The Red Flags To Watch For Before You Hire An SEO Agency

About This Episode

The agency that guarantees you results is usually the one that wins the contract. Three practitioners on why that is the clearest red flag there is.

In this episode of SEO On-Air, host Koa Kauwe sits down with Aaron Hockel (AltaVista Strategic Partners), Kevin Clinton (DEPOPAS), and Sandro Taliana (Interwetten Group) to name the warning signs plainly, from three very different corners of the industry.

The panel explores an uncomfortable pattern. Sandro points out the agency promising everything is usually the one that wins the contract, even though nobody can guarantee results, and he has watched identical white label brands perform completely differently with the same marketing behind them. Aaron names two specific red flags: any guaranteed ranking, and anything that goes against a platform’s own terms of service, such as spinning up extra Google Business Profiles. Kevin adds blog stuffing, then counters it with a client who published one good post a week and tripled their traffic in six weeks.

They also discuss the client who fired an agency after closing one lead out of 65, the commercial painter ranking for bedroom questions he does not answer, why ROI tracking usually breaks on the client’s side rather than the agency’s, the prospect who insisted Claude had captured their brand voice, and what to do when clients start running your monthly report through an AI to generate hard questions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Why any guarantee of rankings is an immediate red flag

– Why the agency promising everything usually wins the contract

– Why extra Google Business Profiles can get you penalised

– Why seven blog posts a week stopped working entirely

– The one blog a week that tripled a client’s traffic

– What happens when an agency does not understand your business

– Why your own systems decide whether ROI can be proved

– Why lifetime value is the number most clients ignore

– Why agencies are going deeper rather than wider

– What to do when a client runs your report through an AI

Whether you’re about to hire an agency, unhappy with your current one, running an agency yourself, or handling marketing in-house, this episode provides actionable insights into spotting the warning signs, setting up tracking that proves ROI, and knowing what an agency can honestly promise.

Because the agency that burns you won’t be the one that promised too little.

It will be the one that promised exactly what you wanted to hear.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction to SEO On-Air & Meet the Guests

03:50 The Client Who Closed One Lead Out of 65

05:30 Why Clients Were Raised on Vanity Metrics

08:12 Why the Agency That Promises Everything Wins

12:05 Why Any Guarantee of Rankings Is Impossible

12:52 Extra Google Business Profiles & Terms of Service

14:18 Blog Stuffing & the One Post a Week That Tripled Traffic

17:13 The Painter Ranking for Bedrooms He Does Not Paint

23:46 Why Your Own Systems Decide if ROI Can Be Proved

29:01 The Prospect Who Insisted Claude Had Their Voice

Three industries, three continents, one shared list of warning signs.