How to Choose an SEO Agency

What you are actually buying

Name the output: a technical punch list with owners, a content calendar tied to URLs, implemented metadata, and a monthly change log. If the proposal only says monthly SEO package, you are buying a label.

Clarify markets and languages. International work is a different product — see blog/international seo guide. Local maps work is another. Do not let one retainer pretend to be all three without hours attached.

Questions that force a method into the open

Ask how they will use Search Console. Ask what they will do in the first 30 days. Ask how they handle a page that cannot be indexed. Ask for an example of a recommendation they made that the client rejected — and why.

Ask what they will not do. We do not guarantee rankings should be easy. We do not buy links from networks should also be easy. Silence here is information.

• Who implements CMS changes — them, you, or a developer?
• How are keywords chosen, and who can veto vanity terms?
• What happens if Google updates and traffic drops?
• Which tools will you get login access to (in your accounts)?

Contracts, access and who presses publish

Your Search Console, Analytics and CMS should remain yours. The agency gets access, not ownership. Domains and hosting stay in accounts you control. If they insist on holding the domain hostage, walk away.

If they cannot publish, you need a developer SLA. SEO advice that sits in a slide deck for six months is not SEO. WEBCETRA either implements or writes tickets a developer can execute — see also services/web development when the site itself is the blocker.

Reporting that you can audit

A good report shows: what changed on the site, index coverage, a handful of money queries, landing pages, and enquiries or revenue where tracking exists. A bad report is 40 keywords in a table with green arrows and no URLs.

You should be able to open the live page and see the change. If you cannot, the work did not happen.

Link building, PR and things to refuse

Earned mentions from real publications and partners can help. Paid networks, PBNs, and scaled guest posts on irrelevant sites are how you inherit a penalty later. Google’s spam policies live with the rest of Search Central documentation at https://developers.google.comsearchdocs.

Refuse ranking guarantees, secret algorithm access, and contracts that auto-renew for a year with no implementation clause.

In-house versus agency versus hybrid

In-house works when you have a developer and a writer and a product owner. An agency works when you need process and extra hands. Hybrid is common: agency for technical and strategy, you for product knowledge.

For a small export business, a hybrid with a clear punch list often beats a large brand-agency retainer that you never meet.

A trial period that is fair to both sides

Ninety days is a reasonable first window for technical cleanup and a first content wave — not for winning the industry. Define the artefacts: audit, implemented fixes, a set of pages improved, Search Console connected.

If you need ads in the same quarter, scope them separately so SEO is not blamed for CPC. See blog/seo vs google ads.