How can you tell whether your SEO agency is actually doing anything?
Check what you can see without knowing the technique. A working SEO agency can give you a dated list of what it changed and published, which you can confirm through logins held in your own name. Over quarters, more inquiries should arrive from search, each tagged with its source and followed to won, lost or still open. If a month shows nothing, ask what was done, what changed and what comes next, and expect a plain answer.
Four checks you can make yourself
- A dated list of changes: every page added, rewritten or removed, and anything published in your name, with the date. A single line saying the month's work was done is not a list.
- Logins in your name: owner access to your website, analytics and business profile, so you can open the site and see that the listed changes are really there.
- Search inquiries by quarter: inquiries from search tagged as such, compared quarter with quarter rather than week with week.
- Outcomes: how many of those inquiries became paying jobs, recorded as won, lost or still open.
What Google says to expect from an SEO
Google's guide "Do you need an SEO?" suggests asking an SEO how it measures success and whether it will share the reasoning behind its recommendations. The rest of Google's list, including its warning about firms that will not explain what they intend to do, is in the related answers on questions to ask before hiring an SEO agency and on spotting an SEO scam.
As general advice, not Google's wording: an agency that is doing the work can usually show it, so asking for the change list should feel routine, not awkward.
Give it quarters, not weeks
SEO usually takes months to show up in inquiries, as the related answer on how long SEO takes explains, so one quiet month proves little on its own. Read the same few numbers each month and judge the trend over a quarter or two. The related answer on how you know if your marketing is working lists those numbers, and the related answer on what a marketing report should show sets out what belongs on the page.
What to ask after a month that shows nothing
- What exactly was done this month, with dates, and where can I see it?
- What changed as a result, even if it is not inquiries yet?
- What do you expect to see next, and roughly when?
- Is anything waiting on me, such as an approval, photos or access?
When the answers stay vague
If several months pass with no change list you can check and no movement in search inquiries, it is often time to ask harder questions or plan an exit. The related answer on switching marketing agencies covers how to leave without losing your website or your lead records.
Sources
Related answers
- How do you know if your marketing is working?
- What should a marketing report show a small business owner?
- How long does SEO take to work?
- How do you switch marketing agencies without losing your website or leads?
- What should you ask before hiring an SEO or GEO agency?
- How do you spot an SEO scam?
SEO for service businesses
Get found on Google by the people already looking for what you sell, in the places you serve, and see which searches turned into inquiries.