Most bad agency relationships start before the contract, in the moment nobody defined what success would look like.
Decide what success means before you shortlist anyone
"More traffic" is not a goal. It is a metric that can be met while the business gets nothing.
Useful goals are specific and commercial: thirty qualified enquiries a month from organic search; ranking in the top three for the six searches that describe what you sell; reducing the share of leads that arrive through paid ads from eighty per cent to fifty.
Write the goal down before the first meeting. Then every proposal can be judged against the same thing, and the agency that quietly redefines success halfway through the year has nowhere to hide.
What comprehensive service coverage actually covers
A full programme runs four kinds of work at once. Keyword and intent research that decides what to target. On-page work that makes each page the best answer to one search. Technical work that lets Google read all of it. And off-page work that makes the domain credible enough to compete.
Businesses with a shop attached also need ecommerce SEO, and anyone selling to people who will physically visit needs local SEO. Both are specialisations, not extras.
How to compare two proposals that look identical
- Look at what is measured. If one proposal commits to conversions and the other to impressions, they are not the same offer.
- Look at who is on the account. Hours from a senior specialist and hours from a junior are both hours.
- Look at the first ninety days. A plan with named deliverables in month one is a plan. "Discovery and strategy" for a whole quarter is a stall.
- Look at the exit terms. A twelve-month lock-in is the agency managing its risk, not yours.
What to ask in the consultation
Bring your goal, your current numbers and your budget range. Then ask the only question that matters: given all of that, is SEO the right place to spend it?
An agency that occasionally says no is an agency whose yes is worth something. If your margin cannot survive a six-month ramp, or your market searches for your category perhaps forty times a month, you should be told.
Written by the SEO team at Dubyte AI Solutions, Dubai Silicon Oasis. Ask us about your own site.
