What to Expect From an SEO Company (And How to Get It)

Expectations for SEO companies vary, but businesses should expect more of their SEO agency in 2024. That means searching for more than an on-page, off-page, and technical SEO services provider but for an SEO services partner in building an effective and measurable SEO strategy that adapts vs. reacts to changes.

That’s why we’re focusing on what to expect from an SEO company that leads vs. follows in SEO.

What should an SEO company do?

SEO companies should fulfill their contractual obligations at the most basic level. Beyond that, the best SEO agencies should provide a custom solution that considers the search engine optimization (SEO) industry and the client’s short- and long-term goals, such as requiring enterprise SEO services in the future, to help the client succeed in its SEO and business goals.

What to expect from your SEO company

As an organization with more than 25+ years of experience in the SEO sector, we’ve seen SEO companies of all shapes and sizes (and some stellar SEO services). From that experience, we’ve developed our outline of what businesses should expect from an SEO agency.

So, keep reading to learn what to expect from your SEO company:

Dedicated point of contact

Your SEO service provider, whether an SEO firm or SEO consultancy, should provide you with a dedicated point of contact (POC). A dedicated POC streamlines communication, giving you a place to go for sharing resources, asking your questions for the SEO agency, or providing feedback.

It creates confusion and friction when you don’t know who to call (or have to call the main number).

SEO audit

Your partnership with an SEO firm should begin with a search engine optimization audit.

In some cases, agencies will complete this audit during the sales process to outline weaknesses, strengths, and opportunities, as well as where they’d recommend focusing their time.

Ongoing consulting

While there are plenty of search engine optimization best practices, your SEO firm shouldn’t operate from a checklist. Your business, industry, audience, and search landscape are unique, so your SEO company should consult you to create an SEO strategy based on your goals.

Our vision for ongoing consulting goes beyond developing and growing your SEO strategy. It also includes understanding your company’s bigger objectives — outside of SEO.

Our vision for ongoing SEO consulting services goes beyond developing and growing your SEO strategy. It also includes understanding your company’s bigger objectives — outside of SEO. This understanding can help your POC provide better recommendations that emphasize other digital marketing strategies.

Proactive monitoring

You should also expect proactive website monitoring from your SEO company. From monitoring your site’s uptime to auditing your SEO regularly, your agency should act as if they’re a member of your team and just as invested in your business and its mission.

Most SEO companies won’t go here because of the time and resource investment. In our experience, we’ve also seen agencies overload their representatives with accounts, which makes it difficult for these professionals to get energized about supporting your team.

Industry-specific monitoring is also immensely beneficial, especially for more regulated industries, like the CBD sector.

Regular reporting

Reporting is a non-negotiable SEO deliverable — expect your SEO agency to report on their:

• Work
• Progress
• Impact

We’d like to challenge you to raise your expectations for SEO companies and their reporting, though.

While tracking SEO’s bottom-line impact is difficult, some SEO companies do this!

While it’s helpful to understand where your business ranks for keywords and how much traffic those keywords drive, it’s also impactful to see where search engine optimization has helped your organization generate a lead or create a sale.

This type of information lets you show supervisors and leadership your bottom-line impact.

While tracking SEO’s bottom-line impact is difficult, some SEO companies do this! With third-party or in-house technology, these agencies can allow you to see how many leads and sales SEO drove — and even forecast how much you could earn from SEO.

Company-aligned results

You should also expect your SEO agency to:

• Learn what your company wants to achieve with SEO
• Learn what your company wants to achieve as a whole

From this information, your SEO service provider can suggest company-aligned goals. They can then align your SEO strategy and program towards these goals, which will help you deliver (or push towards) the results leadership is looking for from SEO.

If you partner with an industry-specific SEO provider, like an HVAC SEO company, they’ll often come into the partnership with some understanding of what matters most to your organization.

Transparent communication

If you’re like most businesses, you won’t work with an SEO agency in your area. Even if you do, you’ll likely communicate through email, project management software, video calls, or phone calls most of the time.

No matter the communication channel, communication is critical.

When you partner with an SEO company, you should expect them to provide regular, transparent communication. The regularity can vary from weekly to monthly — communication less frequently than that tends to lead to a less successful relationship and SEO campaign.

If you are looking to partner with an agency in your area, we’ve researched the best SEO companies across countries and cities, like USA SEO agencies and UK SEO companies, to help start your search.

Competitor monitoring

Search engine optimization service providers should also proactively monitor your competitors. While many will analyze your competition at the start of your relationship, few will continue to analyze how competitors gain, lose, or maintain search real estate.

From their ongoing insights, your point-of-contact can enhance your strategy.

Subject matter experts

Search engine optimization is filled with specializations, including:

• Off-page SEO
• On-page SEO
• Technical SEO
• Local SEO
• Ecommerce SEO services
• Voice SEO
• And more

Not to mention, some areas overlap with SEO, like your content management system (CMS).

From the best SEO service providers, businesses should expect access to these subject matter experts. Whether speaking with them on a call directly or hearing their feedback from your point of contact, these specialized experts should be available to supercharge your SEO campaign.

Hands-free solutions

You outsourced your SEO to get help.

Businesses should expect their SEO agency to provide a hands-free solution. While your SEO team will likely have some initial onboarding questions, they should have the means to execute your strategy for you.

Businesses should expect their SEO agency to provide a hands-free solution.

This arrangement isn’t possible for all businesses.

For example, if you can’t provide your SEO firm with SEO access, they can’t work on your site directly. However, they should have the communication skills to work through this hurdle so it’s seamless for you to make updates.

Customized solutions

You should also expect your SEO company to provide a customized solution based on your:

• Business
• Industry
• Target audience
• Short- and long-term goals
• Existing SEO

While pre-built SEO plans can help you get started, the agency should tailor those plans to you. For example, SEO.com offers tailored SEO for energy companies, locksmiths, pest control, manufacturing, B2B, B2C and other industries.

SEO industry updates

Proactiveness is a beautiful trait in SEO agencies because that proactiveness extends to your SEO strategy’s success. When you have a provider that follows updates in the SEO industry via SEO courses, algorithm updates, and more, you lead the market vs. follow.

Upfront billing

Even though SEO plans vary, SEO firms should still provide transparent invoices and billing. That way, you can see and understand what you’re paying for each interval. For example, if your business requires additional hours a particular month, your invoice should highlight that.

Is it worth paying for an SEO company?

Whether paying for an SEO company is worth it depends on that company’s ability to:

• Optimize your time
• Achieve your goals
• Meet your company’s objectives

If an SEO agency doesn’t do that, they’re likely not worth partnering with because they’re not delivering a return on investment. However, it’s important to give your agency enough time to work (which is around six months) before evaluating their performance.

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Get your expectations exceeded

So you debated in-house vs. agency SEO, and you’ve learned what to expect from an SEO company, but where do you find an SEO agency that does all the above? At WebFX (the team behind SEO.com), we don’t just believe in the above expectations for SEO companies — we follow through with them in our SEO services.

WebFX is one of the best SEO companies in Canada, the U.S., and around the world. Our team has more than 25+ years of experience driving revenue-driving SEO campaigns for clients.

Speak with our award-winning team to learn how our SEO firm exceeds expectations by contacting us!