How to Choose an SEO Agency (or Whether You Need One at All)

Ask who will do the work, by name, and whether you will speak to them directly. Ask for two examples in your industry with the specific changes that produced the results. Ask what they would look at first on your site, and whether they will show you the audit before you commit to a retainer.

Ask how links are acquired. If the answer is vague, or involves buying placements, walk away - a manual penalty costs far more than the retainer ever saved.

Guaranteed rankings. Nobody honestly can guarantee them, because the algorithm changes constantly. Long lock-in contracts with no performance review. Reporting built on impressions and keyword counts rather than leads and revenue. And a refusal to hand over the accounts, because tracking and content you cannot access are not assets you own.

Agencies make sense when you need many specialists at volume across several markets at once, and you have the budget to absorb management overhead. In-house makes sense once search is a permanent, full-time function.

A senior freelancer makes sense when you want the person doing the work to be the person you talk to. You are not paying for office space, a sales team or a project manager who has never touched your code, which is why the same scope typically costs 40 to 60 percent less.

Put every proposal on one page: deliverables, who executes, reporting cadence, contract length, exit terms and total first-year cost. Then judge them on the same question - which one gives you the clearest path from where you are to more qualified enquiries?

For reference, our SEO audit is $750 one time, local SEO is $1,200 a month and the growth retainer is $2,500 a month, month to month, with no setup or cancellation fees. If the strategy is off track by month two, it gets adjusted at no extra cost.