Its tough! I run an SEO agency now but before, I worked in house for some big brands – so I had to hire SEO agencies too to support me.

What I find is most pitch look the same! They all talk a good game but usually all offer the same stuff. Too many audits at the start, then drips and drops of updates.

(Spoiler: Most sites don’t need tons of big tech audits…especially if using a something like Shopify. Agencies do this because it’s cheap to do and a nice deliverable to bill for).

It sounds boring, but I think case studies and “do they tell you how it is” is the most important. Realistic expectations etc. I run a mile from B2B Software companies for example, because it’s so hard to get clients results in that niche. (Low search volume and high competition = not worth it for almost any client)

What happens when things go wrong? How much importance do they put on link building? (it should be a lot but most agencies can’t do it). Do they outsource?

What tools do they use? Can they provide a forecast? Im using SEOMonitor for SEO Forecasting these days and it keeps clients happy because they have a realistic traffic estimate in 12 months time. So no miss matched expectations!

Good luck OP!