One SEO proposal promises top rankings in a few months. Another charges per specific keyword. A third offers a monthly retainer covering an audit, optimisation, and links.
The problem arises when, after several months, you want to see what you actually paid for.
In SEO, you aren't buying a spot on Google. You are paying for analysis, technical updates, content, website development, links, and the ongoing work of people focused on increasing your visibility. That is why a healthy partnership should leave behind something far more tangible than an average position chart.
What are you actually paying for in SEO?
Google charges nothing for a website to appear in organic search results. Running Google Ads campaigns does not boost organic rankings either.
An SEO agency is not buying your place on Google. You are paying for their hands-on work on your site and its visibility.
According to Google, services provided by SEO specialists include site content and structure reviews, technical advice on hosting, redirects, error pages, and JavaScript, content development, keyword research, expertise in specific markets, and optimisation for generative AI.
In practice, this often extends to refining information architecture, internal linking, indexation analysis, structured data, optimising existing subpages, creating new content, and securing quality backlinks.
A significant part of technical SEO is simply web development, closely tied to Technical support and development.
If you pay a monthly retainer, it should always be possible to see exactly what work was carried out within that budget.
You cannot buy rankings on Google
Keep this in mind when evaluating proposals that guarantee specific search result positions.
In its official guidance for companies seeking an SEO provider, Google explicitly warns against agencies that guarantee top rankings, claim a special relationship with Google, or pitch priority submission to the search engine.
Search rankings depend on numerous variables completely outside the agency's control. Algorithms evolve, competition shifts, search result layouts change, and user search patterns develop over time.
An agency can be accountable for the quality of its work. It cannot control Google's algorithm.
Keyword rankings don't tell the full story
Tracking keyword rankings is useful. It lets you monitor whether specific pages are climbing for relevant queries and how their visibility progresses over time.
However, it should never be your sole benchmark for evaluating SEO performance.
A page might claim a top spot for a term nobody actually searches for. Conversely, it might slip a few places for a single query while ranking for hundreds of new variations and driving significantly more organic traffic overall.
On top of that, search results are personalised. Factors like physical location, device, language settings, and browsing context all influence what a user sees.
Simply typing a keyword into Google and checking where your site sits is not a reliable method for reporting SEO progress.
Average position in Search Console requires context
Google Search Console reports an average position metric, but interpreting it is less straightforward than the name implies.
The position is calculated based on the highest-ranking result for your site on a given search query, recorded for queries where Google logged an impression.
A shift in the mix of queries your site displays for can sway your average position up or down without any real change in your bottom line.
A clear example occurred in September 2025, when Google dropped support for the URL parameter that allowed retrieving 100 search results in a single request.
Third-party rank trackers relied heavily on that parameter. When it was deprecated, many websites saw sharp changes in impressions, reported queries, and average positions within Search Console.
An analysis of 319 websites published by Search Engine Land revealed an impression drop across 87.7% of surveyed sites, alongside a decline in reported queries for 77.6% of them.
This didn't mean SEO suddenly tanked or surged across the board. The way third-party data fed into the reports simply changed.
It stands as a solid reminder why an entire engagement should never be judged on a single isolated metric.
Platforms like Semrush and Ahrefs are invaluable for competitive research, backlink analysis, keyword discovery, and tracking movement over time.
However, they do not have privileged access to Google's internal ranking data.
Google itself notes that it does not evaluate or endorse third-party SEO tools, and confirms that these tools have no insight into its proprietary ranking infrastructure.
Treat external tool reports as helpful data points, not as direct insights from Google's algorithm.
Your primary source of truth for how your site performs on Google should always be Google Search Console.
Your company must own your Search Console property
This is one of the very first things to verify when partnering with an SEO agency.
Your business must retain ownership of your Google Search Console property. The agency should be granted appropriate user permissions, ensuring that ending a contract never means losing access to your historical performance data.
The same principle applies to Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, your domain, and any other core tracking tools.
Switching agencies should be as straightforward as revoking access for one team and inviting another—never an ordeal to reclaim locked accounts.
What should be included in an SEO report?
A meaningful report connects three core elements: the work delivered, changes in visibility, and the impact on traffic and business goals.
At a minimum, expect to see:
- a log of implemented changes including dates and affected URLs,
- a list of new and updated content complete with page addresses,
- Google Search Console data tracking clicks, impressions, queries, and landing pages,
- period-over-period comparisons and, where relevant, year-over-year trends,
- organic traffic metrics pulled directly from your web analytics platform,
- conversions or key business events generated via organic traffic,
- details on acquired backlinks, if link building falls within your scope of work,
- context for major fluctuations, particularly when an algorithm update or major site migration occurred during the reporting period.
A standalone graph without an activity log merely shows that numbers changed. It tells you nothing about what the agency did or whether their actions drove that shift.
The changelog is your most valuable asset
One of the most practical parts of any SEO engagement is a clear, concise changelog.
It should clearly document that on a given date, specific title tags and category structures were updated, internal links were adjusted, new copy was published, broken redirects were resolved, or structured data was deployed.
Months down the road, you can cross-reference those interventions directly against trends in Search Console and your analytics tools.
Without this record, it is all too easy to credit an agency for growth they didn't generate—or blame them for a dip caused by factors outside their scope.
Organic traffic alone is not enough
Gaining more search traffic is an encouraging signal, but on its own, it doesn't prove that SEO is delivering commercial value.
An online shop might attract thousands of new visits to an informational blog post that yields zero sales. A B2B service firm might double its traffic without booking a single new consultation.
Traffic metrics should always be tracked alongside outcomes that matter directly to your business.
These might include lead form submissions, phone calls, live chats, account registrations, orders, revenue, or other valuable conversion events.
This is precisely where SEO aligns with analytics and Conversion optimisation (CRO).
How can you tell if real work is being done?
The simplest approach is to request a breakdown of technical and content changes delivered over the past three months.
Your team should receive specific URLs and precise deliverables: what was audited, written, modified, fixed, or shipped.
That doesn't mean dozens of subpages must be overhauled every single month. A significant share of SEO involves deep analytical planning, and technical shifts often take time to show their full impact.
However, if after several months it remains unclear what tasks were completed and what metrics are being tracked, evaluating the return on your retainer becomes nearly impossible.
Red flags to watch for in SEO proposals
Google explicitly flags several high-risk claims in its resources for website owners.
- Guarantees of the #1 spot on Google. Google clearly states that no one can guarantee a top ranking.
- Claims of a "special relationship with Google." No partnership gives any vendor special sway over organic search results.
- "Priority search engine submission." Google explicitly cautions against providers presenting basic indexing as an exclusive service.
- A lack of transparency about technical changes. Any agency touching your site should be prepared to explain exactly what they plan to alter and why.
- Mandatory links back to the agency. Google states that an SEO agency should never require clients to link back to the agency's own domain.
To that list, add practical relationship warnings: withholding access to your own Search Console and analytics properties, reporting only on cherry-picked keyword ranks, providing no changelog, and submitting reports completely disconnected from your commercial targets.
Be wary of packages like "20 links per month"
Link counts alone say almost nothing about quality or effectiveness.
Twenty links might come from reputable, contextually relevant industry publications—or they might come from twenty link-farm domains spun up solely to sell spam placements in bulk.
If link building is part of your contract, every report must include the exact URLs of secured placements. This lets you confirm where your brand is featured and whether the context aligns with your brand standards.
Avoid judging link quality solely on proprietary metrics from SEO tools. While helpful for benchmarking, they do not reflect how Google internally evaluates the contextual authority of an individual link.
How to evaluate SEO after six months
Six months into a retainer, you should be able to sit down and compare your baseline against your current standing.
Review the technical and content updates shipped, track which subpages gained visibility, observe click trends from search, and confirm whether qualified organic traffic expanded and drove real business conversions.
Not every optimisation delivers an immediate spike, and not every traffic bump is attributable to your agency. Tracking several interrelated metrics provides a far more accurate picture than hunting for a single catch-all figure.
SEO works on a longer horizon than paid advertising. Still, an extended timeline is no excuse for six months of silence on what is actually being built and improved.
What to clarify before signing a contract
Before committing, ask your prospective agency for a clear roadmap of the first quarter.
You don't need arbitrary ranking promises. You need clarity on what will be audited, who handles code implementation, the volume of content production, how changelogs are tracked, which metrics are measured, and who retains ownership of tracking accounts.
Make sure to confirm whether the monthly fee covers hands-on development or just a list of recommendations. An audit containing dozens of technical action items delivers little value if nobody is available to implement them over the coming months.
An SEO report should prove the work delivered
Effective SEO goes far beyond reporting position shifts for a handful of keywords. It requires active technical refinement, sound site structure, authoritative content, clear visibility tracking, and rigorous performance measurement.
A few months in, you should understand not just how your charts have moved, but precisely what changes were deployed and how they contributed to traffic and revenue.
At DOCK, we bring Websites together with analytics and growth marketing, ensuring that development, content, and tracking operate as a unified system.
If you have received an SEO proposal or report and aren't sure how to assess it, get in touch with us. We can help you review the data, verify what can actually be measured, and see if the reporting reflects meaningful work and tangible results.
