ve questions to ask SEO Platform Vendors during the Demo //

SEO platforms are one of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your website. After you’ve determined enterprise SEO software is right for your company, take the time to research individual vendors and their abilities.

Pay attention to these points:

• How easy is it to use the platform?
• Does the vendor appear to understand our business needs and marketing?
• Do they show us the features we “must have”?
• Are the reports actionable?

What other questions can you ask?

How can you calculate search volume? Understanding how the system handles information types impacts how you value certain keywords, how you make decisions regarding keyword and content selections and how your search marketing efforts will perform. Learn where the raw data comes from (i.e. analytics, logs, proprietary tracking pixels). *

This system can track millions of search, visits, website pages, etc. It is important to know if the platform you are considering is an enterprise solution, or just a tool that won’t scale with your business. The number of pages, keywords or traffic that can be tracked may impact the use of the platform or increase its cost.

Do You Support International Search? Even the most experienced SEOs can be misled by many of the nuances in international SEO. Ask if the average number of clicks or search volume for the platform is normalized to reflect global or local searches (in the market). Also, ask if search rankings are calculated locally or remotely. Does the tool provide hreflang code recommendations? Does it provide page relationships and direction recommendations? Misapplication of international data can impact your ROI for search marketing.

What are the features of SERPs? It is important to know where and if your site appeared on the page. Did your listing, for example, appear in the web results, Top Stories, a carousel, or video results? This feedback on location and reporting helps quantify your strategic and tactical efforts.

Does the tool provide competitive research by helping customers to understand what their competitors are doing? Which features do you think are most important? The feature of competitive intelligence is standard for all enterprise SEO platforms, but its scope and price vary between vendors. Check the level of information provided by your vendor about your vertical industry and competitors.

How flexible and robust are your reporting capabilities? Reporting requirements are different for each user. Ask if you can customize and deliver reports automatically to different types and users. Also, ask if data can be exported as CSV.

Where can I find actionable reports? While enterprise tools offer dashboards with a wealth of data, it is important to know which reports will benefit your business immediately. Good sales teams will know your company’s KPIs, objectives and goals and have ready-made reports or the ability to run them real-time. These are data that can be passed on to the right teams for immediate action.

What meta-information is collected by your system that could be made available through API? The ability to track search traffic from the beginning of the funnel to the end, allowing you to calculate ROI more accurately.

Does the platform have a workflow that allows us coordinate the work across our marketing, web development, and social media departments? The SEO team cannot operate in isolation. A true enterprise platform will have built-in workflows that include task assignment, monitoring completion rates and management.

How long will the onboarding take and what are the options for training (i.e. will there be a person at our office to train us)? Find out if onboarding, support and other services are included in the pricing.

What type of support will your team provide for clients and how will they engage with them? In what way will you measure our usage or non-use? It’s not enough use that is one of the main reasons companies leave an enterprise platform. How will they help you to avoid tool fatigue or leaving your company? Vendors should be prepared to discuss this issue, and how their tool engages users in a creative way and brings them back into your environment.

Which new features do you plan to implement? When will the product be launched? Google and Bing are constantly releasing new features that will help you leverage your digital assets. It is important to do this, especially as AI chat interfaces are becoming a major channel for customer engagement. Ask the vendor how fast they respond to new SERP features, and begin tracking them. Understanding the level of innovation, and the vendor’s ability to track and add new technologies is important. It’s also important to know a vendor’s release schedule for new features and their ability to adhere to timelines. It helps build long-term relationships and trust with the vendor, as it sets expectations that the vendor will be at the forefront of SEO.

The article 12 Questions to Ask SEO Platform Vendors During the Demo first appeared on MarTech.