Your business wants to trade online or already does so, and you need to ensure you maximise the potential of this important new medium, which, if cracked, can make you a market leader. Our research suggests that whoever dominates the online space has at least a 20% share of whichever market they choose to trade in, a hugely significant percentage.

Even if you have skilled digital staff in-house, having a good digital agency in your corner will increase your odds of success. So, what should you look out for if you are embarking on a search for the best digital agency?

Let’s start by saying that answering this can be a problem!

Location is one of the most critical factors within Google algorithms – we will focus our answers around Google as they dominate the search space globally, even more so for what we would term business-focused or serious internet searches (rather than browsing socially for entertainment). So it makes logical sense to pick an agency based in your own country unless there are compelling reasons (such as sector expertise or exchange rates benefits) to go broader.

The budget needs to be considered a factor. You get what you pay for these days, and the days of low-cost SEO or social posts delivered by offshore results for 10 cents on the dollar or less are long past. You need only quality work, and this cannot be sourced low-cost through outsourcing, so ignore this distraction. As a rule of thumb, if services cost less than $1,000, they aren’t going to amount to much simply because not enough time can be expended on them.

As the above point suggests, Quality is the name of the game, so it makes sense to look for a supplier who specialises in the area you need to focus on, whether web design and development, Search Engine Optimisation, Paid Search or Social Influence. It is rare to find a single agency that is best at all these things simultaneously. So, as an example, we have specialised in SEO for well over a decade – yes, we know about web design, coding, useability and social media. Still, over 80% of our activity focuses on SEO and only touches on these other elements when it helps us deliver better SEO or cut costs and hassle for clients.

Track Record is vital in this industry, not least because one of Google’s ranking factors is built around history. So, picking a supplier with a bad track record can rebound on even a new website. Be prepared to get case studies and testimonials and be prepared to interrogate them to check they are genuine third-party clients with real stories to tell.

Transparency and Ethics also matter, so it’s a good idea to ask your prospective agency for details regarding how they plan to achieve results. Digital Marketing is often intentionally shrouded in mystery, and this shouldn’t be the case. Even if web developers use templates like WordPress to build sites, this involves sophistication in selection and picking the right plug-ins, and regular updates need to be planned for, so you have a right to know. With SEO, you don’t want an agency that deploys tricks that can see you rise one minute and fail the next. Is automated software used to monitor billing in Paid Search, or is it a manual process? If so, how often are you paying based on the scale of a campaign or on cost savings?

Language is also surprisingly important, particularly in SEO, as most of the world’s optimisation tools are authored in English for some odd reason. The UK, Australia, and the USA have tended to

dominate SEO development and e-commerce growth, which may be why. It’s handy, though, as English typically accounts for at least half the search enquiries in most countries other than France and South Korea. So you need an agency with good English skills even if you wish to target overseas markets.

Whoever comes top of the Internet if you search for Best Digital Agency or Best Digital Agency Near Me shouldn’t really be your first port of call for the simple reason that search engines cannot be relied upon to work this out for you as they don’t know your needs. Plus, of course, agencies can lie or advertise pretty much any message that takes their fancy.

We’ve been working in SEO for over 15 years and have never had a client’s site banned or penalised. We’ve helped many clients grow so much that they’ve been able to sell out for a fortune. Yet we’ve never picked Best Digital Agency as a phrase we target as we are not everyone’s taste. The message then is clear—expect to do a bit of homework to answer this particular conundrum.

Stuart Haining
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