SEO blog · 7 min read
What to expect from SEO
An honest, plain-English look at what real SEO involves — how to spot the spammers, what to ask your provider, and what good actually looks like.
Written by Nathan Locke · Manchester SEO
The short version
Most cold SEO pitches are nonsense. Real SEO is transparent, bespoke and measured against sales — not vanity metrics.
If you're considering hiring an SEO, this guide will save you from the worst of the industry and help you spot a provider worth your time.
What you'll learn
- How to spot fake SEO promises
- What genuine SEO actually does
- The right way to pitch and be pitched
- What transparent reporting looks like
- How to measure real success
If you're a business owner, you probably receive tonnes of emails and social media messages about SEO. Normally in the vein of "your website is terrible, here's what I can do to boost it, now pay me."
The emails especially are packed with false promises and AI-generated content that doesn't make a lick of sense half the time. Or they've messed something up in the CRM and it's addressed to [BUSINESS OWNER].
These are amusing at best, but often not funny enough to think about for more than a second before blocking the sender and moving on with your day.
It's no surprise that business owners are sceptical when it comes to SEO. When you become associated with scammers and spammers you lose marketing cred before you have a chance to pitch. Thankfully most people do know that SEO is beneficial, and more and more businesses are investing in it every year.
We always try to dispel the myths surrounding SEO and are transparent with our clients about what results they should expect. So today we're going to talk about what you should look for in SEO — and the benefits that come with it.
Avoiding false SEO promises
So why should you ignore those SEO emails?
Well, firstly they're just not very nice. Flat out telling a business owner that they're doing something wrong isn't the best way to sell your services. Sure, we've all tried the hard sell at some point, but building a relationship of trust before you drop the ol' pitch hammer has a much higher success rate.
Second, it's clear that you're one of VERY many people who will receive the exact same email. There's nothing wrong with casting a wide net to bring in more work, but there are better ways to do it that are a little more personalised. Some do try this — the phrase "I was browsing for ___ and found your website" may sound familiar — although I'd be surprised if you believed them.
Last but certainly not least, the stats they pluck out of nowhere. Without an in-depth analysis of a website, it's difficult to suggest what kind of traffic an SEO boost would bring, and it all depends on how much work you can put in.
Simply saying "we'll increase traffic by X%" sounds great — but how many sales and enquiries does that translate into?
What does SEO actually do?
Here's a snippet from a recent SEO email that landed in our spam folder:
The services we provide include the following:
- Off-Page SEO
- Guest Post
- Link Building
- Keyword Research
- DA Increase (15–20 days)
- DR Increase (15–20 days)
- Back-links (all types)
- Reviews
- Content Writing
- Traffic
- Ranking
It's ironic that this was sent to an SEO company in the first place (clearly, they didn't read our company name) — but we're one of the few recipients who actually understand what this list means.
It's an impressive list if you ignore the fact that these are all basic features you should expect from even a cheap SEO package. Ranking and traffic especially are the bare minimum. If your SEO provider can't promise these, what are they planning to do all day?
We promise all of these (and more) when we approach a new client. The difference is in how we frame them, and what we measure against.
How to pitch SEO properly
We don't draw names out of a hat when we suggest SEO. Most of our clients were either referred to us, or we met them networking.
That achieves two things:
Trust first
They already trust us, or trust the person who referred us. The relationship is open before we say a single word about SEO.
Genuine interest
We know they're interested in SEO and want to hear more. No cold sell, no pretending we "found their site by accident".
Free content review
We read every page of your site and write a detailed analysis. Real examples of what we'd improve — given to you for free.
When the door is open, we can talk shop with someone who wants to hear about what we can provide. A lot of our clients had a working knowledge of SEO already, and many already had an SEO provider, but for any number of reasons they wanted to hear what we'd do instead.
Some SEO companies still talk to you like those cold emails for years after you've signed up. They'll say they're doing this and that, expect you to trust them and wait for the next invoice. At best you'll get some shiny new content and a few backlinks, but you might not be able to tell if any of it is translating to more enquiries — especially if you're working hard to grow your business yourself.
SEO transparency
A business owner's knowledge of SEO can vary from "I heard about it at a networking event once" to "I've spent hours researching it, so I know what I need".
We don't find this out by sending out a few emails. By setting up a chat about SEO, we can gauge your interest and fill in any gaps in your knowledge.
Some people call SEO a dark art, full of hidden secrets and techniques only SEO pros know about. That's rubbish. SEO is complicated, but there's no magic. In our chats we explain what our packages contain, what we'd focus on, and find out more about your individual business goals.
The latter is incredibly important. Naturally you'll want more sales — SEO will help with that. But you might also be unhappy with your website, or haven't had the chance to update it as you've grown. If that's the case, we might focus more on content, or put you in touch with one of the marketing specialists or web designers we work with to help you make your website more "you".
SEO should be tailored to you — not just a package of features, only some of which might benefit you. That's why we don't offer set packages. Your SEO will be bespoke to your business and within your budget.
SEO tracking and reporting
Once you've signed up with us, the transparency doesn't end.
We provide regular reporting showing exactly what we've achieved each month and how that has increased your traffic. The only things we can't directly track are sales and enquiries, which is why we always ask if you're seeing a real difference. If the answer is no, or we've not hit our set target, we'll find out why and make changes to make sure we're on track next time.
SEO should be a collaboration. We try not to pester our clients with too many emails, but we still need approval of content and any major website changes so we're positive they're what you want. We'll never ask you to leave us to it — your input is vital for us to maximise results.
So — what should you expect?
SEO success isn't an easy thing to measure. A higher number of clicks than last month looks great on a report, but it's a hollow victory if you've had no increase in sales as a result.
By being transparent about SEO, our clients trust us more than the providers they've used in the past. We hear a lot of horror stories about SEOs that do half of nothing for double the price — it only makes us more determined to do things properly.
We work with you to maximise SEO success, make sure you understand what results we're aiming for, and when you should see those results. Every business is different, with different goals, but SEO is always the way forward.
Written by Nathan Locke
Want SEO that's actually transparent?
Book a 30-minute discovery call and we'll show you what's holding the site back, where the quickest wins are, and what we'd focus on first.