In 2020, you can’t afford to neglect SEO. Optimizing your site for search engines sets yourself apart from the competition and allows more customers to find you.
Some entrepreneurs choose to do SEO on their own. This can be feasible if you know a lot about optimization practices, have the time to commit to it, etc.
Others, however, choose to outsource. They may not know enough about SEO or don’t have the time/resources to optimize their pages. Regardless, a professional SEO company can help drive traffic to your site.
Before hiring an SEO company for your business, here are four important things you need to know.
1. You Need to Offer Great Products and Services
SEO companies can be largely responsible for a business’s success. After all, they are the ones who get your website in front of new traffic.
Even though they help rank your pages higher, SEO companies aren’t a magic bullet. Hiring one won’t automatically improve your sales. This is because even the best SEO professionals can’t sell bad products and services.
Note that SEO companies might even decline your project if they realize you offer subpar products and services. This is because they recognize that SEO can’t fix these more pressing issues.
To benefit from the traffic the SEO experts bring in, you need to offer quality services to your customers. Once consumers find your site, they'll see that you are a brand worth purchasing from and continue to give you their business. Otherwise, your traffic will lead to a dead end.
2. Find a Company with Experience in Your Industry
SEO companies should be experts at ranking your pages. But, you should also find a company that has experience in your industry.
Think about it. The company will be writing content about your process, using keywords, and targeting consumers specific to your niche. Knowledge of your industry will help them produce the best results.
Take professional SEO company Romain Berg, for instance. Its experts specialize in industries like agriculture, manufacturing, etc. This specific expertise allows its team to rank clients and keep them competitive in their niche.
So, when looking for a company, see if you can find one that has experience in your industry instead of going with one that offers catch-all solutions.
3. Avoid Cheap Solutions at All Costs
If you do a quick Google search for “SEO services,” you’ll find LOTS of results. Entrepreneurs tend to gravitate towards those that offer cheap solutions.
You might be tempted to spend as little as possible. But, you should never go with the cheapest solution when it comes to SEO.
Many businesses learn this the hard way. They throw their money away on cheap services that don’t offer results.
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Even worse is when these cheap services use sketchy SEO tactics. Google will penalize your site, and its rankings will plummet. This is very expensive to fix, and you’ll end up spending more money than you would’ve if you just went with high-quality services in the first place.
4. Find Services That Prioritize ROI
There’s a reason SEO services are expensive. Campaigns require a lot of time, resources, and expertise. And, their results are invaluable to your business’s success.
So, when choosing a company, you should go with one that prioritizes ROI. This allows you to get the most bang for your buck.
Consider this: some companies will try to impress by ranking you #1 for certain keywords. But, if these keywords aren’t leading to conversions, then what’s the point? You want to work with a company that cares more about actual results.
Conclusion
So, before you hire an SEO company, keep these 4 things in mind. They will help you manage your expectations and find the best services for your business!
Related: Remote Jobs Near Me: Why That Search Is Asking the Wrong Question (And What to Do Instead)
The mistakes I see business owners make every single time
I've sat through hundreds of calls with clients who got burned before they came to me. And the pattern is always the same four or five mistakes, repeated over and over, by smart people who should know better. So let's skip the theory and look at what goes wrong in practice.
The first mistake is hiring based on a single ranking promise. Someone tells you they'll get you to position one for your main keyword within three months, and you sign because it sounds exact and confident. Here's the problem: nobody, not Google, not the agency, not me, controls the algorithm well enough to guarantee a specific position by a specific date. If a company promises this without asking about your site history, your competitors, or your current backlink profile first, walk away. That's not confidence, that's a sales script.
The second mistake is not asking what tools and reporting you'll receive. I had a client last year paying £1,500 a month for six months before realising they had zero access to Search Console or Analytics. The agency was the only one who could see the data. When they finally asked for a login, they were told it would take "a few weeks to set up." That's a massive red flag. You should have access to your own numbers from day one, no exceptions.
The third mistake is confusing activity with progress. Agencies love sending monthly reports full of tasks completed: 40 backlinks built, 12 blog posts published, 200 keywords tracked. None of that means anything if organic traffic and conversions aren't moving. Ask for outcome metrics, not task lists, in every single report.
The fourth, and this one costs people the most money, is not checking who is doing the actual work. Plenty of UK agencies sell packages then outsource the technical work to cheap freelancers overseas with no oversight. There's nothing wrong with outsourcing done well, but you need to know who touches your site and what quality control looks like before anything goes live.
- Ask for three client references you can call directly, not just case study screenshots
- Request a technical audit before signing anything, so you know what you're paying to fix
- Get the contract terms for cancellation in writing before you start, not after a dispute
- Check if they use black hat link schemes by asking directly how they build links
SEO in 2026 has shifted more toward answer engines and AI overviews pulling from trusted sources, which means the agencies still selling pure keyword stuffing tactics are already behind. If a company can't explain how they're adapting content for AI-driven search results, that tells you plenty about how current their knowledge is.
More questions
How long should I give an SEO company before judging results?
Give it a minimum of four to six months before expecting meaningful movement, and closer to nine months if your site had no prior SEO history. Anyone claiming faster large scale results on a competitive term is either exaggerating or taking shortcuts that could get you penalised later.
Should I hire a freelancer instead of an agency?
It depends on your budget and how complex your site is. A skilled freelancer can be brilliant for a small local business with straightforward needs. Larger sites with technical issues, multiple locations, or ecommerce catalogues usually need a team with broader skills covering technical, content, and outreach at once.
What's a fair price to pay for SEO in the UK right now?
Small local businesses typically pay between £500 and £1,500 a month for solid ongoing work. Mid sized or national brands often pay £2,000 to £5,000
