Red Flags When Hiring an SEO Agency
Ordered from most serious to least, so you can tell whether the thing worrying you is fatal or merely untidy. It also sets out five signs that are commonly mistaken for warnings and are usually the opposite, two of which describe us.
Some Of These Are Fatal And Some Are Just Untidy
Not every warning sign means leaving. Some of what follows should end a conversation immediately. Some is worth raising and watching. The page is ordered by seriousness so you can judge which you are looking at.
How the order works. Most serious first.
The earlier a warning appears below, the harder it is to explain away. The last few are worth noticing and are not on their own reasons to walk out.
Who is likely reading this. Two kinds of person.
Somebody choosing between firms, plus somebody already paying one and uneasy. The second group needs the ordering more, because being alarmed by something minor is its own cost.
What this page does not do. Accuse anybody.
It describes practices rather than businesses. No firm is named. No kind of agency is characterised as acting in bad faith, because size, location and business model tell you nothing about conduct.
What to do with a warning you spot. Usually ask.
Most items below have an innocent version. Raising it directly and listening to the answer resolves more of these than leaving does. Block eleven covers what to do if the answer does not settle it.
Guaranteed Rankings
Nobody controls where a site appears. A guarantee of a specific position is therefore either a promise that cannot be kept or one attached to a phrase nobody searches for.
Why nobody can promise it. The system is not theirs.
Results are produced by a search engine nobody in this trade operates, influenced by competitors nobody can constrain. The work affects the outcome and does not determine it.
The version that is technically deliverable. And worthless.
A guarantee attached to a phrase so specific that nothing else competes for it. That can be achieved and it produces nothing, because the reason nothing competes is that nobody is looking.
Why this one disqualifies outright. It is not a judgement call.
Every other item on this page has an innocent explanation available. This one does not: anybody offering it either does not understand their own trade or is knowingly promising the undeliverable.
The softer variants. Same problem.
Promises of a specific number of enquiries, a stated increase in traffic or first page placement within a named period. Each is the same claim wearing different clothing.
Where the detail sits. Elsewhere.
Our risky practices material covers what tends to be done to chase such promises and why it carries risk for the site owner.
Nobody Will Explain What They Do
A refusal to describe the work, presented as protecting a proprietary method, is frequently a cover for there being nothing much to describe.
Why the secrecy argument fails. There are no secrets.
The principles of this work are published, discussed openly and taught. What differs between firms is judgement and effort rather than hidden knowledge, so there is nothing that explaining would give away.
What you are entitled to. Understanding what you buy.
Not a technical education. A description, in terms you follow, of what will be done and why. Anybody unwilling to provide that has removed your only means of holding them to anything.
The subtler version. Complexity as deterrent.
Explanations pitched deliberately above your level, so that asking again feels foolish. That produces the same result as refusing and is harder to object to.
How to test it. Ask twice.
Ask for it again in simpler terms. Somebody who understands their own work can always simplify it. Unwillingness at the second attempt is the answer.
Why it sits this high. It disables everything else.
If you cannot understand the work, you cannot assess the reporting, the proposal or the results. This single problem makes every other check unusable.
Bought Links And Volume Placements
Offers involving purchased placements on other websites, else large quantities of mentions produced quickly, carry a risk that falls on the site owner rather than on the firm arranging it.
What is being offered. Described plainly.
Payment for a mention or a link on somebody else's site, else bulk production of such placements. The offer is usually framed as building authority.
Where the risk lands. On your website.
Any consequence attaches to the site that benefited, which is yours. The firm that arranged it carries no exposure, moves on and is frequently not contactable by the time anything surfaces.
Why the offer is attractive. It sounds like progress.
Quantities are easy to report and easy to understand, which makes this one of the simplest things to sell to a client who wants visible activity.
What to ask. One question.
Ask whether anything is being paid for placement. A firm doing this legitimately can answer plainly. The question is reasonable regardless.
Where the substance sits. The risky practices material.
Our material there covers what these practices are and why they carry risk, without describing how they are carried out.
You Do Not Own Your Own Website
Some arrangements leave the site, the domain or both with the agency. The business discovers this at the point it wants to leave, which is the worst possible moment to find out.
How it happens. Frequently without any intent.
A domain registered by whoever set things up, else a site built on a platform the agency owns. Nobody planned a trap and the effect at the end is identical.
Why it is discovered late. It never matters until it does.
Ownership has no bearing on a working relationship. It becomes the entire question the moment you want to end one, which is why nobody checks at the start.
What to check now. Three things.
Who the domain is registered to, whether the site can be moved elsewhere and whose name your analytics and profile accounts are in. All three are checkable today.
Why it counts as a warning. When it is deliberate.
An arrangement structured so leaving means abandoning your own assets is a retention device rather than a service. Reluctance to put ownership in writing is the signal.
What good looks like. Explicit.
The contract page sets out what should be written down, including the four things we commit to.
Unsolicited Contact Claiming Problems With Your Site
Messages arriving unprompted, stating that your website has faults, is losing you customers or has been penalised. Nearly everybody with a website receives these.
The pattern. Alarm without inspection.
Specific-sounding claims made by somebody who has not examined your site properly. The details are usually generic enough to apply to almost any website.
Why it works. Nobody can check it.
A business owner cannot readily verify a technical claim about their own site, so an alarming assertion produces worry rather than scepticism. That gap is the whole mechanism.
What it tells you about the sender. How they win work.
Firms with satisfied clients and referrals rarely need to approach strangers with warnings. This is a volume approach, which says something about what is being sold.
The legitimate version. It exists.
Somebody who has genuinely looked, says something specific and verifiable, then does not manufacture urgency. Rare, though worth distinguishing from the rest.
What to do. Verify independently.
If a claim concerns you, have it checked by somebody with no interest in the answer. That costs little and settles it.
Reporting That Never Contains Bad News
Every real campaign has poor months. A report showing improvement every single time indicates selection rather than success.
Why poor months are inevitable. Too many variables.
Seasonality, competitors acting, algorithm changes and ordinary variation all produce periods where things go backwards. Uninterrupted improvement across every measure does not occur naturally.
What is actually happening. Choosing what to show.
Somebody is selecting the measures that moved favourably. That is a presentational decision rather than a falsehood. It makes the report a selection rather than a picture.
Why it matters. You cannot decide anything.
A report that only ever confirms things are going well gives you nothing to act on. Its function has become reassurance rather than information.
How to test it. Ask directly.
Ask what did not work this month. Somebody comfortable with their work answers easily because they have an explanation and a next step attached.
Where the mechanics sit. The reporting page.
How an SEO agency reports on results covers which figures flatter and what a report should contain.
No Questions About Your Business
An agency that quotes without asking about your business is selling something decided in advance. The absence of questions tells you the answer was ready before you arrived.
What they should be asking. Commercial things.
Which services make money, what work you want more of, what you would rather not take and what you can realistically serve. None of it can be researched from outside.
Why it matters to the work. Aim.
Without those answers, effort goes towards whatever looks easiest to achieve rather than what is worth achieving. The work can be perfectly competent and pointed at the wrong thing.
What it usually indicates. A fixed offering.
Identical packages sold to every client, where the quantities were set by their operations rather than by your situation.
The related version. Asking only about budget.
Interest in what you can spend, with little interest in what you do. That sequence tells you which question the meeting was for.
What good looks like. Questions you did not expect.
Margin, capacity and what happens to an enquiry when it arrives. Questions to ask an SEO agency includes asking what they need from you.
Pressure To Sign Now
Urgency in this trade is a technique rather than a fact. Nothing about search work is time-critical in the way a sales process sometimes implies.
Why there is no genuine urgency. The work is slow.
Something taking months to show anything cannot become materially worse because you took a fortnight to decide. Delay costs you a fortnight rather than an opportunity.
The usual forms. Three of them.
A discount expiring shortly, limited availability this month, else a warning that competitors are moving and you will fall behind. All three are ordinary sales devices.
Why it sits low on this page. It is about selling rather than delivery.
A firm using pressure may still do good work. What it tells you is that their sales process is designed to prevent comparison, which is worth knowing without being decisive.
What it does justify. Slowing down.
The correct response is to take longer rather than less time. Anybody whose offer does not survive a fortnight's consideration has told you what the offer was worth.
The exception. Genuine capacity limits.
A small firm saying it can take one more client this quarter may simply be true. The difference is whether it is stated as information or deployed as leverage.
The Signs That Are Not Red Flags
Five things frequently read as warnings which usually indicate the opposite. Two of them describe us, which is worth saying on a page like this.
Being small. Not a weakness.
A sole trader or a handful of people may give your account more attention than a large firm where you are one of many. Size predicts capacity rather than quality.
Subcontracting, when disclosed. A normal arrangement.
Firms buy in capability across every trade. A well run arrangement with a capable supplier can beat an agency doing the work badly in-house. The objection is to concealment rather than the model. We supply other agencies ourselves, which is set out in what is white label SEO.
Asking for a minimum term. Frequently reasonable.
Where a firm does substantial early work on the expectation of a longer engagement, a term covering that exposure is a fair exchange rather than a trap. The test is whether it survives non-delivery.
Declining to guarantee anything. Accuracy.
A firm refusing to promise a position is being truthful rather than unconfident. It is regularly mistaken for weakness against a competitor who promises freely. We decline to guarantee positions.
Telling you something is a bad idea. The best sign there is.
Disagreement with a reason attached is what expertise sounds like. An agency agreeing with everything has stopped applying the judgement you are paying for.
If You Recognise Your Current Agency
Recognising something here does not mean leaving tomorrow. Work out which severity you are looking at, then decide. There is a sequence that works.
First, place it on the scale. Fatal or untidy.
A guaranteed ranking or an arrangement where you do not own your site is a different matter from a report that always looks positive. The first two justify acting, the third justifies asking.
Second, raise it. Most problems are never mentioned.
Agencies frequently do not know a client is unhappy. Several of these items have an explanation available. A direct conversation resolves more of them than changing firms does.
Third, secure what is yours. Before anything else.
Confirm access to your accounts and check who holds your domain. Do that while the relationship is functioning rather than while it is ending, whatever you eventually decide.
Fourth, decide with the diagnosis in hand. Not the alarm.
Changing agency without understanding what went wrong frequently reproduces the problem, since the same gap in your own oversight will still be there.
Where to go next. The switching page.
When to change your SEO agency covers leaving properly, including what to secure first and when staying is the better answer. The full series is on the hiring an SEO agency guide.
Two of the
five are
us.
We supply other agencies as a white label partner and we decline to guarantee positions. Both get read as warning signs and both are stated here rather than hidden. If you recognise something on this page in your current arrangement, we will tell you how serious it actually is.
What we commit to in writing:
Local £350 a month fixed. National £1,550 a month. Published rather than quoted on request.
Every guide.
One practice.
What an agency is, whether to buy at all, which model suits you, how to vet one, what things cost, what should be in a contract and how to work with them afterwards.
