Outsource SEO to your website builder? Ask yourself this

... unless he's "doing SEO on the side for a bit. If you're with an agency that has multiple disciplines, you often don't have to worry so much.

In case you have doubts about your web developer's SEO knowledge, I've prepared some great questions for you here. Including possible answers he or she can give (and whether they are good or bad).

Disclaimer: this is not a comprehensive list, but these are some important components within SEO. If you have answers to all these questions, you will know if your developer understands SEO.

Or not ;-).

What plugins/functions do you all use by default?

???????? 'As little as possible' or 'These few'

???????? 'I don't know' or 'a whole list'

Are you taking into account all the On Page SEO elements?

???????? 'Yes, I pay attention to all elements such as the meta title, URL, headers, etc'

???????? 'I try to complement it all as best I can'

Do you create a URL structure ahead of time?

???????? 'I decide for each page what the URL will be and also what keyword fits with it'

???????? 'I think about it, but I don't work it out'

Do you know what things are like the canonical, the robots.txt and a sitemap?

???????? "Absolutely.

???????? 'Partly'

How do you install Google Analytics?

???????? 'Via Tag Manager'

???????? 'By placing the Analytics code in the website'

What system will you use to build the website? And why?

???????? 'With system X, because that suits X better and is better for X'

???????? 'With system X, because that's what we always do'

How will you make conversions measurable?

???????? 'Via Tag Manager and we make every conversion measurable'

???????? "The thank you page through Google Analytics

Technology is obviously most important to you, but what will you do with the content and authority?

???????? 'In terms of content, we are going to focus on these 20 keywords and create approximately X links each month

???????? 'We're focusing mostly on technology and what's there now. We will still add some content'

Do you have references that show they have grown in SEO because of your work?

???????? 'These 5 clients had X% growth after working with us. You can read about this in our customer cases'

???????? 'I can show in Analytics some customers who are doing better than before'

Do you set thank you pages to noindex?

???????? 'Yes'

???????? 'Good idea. Going to do it'

Is the website cover error free upon delivery (and does it know Search Console?)?

???????? 'Absolutely. We are going to do our best to avoid coverage errors and Search Console we use almost daily'

???????? ‘…’

Are you also setting up Google My Business?

???????? 'Sure. Google My Business is very important. Especially with a local business'

???????? 'We don't always do that. And when we do, you have to optimize it yourself'

What SEO tool do you use (to track my positions)?

???????? 'Mainly Ahrefs, Semrush and MOZ, but sometimes other tools as well. Tools are never leading with us, but an extension of our specialists'

???????? 'Especially Google Analytics and an SEO tool that is not that well known'

Are the Core Web Vitals in green?

???????? "Of course.

???????? 'We are doing our best. We will look at this afterwards'

What SEO plugin are you using?

???????? 'Yoast or RankMath. Whatever you want. For us, both are fine, but the SEO plugin is not going to make the difference'

???????? ' Yoast'

Will the website run on www or non-www?

???????? "That depends on what he has always run on. In fact, that is leading. You want as few differences as possible in a migration or a new website. So we have to figure that out first'

????????'Non-www, because it's prettier'

Do you arrange redirects in advance and have an SEO relocation plan?

???????? 'We have a standard document that contains the relocation plan. The redirects are part of that'

???????? 'We check the 404s afterwards and then create 301s'

What keywords will you choose and why?

???????? 'You'll find these reflected in the URL structure we've completely figured out'

???????? 'The keywords with the most volume'

How are you going to teach me SEO?

???????? 'We already have our blogs, but in addition to that we are going to take you through the process monthly during the meeting. You are an important part of this process and we have to do it together'

???????? 'You have to do that yourself'