SEO agency – find out what our work involves and how much it costs

A position in Google (and to a lesser extent in other search engines) can nowadays promote, but also ruin many a business. To maintain a high ranking in the organic search results for a long time, it is a good idea to enlist the help of an SEO agency.

Further on, you will read about what are the most important tasks of an SEO agency and how it can help your business grow.

From the article you will learn:

• What is an SEO agency?
• What services does an SEO agency provide?
• What are the characteristics and values of a good SEO agency?
• Which is better – an agency or a freelance SEO?
• What is the team structure in an SEO agency?
• What are the key factors when choosing an SEO agency?
• How much does it cost to work with an SEO agency?
• How long does a contract last in cooperation with an SEO agency?
• What are the benefits of working with an SEO agency?

SEO agency – definition

An SEO agencyis a company that professionally deals with websites so that they achieve the best possible positions in search results. Enlisting the help of an agency can improve your website’s visibility in search engines and increase the number of organic visits.

An SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) agency is a company that specialises in providing search engine optimisation services. Its aim is to increase the visibility of a client’s website in the organic (unsponsored) results of search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.

Definition of SEO Agency

Services and competences at an SEO agency

SEO is a complex process involving many smaller (but often still covering a very large scope) tasks. As part of their services, SEO agencies offer, among other things, research and analysis of valuable keywords, competitive analysis, SEO audit, content optimisation, link building or website analytics. These activities generally need to be tailored to the individual needs and requirements of the client and the specifics of the industry in question.

Map of services at Cyrek Digital SEO agency:

It is also important to bear in mind that in changing market conditions, both the agency and your company (if working with an SEO agency) must constantly adapt their activities to current trends and guidelines. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so content already created needs to be updated to respond to new ranking factors.

SEO agency values

An SEO agency can be assessed according to the criteria used to evaluate professionals in the field. First and foremost, its employees should stand out for their specialist knowledge – they must, for example, not only know what keywords are, but should also be familiar with current search engine guidelines in this area. In addition, they should be experienced, preferably for many years and backed up by numerous references.

Optimising a website for SEO is not only a technical process, but also a “social” one – all tasks are performed and implemented by people. For this reason, the agency should ‘understand’ the needs of both clients and employees and take into account that these may change over time. Understanding the needs of all parties allows the business objectives of clients to be better met and allows growth and protects employees from professional burnout. Alongside this, communication – whether within the company or with the client – should always be factual , friendly and open.

At Cyrek Digital SEO Agency, our core values on which we base the functioning of the agency are:

• communication
• development
• commitment
• teamwork
• goal orientation

Both in internal operations and in cooperation with clients.

SEO agency or SEO freelancer

It is impossible to say unequivocally that one of the two solutions will be better in every case. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so it is worth considering which is likely to be more profitable.

What you need to consider in making your decision is that an agency generally has a whole team of specialists with different skills and experience, which allows it to operate at a more complex level and handle larger projects efficiently.

SEO freelancers usually work on smaller rates than agencies and are more flexible, but there are some disadvantages to consider:

• Time resources
• Range of skills
• Lack of a support team
• Lack of procedures and processes
• Lack of full availability and substitutability (sickness, holidays)

At Cyrek Digital SEO Agency, we provide our clients with the highest level of security and professionalism as we operate to defined standards and procedures. Values from working with us:

• we take a holistic view of the business, not focusing only on keyword visibility, but build an SEO strategy designed to achieve the client’s strategic goals
• we plan SEO activities so that they support other marketing channels along the client’s entire path
• we guarantee time resources of the entire team, which ensure comprehensive implementation of activities in accordance with the adopted work plan
• we base our activities on procedures and SEO processes built up over the years
• we have at our disposal one of the largest sets of paid SEO tools in Poland, thanks to which we make our decisions based on data, not on hunches
• the project is never left on its own – we guarantee that in the absence of the main specialist dealing with the project development, his/her tasks are taken over by another specialist introduced to the project
• we monitor the status of projects on a daily basis, reacting quickly in case of unexpected problems

The team at an SEO agency

An SEO agency generally employs people with a variety of specialisations and knowledge from many areas.

1. SEO specialist: This is someone who is familiar with many aspects of SEO, including keyword research, content optimisation, link building and technical optimisation.
2. SEO analyst: A person who analyses SEO performance, monitors trends in website traffic and rankings, and helps create SEO strategies.
3. SEO copywriter: This is a content creator who writes articles, blog posts, product descriptions and other types of content with SEO guidelines in mind.
4. SEO Developer: A developer who has experience in optimising websites for SEO, including improving page speed, mobile optimisation, schema markup implementation and so on.
5. Link Builder: This is a specialist who focuses on gaining links to the client’s website from other websites, which is a key ranking factor.
6. Local SEO specialist: A specialist who focuses on optimising the site for local search results.
7. Graphic designer: Supports the content creation process, enhancing the content with infographics, charts, banners that have a direct impact on the usability of the content
8. Account Manager: This person manages client relationships, coordinates the SEO team and is the point of contact for the client.

The size and structure of the team in an SEO agency can vary depending on the size of the agency and the specific clients it works for. Some smaller agencies may have one person who performs a number of different roles, while larger agencies may have separate teams focused on different aspects of SEO.

In the Cyrek Digital team, 16 people work on the success of our clients in SEO-related areas.

Key factors in choosing an SEO agency

To choose an agency tailored to your needs, there are some key factors to consider. Before you start your search, you need to determine what you want to achieve with your SEO activities? It could be increased website traffic or brand awareness, but strong sales results are likely to be the most important.

The next step should be to find a specific agency. In this case, you should check references and reviews on various platforms such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Once you have chosen one company, it is worth asking them about their experience in the industry, how many years they have been in the market and what projects they have carried out so far. It is also worth checking whether the agency’s portfolio includes projects related to your industry (although this should not be the basis of your final decision!).

The moment you contact an agency about an offer is a good time to ask its representatives and employees about:

• the cost of additional services – are they included in the price and are they commensurate with their quality;
• possible results – it is worth asking about the real business goals of the project and how SEO activities will translate into your business;
• tools and methods used;
• approach to analytics and reporting – it is worth finding out what the scope and frequency of reporting is, you can also ask for a sample report.
• the collaboration and communication process – this includes the communication channels used (e.g. email) or the speed of response to any queries.

Once you have satisfactory answers and offers, you can move on to selection. It is best to narrow it down to three to four companies, from which you will choose the one offering the right ratio of service quality, price and experience.

Costs of working with an SEO agency

It isnot possible to clearly define in advance the costs of SEO agency services, as they depend, among other things, on their scope – a comprehensive SEO strategy will be more expensive than a one-time SEO audit or optimisation of the content of a single subpage. The price (whether of a specific action or of the entire strategy) is also affected by the size of the website – the larger it is, the more time and work is required to optimise it.

Costs also depend on the competition in your industry. If it is large, achieving high positions in search results may take more time and money.

Also, the experience and reputation of the agency determines the cost in some way – the best ones may wish to charge considerably more for their services, but this is reflected in the knowledge and skills of the team.

At Cyrek Digital SEO Agency, we define the scope of work, i.e. a work plan for 12 months, estimate the results and adjust the budget to these activities, which consists of:

• media budget for linkbuilding
• copywriting budget
• budget for SEO activities

The total budget is no less than PLN 8,000 net per month. The largest SEO budget we effectively handle is PLN 40,000

Length of contract in cooperation with an SEO agency

Similarly to the scope of activities, the length of the contract depends on the individual needs of your brand. They are usually concluded for a period of 6 to 12 months, but this depends on the time needed to achieve the business objectives.

In some cases, you may see results after just a few weeks or months, while in others you may have to wait years. The length of the contract is sometimes also affected by the seasonality of the business in question. In the case of hotels in the mountains, for example, the duration of the contract can and often should depend on the time of year when your business is most active.

Other factors include budget (as a rule, the longer the contract, the greater the financial outlay for SEO activities and vice versa) and the scope of work. The broader it is, the longer the contract should last.

At Cyrek Digital SEO Agency, we offer our clients secure contracts with a one-month notice period. At the same time, we educate our clients that SEO is a continuous and long-lasting process, and the effects themselves appear with a long delay. Therefore, it is a long-term investment.

Benefits of working with an SEO agency

The benefits of working with an SEO agency have a real impact on the business results achieved. By working with an agency, a company can achieve higher rankings in search results, which translates into more visits to the website. This, in turn, can contribute to increased brand trust. A website with high positions in search results is considered more credible, which helps build .

The actions of an SEO agency can also improve business results – increasing the number of conversions on a website and improving the quality of traffic. Ongoing monitoring of the performance of activities allows them to be tailored to the current needs of the business, which can deliver increasingly better results over time. It also saves time and resources that can be invested in other areas – entrusting SEO to a specialised agency allows the company to focus strictly on business activities.

However, high positions in the search results may translate, above all, into better sales or increased interest in your company’s services.

It is good to diversify your strategies and not focus on one search engine. Most agencies specialise in positioning for Google, but the growing role of Bing or the regional importance of Yandex or Baidu mean that they could be interesting channels for reaching new customers in the near future. It is therefore worth finding an SEO agency that has multi-search engine activities in its offer.