Choosing the right SEO agency can make or break your SEO success. A good SEO agency can elevate your business to new heights, but a bad one can waste your time and money. If you notice your SEO stagnating or declining, it may be time to reassess your arrangement with your SEO agency.
In this article, we will share the biggest reasons for firing your SEO agency, from their failure to deliver results to their poor internal management. If you experience these signs, consider looking for a more competent and results-driven SEO agency such as Marketer’s Center.
Table of contents
- Failure to deliver results
- Misalignment with your business goals
- Unethical practices and outdated strategies
- Consistency in missing deadlines
- Poor communication and customer service
- Lack of transparency
- Bad internal management
1. Failure to deliver results
You are hiring an SEO agency to see tangible results and drive your business forward. When your SEO agency fails to deliver these results, it’s a potential threat to your business growth and profitability. This is why the failure to deliver results is one of the biggest reasons to fire your SEO agency and look for a new one.
- You have stagnant or declining traffic. Your SEO agency recommends and executes SEO strategies such as content creation and link building to improve your organic traffic. However, if you see your organic traffic has plateaued or decreased even after a year with your SEO agency, it’s time to move on. SEO is a long-term game, but after 12 months of no tangible progress, it’s clear that the SEO agency is not doing a good job.
- You don’t see improvements in your search engine rankings. Your SEO agency may be reporting some keyword improvements, but they may not be significant enough to see a major improvement in your organic traffic. There is a level of competition and unpredictability in SEO, so don’t leave a bad review just yet. However, after months and months of effort and you are still stuck on the third or fourth page, there may be something wrong with your SEO agency.
- You have very low ROI for your significant SEO investment. You can invest heavily into SEO, with multiple strategies to increase leads and sales. But if the revenue generated from these SEO efforts is far below what you have expected, you may feel that the ROI simply doesn’t justify the expenditure. When you feel this way, it may be time to reconsider your SEO agency collaboration.
2. Misalignment with your business goals
When you and your SEO agency are not on the same page, their SEO efforts can lead to ineffective strategies, missed opportunities, and wasted time and money. You don’t just need an SEO agency that delivers results. You need one that delivers your desired outcomes. Get an SEO agency that prioritizes your objectives.
- Your SEO agency is too focused on vanity metrics. When you have made it clear that your main objective is to increase sales through organic search traffic, make sure your SEO agency works on key performance indicators that actually lead to this goal. For example, if your agency emphasizes unnecessary improvements in their reports, such as increases in blog post impressions and social media shares, they are obviously not focusing on the business objectives you have indicated.
- They focus on irrelevant keywords. Researching and optimizing for the right keywords is integral to any SEO strategy. For instance, if your business specializes in high-end home automation systems, but your SEO agency is optimizing for keywords such as “affordable smart home gadgets,” they may not understand your products, services, and target audience. Optimizing for the wrong keywords may drive traffic, but it can lead to poor conversion rates because you are attracting irrelevant target audiences.
- They neglect local SEO. If your company operates in a specific geographical region, you need an SEO agency that focuses on local SEO such as Marketer’s Center. There are many challenges in outsourcing local SEO, such as the lack of expertise in the local market, and that’s why it’s important to hire an SEO agency that specializes in local SEO.
3. Unethical practices and outdated strategies
SEO and digital marketing are ever-evolving fields. The most competent SEO agencies only use ethical practices and timely strategies to stay ahead. Unethical and outdated SEO strategies can be disastrous for your brand and online presence. They can reduce your SEO performance, diminish your rankings, and make you lose your credibility. If your SEO agency engages in these practices and strategies, cut them off as soon as possible.
- Your SEO agency uses blackhat SEO techniques. Blackhat SEO techniques basically cheat the system to get ahead online, but search engine engineers are not stupid. They are going to catch you sooner or later. Blackhat SEO tactics such as buying low-quality backlinks and cloaking may give you a sudden spike in traffic, but your rankings plummet when Google sees what you are doing. The short-term gains of blackhat SEO are simply not worth it.
- They rely on outdated link building strategies. Generally, the more links you have, the more positively search engines view you. But SEO professionals have gamed the system, building low-quality and spammy links. Today, it’s all about the quality of links. If your SEO agency still keeps building links from generic directories and low-authority websites to impress you with large quantities, it may be time to cut them off.
- They consistently duplicate content. If you see your SEO agency duplicating content across multiple pages, be wary. It’s okay to repurpose and spin content to make it fresh and somewhat original. But completely duplicating content fails to provide value to your audiences. It also puts you at risk of getting flagged for duplicate content by search engines. This can compromise your online presence and reputation.
4. Consistency in missing deadlines
When your SEO agency consistently misses deadlines, it’s time to let them go. Timeliness is important in any SEO strategy. If your SEO partner misses their deadlines, it can disrupt your marketing efforts, delay SEO results, and ultimately, negatively affect your business. Missing deadlines is a clear indication that there is something wrong with your SEO agency. It’s a major red flag, and you should start questioning their commitment to your SEO success.
- Your SEO agency is slow in implementing their own SEO recommendations. Your SEO agency conducts SEO audits and lists technical problems and fixes. They can assure you that these fixes are to be implemented in the next few weeks. However, if months have passed and these recommendations are not yet implemented, your search rankings can suffer. For example, if the audit finds out you have slow load times, and your agency fails to do this fix on time, the slow speed will continue to affect the user experience negatively.
- They don’t deliver content on time. Optimized blog posts and landing pages are some of the biggest content types SEO strategies incorporate. If your SEO agency can’t deliver content pieces on time, it can affect product launches, marketing campaigns, and more. You are also missing opportunities to build your brand, improve your authority, and drive traffic to your website and social media pages.
- They miss reporting deadlines. You need your monthly reports with key performance indicators and insights to gauge the effectiveness of your SEO agency’s efforts. However, if your SEO agency keeps missing reporting deadlines, you are left in the dark. You are basically giving out money and not knowing what you are paying for. In a time where there are so many reporting solutions around, not using them is a significant disadvantage. It proves you don’t have a reliable SEO partner.
5. Poor communication and customer service
Effective communication and strong customer service are great foundations of a successful SEO agency partnership. When these two things are not present or lacking, the relationship can lead to confusion, frustration, and a general lack of trust. If your SEO agency falls short in these areas, it may be time to let them go and look for one that values open and timely communication and excellent customer service.
- Your SEO agency is unresponsive or doesn’t respond quickly. If you have sent multiple emails and have not received a reply after a few days, you can experience frustration and delay your SEO progress. Your email can include concerns, performance inquiries, updates, and more. If you don’t get a response to them in a timely manner, you are left in the dark about the status of your campaigns and investments. This is actually one of the main reasons why SEO clients leave their agencies.
- They don’t address concerns or feedback. As a paying SEO client, you may have feedback such as revision requests. But if your SEO agency ignores these requests or make changes that still don’t align with your expectations and insights, you can experience dissatisfaction and an overall distrust of their ability to meet your needs. Make sure your SEO agency respects your concerns and feedback. However, you should also be open to their suggestions for a truly collaborative experience.
- They don’t provide proactive updates. Your SEO partner should automatically send updates, such as SEO campaign performances, search engine algorithm changes, and new growth opportunities. This shows their commitment to your success. If they don’t provide timely updates, or if you need to consistently ask for these, it may be time to look for another SEO agency.
6. Lack of transparency
If your SEO agency is not transparent with you, it’s a strong indication that they don’t have your best interest at heart. Sure, digital marketing and SEO are still a business, but if an agency is doing them purely for the money and not for the clients, their SEO strategies, executions, and customer service reflect that. The lack of transparency is a significant reason to fire your SEO agency and look for a new one.
- Your SEO agency has unclear SEO strategies and executions. If you ask your SEO partners about their strategies and executions and they reply with heavy jargon, refuse to share specifics, or just mention general ideas such as local keyword research and link building, they are not being transparent. In the worst cases, they actually don’t know what they are doing and they don’t want you to find that out. In some cases, they are just poor communicators. But these cases are still a problem because you will not understand the reasoning behind their SEO actions, leading to frustration and mistrust.
- They have many hidden fees and unexpected charges. Unexpected expenses may be inevitable. After all, SEO can be very unpredictable. But when you inquire about these additional costs, your SEO agency should have good explanations. They can say the extra costs come from algorithm changes, competitor movements, emerging trends, or whatever else. If the explanation is not clear or if there is no explanation at all, it may be time to start looking for another SEO agency.
- They have vague or incomplete reports. When you hire an SEO agency, part of your arrangement is the submission of comprehensive reports. The reports should not just include relevant metrics, but also explanations and insights for your better understanding. For example, for you to appreciate the value of local SEO, your SEO agency can show how you rise from local search results and how this increases engagement, traffic, conversion, and ultimately, sales.
7. Bad internal management
Running an SEO agency is not just about delivering results. It’s also about standardizing SEO operations, maximizing profitability without compromising quality, establishing a strong brand with storytelling, and more. When an SEO agency is poorly managed, you suffer not just from poor results but also from disorganization, inconsistency, and other problems that can directly or indirectly affect your business.
- Your SEO agency looks disorganized. Missing deadlines, submitting incomplete deliverables, and failing to do agreed-upon tasks are huge signs your SEO agency is incompetent and disorganized. When you ask about these issues, the SEO professionals usually make excuses related to internal affairs, such as staff shortages. This can lead to frustration on your part, not to mention a delay in your SEO progress.
- They have inadequate resource allocation. As an SEO client, you should feel prioritized and valued. If you feel like only a few people are in your big account and SEO tasks such as content creation and link building seem neglected or rushed, it may be time to let go of your SEO agency. When the quality of their work diminishes, your SEO performance suffers. This is unacceptable, and you shouldn’t stick around for it.
- They have a high employee turnover rate. If you have been with your SEO agency for months and you are constantly communicating with different people, your agency may have a high employee turnover rate. They are passing your account around to multiple account managers. This leads to a lack of focus, the constant need to familiarize yourself with the new account manager, and a disruption to continuity and progress. There is no need to endure all this when there are more competent SEO agencies out there such as Marketer’s Center who can give you consistent and reliable SEO services.
Get a fresh start with a new SEO partner
Firing your SEO agency is never easy, but it’s an important step when the collaboration is no longer serving your best interests. Your SEO agency should feel like an extension of your team, aligning with your business goals, delivering results, and reporting progress and value.
Try Marketer’s Center and get a fresh start. Our wide range of SEO services ensures we have something for every business, from technical SEO audits to Google Business Profile premium posts. With our partnership, you can boost your online presence and keep your business on the path to growth and success. Contact us today and stay ahead of your competitors.
