Do you know that Google deals with 3.5 billion searches every day? Well, this indicates that you have a lot of opportunities to get your product/service in front of a prospect. When someone types a query into Google, Google aims to give the most relevant answer, and this happens through SEO – an inbound, attractive marketing method.

Numerous studies have confirmed that your business will remain invisible if it doesn’t end up on Google’s first page. Why? Because 90% of people don’t even bother opening the second page.

So, the question is, how do you end up on the first page?

If you’re like most companies that don’t understand the complexities of good SEO, consider hiring an SEO company. However, if you’re starting to question whether or not your current ‘expert SEO agency’ generates any value for your business, read this article.

Here, we help you identify signs you need a new SEO agency.

1. Your Current SEO Agency Doesn’t Understand The Needs Of Your Brand

If you’re looking to hire an SEO agency, your ultimate goal will be to increase your bottom line, which would increase with more organic conversions and traffic. There’s no doubt that you’re well aware of the significance of converting leads into sales and reinforcing the funnel of organic traffic.

However, if your SEO agency doesn’t understand your business’s goals, it won’t generate any value. An SEO agency’s primary purpose isn’t to bring your business to the first page of Google’s search results, boost stats, or do a website audit. Its main aim is to deliver results by doing all of those and more. Plus, you deserve to get the returns on your SEO investment.

If you want to increase your ROI, the professionals working with you should be very familiar with your business, its operations, and how SEO fits in as a marketing method.

For example, if a prospect lands at your website for a solution they need, but they leave the website after 10 seconds out of frustration or confusion, zero value is generated. Therefore, your SEO agency must understand how vital authenticity and high-quality content are for your business. If they don’t, your online presence wouldn’t be able to reflect your organizational values as accurately as you might expect. So, change your SEO agency for the better.

2. Your Current SEO Agency Doesn’t Access Your Website

If your SEO agency doesn’t even open your website, how can they even optimize its visibility? Well, yes, some firms restrict access to their website for security reasons. But this shouldn’t stop an SEO agency from giving recommendations and offering consulting services to the company’s webmaster.

Generally, when agencies cannot access your website, they actually create another website for your business, the ownership of which might not lie with you. This doesn’t just confuse your customers, but the search engines as well. They might also state that they’re creating listings over the web that will link back to your site.

There’s no denying that a great SEO strategy rests on the principles of optimizing your listings across the internet and making changes on your site. However, an SEO program entirely dependent on creating backlinks wouldn’t be of much worth. This type of program doesn’t prioritize quality over quantity. In the long run, and may do more harm than good. Therefore, it’s better to change your SEO agency before it is too late.

3. Your Current SEO Agency Doesn’t Provide You With Regular Reports

Your SEO agency must provide you with reports regularly. If you find this surprising, it’s probably time to slap your SEO agency out of its complacency. If not weekly, you must get reports at least on a monthly basis.

You’re paying the SEO agency, and you must know what they’re doing with your money. Of course, you must have agreed on some objectives, right? The reports will help you identify whether the SEO agency is doing enough to accomplish those.

Your SEO agency has special knowledge, and you’re paying them for that – their analysis. Any good agency will explain all the metrics and results to you in an uncomplicated manner by discussing the statistics in light of your objectives and strategy.

If you find it difficult to relate the SEO report with your company’s underlying objectives, then maybe it’s time to dial the number of a newer, better SEO agency.

4. Your Current SEO Agency Asks To Own Your Logins/Data

That’s a big no-no! If your SEO agency is asking to control your reporting, data, and even logins fully, they’re setting a trap. But how?

Numerous companies will fall into this trap, thinking that they’re paying the company, happily allowing them to handle everything. But what if things don’t work out between you and your agency? It’ll get pretty dangerous.

For instance, if you don’t want an SEO company’s services anymore (and this can happen), you’ll find yourself in some sort of a trap. Why? Because a lot of SEO agencies won’t let you go so easily. They’ll hold your logins and data hostage in a bid to keep the contract going.

This can lead to plenty of legal disputes that can stretch on for weeks, months, and even years. If your luck runs out, you might even have to add a new tracking code to your websites and create new logins. So, the very first time your SEO agency asks to own your logins/data, it’s time to step back and give some other agency a try.

5. Your Current SEO Agency Guarantees Your First Page Rankings

It doesn’t matter what your keywords are; any good SEO company wouldn’t promise over-the-top results. There’s no guarantee unless, of course, they’ve got some sort of a deal going on with Google (highly unlikely). So, if your SEO agency is making tall claims you KNOW it will not fulfill, it’s time to look for another.

No SEO agency has a special relationship with Google – Google will never allow it. So, even if your SEO agency has an excellent track record, it should never guarantee any unrealistic results.

Conclusion

Google is getting better as we speak. It can detect a ton of poor SEO practices that your SEO agency might be using. So, it’s time you monitor your current SEO agency and call it out if you need to. Yes, hiring an SEO agency isn’t something you can do with your eyes closed, but with the red flags identified above, you might be able to distinguish between which agency is better and which is not. However, communication is always vital. If you’re not proactively communicating with your SEO agency, it’s you who needs to introspect.

This post was contributed Amber Ball, a business and tech blogger who spends her entire day writing quality blogs. She is a passionate reader and loves to share quality content prevalent on the web with her friends and followers and keeping a keen eye on the latest trends and news in those industries.