4 Secrets Your SEO Agency Doesn't Want You To Tell | CodewithHarsh

 4 Secrets Your SEO Agency Doesn't Want You To Tell

Find out what your SEO agency really thinks behind closed doors. Discover the top 4 secrets so you can improve your relationship. I have spent all 23 years of my advertising career in agencies.

I've never done an "in-house" SEO job.
I think working at an advertising agency - especially an agency that's great at search - is the best job in the world.

I have worked with clients of all types and sizes around the world – including Fortune 10 companies as well as one-person businesses looking for leads.

Believe it or not, despite so much experience, I am still constantly puzzled by new scenarios in the agency/client relationship.

That being said, there are things most people who don't spend time in an agency wouldn't think about in the day-to-day running between the agency and the client. I'm going to shed light on some of those things.

SEO

Having a punching bag is part of the job

Television shows like Mad Men have made the advertising industry glamorous.
The image of the dazzling, modern glass building on Madison Avenue has attracted many young hopefuls to learn about account management, traffic, media shopping, and even search.

I've been fired for results from campaigns I've never touched.
When my phone rings, no matter where I am, I look at caller ID - and if it's a customer I'll never rest until I call them back.

If you work in an agency, your time is not yours.
When you work at an agency, the adage "bovine waste" tends to roll down the slope, and unfortunately, you're at the bottom of the hill.

Job

I am told that life in an agency is not for the old and the weak.
Maybe I'm going for the first one, but I'm still a long way from the latter.

The biggest mistake I see clients make with an agency is hitting a big bang at the door and ordering agency personnel right away.

It's not quite as far-fetched as the typically yelling customer stereotype.
It's more subtle, with lots of passive-aggressive tones and mentions about how last agency was fired.

But don't be fooled—the agency staff are judging you in the first meeting just as much as you're judging them—and later in the column, we'll talk about why that's important.

Nice Clients Finish First

Anyone who has ever been in an agency when assignments are made will testify to the "underground lobbying" that gets the team a particular client.

Interesting clients will be very popular among agency employees at first - at least until the people involved in the account actually reveal themselves.

Trust me, once a client is established at the agency, people know which clients are great to work with, and who to take a 30-minute lunch break instead of eating a sad sandwich at your desk. You can cut off your head.

Trust me, you want account personnel who want to work on your account.

If you are good, you will have the best account with people lobbying to work on your account.

This is a really big deal if you work with a big agency. The big agencies are great and have some of the best people, but they also have some of the worst accounts.

Nice Clients

The team you work with may be directly related to how well you treat the staff you interact with initially.

I'm not saying you can't hold your agency accountable - in fact, quite the opposite. Your agency wants you to tell them how they're doing in your eyes - trust me, it's not always obvious.

Over the years, I've been fired from an agency more times than I can count when I didn't notice the problem because the client never told me about it.

No, accountability is rarely a problem.

Communicate and be nice.

You'd be surprised how much these two things will affect your results.

Squeaky Wheel Gets The Work

We've already established that good customers get a better job than mean customers.
But being nice doesn't mean being silent.

Even when dealing with an agency that employs strict discipline and defined procedures, a silent client can be forgotten.

Every week I meet with every client along with my team.

The first thing I look for is whether all of the customer's hours are being used efficiently.

Even though our firm has over 15 years of established processes and practices, I still see times when quiet clients don't get the time they deserve.

It's not because the work was done - the work is never done.
It's not because they weren't good - all my clients are good right now!

Gets The Work

This is because these customers did not want regular check-in calls.
This is because these clients never respond to their reports.

We rightly believe in many respects that a calm customer is a happy customer.
When you measure months of SEO work based on the fluctuating ranking of a keyword - even if it's an important keyword - let me show you don't get what we're trying to do.

And I can guarantee you that if you are my customer, then intellectually you know that chasing a single keyword ranking is a waste of time in most cases.

But even if my clients know this, I see the excitement in their eyes when that keyword jumps in ranking and I know I'm more likely to be fired if the keyword drops.

Even if the traffic from search has skyrocketed and resulted in an incredible return on investment.

Frankly, as an agency what we want to decide on is how well we help you achieve the goals we set throughout our relationship.

If you're not setting goals with your agency, you'll never really know if they're doing a good job.
So set goals and let the agency do the work.
If the agency is as good as you thought it was when you hired them, you will reach your goals.

If they're not, be nice but find a new agency.
At the end of the day, it's about which agency you work with best.

And by the time you reach those goals, relationships can look very different from client to client.

More resources:-

• A Day in the Life of an SEO Agency Senior Executive
• 5 Big Warning Signs Of A Bad SEO Or Digital Marketing Agency
• Essential SEO Tools for Agencies
• Featured Image: Key Of Thousands / Shutterstock