Free · eleven questions · about a minute

Your rankings went up.
Your phone didn't.

There are about seven reasons that happens. Most of them are nobody's fault, and six of the seven cannot be worked out from a normal monthly report, which is the actual problem.

The rankings are for terms that people who need you right now don't type
They're measured from somewhere you don't actually serve
The traffic landed on blog pages rather than the pages that sell
A chunk of it is people searching your business name, who already knew about you
The page ranks fine and doesn't convert, which is a page problem rather than a search one
Enquiries did go up and nobody is counting them properly
It's the season, and last year looked much the same

Six of those seven are invisible from a standard SEO report. So before anyone can tell you which one you've got, including me, you need to be able to see what is being done each month and what happened to the pages that sell the work you want more of.

What gets checked

Both ends of it. Not just theirs.

An SEO arrangement works when both sides are set up properly, and the gaps are rarely all on one side.

Their endSeven things a monthly report has to do before anyone outside the agency could check it

Your endFour things that decide whether good work would even be visible to you

Open last month's report before you start. The first seven are about what is in it. The last four you'll know off the top of your head.

I ask for your email at the end so I can send the printable version.

Questions

Minute

Cost

This is a check on the arrangement. It is not a verdict on your provider.

Last step

Your result is ready.

Tell me where to send the printable version and I'll show you what it came to.

I'll also send a short series on reading SEO reports. Unsubscribe any time.

Your result

Their endWhat the reporting does

Your endWhat's set up so work is visible

A gap on their end means something is not being documented. It does not mean it was not done. The fix for that is usually a better conversation, not a new agency.

Their end, item by item

Your end, item by item

What to ask for

Each of these follows directly from a gap above. All of them are reasonable requests and none of them is an accusation.

What to sort out at your end

These are the ones nobody can do for you, and they're usually the faster half to fix.

Two ways to get to the bottom of it

Same process either way.
The only difference is who spends the time.

None of this tells you yet why the phone is flat. It tells you whether anybody could find out. The next step is comparing what you were promised against what was reported, and checking the pieces that can be verified from outside.

Have someone do it for you

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I’ve looked at more than a hundred of these over fifteen years, and more often than not the provider was doing the work and describing it badly. Either way, you get to stop wondering.

A factual record of your agreement against what was reported, written so you can forward it to your provider as it stands
A private assessment with my read of it and what I would do next
The questions to send your provider, written for you
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What Is My SEO Company Actually Doing?

The same process as a guide plus nine worksheets, about half an hour
Pull every promise out of your contract into a checkable list
Verify the backlinks they say they built
Find out which of your own accounts you don't actually own

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