How to Spot an Ineffective SEO Agency?

The global agencies SEO services market which was worth USD 41.97 billion in 2021 is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.7% to reach a total valuation of USD 108.89 billion by the year 2026. The primary factor driving this growth is the increasing number of people using smartphones and internet services. This has made access to information and video content easy thereby requiring to optimize the search, positively impacting the SEO services market.

What is SEO Agency
Signs of an Ineffective SEO Agency
Conclusion

What is SEO Agency

Simply explained, an SEO agency is an external company that acts as an additional marketing arm with a goal to increase visibility in searches across devices and audiences as well as enrich user journeys through websites to increase the conversion rates from prospective to customers. An SEO agency helps a business achieve –

• Better visibility
• Better traffic
• More leads
• More conversions
• Better ROI

An effective SEO agency would deliver on all the above-mentioned points through-

• Clear and concise communication
• Site audit
• Outlining objectives
• Conducting keyword research
• Analyzing any penalties affecting client sites
• Analyzing the current link profile
• Optimizing existing content
• Optimizing site structure
• Creating new and engaging content
• Building links
• Reaching out to the target audience
• Monitoring the number of brands mentioned across the web
• Monitoring results
• Reporting such results with insights

22 Best SEO Tools To Use in 2023 | SEO For SaaS Startups

SEO is critical for your SaaS company to stay ahead of the competition. Here is a list of top SEO tools you must try today for long-term success.

StartupTalkyRishabh Rathi

Signs of an Ineffective SEO Agency

The market of SEO agencies is saturated with SEO agencies being probably present in every area. Due to its crowding, it falls to the business owners to research and choose the SEO agency that best fits their needs. Having said that, there are a number of signs that must not be ignored in the quest for an SEO Agency. These are the warning signs that indicate the SEO agency’s ineffectiveness and highlight their incompetency.

Making Tall and Unrealistic Promises

This is probably one of the most significant signs of an incompetent agency. For instance, a promise of permanent or long-term holding the number one position for certain keywords is a promise that is as unreal as it is impossible. Rankings are consistently shifting due to the sheer volume of the changes that various websites are making to their content. As and when competitors make changes to their online content, the various search engines are updating their results pages as well.

Owning a Business’s Data and Logins

A demand of this nature coming from any SEO agency should raise many red flags as this is an attempt to gain full control over the business’s logins, data, and reporting. This kind of demand can appeal to business owners with the mindset of allowing such agencies to handle the entire gamut of SEO-related work because they are being paid to handle it. However, this can prove dangerous as such data and logins can be used to keep the contract valid. Such a move from the business owner can also land the business in a legal dispute and also can be costly due to creating new logins and adding new tracking codes to the business website.

Thin and Low-Quality Content on Their Site

As competitive as the world of SEO is, usually the content on SEO sites is extremely engaging and ranks higher in gaining audience attention due to effective keywords. However, what also factors in the ranking of a particular page is the length of the content and its details. Hence if the SEO agency’s own content on their page does not meet the criteria for high-ranking pages, it is a warning sign for any prospective client to move away from that particular agency. Another concern is when SEO agencies do not provide important and detailed explanations of complex concepts like SEO, PPC, and the pricing matrix. The co-relation is simple – if they cannot produce strong content for themselves, they are incapable of producing strong content for anyone else.

No Maintenance and Only One-fixes

Optimizing a website for the best possible results isn’t a one-time task. It’s an ongoing and never-ending maintenance process. And a good and effective SEO agency knows it. SEO trends are continuously evolving and changing due to consistent shifts and change in search engines and users. SEO agencies who do not consistently update, upgrade and maintain their sites cannot offer effective strategies to their clients.

No Understanding Of the Industry or Competition

SEO is a marketing technique and thereby sensitive to different industries and the competition within them. If the agency does not take the initiative to understand the industry in which the business operates as well as the competition it faces, it cannot offer an effective solution or strategy to achieve high-ranking content. If an SEO agency does not understand the business, its clients, its concerns, its USP, and more importantly its competition, it is an agency that should not be considered.

Unclear Approach Methods

SEO agencies, although different in their ideology, follow a set of best practices that are based on ethics and delivering value for money to the client. Any SEO agency that tries to hide its method of operating is, most likely, engaging in questionable practices like cloaking, link schemes, keyword stuffing, and unrelated directories. Such practices are most likely a waste of money and do not contribute towards any discernible results for the business.

Conclusion

SEO agencies are everywhere and hence, weeding out the effective ones is a process that might be time-consuming. However, it is always to the advantage of the businesses and their owners to ascertain that the SEO agency working on their behalf is genuine, engages in ethical business practices, and showcases deliverable results backed by realizing it.

FAQs

What is an SEO agency?

An SEO agency is an external company that acts as an additional marketing arm with the goal to increase visibility in searches across devices and audiences as well as enrich user journeys through websites to increase the conversion rates from prospects to customers.

What does an SEO agency help a business to achieve?

An SEO agency helps a business achieve –

• Better visibility
• Better traffic
• More leads
• More conversions
• Better ROI

What are the signs of an ineffective SEO agency?

Below are the signs of an ineffective SEO agency -

• Making Tall and Unrealistic Promises
• Owning a Business’s Data and Logins
• Thin and Low-Quality Content on Their Site
• No Maintenance and Only One-fixes
• No Understanding Of the Industry or Competition
• Unclear Approach Methods