If you have decided to get help with your SEO, you face a basic choice early on: hire an agency, or work with an independent consultant. Both can do excellent work. Both can also waste your money. I am an independent consultant, so you know where I stand, but the right answer genuinely depends on your situation. Here are the honest trade-offs.
- An agency gives you team capacity, with account managers and overhead in the price
- A consultant gives you direct contact and lower cost, with limited capacity
- Always ask who actually does the work and how they report
- A guaranteed number one ranking is a red flag from anyone
What an agency gives you
An agency is a team, and that brings real advantages. They have different specialists for different tasks, they can take on large projects, and the work keeps moving when one person is away. For a big company with a big budget and a lot going on, that capacity is worth paying for.
The trade-off is what comes with it. You usually deal with an account manager rather than the people doing the work. There are offices, salaries and layers to pay for, and that overhead is built into your price. The person assigned to you can change, and the bigger the agency, the smaller your account tends to feel.
What an independent consultant gives you
An independent consultant is one person, fully accountable. You talk directly to whoever does the work, every time. There is no account manager passing messages along, and no markup for offices you will never visit. You also tend to get more honesty, because there is no sales team whose job is to keep you signed.
The trade-off here is capacity. One person has limits. A good consultant will tell you when a project is too big for them, or bring in trusted help. If yours never admits any limit, that is worth noticing.
Questions to ask before you choose
Whichever way you lean, ask these four questions and listen carefully to the answers:
- Who exactly will do the work, and will I speak to them directly?
- How will you report progress, and how often?
- Am I tied into a long contract, or can I leave if results do not come?
- What happens in the first month?
Red flags on either side
Some warning signs have nothing to do with size. Be careful with anyone who guarantees a number one ranking, locks you into a long contract before doing any work, or reports "results" you cannot connect to real enquiries or sales. A good agency and a good consultant will both happily explain what they do and why.
So which one?
If you are a large company with heavy, ongoing needs, an agency's capacity may suit you well. If you are a small or mid-sized business that values direct contact, clear reporting and paying for work rather than overhead, an independent consultant is often the better fit. Be honest with yourself about which one you are, and choose from there.