Veterans of the SEO industry have seen a lot. When we take over an account, we always see things that we would do that the prior SEO agency didn’t do. In all likelihood, when we lose an account, the new agency will say the same about our work.
It is normal for agencies to take different approaches to SEO. Thus, it’s not really fair to say that someone wasn’t doing their job just because they do it differently. And sometimes it takes a new perspective to help give a site a boost, tackling the problem from a different angle. Again, this is normal in SEO work.
But, what if it is simply a case of the SEO agency (or employee) not doing their job? This is much different than just having a different approach. It is just not doing it.
The challenge for clients is that they may not know enough about search engine optimization to know that basic things, housekeeping items, are not getting done.
Are there some things you can check to see? Yes.
Get written content change recommendations
When you trust an SEO partner, it can be easy to say “just go ahead and do it.” And that’s fine. We have many clients that trust our knowledge of their industry and allow us free reign on content edits. But, your agency should provide a document that shows the before and after of content changes. When you browse your website, you should be able to see those changes.
It is possible that the content is well optimized and does not require changes. That’s fine also. Don’t make changes just to see changes. But, there should be some dynamic components to your content. If not changes, then new content.
Check the H tags
This may be a bit hard for some to do, but once you get the hang of it, it isn’t too difficult. The H tags are html code that helps search engines understand the content structure of your page. There should only be one H1 tag, and a page can have multiple H2 tags, as well as possibly some H3, H4 tags (and so on).
Where we see an issue is when there are no H tags, or there is only an H1 tag. This single H1 tag is usually derived from the site template and is not really added with much consideration.
To see the H tags, go to a page on your site using chrome (it’s easiest since it’s the most used browser). Then hover on the page and right-click on your mouse. You should see “Page Source” as an option. Click this to open a new tab that has the code. Don’t sweat it, you don’t need to read or understand this.
On the upper right of the browser, click on the three vertical dots, then select “Find.” Then, enter “<h1” (I left out the closing bracket intentionally. The actual tag should look like <h1>, but some may put in a space). There should be only one. Click the down arrow to go to the instance of the “<h1”. Does the content next to the tag make sense? Does it describe the main theme/topic of the page? If not, you may need to ask your agency about it.
Now search for “<h2.” Are there any instances? If so, click the down arrow in the search to go to the first instance, and then the next, and so on. Do these make sense, are they relevant to the content on the page? If so, great. If not, again, ask your agency about them.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a great tool. Among other things, it will tell you the pages that have issues. Ask your agency to download the issues report for you if you don’t have access.
When you get it, you will likely see issues. Some of Google’s ‘issues’ can’t always be resolved. But, your agency should be able to explain to you what they have done and why the pages still on the list can’t be fixed.
These three things will help you understand if your SEO agency is paying attention to your program. No agency is perfect and you may very well find some issues. But, no explanation for the various items above should raise some flags.