Search engine optimization (SEO): Our agency only speaks in jargon — what should I look for as the owner?

Eight months is plenty of time for a B2B manufacturer to see clear, tangible results. If you haven't received a single new customer or quote request, the agency probably never bothered researching your industry's search behavior. They're just fixing minor backend technical glitches to pad their reports.

Give the agency these three conditions at your next meeting: 1) Strip out all technical jargon from the PDF report and show only organic form conversions. 2) Provide a single table showing where you rank on search engines for your core product lines. 3) Commit to a clear action plan for the next three months aimed directly at driving revenue.

We run a similar machinery parts manufacturing business in Stuttgart. Starting with 1,500 Euros a month, we began getting at least 4 serious corporate quote inquiries every month starting around month six. Zero movement in eight months is definitely not normal, total waste of money.

Agencies' favorite tactic is flaunting impression counts and claiming growth. Who cares if you rank first for a keyword that brings zero paying customers? In your line of work, if 150 people hit your site each month searching the right terms, your workshop would be flooded with orders. Don't fall for vanity impression metrics.

ask for your search console access, if the agency won't give it to you then something's definitely off then btw head over to the performance tab and look at the last eight months if clicks haven't gone up you're throwing money away, simple as that.

Email the agency first thing tomorrow and ask for the list of inbound leads driven by organic search. If basic goals like this aren't even configured in their analytics dashboard, cancel the contract immediately without renewal.

We're about to have a new website built as well, should search engine optimization be tackled from day one or does it start months after launch? like can't the site owner track the keywords in this report themselves?

Correction: I misremembered the figure, it was a bit lower.

Noted, thanks.

Let me summarize the topic, since several different answers were given. Any unwritten clause becomes a point of disagreement later, as both sides remember it differently.

Taking notes for two weeks yields better results than a six-month estimate. Correct me if I'm wrong.

My perspective changed after experiencing that. Ranking is the result search intent is the input. Look at intent first.

Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late. Just leaving this note, it might be useful.

I went through the same thing.

Correct.

There's a part I don't understand. Everything goes well for the first three months; problems arise in the fourth.

Hasty decisions become decisions you have to fix six months later. This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

We got stuck at the same point for a while. Trying to do this alone is the most expensive way.

Any comment made without a control group is just a guess.

Timely topic.

this is exactly what we experienced.. then like speed is a threshold issue; if youre already fast, making it faster changes nothing.

i'd say don't rush but honestly the harder it is to reverse a decision the slower you should make it.

if I were you, Id go this route.

Thanks for writing this, that's the right way. Don't trust anyone who gives guarantees; there are no guarantees in this business.

Trying to do this alone is the most expensive way. If I were you, I'd go this route.