A business owner recently came to me because his contract was up with his SEO guy. He had been paying for SEO services over the past few years, but had a sneaking suspicion that the “agency” wasn’t actually doing anything.
It took me 2 minutes on the website to realize that my new client had been getting screwed. We’re talking mid-5-figures each year for several years.
First of all, this is infuriating! Search Engine Optimization can be difficult to understand, even if you know that your business needs it to rank in Google without ads. This makes it easy for anyone with sales skills to charge business owners who are ready to prioritize SEO.
Secondly, it does take up to a year or longer for some pages to rank in Google. This means you won’t be seeing any measurable results (like leads) until it could be too late.
Thirdly, how could my client have known? He had no interest in learning another niche like SEO. He specifically hired someone so he wouldn’t have to. He was trusting.
If you’re in my client’s boat and aren’t sure what your SEO company is doing, you’re in the right place. You won’t have to learn about SEO- I promise. Here are 5 tips to help you trust- but verify (before you even see any results).
1. There is no scope of work
A scope of work is simply a plan that states what they will and won’t provide. Some SEO activities can include:
- Improving website speed
- Brushing up your service pages
- Writing new articles or pages to rank for certain keywords
- Creating a customer journey and planning pages for each phase
- Finding backlinks
There are lots of other ways to increase SEO, but my point is that your agency should give you at least a broad idea of what they’ll be working on. There can be a feeling of “secret sauce” in SEO, but if they can’t give you a few broad projects or tasks, take note. Transparency is so important.
2. They didn’t set up reports
You’ll need to be able to measure how effective this expensive service is over time. Your agency should set up some sort of reporting system so you can see how well your site is performing. This can depend on your goals, but could include clicks, impressions, and/or leads.
I set my SEO clients up with Google Analytics on their site to pull in the data. Then I create a filterable report so they can see their monthly stats, but also see how their clicks have increased over months and years.
The good news is that you don’t have to wait years to look at the data and see if your SEO activities are paying off (though this is important too). If your agency has no intention to even measure their success in the first place, they must not have much to offer.
3. The agency didn’t request access to any measuring tools
If your web developer set things up correctly, you probably have Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, or Google Search Console hooked up to your site. (There are third party tools as well, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t have these exact tools.) Your SEO agency should have asked for access to these when they started.
Here’s why- making a strategy for SEO work should take historical website data into consideration. Maybe you’re close to ranking high for one of your services, but people just aren’t clicking. This tells your agency you need work done on meta descriptions or service page content.
You could also be ranking for a weird keyword, giving you insight into a new customer group. For example, if you provide residential painting, your agency could find that you’re getting tons of visitors for the search “cabinet painting”. This means that you should create a page specifically for cabinet painting so those visitors know they can trust you to do the job well.
4. Your “articles” are short and read like garbage
Pumping out five pointless 250-word articles per month won’t do much for your SEO. The thing to understand about website content is that it needs to please both Google and your visitors. Google isn’t perfect, but it’s actually trying to measure how well your website answers questions when searchers ask them.
Your articles should be treasure-troves of information on a topic. They should also be fairly long if possible. When a user lands on your site, are they learning everything they can about what they asked? You should be the last stop on their search!
Custom graphics are a great way to get your information across. Whether it’s a chart, infographic, funny image, or map, don’t forget the visuals. It’s an awesome way to get other sites to link to your site as well!
5. You don’t own your accounts
Whether it’s Google Ads, Analytics, or other software, your business should own the accounts set up in its name. If your SEO agency doesn’t want to give you access or hand it over at the end of a contract, it’s a bad sign.
Your accounts contain a wealth of information that can help you going forward. It does take awhile to get search ads optimized, and if you have to start from scratch, there will be some wasted time in there. Any ethical company will allow you access to your accounts. Check your contract to see what it says.
BONUS: Does your agency offer to discuss your business practices?
Having a professional look at your website data can be a gold mine for how people perceive and choose your business. I get it- you may not want to make any changes in your business if you’re scaling quickly and have good processes down.
However, most business people want to know where there are bottlenecks or things can be improved. Your website should be your hardest-working employee. By tightly integrating it with your business flow, you’re making your life easier and your business more profitable.
Here are some common ways your website and SEO can serve your business better:
- Better qualifying leads so your sales team isn’t overwhelmed by tire-kickers
- Explaining your process so your customers know what to expect when working with you
- Letting you know when it may be time to expand to another geographic area if your site is showing up for searches there
- Your site can be a resource for current clients as well. By creating a page that expands on a physical brochure or follow-up, you can point leads to your site to get informed and see more about your business.
If you had a look at this list and are rethinking your SEO agency, I may be able to help.
What do I do?
I write SEO articles and website content to show up in search and help move leads through your funnel.
It’s an awesome feeling when companies start to work with me after a situation like this. Even before we’re ranking, I sense surprise and delight that I’m actually communicating about the process and going through the work of truly understanding their business model.
If you’re ready to work with a company that’s on your side (not just collecting a check every month), I’d be glad to talk.
Schedule a free SEO Analysis
I’ll take a look at your site before our meeting and let you know if your SEO agency is doing you right- I can usually tell after a quick glance at your website. If there’s room for improvement, I’ll take up to 30 minutes to describe how you can make it better.
Let’s get your site working to its full potential!
