How to Tell If Your SEO Expert Is Actually Doing Their Job?
Not sure if your SEO expert is delivering results? If your website’s traffic has been flat (or worse, declining), while paid social is the only thing keeping numbers up, it’s time to dig deeper.
What Is Your SEO Expert Actually Doing?
Many so-called SEO experts sell generic, outdated tactics like:
- "Optimizing for 2 keywords"
- "Updating meta tags and descriptions"
- "Submitting a sitemap to Google"
These are basic tasks, not an SEO strategy. If that’s all they’re doing, you’re throwing money away.
What SEO Should Actually Look Like
SEO is a mix of on-page SEO (what happens on your site) and off-page SEO (what happens elsewhere to boost your site’s authority).
On-Page SEO
This includes:
- Website design, structure and accessibility (Google favors user-friendly sites)
- Site speed (Google prioritizes fast-loading pages)
- Mobile responsiveness (Most searches happen on mobile—Google ranks accordingly)
- Keyword-driven, high-quality content (Blogs, service pages, landing pages)
- Internal linking (Helps Google and users navigate your site efficiently)
Off-Page SEO
- Backlink building – Earning high-quality links from supplier sites
- Local citations – Ensuring business directories feature correct details
- Social signals – Engagement from social media contributes indirectly
SEO Takes Time – But You Should See Progress
Good SEO takes 6-12 months to show significant results. If your SEO team promised instant rankings, they’re likely cutting corners (which can hurt you later).
How to Audit Your SEO Strategy
If you want to check whether your SEO strategy is on track, here’s a quick method:
Google Your Keywords in Another Metro Area
- Search for your industry’s top keywords in a different large city.
- Analyze the top-ranking pages.
- Compare their structure, content and keyword usage to your site.
Check Your Content Strategy
- Are there dedicated service pages (content silos) optimized for each major service?
- Does your site structure make sense?
- Are pages designed to answer the user’s search intent?
Review Your Ad Strategy
- If you’re running ads, are they directing traffic to targeted service pages?
- Sending users to a homepage instead of a dedicated landing page lowers conversion rates.
The Best SEO Strategy: Authority + Speed + Content
A good SEO strategy isn’t just about sprinkling keywords—it’s about giving users (and Google) exactly what they want.
✅ Content silos: Pages dedicated to ranking for specific services ✅ Fast-loading pages: 90+ Google PageSpeed score, optimized for Core Web Vitals ✅ Proven structure: Based on competitor research and Google’s ranking patterns
Final Thoughts
If your SEO expert isn’t doing the above, they aren’t doing real SEO. SEO isn’t magic—it’s a mix of technical improvements, strategic content creation and long-term planning. If they aren’t delivering measurable improvements in rankings and traffic (beyond just paid ads), it’s time to rethink your strategy.
Need a second opinion on your website’s SEO? Let’s chat!
