Signs It’s Time for a New SEO Agency
Working with an SEO agency can help your business find qualified leads and achieve new levels of growth. An SEO agency will work with you to create a strategy that suits your individual business goals and industry best practices.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of SEO agencies in the digital marketplace. It’s not uncommon for a business to discover that the SEO agency they’re working with isn’t what it seems.
Here are some compelling signs that it’s time to shift your focus and work with a new SEO agency.
You’re Not Seeing Progress
Making strides in SEO takes time and patience. This isn’t a quick fix; it’s a long-term improvement strategy that requires dedication and adaptation. While you might not see much movement in the first couple of months, there should be some notable changes within the analytics — for example, more traffic to an improved blog post. A skilled SEO agency will be able to highlight those.
If you’re not seeing any progress, it might be time to shift to a new SEO agency. Ask your existing agency to quantify what they’ve been working on and whether their current strategy has merit. If they can’t provide data to back up their results, look elsewhere.
They Take a One-Track Approach
SEO is a multifaceted beast, with several areas that provide opportunities for improvement. The best way to make significant changes with SEO is to target several of them. According to the experts at Redesign, a skilled SEO expert will look at the existing strategy, the technical side of the website, content creation and improvements, backlink opportunities, keyword optimizations, and more.
If your current agency is focused solely on buying backlinks or keyword research, they won’t have the impact you need for success. Ask your existing agency how they’re making improvements. If it seems too hyper-focused, consider shifting to another provider.
They Engage in Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO refers to risky SEO hacking strategies that will cause more harm than good in the long run. These are the strategies that are meant to trick the system to get results — and they’re often effective! The problem is that search engines and algorithms are ever-evolving to find and penalize these efforts. Your site might perform really well for a few months, then go crashing down the SERP results and never recover.
Keyword stuffing and hidden text are two prime examples of Black Hat SEO. If your agency forsakes content quality to use as many keywords as possible, your positive results will be short-lived. The same applies to hidden text, in which they add keywords in the same color text as the background, so it isn’t apparent to human readers.
Low-quality link building is another common Black Hat SEO strategy. While link building is a powerful and effective way to improve your rankings, taking a shady approach will backfire. Black Hat link building includes linking to low-ranking or blacklisted websites, adding spammy comments on other blogs, and so on.
They Over-Promise
Beware of the agency that promises you a number one spot on Google or a specific increase in traffic. Even the most skilled and knowledgeable SEO experts have limited control over the outcomes. Achieving a number one spot for a high-ranking keyword is nearly impossible, especially for small businesses. While you can promise an improvement, there’s no way of analyzing or understanding the percentage beforehand.
If your SEO agency over-promises and under-delivers, get out and find someone more realistic and altruistic.
They Can’t Answer Your Questions
Finally, communication is everything when working with an SEO agency. They should be clear in their reporting and showcase what work is being done. Furthermore, they should be able to answer any questions you have that challenge their results.
If your agency can’t answer questions or lacks transparency in reporting, find a new provider.
If you’ve noticed any of these red flags with your existing SEO agency, it’s time to find someone more reliable to handle this essential marketing task.
