7 Signs Your SEO Agency Isn't Doing Their Job

If you're paying an agency thousands a month for SEO, you deserve to know whether they're actually doing the work. The problem is, SEO reports from agencies can be confusing by design — lots of jargon, pretty charts, and not much in the way of straight answers.

Here are seven signs it might be time to ask some hard questions.

1. You can't tell them your own rankings

If you don't know where you rank for the keywords that matter to your business, that's the first red flag. A good agency tells you where you stand. A great one shows you how to check for yourself.

2. The reports are all vanity metrics

"Organic traffic up 40%" sounds great — but traffic to what? If they can't connect the numbers to actual enquiries, sales, or rankings on keywords you care about, they're hiding behind vanity metrics.

3. They pick the keywords

If your agency chose the keywords you're tracking and you've never questioned them, you're marking their own homework. The keywords should be the ones your customers actually type in — not easy ones chosen to make the report look good.

4. Rankings never move

SEO isn't instant. But if six months in and nothing has moved, something's wrong. Either the strategy is off, the competition is tougher than they estimated, or the work isn't being done.

5. You can't get a straight answer

When you ask "how are we going?" and get a 12-slide deck instead of a sentence, pay attention. Clear results should have a clear explanation.

6. They won't let you track independently

If your agency pushes back on you using a third-party rank tracker, that's a huge red flag. Transparency should be welcome, not threatening.

7. There's no plan for the next 90 days

A good agency knows what they're doing this month and next. If you ask for the plan and get vague talk about "ongoing optimisation", they're winging it.

What to do about it

The fix is simple: track your rankings independently. Add your keywords to Rank Track, watch them daily, and compare what you see to what your agency reports. If they match — great, you've got a good one. If they don't, you've got a conversation to have.

Independent data is the only way to know for sure. Don't take their word for it. Check it yourself.