Starting a business is not everyone's cup of tea. While no doubt, being one's own boss has some obvious benefits, there are some invisible and paralyzing obstacles.

Yet the lure of freedom and control that comes with one's business has prompted many to shed the 'employee' tag and put on the 'owners' cap.

Why Should You Think Twice?

"Think twice before making any decision, because between' Good' and 'Bad,' there is 'OK.'"

There are lots of things to consider and look out for before starting a business. Even the most successful entrepreneurs and business owners evaluate all their options before starting a business.

A business may look simple and straightforward to the eye, yet there are bound to be a string of challenges. Success is never a walk in the park and requires a great deal of focus and hard work. Here are a few things that you must consider before making the big leap:

Can you invest your 100% effort and time in the venture?

Will you be well-off without your monthly paycheck?

Are you well-versed with the specific industry?

Do you think you have the right skills, insights, and awareness to start a business?

Do you have a working knowledge of the critical aspects of the product or service?

If the answer to all the above questions is yes, then you are ready to start your own business. But remember, this is just the first step, and the journey ahead is exciting yet extremely stretching. You should be prepared to adapt, evolve, and survive if you have to build a successful business from ground zero.

Starting an SEO Business

Every business has a unique set of challenges and opportunities. In the SEO industry, the business landscape is continuously evolving. What works today may not work six months down the line. Hence, as an agency, you need to keep learning and keep reinventing the wheel.

To make the journey less taxing for you, we have created a complete guide to help you in your quest to be a successful SEO agency. The information you will find in this guide will offer a clear picture of the SEO industry, the working methodology, the marketing, and the best practices that you must incorporate to create a successful digital agency. Let's start then!

How does the SEO Industry work?

If there is one word that answers this question entirely, it would be 'Visibility.'

'Visibility' is at the nucleus of the SEO industry. As an SEO agency, you would be responsible for making your client websites visible to the search engine.

If your SEO methodology returns significant value to your client's business and target customers, there is nothing that can stop your SEO agency.

#Step1: Work on Your SEO Methodology

An excellent SEO methodology helps you create a strong foundation for the agency. With a robust method in place, it would be much easier to deliver on client expectations and grow your agency at a rapid pace.

So what are the necessary elements for creating a reliable SEO methodology?

The objectives of any SEO strategy are more or less the same. On-page optimization, content marketing, lead generation, online reputation management, are common goals that every SEO strategy has to achieve. However, the execution part varies considerably from one client to another. A reliable SEO methodology serves exceedingly well in this regard.

When creating an SEO methodology for your agency, make sure to incorporate the following key elements:

Hire an experienced and expert team of SEO professionals, developers, designers, and analysts.

Identify the industry domains you want to serve and hire digital strategists who have ample experience in that niche.

Create a robust project management team to handle client expectations and fulfillment efficiently

If your outsourcing client SEO requirement, consider joining hands with a white label SEO solution provider (You will enjoy complete ownership for the work without compromising on your brand name)

Last but not least, create an environment that promotes continuous learning. Search engine algorithms are updated frequently. Continuous learning allows the agency to learn, adapt, and update strategies consistently.

#Step2: Integrate Project Management Tools

For a digital agency to deliver on client expectations, every team must work as a single unit towards a common goal. As such, collaboration and communication must remain uncompromised. Project management tools help keep agency teams on the same page while ensuring seamless team collaborations and communication. Some popular project management tools for digital agencies include:

Slack

Basecamp

Zoho

Teamwork

#Step3: Always Sign a Contract

Once your agency has made a client, it's essential to have a written agreement that clearly states the client's expectations, the length of the contract, the SEO services offered, and other minute details. It will help prevent any misunderstandings and conflicts in the future.

The contract can also include payment terms, costs charged against each service, the time of invoice generation, invoice due date, and payment methods.

#Step4: Marketing Your Own Agency

Your agency may have the best SEO professional, topline digital strategists, exceptional project managers, premium customer support, but you won't succeed by waiting for clients to knock on your door. Instead, you will have to do the same thing that you will do for your clients' Market your SEO services.'

Create a website and optimize so that your potential clients can find you online

Ask your current clients to share their feedback and review

Reach out and engage with a potential client on social media

Share case studies, portfolio, and quality content to create a strong social media footprint

Make most of the business listings websites and paid ad campaigns to promote your services

Continuously prepare and refine your email distribution list for business use

#5. Focus on Process Creation and Business Continuity

It's the well-defined processes and workflows that transform a good company into a great company. Initially, when the client list is limited, as an agency owner, you may overlook the need for putting into place a well-defined process and workflows. But this is not an ideal strategy for the long term.

Remember, as your clientele grows, so does your workloads and client responsibilities. Productivity will take a significant hit without well-defined processes and workflows. Over time, this will negatively impact delivery timelines, client fulfillment, retention rates, and much more.

In the worst of cases, lack of proper process and workflows may lead to bad word of mouth for your brand, both online and offline, which more often than not spreads like wildfire.

Hence, it is a must that you pay considerable attention to building robust processes and seamless workflows. Here are a few tips that you can follow:

Identify repetitive tasks

Identify who is accountable for each step and assign roles and responsibilities

Prepare a document with workflow diagram and share it with all teams

Test for the efficiency of the workflow

Gather feedback for teams

Make changes where necessary and keep improving in short intervals

In-House Vs. Outsourcing?

Running an in-house SEO team is not easy. There are so many variables to look after. Agency owners are left with little time to focus on other business needs like marketing, sales, and scaling.

Again, as the agency grows, there is this constant need to increase team strength. Not every agency owner, especially those who are new, have the capital and flexibility to scale on demand.

Outsourcing is a welcome solution to this recurring challenge. Notably, white label SEO partners like DashClicks take the weight completely off your shoulders. They have a fully automated white-label platform that offers a complete end-to-end SEO solution from client onboarding to fulfillments.

All you have to do is focus on business growth and scaling. And DashClicks helps you on this front as well. There is a dedicated education hub where you can get all the information to grow your agency and make consistent revenue.