First off – I’m not using this as an excuse to rant about those agencies that sign you up and then do the bare minimum.
I actually want to talk more about how SEO agencies have a bit of a reputation for ‘going missing’.
Whether you’ve just signed the contract, or you’re a couple of years in, there can be periods of time where communication drops.
I’ve worked in enough agencies to know a few reasons why that happens, but more importantly, I want to share how you – as a client – can combat that.
Because I appreciate how frustrating it is to be paying for a service, yet have no idea what’s actually going on. Blind faith only works for a while, right?
Our clients usually fit into one of two categories:
- Those that see us as an extension of their team
- Those that want an update every month
There’s no right or wrong – you either want to know your SEO is being taken care of, or you want to be more involved.
What type of communication is best?
We’re a small agency, which means we don’t have thousands of clients to look after.
Usually, even before we sign a new client up, I’ve met with the team, to understand their objectives, frustrations, and how I can help.
99% of the time we’re the *visible* agency that gets involved in weekly marketing progress calls.
For me, I think that means your agencies will always be aligned with what’s going on in the business right now.
We all know how quickly things can change in the space of a month, and you don’t want to be playing catch up or forget that your agency doesn’t know!
That doesn’t mean reports should be forgotten.
Because regular contact means regular updates – that shouldn’t be an excuse to stop taking those snapshots of performance to plot the route ahead.
We automate all of our reports, so we know there’s a record of performance on a monthly basis.
Once that’s analysed, we can share the data that’s important.
Particularly in the SEO environment, we need to look at those overarching trends and interpret how they’re affecting overall digital performance.
And selfishly – we all want to know how well we’re doing! So getting to grips with revenue tracking (or at least enquiry level tracking) helps you set the tone for the month ahead.
No comms = no good
‘Going missing’, although it happens, isn’t something that anyone should be accepting as part of the SEO campaign.
If you know what style of comms you prefer, and you know what you want from your agency, make that clear from the outset. Often they’ll try to control that, which again – in my opinion is a great thing, as long as it’s stuck to!
If you’d like to chat through your options when it comes to search campaigns, give us a shout.
