You can tell whether an SEO provider is working by checking whether their monthly report connects activity to outcomes you care about: qualified traffic, enquiries and visibility for the queries that matter to your business. Rankings and “total impressions” alone are not proof. A good report shows what was done, what changed, what it means and what happens next, in plain language, using data you can verify yourself.
SEO takes months, so you cannot judge a provider by one month’s traffic graph. You can, however, judge them by whether the work is visible, the reporting is honest and the direction is sensible. Here are eight signs that things are working and five that they are not.
First, what should you expect and when?
For a site that is new to SEO, the first one to three months are mostly foundations: technical fixes, keyword research, content planning and the first pieces published. Visible movement in rankings often takes three to six months, and meaningful enquiries may take longer, depending on competition and site age. These are general ranges from our experience, not guarantees, and any provider who promises page-one results in 30 days should be questioned. Our guide to how long GEO takes to show results sets out a similar timeline for AI search visibility.
So the question in month two is not “has traffic doubled?” It is “is the work being done, and is it the right work?”
Eight signs your SEO provider is working
1. You can see exactly what was delivered
The report lists pages published, pages updated, technical issues fixed and links to each. You can click through and read them. Vague lines such as “ongoing optimisation” with no detail are a warning.
2. The work matches the agreed plan
Compare the report with the original scope. If you agreed on four articles a month and the report shows two, there should be an explanation. Our post on what a blog content retainer should include lists the deliverables worth putting in writing.
3. Reports use your data sources
You have access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and the numbers in the report match what you see there. You should be the owner of these accounts, not the agency.
4. They report on queries that matter to your business
A list of 300 keywords where you now rank on page four is not progress. A short list of ten commercial queries, with positions, clicks and the page that targets each, is.
5. They connect visibility to business outcomes
Good reports track form submissions, calls or sales that came from organic search, not only visits. If your website is not set up to track those, fixing that is a legitimate first-month task. Our post on measuring blog ROI when AI answers take the click covers metrics that still tell the truth.
6. They explain bad months
Every site has dips. A trustworthy provider tells you what dropped, why they think so and what they will do. A report that only ever shows green is incomplete.
7. Recommendations are specific and time-bound
“Next month we will refresh the three pages that lost clicks and publish a comparison page for query X” is a plan. “We will continue to improve your authority” is not.
8. They include AI search visibility
In 2026, reports that ignore AI assistants are missing part of the picture. At a minimum, the provider should check whether your brand appears in answers to a fixed set of questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and log changes month to month. Our guide to choosing a GEO agency has more on what to ask.
Five signs it is not working
1. The report is mostly screenshots of tools
Dashboards and scores from third-party tools are not outcomes. A “domain authority” figure is the tool vendor’s own metric, not something search engines use.
2. They talk about rankings but never about traffic or enquiries
Rankings for terms nobody searches, or for your own brand name, are easy to produce and rarely valuable.
3. You do not own the accounts
If the provider holds the Search Console, analytics or hosting logins and will not share them, you cannot verify anything. This mirrors what we say about ad accounts in our post on who should own your ad account.
4. Content is published but never reviewed
Articles go live and nobody looks at them again. Good providers check each piece after a few weeks, update what is underperforming and track which pieces earn impressions. If you suspect decay, our guide to finding blog posts that lose traffic shows what to look for.
5. Links are bought, not earned
Lists of links from unfamiliar sites, with no explanation of how they were obtained, are a risk. Google’s spam policies target manipulative link schemes, and the damage can outlast the contract.
A monthly check you can do in 30 minutes
- Open Search Console. Look at clicks and impressions for the last 3 months against the previous 3 months. Is the direction up, flat or down?
- Check queries. Filter for the commercial terms you care about. Do you appear? Which page ranks?
- Open the pages published this quarter. Read two. Are they accurate, specific and written for your customers?
- Check Analytics. How many organic sessions led to a form, call or purchase?
- Ask AI assistants five questions your customers ask. Note whether you are named. Repeat next month with the same questions.
- Compare to the report. Does it match what you found?
This takes half an hour and gives you an independent view. If your findings and the report diverge repeatedly, raise it.
Questions to put to your provider
- “Which three outcomes do you expect by month six, and how will we measure them?”
- “What did you try last month that did not work?”
- “Which pages are our best performers and why?”
- “What would make you recommend we stop or change the strategy?”
- “If we leave, what do we keep?”
A provider who is confident in the work will answer these directly. Defensiveness is information too.
When should you leave?
Do not leave after one flat month. Do review the relationship if, after six months, you cannot point to any of the following: more organic enquiries, growth in impressions for target queries, new pages that are indexed and earning impressions or improved AI visibility on your tracked questions. Also leave sooner if you discover deception, such as fabricated data or undisclosed link buying.
If you do consider switching, make sure you own your content, your accounts and your data first. Many disputes come down to access and documentation, not performance. For pricing context before you compare alternatives, our posts on what SEO packages include at different price points and what GEO costs in 2026 give realistic ranges.
The short version
A working SEO provider shows you what they did, proves it with data you can check, explains setbacks and plans the next month in specific terms. A failing one hides behind scores, jargon and promises. Check the numbers yourself once a month, keep ownership of your accounts and judge the work over quarters, not weeks.
A note on fairness
Some of what looks like failure is not the provider’s fault. Slow client approvals, missing product information, a site that cannot be edited and a lack of subject-matter input all delay results. A good relationship names these blockers early and assigns them an owner, so that the report distinguishes “not done” from “waiting on us”.