Keeping up with the ins and outs of Google search, its algorithm changes, its new approaches and additions — it’s practically a full-time job. While how people search on the internet is starting to shift, Google still holds the monopoly, which means your search engine optimization strategies are still vital to discoverability as we barrel toward the end of the year and the start of 2027.
For businesses and organizations that don’t have the time or resources to bring SEO in-house, the question is: How do you find the right SEO partner agency for your goals?
What an SEO Agency Can Do
The whole point of SEO is increasing organic search traffic to your website, but it’s a lot more complicated than that simple explanation and it requires long-term strategy. A lot of SEO tactics won’t show up in overnight successes; instead, they’ll build slowly and can provide better return on investment in the long run. SEO is the intersection of content development, website structure, backend analytics, and technical skills with the aim of getting your site either on or as close to appearing on the first page of the search results for your targeted keywords and phrases.
What to Do First When Finding an SEO Agency
Set Your Goals
As always, the best first step is to know your needs and goals. What do you want out of your SEO marketing? What performance indicators are you looking at? What does your ideal website visitor look like? Building brand awareness might take different strategies than boosting leads or revenue.
Make a List of Potential Agencies
Before you can compare different SEO companies, you need a list of potential options, ideally half a dozen or less or it might get a little messy and overwhelming.
A note of irony: Don’t make the mistake of overly relying on the Google search engine to help you find SEO agencies.
The agencies who hit the first page might not actually be the best or have the specific qualities you’re looking for. “Top 10” and “Best of” lists and pages are likewise iffy. A lot of times, these lists are aggregators, and the spots on the list are sold to agencies and SEO firms. A better option is to get recommendations from your personal and professional networks, as well as companies that are similar to yours but not competitive with you.
A Google search can be used as part of your quest, but tread carefully and don’t take anything at face-value.
How to Assess SEO Agencies
Once you have your shortlist of potential agencies, you need to compare and contrast to try and whittle down which one is a good fit for you.
Experience and Track Record
With an SEO agency, you want a true partner, someone committed to investing in the work that will result in long-term growth. This can mean:
- Looking at case studies, either directly in your industry or with companies similar to yours
- Getting a clear picture of their recent results and strategies
- Understanding what technical knowledge and skills they have and how they leverage it to keep up with SEO best practices
- Meeting the team you will be working with and getting familiar with their individual qualifications, experience and insights
Transparency and Accountability
A good SEO partner agency will have clear processes and procedures around maintaining transparency in their strategies. They don’t rely on shortcuts or shady practices. (Remember bottom-of-the-page keyword stuffing back in the day?) They’re committed to building links and branding gradually and organically and can be confident in their goals without making flashy, impossible promises.
Strategy and Reporting
The SEO strategies you implement are what makes or breaks your success. You don’t want to settle for a partner who has a copy-and-paste approach, slotting every client into the same general structure without customizing it for your industry, your market, your business.
An effective SEO agency will take the time to understand who your customers are, how they search, and how their behaviors change depending on where they’re at in the sales funnel. They should also be able to discuss staying adaptable and how they adjust to sudden shifts in the algorithms.
Reporting and communication are also important here. There should be regular, clear documentation of what the agency is doing, why they’re doing it, and what results you’re seeing. A dashboard of stats and percentages can look very flashy, but it’s useless unless you know exactly what you’re looking at.
Questions to Ask an SEO Company
As you’re comparing and analyzing your potential options, we’ve got a list of questions you should ensure you get answers to:
- What is your experience with our industry? Do you have case studies or reports that can demonstrate your ability to get results?
- What are your strategies for making the most of a client’s budget?
- What is your approach to staying updated on Google’s changes and algorithm updates? How do you respond when these shifts happen?
- What does success look like for you in an SEO strategy? What about for our business in particular?
- What SEO tactics do you employ? How do you prioritize them?
- What are your link building strategies?
- How do you approach a situation where a client is not seeing results after a certain amount of time?
- What kind of reporting do you provide? How much of it is automated? And how often can we expect to receive it?
- How do you maintain transparency with your clients?
- Can you put us in contact with some of your current clients to discuss their experience with your work?
SEO Agency Red Flags to Avoid
Seeing any of these in an agency while you’re doing your research should be a potentially negative sign:
- Promises of fast results or big promises, especially when there’s little information on how they achieve it
- Comfortability with “black hat” techniques like buying backlinks, stuffing keywords, or employing fake reviews
- Aggressive sales tactics that push you to sign with them quickly
- Costs that look too good to be true because cheap SEO packages can mean cut corners and low quality results
- Reports that aren’t clearly communicating results
- Lack of communication in regards to tactics and strategies, including making moves like adding pages without approval
Unlocking the Power of SEO
Partnering with the right SEO agency—one that understands your unique business goals and needs—is an essential part of achieving long-term success. Take the time to know what you’re looking for, build a quality list of potential partners, and thoroughly evaluating their experience and approach. This process can ensure you find the SEO agency that fits your organization best.
If you’re interested in EdwardsSchoen’s SEO expertise and wondering whether we might be that perfect partner for you, reach out to us and we can discuss the ways we can help your business thrive.
