Ask the SEO Wizard
Most Illuminated Oracle of the Search Results,
We spent $17,000 on SEO and can't tell if it worked. Is that normal?
— a co-owner of a family business in North Portland, adapted from a question on r/smallbusiness
Asked
My wife and I built our own website, then hired an SEO agency about a year ago. We are $17k in and still can't tell if this is just how SEO works or if we picked the wrong agency.
The Wizard answers
It’s common. It shouldn’t be normal.
SEO can take six to twelve months to pay off, so a slow start isn’t proof you got ripped off. And if you just launched your business, the first year is the hardest. Google doesn’t give new businesses the time of day until they are at least a year old. But that being said, an SEO agency with that spend should have been able to make a difference you can see.
Here’s how to find out for yourself:
- Make sure you own your accounts. Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and your Google Business Profile should be in your name, with the agency as a guest. If they own them, fix that first.
- Look at Search Console. Compare the last three months to the same three months a year ago. Are impressions and clicks up? Which pages and searches grew? This takes ten minutes and doesn’t lie.
- Count leads, not rankings. How many calls and form fills came from Google search? If nobody is tracking that, that’s a big red flag right there.
- Ask for a list of what they did. Pages written, pages fixed, links earned, profile updates. Month by month. If the list is thin or vague, you have your answer.
If Search Console shows real growth, give them a little more time and ask for better reporting. If it’s flat after a year, it’s fair to stop. A one-time audit from someone independent costs a lot less than another year of guessing.