What Is A Premium SEO Agency?

SEO was born in the 90s but SEO Agency took a little more time to get into the limelight. At that time, it was only in its infancy since there were far fewer sites online than today and fewer searches on the engines. A decade later, the situation had evolved, and Google was gradually becoming a key player in the web and SEO. It was also in the 2000s that he began to enact good practices to be respected, also called “white hat” techniques.

Then everything accelerated. In 2003 and 2004 appeared the first penalties for sites not respecting Google’s SEO rules. In 2011, the web giant launched Panda, an update to its algorithm and in 2012, it was Penguin’s turn. Then, in 2015, Google focused on user experience. Between 2016 and 2019, a new change took place, which had consequences for SEO: the rise of social networks. A few years later, it was the turn of artificial intelligence (AI) to turn everything upside down.

SEO is, therefore, constantly evolving since it depends, in particular, on the uses of Internet users. Its story is far from over, and new chapters are expected in the coming months and years, especially with the development of artificial intelligence. Thus, in 2023, several trends have already emerged, which are at the heart of the strategies implemented in the agencies.

Table of Contents

But how to sum up an Premium SEO agency?

How could we define the ideal SEO agency? Does it exist elsewhere? And how to position yourself in the face of increasingly tough competition? How to make a difference without denying quality? So many questions that lead to many debates and discussions. We compared many opinions – always in a good mood and with lots of coffee! We have drawn some answers, which we will reveal to you in this article.

Certified And Experienced SEO Consultants

Before showing you the ideal SEO agency, we must first recall its role. Without going into a detailed list of the services and skills of an SEO agency, we can indicate that its mission is to optimize the SEO of a website.

This involves implementing a strategy to improve its positioning in the SERPs (search engine results pages) and considering the engines’ best practices, mainly Google. More concretely, it is a question of resorting to several techniques, including net linking, the analysis of keywords, the writing of optimized content, the improvement of the loading time… the long term, which also requires taking into account other traffic acquisition levers, such as paid referencing (SEA) and referencing on social networks (SMO).

The role of an SEO agency is, therefore, to optimize its clients’ websites and offer each one a tailor-made strategy, which depends on their objectives and their sector of activity. But the method of working with clients differs from one agency to another. We pursue the same objective but do not necessarily follow the same paths. And that’s a good thing since it offers companies and brands a choice and allows them to find the agency that best meets their criteria and values.

Vision Of Search Engine Optimization

The ideal SEO agency respects Google’s best practices. This may sound a little “top of the class,” but in (sustainable) SEO, must not penalize our customers. Thus, have to do “white hat SEO” since the beginning. They do not seek to manipulate Google’s algorithms because we know that would be counterproductive. Also, they have to always be honest with their customers on this subject, and the recommendations. They should rely on the good practices enacted by Google.

They do not promise our clients that they will be number one in the SERPs in a month and regularly remind them that SEO takes time, as it is a long-term strategy. As the proverb sums it up so well: “Little by little, the bird builds its nest.”

Tailor-made Support

The SEO Agency have to offer clients tailor-made support. Each client is unique, which applies to their project and website. Without having analyzed a client’s needs and site, we cannot define the price of our service. This tailor-made support also involves monitoring and regular exchanges with our team.

Being open to meeting clients by organizing meetings on their premises or in your offices is a pro. Frequently schedule appointments by phone or video to take or give updates. The ideal SEO agency must establish a relationship of trust with its clients, which involves listening to them, providing advice, and total transparency.
If a client calls without having agreed on an appointment beforehand, the SEO project manager in charge of their site should tell him about the work done and the next steps. Customer satisfaction is essential for the team, as is their loyalty.

Google’s EAT At The Heart Of Any SEO Strategy

This year – and will no doubt be the case for the next few years – the EEAT is the acronym to remember. Four letters in English mean Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. In French, it gives Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Confidence. And unsurprisingly, we owe this acronym to Google. It only had three letters.

The second E for “Experience” was added recently and testified to the place given to it by the search engine. In other words, Google is giving more and more importance to the user experience. For example, content posted online must be relevant and credible for Internet users who will read it. And for a site, the EEAT means that it must:

Demonstrate expertise on the subject treated and use keywords related to its activity sector and target.
Sharing an experience with Internet users, namely the content author’s experience. It is no longer just a question of informing them but of sharing knowledge, and know-how in quality content.
Demonstrate authority with quality backlinks and shares on social networks, for example.
Encourage the trust of Internet users and, therefore, be secure, have legal notices, general conditions of sale/use, clear information on managing personal data, etc.

Therefore, the written content must certainly be SEO optimized, have added value, and be useful for Internet users. Their authors must be highlighted. And crucial detail for Google: the writing must be the fruit of the work of a human, of a person who has experience… and not artificial intelligence.

Combining SMO And SEO, An Essential Trend

Another trend is emerging: using SMO (optimization for social networks) in an SEO strategy. And finally, it seems logical when we see the place occupied today by social networks. Combining these two techniques makes it possible to boost a site’s visibility, arouse the commitment of customers and prospects, and, ultimately, improve the natural referencing of a site. Thanks to the SMO, a site can acquire more qualified traffic and reach a more qualitative target because we must not forget that social networks are present in search engines and SERPs.

They are also used daily by many Internet users. Let’s take a concrete and simple example: if the content is well-optimized on these networks and deemed interesting by users, it will be shared and picked up. This will make it possible to create backlinks, attract Internet users to the site where the content is published, and improve its notoriety and visibility… and, therefore, natural referencing.

The User Experience, Or SXO, Is A Crucial Point

Another trend has been emerging for some time and is becoming more prominent in 2024: the importance of SXO (Search Experience Optimization), which is a contraction of SEO and UX (user experience). This means that each page of a site must be well worked out, its technical performance neat, and meet the Core Web Vitals (or Essential Web Signals in French), which are 3 in number:

Page load time or LCP (Largest Contentful Paint);
Interactivity, or FID (First Input Delay), can be summarized by the interaction time of an Internet user with the page of a site;
Visual stability, or CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), refers to the accessibility of the content.

The SXO must therefore be integrated into any SEO strategy in 2024 to improve the performance of a site, the user experience… and the positioning in the SERPs. And this SXO goes hand in hand with optimizing the technical elements of a site (URLS, tags, etc.) and editorials (use of keywords in the content in particular).

Web Writing Always Essential To Natural Referencing

This year again, content occupies a prominent place in SEO. It is still one of the 3 pillars of natural referencing, technique, and net linking. Any good SEO agency must therefore offer it to its clients. They are, therefore, all written by editors (and not by software or on platforms) based on keywords selected beforehand by an SEO project manager.

An Essential SEO-SEA Synergy In 2024

Another trend is confirmed in 2024: SEM (Search Engine Marketing), the association between SEO and SEA, or natural referencing and paid-to-reference. Indeed, they are both essential to generate qualified traffic on a site. Generally opposed, they are nevertheless complementary. While one attracts Internet users through advertisements and “call to action” (SEA), the other provides them with answers to their questions through relevant content (SEO).

Together, they make it possible to develop the visibility of a site in the short, medium, and long term by multiplying the points of contact. The SEA can be useful for highlighting products and services whose pages have previously been optimized for SEO. These two levers can therefore be activated simultaneously, especially since a well-optimized site contributes to the effectiveness of paid referencing campaigns.

And we must not forget that these two strategies have one thing in common: The results obtained are often more effective by betting on an SEO – SEA synergy. Internally, the SEO and SEO poles consult and inform each other of the results to implement the best strategy. It’s real teamwork, which is very rewarding and an opportunity to think together.

Artificial Intelligence, The Technology That Disrupts SEO

For several months, the world of SEO – and it is not the only one – has been confronted with the arrival of a new technology that has generated much debate: artificial intelligence (AI) and, more precisely, that ability to generate content. We are thinking of the famous ChatGPT, which is undoubtedly one of the revolutions of the year 2024.

But this is only an example since it is very likely that other similar tools will be available within a few months, even years online, that of Google, for example (Bard). If this artificial intelligence constitutes a technological advance, its use in natural referencing raises many questions. Can it help write content? Will it ever be able to replace human editors? How does an AI interpreted by Google write texts? Do they have positive effects on the natural referencing of a site? Or is AI an asset or a threat to SEO?

Each agency has its opinion on this issue. This technology is an opportunity for some to assist their writers, find inspiration, and automate their creative process. For others, this tool has no place in an agency because the quality of its content still leaves something to be desired. Humans still write them, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.