Your agency has charged you for SEO for a year and shown you nothing

What you are actually paying for

SEO means getting your site to show up on Google when someone searches for what you sell. Done properly, it is slow, deliberate work: improving the words on your pages, getting other reputable sites to link to yours, fixing technical problems, and writing content that answers what your customers actually type into Google.

Done at agency scale for £150 a month, it usually looks like this. A piece of software scans your site once a month and spits out a report. Someone at the agency exports that report into a branded PDF. You receive the PDF. Nobody touches your website.

That is not SEO. That is a subscription to a PDF.

How to tell if SEO is working

You do not need to be technical to judge this. There are only three numbers that matter, and you can check them yourself.

• Are you ranking for searches that bring you customers? Open an incognito browser window and search for what your customers would type - "emergency plumber Leeds", "sports massage Bristol", "vegan cafe Manchester". If you are not on page one after a year of paid SEO, something is wrong.
• Is your traffic going up? Your agency should have set up Google Analytics or Search Console. Ask them to show you the number of visitors from Google in the last 12 months on one chart. If the line is flat or going down, you are not getting what you paid for.
• Are you getting enquiries from the website? The whole point is the phone ringing. If twelve months of SEO has produced zero new leads you can trace to Google, the maths is simple.

If your agency cannot or will not show you these three things in one short meeting, that is your answer.

The reports that mean nothing

Agencies have got very good at producing monthly reports that look impressive and tell you nothing. Watch for these.

• "Impressions" without clicks. Impressions just means Google showed your site somewhere in the results. It does not mean anyone saw it or clicked it. A site ranking 87th for "plumber" gets thousands of impressions and zero customers.
• Keywords you would never want. Ranking number one for "how does a boiler work" is useless if you fix boilers in Sheffield. Your agency is showing you wins on searches that bring no money.
• "Domain authority improved by 2 points." This is a number invented by a software company. Google does not use it. It is filler.
• Endless lists of "technical fixes". 47 broken links fixed, 12 image tags updated. None of this matters if nobody is visiting the site.

The monthly report exists because if the agency stopped sending it, you would notice nothing else had changed.

Questions to ask your agency this week

Send one email. Ask these five questions and request a written reply.

1. How many visitors came to my website from Google last month, and how does that compare to twelve months ago?
2. Which specific searches do I now rank on page one for that I did not rank for a year ago?
3. How many enquiries have come through the website in the last year, and which of those came from Google?
4. What work, specifically, did you do on my site last month? Not "optimisation" - what files did you change, what pages did you edit, what links did you build?
5. If I cancelled today, what would I lose?

If the reply is vague, slow, or full of jargon, you have your answer. A good agency will have these numbers ready in an afternoon. A bad one will need two weeks, a meeting, and a phone call.

What to do next

For most small UK businesses - a plumber in Newcastle, a beautician in Cardiff, a cafe in Norwich - paying £150 a month for ongoing SEO is the wrong shape of spend. You do not need a constant retainer. You need a site that is technically sound, loads quickly, has the right pages with the right words on them, and a Google Business profile that is actually filled in. That is mostly a one-off job, not a forever subscription.

Cancel the SEO retainer. Put that money back in your pocket, or spend it on a one-off piece of work that produces something you can see. Then put your site somewhere it will be hosted properly and looked after without monthly invoices for invisible work.

That is what I do at SkipTheAgency. The Maintained plan is £65/month and includes the actual website work most agencies pretend they are doing - content updates, performance, Google Business profile updates, same-day response. No SEO theatre, no monthly PDF. If you want a proper one-off SEO tidy-up on top, I quote it, do it, and you can see exactly what changed.

Frequently asked questions

How long should SEO take to show results?

For a small local business, you should see some movement in three to six months - new keyword rankings, more visitors from Google, the occasional enquiry. A full year with no measurable change means the work is not being done, or it is being done badly. Either way, you stop paying.

Is monthly SEO worth it for a small business?

For most local service businesses, no. You are better off paying for a one-off SEO tidy-up - fixing the pages, writing proper content, setting up Google Business - and then leaving it alone. Ongoing monthly SEO retainers mostly suit businesses competing nationally, not a plumber covering three postcodes.

How do I know if my agency is actually doing any SEO work?

Ask them to list exactly what they changed on your site last month - which pages, which files, which links. If they cannot give you a specific list within a few days, no work is happening. Real SEO work leaves a trail of changes you can see.

Can I cancel an SEO retainer at any time?

Check your contract for the notice period - usually 30 days. There is nothing your agency can hold over you once you cancel. They cannot un-do SEO work, and any rankings you have earned belong to your website, not them.

What should I do with the money I save by cancelling SEO?

Spend a portion of it on a one-off audit and clean-up from someone who will show you what they did. Keep the rest. A year of cancelled SEO retainer at £150 a month is £1,800 - more than enough to pay for a proper one-off piece of work and still come out ahead.

How much does honest SEO actually cost for a small business?

A one-off proper job for a small local site is usually £300-800 depending on the state of it. After that, light ongoing attention is fine - the kind of thing included in a £65/month maintenance plan. You do not need a separate four-figure annual SEO budget.