What Every Small Business Should Expect from Their SEO Agency

Jun 23, 2022

Two people standing next to each other with their finger in the air

The decision to bring on an SEO agency can be a daunting one – it’s often a significant investment for your small business, and you won’t know what kind of results you’re going to see until you take the plunge. It’s also difficult to know what you should expect from the SEO agency you work with, even if you’ve worked with one before.

In this guide, we’ll talk you through what an SEO agency does and what you should expect from yours. By the end, you’ll be able to walk into talks with a potential SEO agency knowing what to expect, or even come to the decision to move on from your current agency.

What does an SEO agency do?

Simply, an SEO agency should increase your business’ visibility online. If you aren’t getting more traffic to your site after working with them for six months, they’re not doing their job properly.

Depending on your goals, your SEO agency may:

Drive more traffic to your site organically
Help you create more backlinks and relationships online
Become more of an authority online
Help you make your site more SEO-friendly
Create SEO-friendly content for your site
Execute a digital PR strategy
Help you increase your conversion rate

As well as all of the above and more.

What service should I expect from an SEO agency?

Unless your SEO agency is getting you results, you’re probably not going to put up with sub-par service. If you don’t feel like you’re getting the right level of service from your current SEO agency, consider what you outlined when you first started working with them. If you didn’t discuss level of communication, that may be a sign alto move on.

Here’s what you should expect from an SEO agency:

Communication

When you reach out to an SEO agency, you should consider what level of communication you’re comfortable with. Do you want them to take your SEO worries off your hands so you can focus elsewhere? If so, you may simply want a weekly email and a monthly report or meeting to discuss progress and action points.

Or you may be someone who likes frequent contact with smaller updates. This is fine too, but it’s a good idea to outline your communication styles and frequency before you commence work together.

Remember that even if you find a great agency, if your communication styles are different you’re not going to have a fruitful relationship. You’ll either feel like you’re being left out in the cold, or overly hassled by them. Make sure your communication styles match and that they feel like people you can build a working rapport with.

Transparency of Work & Action

You should always be able ask and get information on what they’ve been doing. You may want to build into your contract a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly report of what they’ve been doing and what they plan to do in the future. Some of the changes and action they may take include:

Updated optimised content, such as blog posts and web pages
Additional content if they’re managing your content strategy
New backlinks they’ve set up from other authority sites
SEO audit to start, and then they may do it again to show the improvements they’ve made (we offer a free SEO audit – click here to find out more)
A list of changes to changes they’ve made to your site on the backend

Reporting

You and your SEO agency must agree on a frequency of reporting results and actions. This will likely vary depending on how optimised your site is when you hand over the reins, as well as your communication styles. While it may take a few months to see real positive change in your search engine rankings, especially if you’re in a competitive niche, you should still have frequent reports about what results they’re seeing, and what action they’re taking. You should also expect larger reports and even future plans on a quarterly or six-monthly basis. This wills how they have a long-term vision for your success, and aren’t just making it up month-by-month.

What should an SEO agency need to start working for you?

If an “agency” takes your money but doesn’t ask for anything so they can start making changes, run like the wind! SEO doesn’t happen by magic; they need access to your website and other information so they can actively start making changes.

Depending on the scope of the work you have defined in your contract or work agreement, they may need:

Access to your website
Access to your analytics tools
Ideal customer avatar
Branding materials and guides
Details of any past work done by you or a past agency

Is an SEO agency worth it? How do I know if they’re getting us results?

Of course, the question “is an SEO agency worth it?” is an open-ended question and it really depends on what you’re looking for and your available budget. However, if you’re hiring a legitimate SEO agency then you should be getting results in your analytics tools, hopefully with an increase in leads and sales, and you should also be able to ask to see what actions they’re taking. (Just beware the vanity metrics!)

Some of the other results you should see are an increase in quality backlinks, an audit and follow up reports or another audit to see improvements, new content going up on a weekly basis that’s bringing in traffic, and regular updates or meetings to discuss results and where they plan to go from there. If they’re a good SEO agency, they’ll always have more ideas for how you could continue to build on the solid foundation they’ve helped you build.

What red flags should I look out for when working with an SEO agency?

First and foremost, always listen to your intuition. If you aren’t happy with your SEO agency, there’s a good chance there’s a legitimate reason why. Here are some of the red flags to look out for:

They don’t report their results, and don’t have anything to show for their work.
You’re not seeing any positive change on your analytics tools.
You’re getting a lot of traffic, but no one’s sticking around –ask them why this is happening. They may be using black hat methods that will hurt you in the future.
All your backlinks are from irrelevant “news” or magazine sites.
They don’t ask you to change anything about the way you do things. They should be teaching you best practices, not simply fixing your mistakes.
They won’t disclose their secrets or tell you in vague terms what they’re doing.
They have no long-term plan for your success.
They don’t mention any type of contract or agreement

An SEO agency can be the difference between your website getting lost online, or becoming a major authority in your niche. But the key is finding one you mesh with. You should have a good rapport with the agency, even in early talks, and be satisfied with early results. If you can, take advantage of their free offers or ‘smaller’ services first to see what it’s like to work with them. That’s why we offer a free SEO audit – so our potential clients can see what we do, how we do it, and the results we know we can get for them once they hire us. If you’d like to take advantage for your small business, get in touch.