In short
- The work comes down to five things: research, fixing, building, earning and measuring.
- In any month you should be able to see what was done and what it was meant to achieve.
- An agency should never guarantee rankings, keep its methods secret or hold your accounts hostage.
- A freelancer, an agency and an in-house person each suit different situations.
The five kinds of work
- ResearchFinding out what your customers search for, how many of them, and who currently appears. Then deciding which page on your site should answer each search.
- FixingRemoving whatever stops search engines reading and trusting the site: pages that cannot be indexed, slow loading, broken redirects, pages competing with each other.
- BuildingWriting and improving the pages customers are looking for, services, locations, answers to common questions, and keeping your Google Business Profile complete.
- EarningReviews from customers, and links and mentions from other websites: the signals that tell search engines other people vouch for you.
- MeasuringTracking calls, forms and sales, so that the work is judged on business it produced.
What a typical month looks like
It changes as the work progresses. Early months lean towards fixing; later ones towards building and earning. A month might include a new service page, a set of technical corrections, review requests going out, a couple of local links earned and a report on what the enquiries were.
What it should never be is a mystery. If you cannot tell what was done last month, ask for a list.
What you should receive
- A plan, in order of priority, that you understand.
- A named person you can speak to.
- A regular report on enquiries and sales, not only rankings.
- Full access to your own website, Google profile, Search Console and analytics.
- A record of what was changed and when.
What an agency should never do
- Guarantee a ranking. Nobody controls the search engines.
- Refuse to explain its methods.
- Set up your Google profile, analytics or website in its own name so that you cannot leave.
- Buy links, write fake reviews or publish copied content.
We set out what we will and will not do in our code of ethics.
Agency, freelancer or in-house?
| Suits | Watch for | |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | Small sites, a clear brief, a tight budget. | One person’s skills and availability. |
| Agency | Work needing several skills: technical, writing, design, development. | Who actually does the work, and how senior they are. |
| In-house | Businesses where search is central and constant. | Cost, and the breadth one person can cover. |
| Doing it yourself | The local foundations, for an owner with a little time. | Technical problems and website moves. |
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