With almost 60% of marketers working with insufficient budget, more are taking a second-look at their SEO company and asking, “Are they really working for me?”. With these steps, we’ll help you spot whether your SEO company is working:

Obviously, you will want to look for an SEO company with case studies and good reviews.

This will give you an indication of their reliability. It also helps to come prepared with the right SEO agency interview questions during the vetting process — covering pricing, deliverables, communication, and how they define success — before any contract is signed.

A trustworthy SEO company will also be upfront about its strategies, processes, and results. It will give you access to a control panel or to reports that will let you see how your company is doing, as well as when and what campaigns are running.

The biggest green flag of all will be the professionals within the company.

You can check their LinkedIn profiles and ask them about the team’s expertise. Ideally, a team with a mix of knowledge of SEO, like a content creator, a link-building specialist, and an analytics expert.

Green flags to look for:

• Clear, realistic promises: They provide attainable goals and timelines rather than quickly guaranteeing “number one on Google” results.
• Transparent reporting: They offer regular, detailed reports on key metrics, such as keyword rankings, traffic growth, conversions, and backlinks.
• Custom strategies: Avoid cookie-cutter packages. A good SEO company knows that strategies need to be unique for each client.
• White-hat practices: They adhere strictly to Google’s guidelines and avoid “black-hat” tactics, such as keyword stuffing or cloaking).
• Strong portfolio and case studies: They have proven success with previous clients in the form of SEO case studies, testimonials, and examples of improved metrics.
• Focus on content quality: They prioritize content as a cornerstone of SEO strategy, understanding that high-quality, relevant content is key to effective SEO.
• Proactive and analytical approach: They regularly analyze and adjust strategies based on data and search algorithm changes, and they can adapt their plans as needed to optimize your site’s performance.

There are a couple of red flags that tell you if the company you are working with is just in it for the short term. The best thing to remember is that SEO is a gradual process, and no one can guarantee specific rankings, as search engine algorithms are constantly changing.

Black-hat SEO tactics refer to techniques, such as keyword stuffing and false link-backs, to try to trick search engines into giving a website a higher rating. This usually doesn’t bode well for the client, as the website will get penalized, and their rankings will drop, along with the traffic and visibility.

Here are some red flags for you to spot that your SEO company might be involved in such methods:

• They make ‘guarantees’ on rankings in a short time frame
• They promise thousands of backlinks or instant traffic boosts
• They lack transparency on their techniques or strategies

You’re looking for more than “rankings” or “citations” from SEO — you’re looking for the numbers that impact your business’s growth, like qualified leads, online orders, and won deals.

You can tell if your SEO company is working by calculating their ROI.

Side note: Reputable agencies will do this for you, providing you with the numbers (and data sources) so you can demonstrate to leadership that your SEO investment is working.

If you don’t have this data available, there are a few formulas for calculating SEO’s ROI:

Based on these calculations, you can determine if your SEO company is meeting your expectations for performance.

After the above research, consider talking to your agency about your findings.

Note: In some cases, based on what they’ve found (like spammy link building, poorly-engineered AI content, or evidence of little-to-no-work), marketers will skip this step in favor of searching for a new SEO partner.

However, if you opt to speak with your agency, use that time to:

• Communicate your business’s success metrics
• Determine necessary changes, like a shift in strategy or account manager
• Reach alignment on expectations going forward

Here are some common questions that we get from our clients regarding SEO.

You will only start seeing a difference from SEO in three to six months. Even then, it will still be small numbers. In six to 12 months, things should start to pick up pace a little, and you will have a more continuous stream. Two years is generally how long it will take for a website to really come into its own and start ranking those top spots.

To do that, you must be vigilant with fresh content and optimization techniques. The good news is that once your site is established, it will be a continuous stream of reliable traffic.

A reliable SEO company should provide regular updates and maintain clear communications throughout the process. But even then, sometimes it feels like the results are taking forever!

SEO is a long-term strategy that often requires a lot of work, with results only yielding later. Think of it as the snowball effect. You start today, and it’s only small, but with time it builds momentum and explodes into an avalanche.

Patience is required with online marketing. If you feel unsure or that things are not going as fast as you would like, chat with your strategist. They can suggest other online marketing strategies, such as paid advertising, that you could use in parallel to quicken the numbers.

SEO is not dead. But the ghost of companies who made promises, couldn’t deliver, then announced it was dead, and that’s why nothing worked, which still lingers.

Many companies thought they would make millions to offer services to businesses without real expertise. They made crazy expectations and outrageous promises and then failed to deliver. Most of these companies are now nonexistent, but their reputation still lingers online.

No. An SEO company aims to increase your visibility, ensure constant traffic inflow, and help search engines rank your site for the correct terms and keywords. Continuing the user’s journey into the role of a customer would be for another digital department.

You would want to work with a web developer to make the site more user-friendly and pull in an online marketing strategist who understands the sales funnel. The SEO company can definitely assist you and create calls to action (CTAs) that direct the users to the right place, but you will need an overall user behavior and journey strategist. If you partner with a full–service agency, then they will definitely have the right team to work with you on increasing those conversions.

You might also be getting those leads from your SEO efforts, but if they are not converting on the last step, it could be your sales department. Take a look at those closing pitches and see if there is no bottleneck somewhere that is causing the issue.

The great news about SEO is that there are several ways to check if it is working — provided that you give it time to actually work. If six months have passed, and you are looking for results, try a few tools to get insights.

A good place to start is with Google Analytics. You can change the parameters to a three- to six-month timeline and see how the techniques and content have changed visibility over time. Ensure you tick the right boxes and that the traffic results you are looking at are from organic sources and not any paid advertising campaigns you may have.

Also, use a keyword tool and see how your websites rank for your keywords. High-value keywords should show that your site has been optimized accordingly. You should see it rank higher for these target keywords over time.

You can monitor this with available keyword tools online. Check with your SEO company that the right keywords are being used and that they understand your niche audience to ensure a real targeted boost.

To effectively evaluate your SEO efforts, you need comprehensive insights into your website’s performance. Regular monitoring of key metrics can help you understand the effectiveness of your strategies and identify areas for improvement.

Learn how our expert team can help you assess your current SEO strategy and implement effective solutions to enhance your online visibility. Get a proposal today to discover how we can support your efforts and drive better results for your business!