbett Creative, Intuit Quickbooks, and Coyote Logistics.
What’s unique about this SEO company is that their strategy is to embed their teams within the structure of their client’s organizations to achieve desired results.
One thing that separates the company from the competition is its use of a proprietary tool called Voice Search. It simply uses voice search data and analytics to develop solid SEO strategies further
They get into the nitty-gritty of the client’s day-to-day and then formulate an SEO marketing strategy from there, which highlights their commitment to generating the right results.
Best for: Small businesses, medium businesses, and medium enterprises
SEO services:
- Wayfinder prioritization tools
- Content development
- Social media sEO
- Site migrations
- Local and international SEO
- Voice search
Notable clients:
- Adobe
- Samsung
- Spanx
- Transunion
- Instacart
- Mariott
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Tinuiti
Tinuiti’s claim to fame is that they are the largest independent performance marketing firm across streaming TV and the triopoly of Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
They are a full-service SEO and digital marketing agency that aims to put businesses at the top of online rankings through its white-hat SEO strategies.
All of these services are supported by their patented technology, Mobius, which collects and analyzes business data and converts it into meaningful insights that can be used to formulate effective marketing strategies.
Best for: Ecommerce brands, businesses looking to expand their streaming campaigns
SEO services:
- Content creation
- Blog and social media optimization
- Site migrations
- Rich snippets
- Technical SEO
- App store SEO
- Enterprise SEO
Notable clients:
- Revlon
- Advil
- The Honest Company
- Rite Aid
- Poppi
- Nautica
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Silverback Strategies
A digital performance marketing agency specializing in data-driven paid search, SEO & content marketing strategies, Silverback Strategies is also a formidable choice for your SEO needs.
Some of the most notable organizations they’ve worked with over their 15 years of experience include Cornell University (eCornell), Long Roofing, Hyper Vigilance, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences.
The secret to their success is developing an SEO and content marketing process that is rooted in a firm understanding of your business and customers. This gives them the tools they need to grow your organic search visibility.
Best for: Local and national clients looking for help with SEO
SEO services:
- Editorial SEO
- Technical SEO
- Local SEO
- ecommerce SEO
- SEO Audits
Notable clients:
- Ritz-Carlton Residences
- American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA)
- Cornell University (eCornell)
Why do businesses need to build an online presence?
Customers rely on the internet now more than ever in driving their purchasing decisions. Here are some stats that illustrate this point:
- 87% of shoppers begin their shopping experience with a Google search.
- 86% of consumers use at least two different channels when making a single purchase.
- About nine out of 10 consumers will check out online reviews before considering a purchase.
- Nearly half of shoppers say they use Google to discover or find a new item or product.
- 74% of in-store shoppers search online for business information before making a visit.
- 59% of shoppers surveyed say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make in-store or online.
With all of these in mind, it’s more important than ever to start building your business’s online presence if you want to increase visibility, promote discoverability, and establish trust among your target customers.
You can accomplish all of this, and more, with the help of an SEO expert. HawkSEM Lead Strategist Yara Askar explains it best:
“In today’s modern digital landscape, an online presence is crucial for a business of any size. SEO ensures that your business website appears in search results for relevant search queries and keywords. SEO provides businesses with the opportunity to drive organic traffic to their website for free while building trust and credibility with their customers.”
What does an SEO expert do?
Essentially, an SEO expert’s role is to analyze, strategize, and execute online marketing campaigns to help you rank high on SERPs and put your business on the map. (Image: Adobe Stock)
An SEO expert is a skilled professional with a deep understanding of how search algorithms work. Using this knowledge, they can optimize your website to help it rank higher on search engines like Google and Bing.
As part of an SEO expert’s job description, they may be required to:
- Develop strategies to help the website rank on SERPs
- Perform keyword research to look for opportunities to attract website traffic
- Implement white hat SEO tactics, such as content creation, link building, off-page and on-page SEO, technical SEO, and other SEO services
- Perform an SEO audit on the website to provide a thorough analysis of the website’s performance
- Collaborate closely with developers to ensure SEO best practices throughout production
- Monitor search engine results, Google Analytics, and performance metrics to keep track of SEO campaign results and identify areas of improvement
Essentially, an SEO expert’s role is to analyze, strategize, and execute online marketing campaigns to help you rank high on SERPs and put your business on the map.
Is it better to work with a freelancer vs. an agency?
If you’re planning to invest more into SEO to grow your business but lack the time or manpower, then hiring an SEO expert is your best course of action.
But this begs the question: should you work with a freelancer or an SEO agency?
Here are some pros and cons for both.
Freelancer
Freelance SEO talent is relatively easy to find, if you know where to look. Today’s freelance market boasts a massive pool of talent that businesses can leverage to drive their business goals forward.
Agency
Partnering with a digital marketing agency for your SEO needs can be very beneficial. A good SEO agency will help you navigate through the complex world of search engine algorithms and take the guesswork out of the process.
3 qualities to look for in an SEO expert
Entrusting your entire website to someone outside of your organization is a big risk so choosing the right expert is crucial.
Ideally, you want to hire right the first time around so you don’t end up wasting valuable resources.
To increase your likelihood of success in hiring quality candidates, look for the following qualities:
1. Experience
We now live in a world where any regular Joe can just set up shop and brand themselves as experts. But just labeling themselves as SEO specialists doesn’t automatically make them so.
With extensive industry experience, a true SEO expert knows what it takes to help a website succeed.
Whereas someone with limited SEO knowledge will try to implement the same tactics for different websites, an experienced SEO specialist understands what needs to be done for a website to generate search traffic.
2. A track record of success
It’s one thing to say you’re an SEO expert – and another to actually back it up.
When you hire an SEO expert, look for proof of their success when working with clients. These can be in the form of client testimonials, customer reviews, or case studies.
Consider it a plus when they have a fairly substantial amount of social proof available. This will give you a ton of insight into what it is like to work with the candidate you are considering.
3. Deep SEO knowledge
It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway): the ideal candidate should know what they’re doing — and be confident about it.
If you’re looking to bring in the services of an SEO expert, then look for a candidate that epitomizes the very essence of the word “expert.”
“When looking to hire an SEO expert, look for someone who has been in the field for many years,” says Askar. “[But more importantly, look for someone who] understands the importance of technical SEO, on-page and off-page SEO, and is curious about how to continuously improve your website’s organic presence.”
The takeaway
When growing your business organically, visibility matters. This means putting your business in the best position to attract your target audience.
In SEO terms, where you rank on a search query directly impacts your success, so achieving the best possible rank can only lead to positive results.
Partnering with an SEO expert puts you on the best path to success, you just need to know where to look to find the right partner for your organization. Use our list of recommendations above as a launchpad for your search.
And if you’re looking for a team of high-level digital marketing experts to strategize and execute a killer SEO plan, consider HawkSEM. Not only do we focus on optimizing your website, we focus on your company’s overall digital growth. Get in touch with us today.