How to choose an SEO agency in London

Choosing an SEO agency is harder than choosing most suppliers because you cannot inspect the product before you buy it, the results take months, and the people selling it know far more about it than you do. That imbalance is why the industry has a reputation problem, and why a buyer who asks the right questions in the right order is so unusual that good agencies will notice.

This guide is written for the owner or marketing lead of a London business who has been pitched, or is about to be. It covers how to decide what you need, how to check an agency’s proof, what to read in the contract, what reporting to expect, and the red flags that should end a conversation. We are an agency, so read our own answers with the same scepticism; every claim we make about ourselves links to the page where you can check it.

Start with what you need, not who ranks

The agency that ranks first for "SEO agency London" is the agency that is best at ranking for "SEO agency London". That is a useful skill, but it is not evidence they can rank a Wimbledon dentist, a Canary Wharf law firm or a Shoreditch software company. Before you search, write one paragraph on what you need. Three London examples:

• A restaurant group with four sites in Camden, Islington, Hackney and Southwark wants more direct bookings and fewer commission payments to delivery and booking platforms. It needs local search and Google Business Profile work across four locations, review management and a booking-first website. It does not need digital PR yet.
• A commercial law firm in the City wants enquiries from mid-sized businesses across London for employment and commercial property work. It needs content that lawyers will sign off, technical work on a large and slow site, and reporting its partners will read. Local pack rankings matter less.
• A sole-trader electrician in Bromley wants the phone to ring. He needs a tidy Google Business Profile, a dozen well-built service pages, reviews and citations. A £2,500-a-month retainer would be the wrong product however good the agency.

When you can write that paragraph, you can ask every agency the same question: show me how you have solved this specific problem, for a business like mine, with figures. The rest of this guide is about judging the answers.

Agency, freelancer or in-house

Agencies are not the only option and are not always the right one. The honest comparison depends on the size of the job, how fast you need to move and how much management you want to do.

A common London pattern that works well is a hybrid: an in-house marketer who owns the relationship and the content calendar, a consultant or agency for technical and link work, and a developer who can ship changes. If an agency tells you a hybrid cannot work, ask why; the honest answer is usually that it earns them less.

Proof to check, and how to check it

Every agency has proof on its website. The question is whether it survives inspection. Five checks, each taking a few minutes:

Are results named, dated and sourced?

A result with a client name, a figure, the tool it came from and the date it was recorded can be checked. "Traffic up 300 percent" with no client, date or source cannot. Be especially wary of averages and multiples: "clients see an average return of X" implies you will get the same, and nobody can know that. Ask for one case most like your business, and ask to speak to that client.

Can you verify the reviews?

Agencies that show star ratings on their own pages are not always showing you a public profile. Open the agency’s Google Business Profile, Clutch and Trustpilot profiles yourself and read the counts and the dates. A rating from five reviews in 2020 is a different thing from a rating from a hundred reviews this year. If an agency shows stars with no link to the platform, or filters its widget to five-star reviews only, treat the stars as decoration. We say this knowing that we do not yet have a public review profile of our own, and our comparison page says so in its own row.

Are awards linked to the awarding body?

"Award-winning" means nothing without a link to the award, the year and the category. Many awards are paid-entry. Some are genuine and hard to win. You cannot tell which without the link.

Can you see the people?

Look for a team page with names, roles and photographs, and then look the names up. An agency with no named people is asking you to trust a brand rather than a person, and it is the person who will do your work. Ask who your account lead will be, who does the technical work, who writes, and whether any of them will be in the first meeting. Our own team page is the place to check us.

Does the agency practise what it sells?

Run the agency’s own site through a page-speed tool, look at whether its own Google Business Profile is complete, and read a few of its articles. An agency whose own site is slow, whose own profile is half empty and whose own content is thin is telling you how it works.

Read the terms before the pitch deck

The proposal tells you what the agency wants to do. The terms tell you what happens if it does not. In the London agencies we profiled this year the gap between the two was often wide: pages promising "no contracts" sat beside terms requiring upfront payment, notice periods and cancellation fees. The contracts and guarantees guide quotes the clauses with sources. Before any pitch, ask for the standard terms and look for six things:

1. The minimum term, and whether it renews automatically for another full term.
2. The notice period, and whether notice can be given during the minimum term or only at its end.
3. What you pay if you leave early. Some agreements require most of the remaining term.
4. How you pay. A compulsory standing order or direct debit is a commitment device; it should be your choice.
5. Who owns the accounts, the content and the links. Everything should be created in your name.
6. Whether the agency can end the agreement without notice while you cannot.

Our own terms are published in plain English on the before you sign page: no minimum term, 30 days’ notice from month one, no exit fee, and everything created in your name. Ask every agency on your shortlist for the equivalent page. If there is none, ask for the contract. These terms are proposed and are confirmed in writing before you sign.

Reporting you should expect

Reporting is where good agencies and poor ones separate fastest, because it is where the work either shows or does not. The minimum you should expect from a London agency at any price:

• A written report every month, on a fixed date, that lists what was done, not only what the numbers did.
• Figures drawn from accounts you own and can open yourself: Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4 and your Google Business Profile. If the only numbers come from the agency’s own dashboard, you cannot verify them.
• Rankings reported honestly, including the ones that fell, and with the search location stated. A ranking checked from Manchester tells a Lambeth business nothing.
• Leads, calls, bookings or sales, not only traffic. If the agency says conversions cannot be tracked, ask why not.
• A named person who explains the report and answers questions within a working day.

One access rule worth adopting before you sign anything: never hand over passwords. Give delegated access to Search Console, Analytics and your Business Profile in your own account. Google’s own guidance on hiring an SEO warns against anyone who asks for write access to Search Console during an audit, when read access is enough. The reporting guide goes into what a good monthly report contains.

Red flags that should end the conversation

Google publishes its own list of warning signs in its guidance on whether you need an SEO. Its first and plainest line is that "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google", and it tells readers that if someone guarantees first place, find someone else. Its other signs are worth reading in full; the ones we see most in London are below, with the local additions.

The London questions

Choosing a London agency raises a few questions a national buyer would not ask.

• Do they know your part of London? Local search results differ by borough and by district. An agency should be able to tell you who you are actually competing with for "near me" searches in Brixton or Hampstead, not just show a national keyword list.
• Do they know your sector’s rules? Dentists answer to the GDC, solicitors to the SRA, financial firms to the FCA, and every advertiser to the ASA. An agency that writes "best dentist in London" into your page title does not.
• Are they actually in London? Many agencies that rank for London searches are based elsewhere and keep a London address for the page. That is not wrong in itself, but it should be stated. We work from an office at Tower 42 in the City, by appointment, and the company’s headquarters is in Slough; we say so on the about page because the alternative is pretending.
• Can you meet them? A quarterly review in person is worth more than a monthly video call. Ask whether it is on offer.

A scoring sheet for your shortlist

Score each agency out of five on each row, weight the rows as shown or to your own priorities, and the decision usually makes itself. The weights reflect what goes wrong most often: terms and proof, not creativity.

How to run the process

1. Write the one-paragraph brief from the first section and send the same brief to every agency.
2. Ask each for three things before any meeting: the standard terms, the price list or a budget range, and one case most like your business.
3. Shortlist three. Meet the people who would do the work, not only the person who sells it.
4. Ask every agency the same questions; the questions guide has a printable list.
5. Check the proof yourself: the review platforms, the award links, the case client if they will take a call.
6. Score the sheet. If the top two are close, choose the one with the better terms; you can always leave a good agency on fair terms, and you cannot leave a poor one on bad terms.

If you would like a second opinion before you choose, the free SEO audit looks at your site and says plainly what needs doing, whoever ends up doing it.

Get your free SEO auditA person reviews your site within two working days. Three fields, no call required.