7 Qualities of a Great SEO Company

After 17 years in the SEO industry, we’ve seen businesses struggle to know which agencies can actually deliver results. Finding the right SEO partner is challenging because good marketing doesn’t always translate to good service. 

We’ve learned that successful SEO partners share specific traits that go beyond promises and sales pitches. In this guide, I’ll explain the seven key qualities that separate effective SEO companies from the rest. 

7 Qualities to Look Out for in an SEO Agency 

1. Expertise and Experience

Experience matters because SEO changes every year. Google updates its algorithm regularly to help users discover helpful content. In August 2022, it focused on people-first content, which deranked websites that used AI to populate their blogs and increase rankings. 

In October 2023, it focused on mobile-first indexing, where websites are ranked based on their accessibility via mobile alone, not mobile and desktop. 

These tweaks to search engines (and the change in search behavior) mean that the best SEO agencies must be able to: 

• Pivot, 
• Adapt and 
• Find new tactics to increase your success in organic search. 

They should also be able to

• Build sustainable results instead of quick, temporary wins and 
• Avoid costly mistakes that could harm your website. 

For all these, consider an SEO company with experience handling algorithmic shifts and that has shown it can pivot and adapt. 

You should also consider an agency with experience across multiple industries and expertise in your specific market so they can lean on universal SEO principles to help your business where necessary. 

For example, we know that branding is important, and branded search is better. With our knowledge of how software companies optimize their websites for branded search, we helped Fellow Products do just that. 

Despite their high-quality coffee gear, they were losing ground to third-party competitors in the search results (SERPS), which reduced their direct revenue. Our goal was to enhance their online presence so they could rank for every keyword in their category, increase organic traffic (and, in turn, organic sales) by outperforming competitors in the SERP, and increase direct revenue. 

That’s exactly what we did. We leaned on our experience working with software companies and building Fortune 500 brands to revamp their product titles and descriptions and optimize them for branded search. We enhanced site navigation in a way that passed link authority and improved their technical SEO. We also created a Q Grader page to show their expertise and credibility. 

The results: They rank for many of their primary keywords, signature coffee gears, and have a +108% increase in organic traffic and a +28% increase in organic revenue. 

For example, they rank number one and four for the keyword “stagg ekg electric kettle”, which is a proprietary product for the brand: 

To find out if your agency of choice has experience across several industries, check its Services or the Who We Help page. It will tell you everything you need to know. 

2. Transparent and Ethical Practices

The best SEO companies shoot straight with you. They don’t hide behind technical jargon or make promises they can’t keep. 

Instead, they explain their approach and provide regular updates to explain what they’re doing, the results, and how they can optimize further. 

In terms of ethical practices, avoid agencies that use black hat and choose agencies with white hat SEO strategies. Here’s a quick crash course on the two: 

White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO

White hat SEO techniques are the ethical way of optimizing websites to improve search rankings. This means that the agency adheres to Google’s guidelines, such as: 

• Focusing on valuable, helpful content that meets search intent. 
• Building a technically sound mobile-friendly website with fast page speed. 
• Attracting high-quality backlinks from high-authority, relevant websites. 
• Using keywords naturally on your web pages, etc. 

Black hat SEO, on the other hand, uses shortcuts that violate Google’s terms. These tactics might increase rankings temporarily but come with severe penalties, including de-indexing from search results. 

For example, companies that used AI to write blog content en masse lost thousands and millions of traffic when Google rolled out the August 2022 helpful content update. They lost more when Google added E to their E-A-T content rater guidelines in December 2022 to make it Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

So, watch out for companies that suggests: 

• Keyword stuffing in their content. 
• Buying links from low-quality sites. 
• Duplicating content across multiple pages. 
• Publishing low-quality but a lot of content per month. 
• Using doorway pages or cloaking techniques. 

Go for agencies that are transparent. 

These agencies will share monthly reports with meaningful metrics tied to business goals. They’ll also schedule calls with you to discuss progress and how they’re changing their tactics based on new shifts in Google’s policy. 

When they experience setbacks, they will have honest conversations and explain what they’re doing to change the situation and why it matters. 

3. They Create a Comprehensive SEO Strategy 

The best SEO companies don’t apply the same marketing strategy to all their clients. Instead, they study your website performance through Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Analytics and tell you what they can do to improve your outcomes. 

This is because cookie-cutter SEO doesn’t cut it, and a comprehensive SEO strategy covers four key areas: 

• On-page SEO (how they’ll create high-quality, optimized content that meets search intent, optimize title and meta tags to increase CTR, etc.). 
• Off-page SEO (how they’ll attract high-quality backlinks from relevant websites, create high-value content that others can link to, increase brand mentions across the web, and complement organic strategy with a reliable social media strategy). 
• Local SEO, especially if you’re a small business. They should optimize your Google Business Profile, increase citations in local business directories, and attract links from community outlets. 
• Technical SEO (site speed optimization, schema markup, mobile-friendly design, crawlability for visibility by Google bots, etc.).

The best SEO companies are also highly analytical. They lead with data, not hunches, and track metrics like conversion rates and revenue growth—not just rankings or traffic. This analytical approach helps you increase your trust in the best possible outcomes. 

Most importantly, great SEO agencies set realistic expectations. They won’t guarantee specific rankings or promise overnight success. Instead, they will break down the timeline for results and focus on sustainable growth that builds your business over time. 

4. Proven Results and Case Studies

Talk is cheap. Anyone can claim they’re an expert, but only legitimate agencies back those claims with case studies. 

When evaluating an SEO company, look beyond generic testimonials and look for case studies that show:

• Specific metrics (increase in lead generation and revenue). 
• The challenges the client faced before working with the agency. 
• The strategy the agency used. 
• The timeline for the results. 
• Long-term performance data (not just short-term wins). 

For example, when we first wrote our case study for Fellow Products, they had over 80k organic traffic. 

Now, it’s over 250k:

One of the qualities of a great SEO company is the ability to show how their work helped a business. 

However, some agencies may not publish case studies publicly for privacy reasons. If that’s the case, ask for relevant case studies to help you decide whether to choose them. 

5. Team of Qualified Professionals

Behind every successful campaign is a team of specialists, not a single SEO expert. It’s why you’re looking for an SEO company in the first place, not a solo SEO geek. 

A complete SEO team typically includes: 

• SEO strategists or account managers who develop the overarching plan and set priorities. 
• Content specialists who create engaging, optimized content. 
• Technical SEO experts who handle site architecture and performance issues. 
• Link-building specialists who secure quality backlinks from relevant, high-authority sites. 

When evaluating an SEO agency, look at the actual people behind the company. Check their website to assess their skill set and profile to know if they’re real or just placeholders. 

Do this by checking out their social profiles or websites if they have any: 

Here’s one of our partners in the search results: 

He has a profile on Search Engine Land: 

You can do this for other key leaders and experts on their team. 

Why does this matter? 

SEO has become too complex for any single person to master every aspect. The brilliant technical SEO specialist may suck at creating high-converting content, and the brilliant content writer might not understand the nuances of link building. 

So, hire a team, not an individual. 

6. Cutting-Edge Tools and Technologies

The SEO industry changes and the best SEO agencies invest in the right software to help their clients. 

The typical agency uses Ahrefs or SEMrush (to find high-value keywords and conduct competitor analysis). But some take it a step further; they invest in other software to

• Conduct technical audits and find issues affecting your search performance (Screaming Frog, Sitebulb). 
• Optimize your content for better visibility in search results (Clearscope, MarketMuse, or Frase). 

But tools alone aren’t enough. The real value comes from how agencies interpret and act on these tools’ data. So, look for agencies that: 

• Explain which tools they use and why they’re valuable for your specific needs. 
• Show how they turn the data they find into practical strategies. 
• Develop proprietary systems that enhance standard tools. 

At HigherVisibility, for example, we developed an 89-point E-E-A-T checklist to help you self-assess your website, content, and authors—for free. 

📌 Get the checklist here. 

We also developed an SEO CTR tool that can help you write title tags to increase your organic click-through rate and traffic. 

We have other free proprietary tools that can help you improve your organic visibility. 

We also developed a ChatGPT AI agent to help automobile owners analyze their home pages for EEAT. 

In the end, what matters is how helpful an agency is, and these tools and technology can help them get you better results. 

7. Customer-Centric Approach

After all is said and done, only a good customer experience can create a long-term relationship. 

Reliable agencies understand that effective SEO isn’t generic. It’s personalized and considers the client’s opinion. So, choose an agency that’s super obsessed with your business success. 

These agencies: 

• Prioritize your goals: A good SEO company will customize its strategies to meet your goals so everyone is happy with the results. 

If they can’t help you achieve your primary objectives, they will communicate why. For example, it’s impossible to drastically increase web traffic as a new website in two months, and the best agencies will tell you this. 

Instead, they can target specific keywords and use the topic clusters strategy to create long-form, high-quality helpful content that, in the long term, can help you rank higher than the competition. 

• Engage you and give feedback: Choose an agency that is available by phone, responsive via email, and willing to hop on a quick conference call to show you how your company is performing in terms of SEO. 

If they prioritize you, that’s a good sign. 

But you can’t know this right out the gate. That’s why you should notice their responsive rate before they get your business. In most cases, it shows how they’ll treat you after you become a client. 

• Innovative: Again, choose an agency that can quickly adapt to changes, pivot to something else, and cop-out strategies to help you win on the search engines. This is because Google changes every time, and the best SEO companies create sustainable strategies to generate long-term results. 

Now that you know what to look for in a quality agency, what are the red flags to look out for? 

Red Flags to Avoid in an SEO Company

“We guarantee #1 ranking on the SERPs,” 

“We can increase your rankings in one week.” 

“We have magic strategies”…etc. 

All these are sayings common to unreliable SEO agencies. 

Some of them use black hat tactics to increase rankings, and as I highlighted above, the results are a bubble, and you’ll likely either lose your rankings or your website.  

Black-hat SEO practices to watch out for:

• Be cautious of agencies that use AI for all your content needs. 
• Be cautious if the company promises to stuff keywords to increase your chances of ranking. Keywords should appear naturally and make sense to readers. 
• If they mention that they can buy links or use sneaky methods to get more links, it’s a red flag. Quality links come from valuable content and genuine connections.
• If they can’t tell you the tools and strategies they use, it’s a red flag. Run.
• If they promise overnight results or anything too good to be true, tick them off your list.
• They’re not ranking for any of their primary keywords. If they can’t rank their website, how will they rank yours? 
• Lack of communication and transparency during consultation hours. 
• Vague explanations anytime you ask for strategies to rank your website. 

Overall, avoid companies prioritizing strategies that sacrifice user experience for rankings. 

Why HigherVisibility? 

HigherVisibility stands out as an SEO company you can trust for several reasons. First, we have a team of skilled professionals who prioritize your business goals and create strategies that meet your goals. 

We are also committed to using white-hat SEO techniques and haven’t compromised on this since 2009. This is why many of our clients refer us and write glowing reviews on review platforms. 

We also have case studies to back these up. 

With over 16 years in the SEO industry, we always keep up with the dynamic search engine algorithms and adjust our strategies accordingly. At HigherVisibility, it’s always YOU first. We partner with you to develop personalized and effective strategies that will generate consistent results for your business. Decent is no longer enough. Let’s take you from where you are to where you want to be. Speak with one of our experts now.