Is Your SEO Agency Actually Helping? 5 Signs to Watch Out For 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Why Your SEO Agency Might Not Be the Right Fit
• Stagnant Results –
• Unrealistic Promises
• No Strategy in Place
• Sudden Drops in Traffic
• Search-engine First Approach
• A Questionable Link Building Practice
• Partner with a Trusted Agency that Believes in Authentic Results

SEO is an investment in growth. When started along the right lines, it can get you places, perhaps even to the first page of search engines. 

Since SEO is so vast and not everyone’s expertise, you may be thinking of entrusting your website’s SEO or may have already hired an agency. 

Of course, when experts are in charge, everything’s great. Except,

When the SEO team is not on your side. They’re working in the shadows, emptying your bank every month, with no quantifiable results or accountability in sight.

If you think you’ve made a mistake hiring an SEO agency and want to be sure, keep reading.

Why Your SEO Agency Might Not Be the Right Fit

Here’s why you may need to let go of your SEO company NZ:

1. Stagnant Results – 

Most SEO teams may start out on a good note. Identifying competitors, selecting the right keywords, publishing content, etc. The beginning feels like a fresh start, not too far from achieving the targets. You believe if the work is getting done, the results will show up.

The problem is when you see no progress despite several months of performing the same activities. 

Usually, it takes 7-8 months to reflect your website rankings based on certain keywords. It’s weeks of content marketing, off-site and on-site SEO, and mobile optimisation that leads to these small but significant results. 

SEO is a medley of these operations undertaken together to achieve a common goal i.e. to get more visibility. If any or all of these are not working, the SEO team will know. It will take no time to analyse it and shift the focus to a better alternative.

Not having an adequate response or you think making up excuses is a sign to reconsider your contract with an agency that doesn’t know what it’s doing in the first place.

2. Unrealistic Promises 

Does your agency sound like any of this –

“We can guarantee you 1st position on Google”

“We’ll boost your traffic within 2-5 months of performing SEO”

First off, there’s no such thing as “guarantee” in SEO. An experienced person performing SEO would know there’s no shortcuts to success when it comes to search engine optimisation, even if the bar for competition is low.

So, claiming to be in 1st position is almost always a bluff. This is because rankings constantly shift every second, owing to the number of websites making changes every time. 

There are many other websites related to yours, perhaps your competitors that may make changes to their pages which the search engines will always reflect in the search results within the blink of an eye.

This will keep reshuffling the page every time changes are made to a website. Some websites may gain a higher position, while others may lose the rank for certain keywords. 

Second, claiming to boost your traffic in a few months is a red flag in itself. While the agency may be confident that their SEO services will be worth it, it’s possible that you may not even see the results for the first 6 months of starting the project! 

For a trusted SEO agency that has seen it all, it would never guarantee something that it isn’t sure of. It can only do what’s best for your business i.e. perform legitimate search engine optimisation techniques to rank better.

3. No Strategy in Place 

You have every right to know what your SEO company is doing with your business’s website and money. Good agencies are capable of describing the approaches and tactics they plan to utilise on your website.

When looking for SEO services, it’s best practice to look into their prior accomplishments, techniques, the kind of links they create, and so on. If they hesitate to reveal any facts, they’re not taking your project seriously.

The right SEO company will always keep you informed. That’s because the work they do may do irreversible harm to your business. They must submit regular progress updates. The organisation must also provide you with plans for upcoming activities.

4. Sudden Drops in Traffic 

Dips in traffic are normal. Search engines like Google release algorithm updates every now and then to help users navigate their search journey. The thing is, your partner SEO agency should be able to defend these dips.

An experienced SEO professional knows what to look forward to and what to prepare for. They would always protect your website against any blows and come up with adaptive strategies to balance out the situation.

If they have no clue or are not responsive to such a scenario, chances are you’ve entrusted your website to a team that doesn’t value your project.

5. Search-engine First Approach

SEO is a priority for many businesses these days because it gets them noticed on search engines, particularly Google. 

But here’s the catch: discussing with your SEO agency shouldn’t be limited to ranking. You should also be able to generate leads and conversions. Why? Because being ranked first is nothing if it does not materialise into sales.

Be aware of SEO agencies who are preoccupied with search engines while disregarding leads. Here’s a hint from Google: their most recent page experience improvement focuses on user experience.  

The idea is to make websites appealing to users. Google thinks that this leads to corporate success, since satisfied users become engaged customers.

6. A Questionable Link Building Practice

Scam Alert! You may be contacted by an SEO provider that will talk at great length for creating backlinks. While backlinking is an important part in your SEO strategy, it’s not the only one.

Many SEO agencies may end up creating low-quality backlinks that are unrelated to their website. If they sense your inability to distinguish between a good and a terrible backlink, they will keep duping you forever. 

Not only can poor backlinks put your website at risk of being penalised, it can also create technical debt for you in the long run. 

Powerful backlinks located on high authority websites are still evaluated since they increase confidence in your company site. However, Google strictly outlaws link exchange, link purchase, non-natural link schemes, low-quality connections, and so forth.

Google suggests that you generate relevant and original content that will grow in popularity spontaneously. This allows other websites to establish relevant and high-quality connections to your site. In other words, Google prioritises link earning over link creating.

Furthermore, if your SEO company has a blog network and adds links to your business website, remove them as soon as feasible. They are doing it to create links off of you, and in no way they’re entitled to use your website like this.

It is not suggested that your SEO company link your website to theirs, either via a sidebar or footer widget. It’s typical practice these days, particularly among web designers. They do this to promote their work.

However, this is not the case for SEO firms. And it is not conventional for the public to know that you had someone help you with your SEO. It is your company, and you may choose not to inform anyone. Don’t allow any SEO agencies to trade links.

Partner with a Trusted Agency that Believes in Authentic Results 

It’s okay to end up with an agency you thought would be the best fit for your business but things didn’t work out like you expected. The earlier you realise this and let them go, the better it is for your business.

And yes, the SEO industry is replete with inept agencies out there. That’s why you should look out for any red flags that may waste your time and resources in the long run. 

If you’ve already hired an SEO agency, you can always come back to this blog and figure out whether they keep your best interests in mind or not.

Don’t want to see your money go down the drain? Set up a call with us and we’ll guide you through!