If They're Cold Calling You, Their SEO Doesn't Work

Before you ever get on a discovery call — before you hear their pitch, see their deck, or meet their charming founder — do exactly one thing: Tear apart their website.

I call this the "Content as Proof" protocol, and it's the single most reliable predictor of agency quality I've ever found.

Right now, AuthoritySpecialist.com has 800+ pages of content. Not because I had nothing better to do — because I cannot ethically sell you content strategy if I'm not executing it myself. Every page is a live experiment. My site architecture, my keyword clustering, my internal linking strategy — it's all visible. Auditable. Provable.

You'll hear agencies mumble about "The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes" — the idea that they're too busy crushing it for clients to work on their own marketing. I used to accept this. Now I recognize it for what it is: a confession.

If they haven't systematized their operations enough to maintain their own marketing engine, what happens to your account when things get busy? When a bigger client demands attention? When their "star strategist" leaves?

Here's your homework: Run their domain through Ahrefs, SEMrush, or even a basic 'site:agencyname.com' Google search. Look at what they've published in the last six months.

If their blog is a graveyard of 2023 posts about "SEO trends to watch," or their "Insights" section is just photos of their office happy hour — they view content as a checkbox, not a competitive advantage.

You want an agency that treats their own domain like a laboratory. When I discovered the compounding power of "Press Stacking," I didn't test it on a client first. I tested it on *me*. I absorbed the risk. I documented the results. Only then did I roll it out.

An agency that doesn't experiment on themselves is experimenting on you. You're paying for their education.

Your inbox probably has at least one email with a subject line like "I found 17 critical errors on your website." Inside: a generic Loom video where someone reads a scorecard from a free SEO tool while mispronouncing your company name.

This isn't consulting. It's lead generation with a thin veneer of value.

When I evaluate an agency (or when someone evaluates mine), I look for what I call the "Competitive Intel Gift." Instead of telling you what's broken on your site — which only makes you defensive and annoyed — a sharp agency shows you *exactly* how your competitor is eating your lunch.

Real authority comes from insight. Not automated error reports.

A high-caliber agency should be able to look at your market and say: "Your competitor, Brand X, is dominating because they're running 'Affiliate Arbitrage' — they've got a network of review sites ranking for 'best [your category]' keywords that funnel traffic directly to them. Here's the content gap. Here's the link gap. Here's how we counter it."

If an agency proposes strategy without mentioning your competitors' specific tactics, they're playing solitaire. SEO is chess. It's zero-sum on page one. For you to win a position, someone else has to lose it.

During vetting, hand them your most annoying competitor and ask for a breakdown. Then watch. Do they just look at keywords? Or do they dissect content velocity, backlink gaps, site architecture, and authority distribution?

I need to see that they understand the *battlefield*, not just the *best practices* PDF they downloaded three years ago.

There's a seductive myth in the agency world: Find a "full-service" partner who handles your PPC, social media, email, and SEO. One invoice. One relationship. One throat to choke.

In my experience, "full-service" is marketing-speak for "mediocre across the board."

I built what I call the Specialist Network — four interconnected products and sites — because I learned something the hard way: Different aspects of SEO require fundamentally different brains. The person who gets genuinely excited about technical schema markup is almost never the person who can write an opening hook that makes readers forget they're reading.

When you're evaluating agencies, look for what I call the "Anti-Niche Strategy." This doesn't mean they claim to do everything. It means they've chosen 2-3 verticals or methodologies where they've developed genuine depth — rather than offering shallow expertise to anyone with a credit card.

Ask about team structure. Specifically: Do they have a *dedicated* link-building team? A *dedicated* editorial team? Or is one overworked "SEO Manager" expected to do outreach, writing, technical audits, and client calls while somehow also staying current on algorithm changes?

Since 2017, I've built a network of 4,000+ writers and journalists. Not because I love managing freelancers — I don't — but because you cannot scale quality content with three in-house writers, no matter how talented they are. You need a distributed network of specialists who can match voice, expertise, and authority to each piece of content.

If an agency tells you they write everything in-house with a team of five, they're either using AI without proper editing (dangerous for your brand), or they're artificially capping your content velocity (slow growth by design).

Look for an agency that operates like a conductor — orchestrating specialists, not managing a factory floor of interchangeable generalists.

Every agency sales deck shows new logos. New client wins. Growth charts going up and to the right.

As someone about to write them a check, you should care about one thing: retention.

SEO agency churn is notoriously high because results take time and patience is rare. But here's what I've observed: Great agencies keep clients — not because results appear magically faster, but because they communicate progress so clearly that trust survives the waiting period.

I spend 80% of my energy on existing clients. Not because I'm lazy about growth, but because retention is the highest-ROI activity in this business. Happy clients refer. Happy clients expand scope. Happy clients don't demand monthly "what have you done for me lately" calls.

During your vetting process, ask these uncomfortable questions — and watch the body language:

1. "What's your average client tenure?" (Under 12 months? They're churning, which means they're constantly in sales mode, which means your account will get neglected)

2. "How do you report during the 'Valley of Death' — months 1 through 4 when traffic hasn't moved?" (This reveals communication discipline)

3. "Can I speak to a client who's been with you for more than 2 years?" (Not their showcase win — their long-term partner)

Most agencies will point to a client they signed 3 months ago who's seeing a "spike." That spike is usually just technical error correction — the low-hanging fruit that makes the first report look good. Real SEO growth — the compounding kind — shows up in years 2 and 3.

Also ask about their "Free Tool Arbitrage" capabilities. We build simple, genuinely useful tools for clients that generate qualified traffic and backlinks organically. It's a long-term play, but clients love it because they're watching an *asset* being built — not just blog posts that fade into the archive.

If an agency only measures success by "rankings," they'll lose you the moment Google shuffles the algorithm. If they measure success by "asset value" — content library depth, tool utility, authority metrics — they're building equity you'll own forever.

I'll be direct because nobody else will: If you're shopping for SEO under $1,000/month, you'd be better off doing nothing.

At that price point, the math doesn't work. The agency *has* to cut corners to make margin. They're using automated link spam. They're spinning content. They're running your project through the same template they use for everyone else. Or — most commonly — they're doing almost nothing while sending you reports that look impressive if you don't know what to look for.

The cost of bad SEO isn't just the monthly retainer you wasted. It's the cost of cleaning up a penalized domain later. I've had to sit across from business owners and deliver devastating news: "Your domain is burned. The backlink profile is toxic. We can try to disavow and recover, but honestly? You might be better off starting fresh with a new domain."

That conversation haunts me. It also fuels my crusade against the race-to-the-bottom pricing that makes it possible.

Real SEO requires: - High-quality content (which means real research, real expertise, real editing) - Digital PR and outreach (which means human hours, relationship building, personalization) - Technical expertise (which commands rates that reflect years of specialized knowledge)

Instead of looking for a "package," look for a custom scope. I don't sell packages. I sell roadmaps. Maybe we need to go heavy on content for the first quarter, then shift budget to "Press Stacking" for authority building, then pivot to technical optimization once we've earned the rankings. Your needs evolve. Your investment should too.

Also look for "Risk Reversal" in how they structure the deal. No legitimate agency can guarantee rankings — Google explicitly warns against this, and anyone who promises it is either lying or planning to use tactics that will eventually destroy you. But a confident agency will offer performance incentives, flexible terms after an initial period, or milestone-based pricing. They should be willing to share risk because they believe in their ability to deliver.

If they demand a 12-month commitment with zero performance accountability, they're not selling you SEO. They're financing their payroll with your cash flow.