How to Choose an SEO Agency: 10 Key Considerations

Going to market for an SEO agency is a huge task. In 2024, the agency and consultancy market has never been more populated, with many agencies overpromising on their capabilities and results to secure your business. The burden falls on you to find your way through this.

Finding the right agency with the same ethics, one you believe is a worthwhile investment and more importantly, one you can trust, is essential to getting a successful return on your investment (RoI).

To ensure you’re making the right choice, you need to approach the process fully prepared and have some key considerations in mind about your ideal SEO company.

Preparing to Choose an SEO Company

Choose a Goal

Beginning the process of engaging an SEO agency without preparing could have negative consequences for you and even the partner you end up choosing.

Acquiring SEO services from a third party should always be conducted with a goal in mind. The more specific this goal is, the better. There are a number of different types of goals that a third-party SEO company could provide, including:

• Improving your SEO performance in existing areas.
• Driving organic traffic to a new product, service, or website area.
• Conducting or assisting on a website migration.

During your selection process, you’ll share this goal with prospective agencies. Their proposed strategies and the research they conduct as part of it are key points for you to review. You may also seek agencies with specific experience in the goal you have in mind or your industry.

Review Case Studies

For any agency you’re thinking of requesting a proposal from, first take a look at their published case studies (if they don’t have any, run!).

Find case studies with businesses and goals that are relevant to your own. Check to see if there is any attached data – this is direct evidence of their performance – and then check the metrics they’ve published. You want to see evidence that the goals were achieved: was it just an increase in positions and traffic, or did revenue or leads improve?

Finally, check for quotes from the business they worked with. If they achieved the results they stated, there should be an attributed quote (though this can sometimes be hard to get).

Check their Prices and Promises

These two ‘P’s can make or break selecting an agency.

Pricing

Be up front and ask about pricing. Any good, open agency should have no issue about discussing their pricing and packages with you, and they should be able to deliver a quote quickly (as long as you have provided enough detail about the work you want them to conduct). Review their quotes carefully, keeping the following questions in mind:

• Do they seem too cheap? If yes, it could be that they are outsourcing work to countries with cheaper labour markets.
• Do they attach goals or a specific amount of work to be conducted to the pricing structure? Any price should be tied to one of these two items.

Promises

The maxim “under-promise and over-deliver” is often overused in sales and marketing, but when it comes to choosing an SEO agency it remains critically important.

Be very, very wary of any agency that promises you certain positions, revenue or results. SEO remains an unpredictable landscape, and there is no way an agency could ever promise that you will receive a certain result.

Don’t let that discourage you from looking at their predictions and projections, however. When backed with data and confidence, these can give you great insight into how your organic performance could improve. Just ensure that they don’t cross the line into over-committing themselves.

The 10 Key Things You Should Look for in an SEO Agency

These ten things are your key considerations when choosing an agency. Review any company against these factors before engaging their services.

1. Potential of Working Relationship

The potential of a great working relationship is needed whether hiring an agency, in house or freelancer to take care of SEO. In turn, this leads to the ability to have strong, honest discussions and meetings on SEO strategy, where all cards are on the table from the off, and progress is regularly seen in the account.

2. Business Understanding

The long term aim of an SEO campaign is to harness long term revenue for your business. Ask any potential SEO agencies to demonstrate experience within your industry and, of course, results from this experience.

3. RoI-Driven KPIs

Rankings are only an indication of success; the wrong rankings will still lead to no conversions or sales and thus no return on investment. Ensure KPIs are designed to fit around your different business goals, not the goals of the SEO agency.

4. Futureproof Campaigns

Google (and the ‘other’ search engines) are constantly changing. An SEO agency needs to be able to work in advance to this change and ensure any future algorithm updates do not end in a penalty or loss in traffic for your business. Make sure your agency knows the upcoming SEO trends.

5. Accredited SEO Account Managers

As a minimum an SEO account manager should have the Google certification, but there several other industry body accreditations which show a further understanding of the industry at large. Regularly question these accreditations with your agency as well as taking note of any industry nominations which they may have received.

6. Strategy-Driven SEO

If a decision on a website is made by an SEO company it needs to be backed up with evidence, particularly user evidence of how user experience will benefit from making the changes and how, in turn, this is likely to increase conversions.

7. Variety of Services

Some SEO agencies will specialise in content and some in technical SEO, some of course will cover everything. If the agency has a huge list of service, but doesn’t look like they have enough capacity or staff to be able to support these services, question it. Ensure you choose an SEO agency with enough firepower to suits your website’s needs.

8. Quick Problem Solvers

From time to time the market will change or a bug will enter a website. Your SEO agency needs to have the ability to find the root of any unexpected problems quickly. Ask them about recent changes in the search landscape and how they would overcome this when working on your account.

9. Agency Cost

Costing is always a difficult topic, but ensure you get what you pay for. Cheaper agencies may outsource work, which may lead to huge hidden costs in the end. Ask to know how your investment will be used. Overall, ask for RoI insights because even spending as low as £10 with no return is a waste of money.

10. Confidence in the Agency

Marketing managers always need to have confidence in their SEO agency. With this confidence and trust it is likely a strong working relationship can be formed. An SEO agency should easily slip into your company and enhance the work already being carried out.

The Right SEO Agency for You

If you’ve prepared correctly, and kept those 10 considerations in mind, you’ll have the information and insights you need to make an informed choice and pick an agency that can deliver the results you’re looking for in SEO.

If you’re unsure about anything, you can always discuss your concerns up front with the agencies you’re speaking to. Good agencies will listen to your concerns and be honest with you about whether or not they’re a good fit for your business. The more information you have, the better equipped you are to make the right choice.

Whether you’re looking to improve performance generally or undertake a specific SEO project, POLARIS has over a decade of experience conducting RoI-driven campaigns for B2B and eCommerce businesses. Learn more about our services and our credentials – or simply get in contact to discuss what you have in mind.