3 Reasons to Stick With Your SEO Agency
Choosing a SEO agency can be a difficult decision. A lot can be riding on that decision with your business. More importantly, once you become a client of the agency, how do you know if the relationship is working out over time?
There are three important key factors to think about: attention, service, and results.
Here are 3 key reasons clients remain with their agency.
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Your website is getting constant attention
After 15 years in the agency world, I’ve had a number of new clients and I typically ask why a client left their former agency. The #1 reason I always hear is that they felt they weren’t getting enough attention.
Attention isn’t about communication as much as it’s about attention to your website, attention to your campaign, and attention to the details, etc.
Lack of attention normally is a result of two things: a) because an agency is more focused on getting more new clients to help them grow instead of properly servicing their existing clients. Did you know that most clients are essentially paying for agency employees who don’t even work on their account? If an agency has 30 employees and 15 contractors, as an example, there’s a good chance only 6 of those people are working on your account on a daily or weekly basis. So where do you think the salaries and compensation come from for their remaining employees? Also, b) it’s not even possible for most employees to spend all their time on your account because they have many other accounts they also have to service. That’s reason #1 why agency employees get burned out and leave because they are working on too many accounts at once.
If you feel like you’re website is not getting attention, there is probably a good reason why.
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High level customer service
An agency wouldn’t exist without clients. That is what keeps the lights on. Does the CEO or leadership team jump on calls with you or are cc’d on emails. Heck, does your account manager give you insights about what’s going on? Do they forget about things you spoke about during the last call? Did they forget to add something to the site you requested or did they miss the deadline?
These small things add up and can be a clear sign that it’s not worth sticking with your agency. Mainly because it’s frustrating to deal with, but it can also impact your website performance.
To be fair, it works both ways. As a client, it’s important to work together with your agency team and be respectful of the people and the small wins along the way.
There are two types of client personalities that typically don’t mesh well with agencies and it never ends well for both parties.
“The Agency Hopper” – a client who has unrealistic expectations and gives an agency “a chance” to hit those almost impossible targets. If the agency doesn’t succeed, the client jumps to another agency with the same expectations. Some agencies take that client on, but it never really ends well. I’ve seen a client hop to 4 different agencies within 12 months. Shockingly, they wasted a lot of their own time and money.
“The Bully” – a client who likes to beat up on agencies verbally to squeeze every ounce of effort they can get from them. This is typically a “penny pincher” who is never happy with any work or results and is verbally abusive during calls or in emails.
This was a message from an unrealistic business owner that someone shared and it made the rounds in the SEO community recently:
Here’s why this person has this mentality: almost 10 years ago SEO was much easier to rank keywords FAST and move them onto page 1 of Google. This was by using tactics that are no longer options and Google has discovered ways to identify these “black hat SEO tactics” that can actually penalize your website. The problem is some people were so used to hearing about these types of results AND many shady SEOs still promise these types of unrealistic results, unfortunately. This isn’t a thing anymore and can cause more harm than good for your website. However, most agency clients understand it’s a relationship and a process and are amazing clients.
If you feel like you’re not getting quality customer service from your current agency, it might be time to look at other vendors.
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You are getting results
If your website is getting the proper attention and service, mixed with the right strategy, then you should not have a problem getting performance results or a return on your investment (ROI). If not, then something is flawed with the overall strategy and tactics that are being deployed. Sometimes you can be happy with the customer service you’re receiving, but still not get quality leads or new clients because the strategy isn’t working.
However, if you feel like you’re website is not getting results, it might be time to switch agencies.
Final Thought: Get all three factors or make the switch
The key to success with the client and agency relationship is to achieve all three of these important factors at all times. Yes, solely getting results can keep you as a client, but over time, poor service and lack of attention will eventually cause issues. This is the “death by 1,000 cuts” concept.
Most agencies want long-term relationships with their clients, but not all understand how to retain clients year after year. If you feel you’re not getting attention, service, and results (ASR), it might be time to explore new agency options sooner rather than later. Digitic is happy to offer a free consultation for a website review.