What to Expect From an SEO Company (And How to Get It)

Discover what businesses should expect from an SEO company, including customized solutions, ongoing consulting, proactive monitoring, and more.
  • Portrait of a smiling man in burgundy shirt, transparent background.
    Dan Shaffer Director of SEO.com
    Author block right corner shape
  • October 26, 2023
  • 6 min. read

Expectations for SEO companies vary, but businesses should expect more of their SEO agency in 2024. That means searching for more than an on-page, off-page, and technical SEO services provider but for an SEO services partner in building an effective and measurable SEO strategy that adapts vs. reacts to changes.

That’s why we’re focusing on what to expect from an SEO company that leads vs. follows in SEO.

What should an SEO company do?

The best SEO companies should fulfill their contractual obligations at the most basic level. Beyond that, SEO agencies should provide a custom solution that considers the search engine optimization (SEO) industry and the client’s short- and long-term goals, such as requiring enterprise SEO services in the future, to help the client succeed in its SEO and business goals.

What to expect from your SEO company

As an organization with more than 25 years of experience in the SEO sector, we’ve seen SEO companies of all shapes and sizes. From that experience, we’ve developed our outline of what businesses should expect from an SEO agency.

So, keep reading to learn what to expect from your SEO company:

Dedicated point of contact

Your SEO service provider, whether an SEO firm or SEO consultancy, should provide you with a dedicated point of contact (POC). A dedicated POC streamlines communication, giving you a place to go for sharing resources, asking questions, or providing feedback.

It creates confusion and friction when you don’t know who to call (or have to call the main number).

Ongoing consulting

While there are plenty of search engine optimization best practices, your SEO firm shouldn’t operate from a checklist. Your business, industry, audience, and search landscape are unique, so your SEO company should consult you to create an SEO strategy based on your goals.

Our vision for ongoing consulting goes beyond developing and growing your SEO strategy. It also includes understanding your company’s bigger objectives — outside of SEO.

Our vision for ongoing consulting goes beyond developing and growing your SEO strategy. It also includes understanding your company’s bigger objectives — outside of SEO. This understanding can help your POC provide better recommendations that emphasize other digital marketing strategies.

Proactive monitoring

You should also expect proactive website monitoring from your SEO company. From monitoring your site’s uptime to auditing your SEO regularly, your agency should act as if they’re a member of your team and just as invested in your business and its mission.

Most SEO companies won’t go here because of the time and resource investment. In our experience, we’ve also seen agencies overload their representatives with accounts, which makes it difficult for these professionals to get energized about supporting your team.

Regular reporting

Reporting is a non-negotiable SEO deliverable — expect your SEO agency to report on their:

  • Work
  • Progress
  • Impact

We’d like to challenge you to raise your expectations for SEO companies and their reporting, though.

While tracking SEO’s bottom-line impact is difficult, some SEO companies do this!

While it’s helpful to understand where your business ranks for keywords and how much traffic those keywords drive, it’s also impactful to see where search engine optimization has helped your organization generate a lead or create a sale.

This type of information lets you show supervisors and leadership your bottom-line impact.

While tracking SEO’s bottom-line impact is difficult, some SEO companies do this! With third-party or in-house technology, these agencies can allow you to see how many leads and sales SEO drove — and even forecast how much you could earn from SEO.

Company-aligned results

You should also expect your SEO agency to:

  • Learn what your company wants to achieve with SEO
  • Learn what your company wants to achieve as a whole

From this information, your SEO service provider can suggest company-aligned goals. They can then align your SEO strategy and program towards these goals, which will help you deliver (or push towards) the results leadership is looking for from SEO.

Transparent communication

If you’re like most businesses, you won’t work with an SEO agency in your area. Even if you do, you’ll likely communicate through email, project management software, video calls, or phone calls most of the time.

No matter the communication channel, communication is critical.

When you partner with an SEO company, you should expect them to provide regular, transparent communication. The regularity can vary from weekly to monthly — communication less frequently than that tends to lead to a less successful relationship and SEO campaign.

Competitor monitoring

Search engine optimization service providers should also proactively monitor your competitors. While many will analyze your competition at the start of your relationship, few will continue to analyze how competitors gain, lose, or maintain search real estate.

From their ongoing insights, your point-of-contact can enhance your strategy.

Subject matter experts

Search engine optimization is filled with specializations, including:

Not to mention, some areas overlap with SEO, like your content management system (CMS).

From the best SEO service providers, businesses should expect access to these subject matter experts. Whether speaking with them on a call directly or hearing their feedback from your point of contact, these specialized experts should be available to supercharge your SEO campaign.

Hands-free solutions

You outsourced your SEO to get help.

Businesses should expect their SEO agency to provide a hands-free solution. While your SEO team will likely have some initial onboarding questions, they should have the means to execute your strategy for you.

Businesses should expect their SEO agency to provide a hands-free solution.

This arrangement isn’t possible for all businesses.

For example, if you can’t provide your SEO firm with SEO access, they can’t work on your site directly. However, they should have the communication skills to work through this hurdle so it’s seamless for you to make updates.

Customized solutions

You should also expect your SEO company to provide a customized solution based on your:

  • Business
  • Industry
  • Target audience
  • Short- and long-term goals
  • Existing SEO

While pre-built SEO plans can help you get started, the agency should tailor those plans to you. For example, SEO.com offers tailored SEO for energy companies, manufacturing, B2B, B2C and other industries.

SEO industry updates

Proactiveness is a beautiful trait in SEO agencies because that proactiveness extends to your SEO strategy’s success. When you have a provider that follows updates in the SEO industry, like for new tactics, algorithm updates, and more, you lead the market vs. follow.

Get an SEO agency that exceeds expectations with SEO.com

You’ve learned what to expect from an SEO company, but where do you find an SEO agency that does all the above? At SEO.com, we don’t just believe in the above expectations for SEO companies — we follow through with them in our SEO services.

Speak with our award-winning team to learn how our SEO firm exceeds expectations by contacting us!

Portrait of a smiling man in burgundy shirt, transparent background.
Dan has 10+ years experience as an SEO for one of the largest SEO agencies in the USA. He’s seen it all! You can breathe easy knowing his many battles in the SERPs have informed the insights he shares here.

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