How Do I Check Whether My SEO Agency Is Actually Improving Anything?
Four checks in your own accounts, not their report: organic sessions, enquiries, commercial rankings, and what physically changed on the site.
How to judge an SEO agency from your own data, and the warning signs that a monthly report is hiding a lack of work.
TL;DR: Quick Answer
Four checks in your own accounts, not their report: organic sessions, enquiries, commercial rankings, and what physically changed on the site.
Key takeaways
- Very cheap quotes (under R5,000) almost always exclude copywriting, SEO, custom design and post-launch support
- Professional copywriting can represent 20-35% of a total website project cost, and is worth it for search visibility
- On-page SEO built into the website at launch costs a fraction of what it costs to retrofit after the site is live
- Hosting, SSL, domain and maintenance add R3,000-R10,000 per year on top of build cost
- E-commerce adds significant cost due to payment gateway integrations, product data, security requirements and checkout UX
- Timeline and client responsiveness directly affect cost: slow feedback rounds extend agency hours
Judge it from your own accounts, not from the report you are sent. A monthly report is written by the party being judged, and the metrics it leads with are chosen. Four checks, all in data you should already have access to, tell you what is actually happening.
Check 1: organic sessions over twelve months
Google Analytics, traffic acquisition, filter to organic search, set the range to the last twelve months.
Compare against the same months a year earlier rather than against last month, because seasonality will otherwise fool you in both directions. You are looking for a trend line, not a good week.
Check 2: enquiries from organic traffic
This is the one that matters and the one most reports avoid. Traffic without enquiries is not a result.
In Analytics, look at conversions segmented by organic search. If conversions are not tracked at all, that is your first finding, and it means every report you have received measured nothing.
Check 3: rankings for terms that make you money
Open Search Console yourself, go to Performance, last six months, and look at the queries and their average positions.
The test is whether the terms improving are commercially valuable. An agency can show a ranking chart that climbs beautifully for terms nobody searches or nobody buys from. "Best plumber in Centurion" matters. "What is a geyser element" mostly does not.
Check 4: what has physically changed on the site
The simplest and most revealing check. Ask yourself what is different about your website compared with three months ago.
New pages? Rewritten service pages? New content published? Speed improvements? Fixed technical issues?
If nothing has changed, nothing is being done, whatever the report says. SEO produces artefacts, and their absence is conclusive.
What a real report contains
| Should be there | Warning sign if it leads |
|---|---|
| Organic sessions vs same period last year | Impressions only |
| Enquiries from organic | "SEO score improved" |
| Rankings for commercial terms | Rankings for terms nobody searches |
| Work completed this month, specifically | "Ongoing optimisation" |
| What is planned next month | Nothing forward-looking |
| Honest notes on what is not working | Everything always positive |
The access question
You should hold Search Console, Analytics, your Google Business Profile and your website in your own name, with the agency added as a user.
If any of those sit inside the agency's account, request access now, while the relationship is ordinary. It is far harder to recover once you have given notice, and an agency that resists is telling you something about how it intends to keep you.
Timelines that are fair
Months one and two: audit, fixes, foundational work. Visible site changes but little ranking movement, which is normal.
Month three: early movement on local and long-tail terms.
Month six: meaningful ranking improvement and organic enquiries increasing.
Month twelve: organic should be a real lead source.
If nothing has moved by month six and the site has not visibly changed, that is a reasonable point to ask direct questions rather than wait another quarter.
Questions worth asking directly
What specifically did you do last month, page by page? How many hours were spent on my account? Which commercial terms have improved, and by how much? How many enquiries came from organic search? What is the plan for next month, and what is not working?
A competent agency answers all six without discomfort. Vagueness in response to specific questions is itself the answer.
Before you switch
Confirm you hold every login first, then give notice. Ask for reporting history and any research documents. Do not let campaigns lapse during a handover.
Juicy Designs reports enquiries and cost per lead, works month-to-month, and keeps every account in the client's name. See SEO services or get in touch. Related: switching agencies properly and is my agency legitimate.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check whether my SEO agency is actually improving anything?
Look at four things in your own accounts, not their report: organic sessions over 12 months, enquiries from organic traffic, rankings for the terms that actually make you money, and what has physically changed on your website. If nothing on the site has changed in three months, nothing is being done.
What should an SEO report contain?
Organic sessions and enquiries compared to the same period last year, rankings for commercially important terms, work completed that month, and what is planned next. Rankings and impressions alone are inputs, not results.
How long before I should expect results?
Some movement by month three, meaningful change by month six. If nothing has moved by month six and the site has not visibly changed, that is a reasonable point to ask hard questions.
What are the warning signs?
Reports full of vanity metrics, no visible changes to the website, refusal to give you access to your own Search Console and Analytics, vague descriptions of work, and rankings quoted for terms nobody searches.
Should I have access to my own accounts?
Always. Search Console, Analytics, your Business Profile and your website should be in your name with the agency added as a user. An agency holding them in its own name is holding leverage.