Are you looking for the best Austin SEO companies for 2021? You’re in the right place.
This post ranks local outfits in the famous Texas town according to objective criteria that strip out personal prejudice. The Austin SEO agencies in this list got there because of merit, not because their executives enjoy a cozy relationship with us.
What’s more, we base all our rankings on public-available information about each agency, so you can easily cross-check our scores. So, without further ado, let’s get into the rankings.
10 Best Austin SEO Companies for 2021
- Thrive Internet Marketing Agency (32 points)
- Complete SEO (31 points)
- TastyPlacement SEO (30 points)
- OgreLogic Solutions LLC (26 points)
- Digitech Web Design Austin (25 points)
- WEBii.net (23 points)
- MARION Integrated Marketing (23 points)
- Regex SEO (22 points)
- Big Gorilla Design (22 points)
- Geek Powered Studios (21 points)
1. Thrive: Top Austin SEO Company
Thrive comes in first place in our list of the top SEO agencies in Austin, Texas. Established in 2005 in Arlington, this Austin SEO services agency now employs over a hundred people and works with clients worldwide.
Thrive excelled across all our test criteria and performed admirably on the website performance front. It earned the maximum score owing to its rapid loading speed and mobile friendliness. It was also the top for website traffic, gaining more visits than the other nine agencies on this list combined.
At root, the firm is a full-service digital marketing agency. They offer search engine optimization, link building, web design, social media marketing. This marketing agency adopts what it calls a “big-picture” approach to its thinking, helping its clients with both the nitty-gritty technical side of gaining online visibility, as well as high-level strategy. It currently boasts customers in places as far-flung as Hong Kong and Germany.
2. Complete SEO: Award-Winning Marketing Experts
Complete SEO is a locally-owned agency in Austin that provides enormous value for its clients. The firm takes a fundamentally different approach from other agencies in the industry. Instead of using outdated templates, it considers its clients’ budgets, goals, competition, and values and then uses this information to construct a unique plan of action. On these criteria, this agency in Austin builds high-quality SEO campaigns.
In today’s market, that approach is most welcome. It may explain why the firm achieved a 5 out of 5 review score across 25 Google Reviews.
Right now, Complete SEO offers free consultations, so clients can find out whether the service matches their needs or goals without having to hand over any money. It is popular among outlets that have tried other digital marketing companies in the past but were disappointed. And it publicly posts its case studies to back up its performance claims.
3. Tasty Placements: Google Partner for Your Marketing Services.
TastyPlacement SEO is now more than ten years old, making it one of the more experienced agencies on this list. Founded during the financial crisis of 2008, the company has a list of impressive accolades, including unrivaled Google certifications, regular speaking engagements, and even books on the latest search engine optimization practices.
The agency earned the maximum points on our SEO best-practices score and, like Complete SEO, received a perfect 5 out of 5 on its average Google Review score. To grow your business, this agency offers a variety of internet marketing: social media marketing, search engine optimization, PPC, content marketing, and so on.
The firm likes to brand itself as a “thought leader,” owing to its academic achievements in the search engine arena. Its ebook WordPress, Search Engine Optimization, is a full-length treatise on everything you need to know on how to get your site to rank higher. The agency first published it in 2012, and it has seen multiple editions since.
4. OgreLogic: Full-Service Web Development
OgreLogic comes in a solid fourth place based on our objective points system. This Austin SEO agency is famous for defining itself not as a digital marketing agency but as a “global software development partner.”
This terminology is deliberate. OgreLogic sees its work as more encompassing than mere digital marketing. It creates software from the ground up designed to help firms realize their visions and attract more clients. Both search engine optimization consultants and web design developers at the outfit work together to solve their clients’ real problems.
There are no templates here – just a passionate focus on maximizing the usefulness of digital technology to maximize your return on investments.
OgreLogic believes that it offers a competitive advantage across a range of domains. For instance, it never shies away from sharing the results of its work. Instead, it proves its transparency by offering clients data on service performance at regular intervals. This search engine optimization company in Austin, TX provides email marketing, link building, on-page search engine optimization, local search engine optimization to help big and small businesses grow.
It does well on the promptness front, too, delivering SEO campaigns that respect its clients’ timetables and immediate business needs. There’s a lot to like here.
5. Digitech: Search Engine Optimization in Austin, TX
Digitech came in fifth overall, owing to its excellent website experience and positive, third-party client feedback. This Austin SEO agency is the brainchild of Darryl Stevens, a naturally creative visionary. Like so many great SEOs, he is entirely self-taught. He mastered web design and search engine optimization by serving clients in the online marketplace in the heyday of digital marketing. This marketing company in Austin, TX, offers PPC, SEO, graphic design, social media marketing to make sure their marketing strategy helps with your business growth.
He is a contributor to top online publications, such as Entrepreneur and Forbes magazine, thanks to his deep expertise.
Digitech takes a philosophical view of its work, believing that “inside every impossible is a possible just trying to get out.” Darryl and the team are creative thinkers who want to help brands solve their most intractable online outreach problems. Services include design, development, marketing, fractional CMO, and exclusive search engine optimization.
Notable clients include Universal Music Group, Election Science, and the American Heart Association.
6. WEBii: Web Development with Search Engines on Mind
WEBii was one of the most impressive agencies on our Austin SEO services but fell out of the top five because of the relative obscurity of its website.
The Austin SEO agency is an old hand in the area. The founders set up the firm in 1996 with a mission to bring better customer service to the web hosting industry. Since then, it has evolved, expanding its operations into custom web development, domain name registration service, and search engine optimization.
The long experience of the Austin SEO company makes it something of a jack-of-all-trades. Its team offers WordPress web development, server administration, graphic design, project management, and custom web design. All the people who work for the firm pride themselves on their communication skills and prioritize staying in regular contact with customers, keeping them apprised of developments.
Companies requiring a full-stack solution should consider this agency.
7. Marion: Graphic Design & Full Service SEO
Marion did well under our scoring system, primarily due to the positive user experience. The driving force behind this is the company’s unique mix of creative, technical, and strategic assistance. It doesn’t just adopt a cookie-cutter approach but instead learns all of its clients inside out before beginning work.
Each customer gets a virtual CMO – somebody who works with them to understand their business goals turn them into a search engine optimization roadmap. They then get access to various services, including logo design, assistance with catalogs, and illustrations. In addition, each account holder receives expert account management, assisted by professional digital marketing specialists, content creators, and web designers.
Over the years, the firm has won several awards, including Gold Winner at the 2020 AVA Digital Awards, 2019 MarCom Gold Winner, and 2017 Silver Awards Winner at the Davey Awards. Carey Balzer, Jon Anger, and Robert Dihu – the three founding partners – offer full-service digital marketing services or supplement in-house marketing teams.
8. Regex SEO: Digital Marketing in Austin, TX
Regex SEO is another small-time Austin SEO services company with massive marketing agency potential and interesting history.
The founders of this Austin SEO solutions company were sick of standard search engine optimization industry marketing approaches. For years, the digital marketing industry over-promised and under-delivered. It hyped pre-packaged plans but failed to generate results for clients. So the team behind Regex SEO decided to do something about it. They rejected the fraud and shoddy work provided by many agencies and set up their agency instead. This Austin SEO company helps you grow your business with pay-per-click, content marketing, social media marketing, graphic design, and email marketing campaigns.
Regex SEO has won a host of awards and earned widespread online marketing industry recognition. In 2017, it was a Marketer of the Year finalist and later won numerous UpCity, MarCom, and AVA digital awards. The firm’s current clients include Service Corporation International, Dignity Memorial, and Maison Luisant.
Our scoring system ranked it eighth. Like many other boutique agencies on this list, it offers excellent service but fell because of lackluster website traffic performance. However, we expect this one to rise in the future.
9. Big Gorilla Design: Brand Awareness in Search Results
Coming in at the ninth place of the top Austin SEO agencies is the somewhat hilariously named Big Gorilla Design. The outfit concentrates on legitimate SEO tactics – not just keyword stuffing. Their list of services covers just about everything you could imagine, including content marketing, email marketing, graphic design, eCommerce site development, and print design.
Big Gorilla Design marketing agency sees itself as a search engine optimization services educator, rather like Tasty Placements, and works hard with clients to discover their actual needs before recommending services. It’s not just about rankings. It is also about building brands.
Big Gorilla Design did well on our test in most areas, but lack of traffic to its website and inbound links dragged its score down.
With that said, the agency offers clients a unique “out-of-the-box” approach to internet marketing and a lot of flexibility. They provide a vast range of options, including choice over the underlying platforms for the websites they create – such as WordPress or static HTML.
This Austin SEO agency has a good sense of humor. The road to success is, according to their marketing, “paved with bananas (and other cool things).”
10. Geek Powered Studio: Search Engine Optimization & Content Marketing
Geek Powered Studios rounds out our list of the top SEO companies in Austin, TX in 2021. Search engine optimization specialist Guillermo Ortiz founded the digital marketing agency in 2009 during the depths of the financial slump, drawing on his web design experience. What began as a small side project in San Antonio, flourished into a full-scale digital marketing agency, employing over a dozen people and serving an ever-growing list of clients. They offer the whole spectrum of online marketing: social media marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and email marketing to maximize your investment return.
Geek Powered Studios has won several awards, including the 2014 BBB Torch Award and the 2016 US Search Awards. This Austin SEO agency has also featured on Mashable, American Express Open, and Tech Cocktail.
Why did it come tenth in our objective test? The main culprit was the failure of the company’s website to respond rapidly to user input. If it hadn’t been for that, it would have received a much higher score. Also, the company’s website ranked well outside of the top ten, which seems to undermine its promise to deliver on its SEO promises.
How We Score
So there you have it: our top 10 best SEO companies in Austin. Remember, we don’t rank companies in our lists according to mere opinion or solely based on what Google says. Instead, we use an objective in-house scoring system to compare companies objectively based on a wide range of parameters.
Our scoring system takes into consideration the following criteria:
- Average user review scores
- The total number of Google Reviews
- Total website traffic
- The number of linking domains
- The domain ranking
- If the agency ranks in the top ten
- Website experience parameters, including loading speed, mobile-friendliness, and SSL certification
We then assign a score up to a maximum value of 5 for each of the above criteria. Thus, Austin SEO agencies with many reviews, for instance, will score 5, while those with relatively few will earn 1. We then sum all of the individual components to arrive at a final score out of 35 for every firm.
The top-scoring SEO agency in this was Thrive Internet Marketing on 32, followed closely by Complete SEO on 31 and Tasty Placements SEO on 30. The rest clustered between 26 and 21, and many other Austin agencies never made it onto the list.
You can take a look at our raw scoring data here.
Enquire With Us Today
The purpose of this guide was to provide you with a comprehensive insight into the types of companies offering SEO services in Austin, Texas. While there are some technical differences between the firms, the above search engine optimization agencies represent the cream of the crop. You should, therefore, choose the one from the list of top Austin SEO enterprises that offers the best services for your particular niche.
Bonus: How to Hire a Qualified Austin SEO Company (So You Don’t Flush Money Down the Toilet)
So at this point, you have many Austin SEO establishments to choose from. But how do you narrow it down and make a decision?
Follow these five steps, and you’ll find the perfect company to work with:
1. Do they rank?
Some great search engine optimization companies don’t rank well. However, Austin SEO agencies should practice what they preach. Or, in this case, practice what they sell. So, if an SEO company isn’t ranking for any keywords, what does that say?
You can use SEMRush to see all the organic keywords that a Austin SEO solutions company is ranking for:
The good news is that all the companies that made this list had decent rankings. They had to be ranking on the first page for “Austin SEO” to make the top 10. So you’re in good hands with this list.
2. Will they get on the phone?
This one might be weird, but something is off if a company isn’t willing to talk over the phone. Successful search engine optimization partnerships depend on trust.
The first step to building trust is to talk to a real person.
3. Do they guarantee results?
Any Austin SEO services company that guarantees results is using churn and burn sales techniques. In other words, they’ll persuade you with silly guarantees, and then you’ll find out that they suck at SEO. A respectable Austin SEO solutions company would never guarantee results because they know they can’t control Google.
4. Are they transparent?
Some sneaky Austin SEO agencies claim to have trade secrets and can’t report on them. Don’t fall for this BS. The only reason why a company wouldn’t have full transparency is that A) they’re clueless or B) they are using grey/black hat tactics.
On point A, awesome Austin SEO practices **** to share their work because they’re proud of it. Bad companies avoid sharing their work because it’s trash. For example, my SEO agency gives clients full access to all our Google files, so they know what’s going on at any time.
And on point B:
Some companies use risky link building tactics and do not want to show you. Sure, some of these tactics work well. However, they’re super risky and could get your website penalized by Google. So ask many questions about all prospective companies link building practices.
5. Do they have a process
Some SEO companies throw stuff at the wall and hope it works. Top 1% Austin SEO companies use a repeatable process that they’ve refined over years. Don’t trust “experts” or “gurus”.
Trust companies or individuals who have a process that works every time.
That’s it! Follow those four simple steps, and you’ll pick an amazing Austin SEO company to work with. Good luck.
All Gotch SEO content is fact-checked and verified by industry-leading SEO experts.
