When a business hires any SEO agency, the first few months usually goes in waiting because everybody knows that SEO takes time. But the problem starts when six or eight months are passed and the owner still dont know if the money is giving any return or not. Since agencies send big reports full of graphs and numbers, many clients just open it once and close the email without understanding much.
So here are some simple ways to check whether your agency is really doing the work or just showing activity on paper.
1. Check the Leads, Not Only the Rankings
Most agencies like to talk about rankings because its easy to show in a report. But ranking on some keyword which nobody searches is not going to bring any business. Ask them which keywords are bringing actual calls and enquiries. If your phone is not ringing more than before, then the rankings are not doing the job.
2. Open Google Analytics and Search Console Yourself
Let me tell you that you dont have to depend only on the agency report. Ask for the access of Google Analytics and Search Console (both are free tools from Google) for your own website, and every month just check the organic traffic and clicks. If the numbers are slowly going up, its a good sign. Suppose the agency is not ready to give you the access, then that itself is something you should worry about.
3. Ask What Work Was Done This Month
A good agency can always tell you what they did in the month, like how many pages they optimized, which blogs were published and from where the backlinks came. When the answer is very general like "we are working on the authority of the website", better to ask for the exact list. Real work is always visible on the website also.
4. Look at the Quality of Backlinks
Now if we talk about backlinks, many agencies build hundreds of links from spam sites only to show a big number. These kind of links can harm your website after some time. Ask them for the list and open few of those websites yourself. If they look like fake directory pages or have nothing related to your business, its not a good work.
5. Compare With Your Competitors
Search your main services on Google and see where your competitors are coming and where you are. After six months of SEO, you should at least see that the gap is getting less. If competitors are moving up and you are standing at the same place, then the strategy needs a change.
At the end of the day, SEO is a long process but it should show some improvement every few months. If you are running a business in Mumbai and not happy with your current agency, my suggestion is to take a second opinion from an experienced seo expert in Mumbai who can audit the work and tell you clearly where things stand. A small audit can save lot of money which otherwise goes in the wrong direction.
