Choosing an agency
How to choose an SEO agency when you aren’t an SEO expert
Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor
First published Updated 7 min read
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Decide what you need before you meet anyone
Most bad hires happen because nobody defined the job. Three agencies turn up with three views of what’s wrong, and the most confident pitch wins.
You’re making two purchases, in this order: a diagnosis of what’s holding you back, then delivery of what the diagnosis calls for. Skip the diagnosis and you can end up paying for content when the problem was a redirect chain, or for links when four of your pages were competing for the same search.
So write a one-page brief first: what you sell, what a good lead is worth, what you think is wrong, what you’ve tried, how much time your team has and what you’d count as a result. Send the same page to every agency.
Two purchases, in order
Buy the diagnosis first and the delivery second
Bought separately, quotes are easier to compare and a wrong choice costs far less. Twelve months of delivery before anyone has diagnosed your site is a bet on the agency’s guess.
A diagnosis
- Someone skilled reviews your site and market
- They tell you what’s holding the business back
- Bought first, and on its own
- A small purchase with a clear report
Delivery
- Doing what the diagnosis found
- Bought second, once the job is clear
- Twelve months bought before a diagnosis is a gamble
- Priced against a scope that has been checked
The proposal
What should a good SEO proposal tell you?
Four things: what you’ll get, in what order, who does it and how it’s measured. A proposal that can’t answer these is a brochure.
What they will deliver
Look for named deliverables. "Technical SEO" is a category. "A crawl and log-file review of your product pages, with a ranked fix list for your developers by week three" is a deliverable. If you can’t picture what you will receive, nobody has promised to make it.
What order it happens in
Month one and month six should look different. Most of the skill in SEO is the order: fix indexing before writing content, stop pages competing with each other before building links to them. If every month looks the same, there’s no plan behind the retainer.
Who will do it
Ask for names, seniority and how much of each person’s week you get, and which parts go to subcontractors (most often writing and link building). Subcontracting is fine; not being told about it is a problem.
How you will measure it
Ask for the baseline (when it was recorded and from which account), how each metric is defined, which conversions count, and whether you can open the raw data yourself at any time. If the only view of results is a slide the agency makes, you can’t check your own account.
A method
How to choose an SEO agency in six steps
Write your own brief first
One page, sent to every agency, describing your business and the problem as you see it. It takes an afternoon and helps your decision more than anything else here.
You get: A one-page brief every agency answers
Shortlist on similar work they have done
An agency that ranks well for "SEO agency" is good at marketing itself, which says little about whether it can market a fabrication business or a dental group. Shortlist on similar work, how they write about SEO and who they employ.
Pay for the diagnosis
Buy a scoped audit or a short discovery project from your top one or two. It costs a fraction of a year’s retainer and shows how they think once the pitch is over. Agree up front that you keep the report.
You get: A findings report you keep either way
Meet the person who will run your account
Insist on it, without the salesperson leading. Ask what they found hardest on a recent account and what they would do differently. Practitioners give specific answers; salespeople talk in themes.
Check the case studies with the table below
Pick one case study and ask every question in the table. You want to know whether the agency has the underlying numbers and will show them. If they hesitate at "what was the starting number?", you have your answer.
Read the contract before you look at the pitch deck again
Check the term, the notice period, how deliverables are defined, who owns the accounts, who keeps the content and links when you leave, and what happens if your main contact leaves or you pause. Negotiate now, while you have the most bargaining power.
You get: A signed scope you could enforce
The shape of a fair deal
What should a fair SEO contract include?
Any capable agency should accept everything in the first list. Push back if a contract includes anything from the second.
Reasonable to expect
- Named deliverables on a set schedule, so "ongoing SEO" means something specific each month.
- You own every account: analytics, Search Console, ad accounts, the Business Profile, the domain, the DNS and the CMS.
- You know who runs your account and can talk to them directly, as well as to an account manager.
- Reports tied to the conversions you care about, with the raw platform data open to you at any time.
- A notice period you could use in practice, and a written handover of documents, dashboards and content.
- A clear list of what’s subcontracted and to whom.
Reasonable to refuse
- A minimum term longer than it takes to see whether the SEO is working, with no way out if they don’t deliver.
- Deliverables described only as hours, points or "campaigns", with nothing you’d receive attached.
- Assets built inside accounts the agency owns and keeps when you leave.
- A "proprietary method" that stops you seeing what was done to your own site.
- Links sold at a price per link, with the sites not named.
- Automatic renewal with a notice window shorter than the reporting cycle.
Proof
How to check an agency case study
| Dimension | What’s usually shown | What to ask next |
|---|---|---|
| A percentage uplift | "Organic traffic up 340 per cent" | Up from what? Forty visits to a hundred and seventy-six is 340 per cent, and worth almost nothing to a business. |
| A traffic chart | A line rising over twelve months | Is that branded or non-branded search? Brand searches rise whenever a company does any other marketing, including marketing you paid someone else for. |
| A ranking screenshot | Position one for a named keyword | Checked from which location and device, and on what date? And does anyone search for that phrase? |
| The date range | A start point and an end point | Why does the chart start there? Starting at a seasonal low makes everything after it look better. |
| Attribution | "We did SEO and revenue grew" | What else changed at the same time? A site rebuild, a new product, a price change, a paid campaign or a competitor closing can all lift revenue. |
| The relationship | A logo and a quote | Is that client still with the agency? For how long, who ran the account, and does that person still work there? |
Questions
Choosing an SEO agency: common questions
How long should an SEO contract be?
Three to six months at first, then rolling with thirty to sixty days’ notice: long enough to judge the SEO fairly, short enough that you’re not stuck if it isn’t working.
What happens inside the term matters more than its length. A twelve-month term with monthly deliverables you could name is safer than a three-month term where nothing is defined.
Should I pay for an audit before signing a retainer?
Often, yes. A paid diagnosis is the cheapest way to test an agency before you commit a year of budget, and you keep the report whoever you hire.
Check that the report is yours to take elsewhere, and that the fee isn’t just a discount you win back by signing a retainer.
Is a larger agency safer than a small one?
Not by itself. A bigger firm gives you steady processes and cover when someone leaves; a smaller one usually gives you direct access to the person running your account.
Either way, ask: who works on your account, how much of their week do you get, and what happens if they leave?
How do I compare two proposals with completely different scopes?
Don’t compare the proposals directly. Send everyone your own one-page brief and compare how each agency answers the same problem.
If it’s too late for that, ask each agency to price the other one’s scope. Their reasons for doing it differently tell you more than either document.
What should I own when the engagement ends?
Everything the agency produced and everything it ran on: the analytics and Search Console properties, the ad accounts, the Business Profile, the domain and DNS, the content, the site, and any documents or dashboards built for you.
Write it into the contract as a list. Handover disputes are almost always about something nobody thought to name.
References
Sources for how to choose an SEO agency
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
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