Who Actually Does the Work at an SEO Agency?

Key Takeaways

Part of our How to Vet an SEO Agency for Contractors: No-BS Guide. Want it done for you? See our local SEO services.

The person who sells you SEO is often not the person who does it. Agencies use in-house teams, freelancers, white-label partners and offshore contractors, and any of those can work well or badly. What matters is that you know who is on your account, how many hours they spend on it, and how you reach them when something breaks.

• Ask for names, roles and monthly hours on your account before you sign.
• Outsourcing is not automatically bad, but hidden outsourcing is a red flag.
• A rotating account manager with no access to the person doing the work slows everything down.
• Monthly proof of work, such as pages published, links earned and fixes made, tells you more than any org chart.
• You should be able to talk to someone who can actually change your site.

Who You Talk To vs. Who Does the Work

Most agencies split the job into roles. A salesperson or founder closes the deal. An account manager runs your check-ins. Specialists do the actual work: writers, technical SEO people, link builders and the person who manages your Google Business Profile. At a small agency one person may do all of it. At a large one, your account may touch a dozen people you never meet.

That split is normal. The problem comes when the person on your calls can’t answer a technical question, can’t tell you what changed on your site last month, and has to “check with the team” for everything.

The Four Common Staffing Models

• In-house team. Writers and specialists are employees of the agency. Usually easier to coordinate, often more expensive.
• Freelancers. The agency hires specialists project by project. Quality depends heavily on who they use and how closely they manage them.
• White-label partner. The agency resells another company’s SEO work under its own brand. You may never know who is actually doing it.
• Offshore contractors. Work is done by teams in other countries, often at lower cost. Some are excellent. The risks are local knowledge, language and time-zone delays.

Many agencies mix these. None of them is a deal-breaker on its own. Hiding the model is.

Why It Matters for a Contractor

Local SEO for a contractor depends on details: which towns you actually serve, which jobs make you money, what your crew can get to in an emergency, and how homeowners in your area search. A writer who has never seen your market will default to generic pages, and generic pages rarely win the map pack or turn into calls.

It also matters when something goes wrong. If your Google Business Profile gets suspended or your site goes down on a Saturday in storm season, you need to know who can fix it and how fast. Our Google Business Profile reinstatement guide shows how much depends on quick, informed action.

Questions That Reveal Who Is Really on Your Account

• Who specifically will work on my account, and what does each person do?
• Are they employees, freelancers or a partner company?
• How many hours a month go to my account?
• How many other clients does my account manager handle?
• Who writes my content, and will they talk to me about my services and service area?
• If I need a change made to my site, who makes it and how long does it take?

Good agencies answer these directly. Vague answers, or “our proprietary team handles that,” are worth noting before you sign.

Proof of Work Beats Org Charts

You do not need to see every person’s résumé. You need to see the work. Ask for a monthly record of what was actually done: the pages published, the technical issues fixed, the links earned and the Google Business Profile updates. Pair that with your own access to Search Console, Analytics and call tracking, so the numbers aren’t only coming from the agency. Our guide to what is actually inside a monthly SEO retainer shows what that list should look like.

At PushLeads, clients see their results in a live dashboard instead of waiting for a monthly PDF. Whatever agency you choose, insist on something you can check yourself.

Where This Fits in Vetting an Agency

Who does the work is one part of a larger check that also covers guarantees, pricing, ownership and timing. For the full process, see our guide on how to vet an SEO agency for contractors, and read up on guaranteed first-page ranking claims before your next sales call. PushLeads built that guide around the questions contractors ask us most.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do SEO agencies outsource their work?

Many do, at least in part. Agencies use in-house staff, freelancers, white-label partners and offshore teams, often in combination. Outsourcing is not a problem on its own. Hiding it, or having no one on the account who can answer technical questions, is.

How do I find out who is doing my SEO?

Ask before you sign: who specifically works on your account, what each person does, whether they are employees or contractors, and how many hours a month go to your account. Then ask for a monthly record of the work they completed.

Is offshore SEO bad for contractors?

Not always. Some offshore teams do strong technical work. The common risks for contractors are weak local knowledge, generic content and slow turnaround across time zones. Judge it by the quality of the work and how fast problems get fixed.

What is white-label SEO?

White-label SEO means one company does the work and another sells it under its own brand. The client often doesn’t know who is actually doing the work. It can work, but you should know it is happening.

How many hours of work should my SEO account get each month?

There is no single right number. It depends on your market, your budget and what needs fixing. What matters is that the agency tells you the hours or the specific deliverables up front and shows you the completed work every month.

Continue to Part 1→