Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Damien Kelly on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 11/17/2022).

Is it fair to ask what work has been done from your SEO agency?

As a customer Is it fair to ask what work has been done from your SEO agency?I have newly started on a rolling monthly contract - and am happy with the trend from the first month. However I’m keen to know what has actually been done at the end of each month- even just a rough over view- is this fair to ask for from your point of view?
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Jen Bradburn: It’s absolutely fair
  • Stephen Pickles: If you ordered some furniture would you ask the delivery driver how he got it to you safely. Only if you wanted to learn about transporting furniture.
  • Damien Kelly: Stephen Pickles thank you. I just feel that ultimately there are changes being made to my website and how it is viewed by Google and the wider web in general. Should I ever cease working with the agency, how else would I know what work/changes/alterations have been done to my property without asking (regardless of whether it is successful or not) Or to put it this way- if you asked a builder to build your house, you would certainly want to know how he built it and what materials it was made from. Not to every minute detail but enough to be reassured
  • Stephen Pickles: Damien Kelly I reread your post and you did indicate interest in high level summary of what has been done. So yes, it’s reasonable to ask.
  • Rick Crandall: Stephen Pickles but you would expect the mechanic to tell you what they’ve done to your car once you get the bill right? Regardless of your intimate knowledge or lack thereof.
  • Rajesh Mago: Stephen Pickles There is a difference in What and How and transporting of furniture is not the same as SEO work done for web property that may harm if done wrongly and take time to show effects that are not there in transporting of the furniture.A very wrong example comparing both and Damien as a customer has the right to ask how paid SEO work has been done as immediate results of wrong SEO work may not be shown currently but later!A person or Company doing work wrongly or not having right business principles will take the question asked by a customer of knowing more details of how his paid work is done by them negatively while a good person or Company will take it with the right spirit where I have excluded the obvious question of not replying to the questions, not related to paid work and person/company confidentiality and trade secrets that must not be told.
  • Ash Nallawalla: At a high level, yes. An agency should set expectations before the contract is signed and tell the client what will be done each month. The monthly reports to the client should confirm. This is not a furniture delivery, but is perhaps 5-10 tasks each month and it`s reasonable to ask about them. Whether you`re capable of understanding the work done e.g. good versus bad is a different conversation.
  • Bill Wolf: You should only expect them to do what they`ve agreed to do. I provide a managed service and only report major content updates and ranking data. I also tell customers all of that up front. You can ask for an itemized monthly report and the worst they`ll tell you is no.
  • Damien Kelly: Bill Wolf that’s fair - especially if agreed upfront
  • Blair Urquhart: Yes it`s fair to me .
  • Michael Martinez: "As a customer Is it fair to ask what work has been done from your SEO agency?"You paid for the work. Yes, absolutely, you should be free to ask what work has been done.It`s prudent to get a Statement of Work in advance, especially if you`re paying for the work in advance.And if your provider doesn`t want to be accountable to you, then get another provider. There are a million people out there who want your business.
  • Perry Bernard: Michael Martinez 100% agree
  • Frank Geric: Uh, so two things. One, you paid for it so you have every right to it. Second, you shouldn’t expect much in the way of results in month. Tons of activities, but visits and conversions are a lagging indicator.
  • Jonie Irene: Obviously everyone does business differently, but I`m the lead SEO at my agency and we provide monthly reports that are presented usually by the account manager to the client. Monthly reports include previous month analytics and important metrics, any big insights or positive achievements, and at the bottom we put a list of work completed and a list of what`s on the list for the next month. These lists are not every detail...the report would be 20 pages long LOL but things like Technical SEODuplicate title tags (list pages)Meta descriptions (list pages)Broken links (list broken links and what they were changed to) Monthly monitoring of all SEO statsEtc.
  • Damien Kelly: Jonie Irene this sounds excellent
  • Jonie Irene: Damien Kelly I am biased hahaha, but I think our marketing agency is excellent! I answered your question just so you know that there ARE people who provide what you`re looking for. If you`re ever on the hunt for SEO let me know!
  • Damien Kelly: Thank you very much- it is good to know
  • Rick Crandall: Yes, as a paying client you are entitled to know what is going on. I agree with Jonie Irene I always include monthly reports to my clients. It’s not difficult to prepare a report and have that go out each month.
  • Perry Bernard: You should know in advance via a Scope Of Work what kind of tasks are being done and how often.
  • Harley Helmer: For larger clients, our account managers walk through changes and why they’re made. Most of SEO is not rocket science, but you’re hiring us to do it correctly and more efficiently than you could do it. Ultimately if you want to do it yourself, great. Just know there’s nuance and troubleshooting that you won’t have the capabilities to accomplish.
  • Hannah McNaughton: Absolutely. It’s well within your right to ask. If they aren’t forthright I’d be concerned.
  • Rae Hawes: Any task requires reporting. I prefer to agree on this before starting work. One of the most convenient methods is automatic reports. I am compiling a sample report, adding the client`s email address to the SE Ranking report and setting up the frequency of sending. The client has no questions and I don`t waste time writing a report. This is the ideal workflow.
  • Gaurav Rathi: Yes. Monthly work done report along with work planned for the next month so that everyone involved is clear on goals and expectations. You have paid them, so yes, you deserve the report in a format that you understand. Many agencies make the reports too technical.
  • Ryan Jones: We have a weekly status with clients where we go over everything that’s been done and is in progress or being proposed.

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 11/17/2022).