How to Know if Your SEO Agency is Slacking Off

TL;DR: If you’re wondering whether your SEO agency isn’t delivering as promised, Joshua Steimle’s piece on Forbes explains a tactful way to “out” lazy agencies.

Here’s a scenario I’ve seen a lot: an SEO agency contacts a small business and makes a pitch. “With our SEO services,” they say, “your business will get more traffic, sales, and profits!”

It sounds good, so the small business becomes a client.

Then a month passes. Then two months. Not much change.

Is this SEO agency actually doing anything?

Forbes ran a great piece by Joshua Steimle about how to know if your SEO agency is actually working… or if you should fire them.

(Note that micromanaging isn’t an option there. Either your SEO agency is doing their job, or they’re on the street, so to speak.)

Here’s what he says about how to know what’s going on with your agency:

Ask them. But ask them tactfully. If your tone is accusatory, then you run the risk of damaging the relationship. They might be doing a great job on everything, but perhaps they aren’t communicating as well as they could. If this is the case, a one-time request should give you enough information to see that your firm knows what they’re doing, and that they are working hard. Once you have this information, you’ll get the best results from your SEO firm by trusting them and letting them do their work.

But if you ask for information and get the run around, or your SEO firm can’t explain what they’re doing with specific detail, or you see a sudden flurry of activity and a then an explanation 2 to 3 days later, then your SEO firm might be hiding the fact they’re not doing much work for you. If this is the case, you shouldn’t try to manage the SEO firm yourself, you should fire them and find an SEO firm that will treat you right.

It’s not too long, but if you have a few minutes, check it out.