A frank look at the bad, the good, and how to protect your business
1. Why scepticism exists
Many businesses feel burned by SEO promises that never materialised. A 2024 UK pricing study reveals packages ranging from £600 to £6,000 per month for SMEs, with limited transparency on deliverables. addpeople.co.uk
On forums such as r/SEO, ex-clients describe paying four-figure monthly fees only to receive “boring blogs” and minimal optimisation. Reddit One Melbourne tradesman even spent nearly £10k on an agency contract that delivered four visits a month and demanded an exit fee when questioned. News.com.au
Common pain-points
- High cost: wide price bands make budgeting tricky for small firms. Aqueous Digital
- Opaque work: clients receive generic reports or no evidence of activity.
- ROI confusion: Industry writers argue that return on investment is hard to attribute because SEO supports brand building, assists other channels, and compounds over time. Ahrefs
- Sales-led agencies: talented sales teams can mask shallow SEO knowledge, as echoed in several Reddit complaint threads. Reddit
2. How poor agencies operate
| Red flag | What it looks like in practice | Why it harms you |
|---|---|---|
| One-size-fits-all packages | Fixed “silver, gold, platinum” tiers with no site audit first | Misaligned priorities and wasted budget |
| Guaranteed rankings | Promises of “Page 1 in 30 days” | Usually involves short-term, risky tactics |
| Lack of access | You never see Google Search Console or GA4 | Impossible to verify results |
| Minimal communication | Monthly PDF full of jargon, no strategy discussion | You cannot link actions to outcomes |
3. What good agencies do differently
A competent consultancy will:
- Start with discovery – a technical and content audit to set baselines.
- Define realistic KPIs – visibility, quality traffic, conversions, not vanity ranks.
- Create a roadmap – prioritised tasks with expected impact and effort.
- Communicate in plain English – dashboards, check-ins, and shared docs.
- Collaborate with your team – developers, writers, or in-house marketers.
These steps align with guidance from industry leaders who note that 82 % of marketers see SEO as a positive driver when it is part of a wider strategy and reporting. Conductor
4. Our view from the inside
I have spent a decade in search – first at traditional agencies, now at Digital Evergreen. I have seen three recurring challenges even the best teams face:
- Time-to-value: meaningful organic gains can take 3-6 months or more.
- Attribution noise: a conversion journey often includes ads, email, direct and search. Good reporting must reflect that.
- Constant change: Google updates, AI-generated results and shifting user intent mean strategies need iteration, not set-and-forget.
We meet these challenges by working on a flexible, pay-as-you-go basis. No long retainers, clear task lists, fortnightly Loom updates, and shared GA4 dashboards so clients see exactly what has changed.
5. Measuring success (even when ROI is fuzzy)
While direct ROI can be hard to pin down, you can track leading indicators:
- Technical health scores (Core Web Vitals, crawl errors)
- Visibility growth (impression share, keyword buckets)
- Quality traffic (organic sessions that stay, scroll, and convert)
- Content engagement (time on page, assisted conversions)
Industry articles suggest pairing these metrics with revenue attribution models rather than chasing a single ROI formula. Ahrefs
6. Choosing an agency you can trust
Checklist before you sign:
- Ask for a sample audit or findings deck, not a templated proposal.
- Demand access to GA4 and Search Console.
- Insist on a three-month review point with the option to scale down.
- Clarify ownership of content and backlinks if the relationship ends.
- Verify their team’s involvement in delivery – not just sales staff.
7. Why I founded Digital Evergreen
After watching too many businesses pay for convoluted packages or be locked into long contracts, I set up Digital Evergreen to offer an alternative:
- No contracts – book the hours you need, when you need them.
- Transparent pricing – hourly or project-based, agreed up-front.
- Collaboration-first – we can support or audit existing agency work.
- Plain-spoken reports – video walk-throughs, shared dashboards, zero jargon.
If you have been stung before or simply lack the time to master SEO, we can slot in as an honest second opinion or full delivery partner.
8. Final thoughts
Trust in SEO is earned through clarity, evidence, and continuous learning. Question bold guarantees, demand data, and remember that good search performance is a marathon built on technical soundness, meaningful content, and open communication.
Ready to chat about your search challenges – or audit an existing agency?
Book a free discovery call.