How to Get a Line-Item Quote From a Marketing Agency (and Read It)

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You can tell in about 30 minutes of due diligence if you know exactly what to ask and what to look

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for. This video gives you the full checklist. I'm going to walk you through 13 things to verify

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before you sign anything or hand over a dollar. Most contractors get burned not because they

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were careless, but because nobody told them what the warning signs were. So let's fix that right

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now. The first question you should ask any agency is simple. What do you rank for yourself? If an

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agency is telling you they can get you to the top of Google, they should be able to do it for their

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their own business first. Go to Google right now and search something like SEO agency near me or

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SEO company near me. Those keywords have real commercial intent. Real agencies show up in those

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results. The data I'm looking at shows SEO agency near me pulling over 120 impressions with an

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average position of 71. That means most agencies are buried on page seven or eight for the very

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keywords they claim to dominate. If an agency can't rank on the first page for their own target terms,

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why would they perform better for yours ask them to screen share their Google

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search console ask them to show you the keywords they rank for and what position

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they're in if they deflect that's your answer marketing a law firm is not the

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same as marketing a plumber marketing an ecommerce store is not the same as

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marketing a restoration contractor or a garage door company contractor leads

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behave differently the sales cycle is different the seasonality is different

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The job sizes are different. The way Google Maps and local service ads interact is different. You need proof that the agency has worked with someone in your trade in a real market with real results. Ask for two or three references from contractors they've worked with, not testimonials they wrote on their own website, actual phone numbers of real business owners you can call. When you call those references, ask them three things.

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1. Did your lead volume actually go up? 2. Did the quality of leads improve, meaning less tire kickers? 3. Would you sign with them again? If the agency hesitates to give you references or if they say their clients don't want to be contacted, walk away.

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way. You should be able to log in at any time and see exactly what's happening with your money.

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That means your Google Ads account, your Google Analytics account, your rank tracking dashboard,

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all of it. You should not have to ask for a report. You should not have to wait until your

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monthly call. You should be able to pull it up on your phone on a Sunday morning if you want to.

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Agencies that don't offer this are hiding something. Sometimes they're hiding bad

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performance. Sometimes they're hiding what they're actually spending versus what you're paying them.

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Full access is non-negotiable.

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Put it in writing before you sign.

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This is one of the most common traps in this industry.

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An agency sets up your Google Ads account under their own account.

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You run ads for 12 months.

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You build up conversion history, audience data, bid history.

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Then you decide to leave and they say, sorry, the account stays with us.

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You lose everything, every dollar of optimization history, every conversion, every audience

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list.

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You start from zero with the next agency.

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The right setup is this.

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You create the Google Ads account.

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Your billing information is attached to it.

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You invite the agency as a manager.

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If they leave or you fire them, you remove their access and everything stays with you.

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Same goes for your Google Analytics property, your Google Search Console, your Google Business

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profile.

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You own it.

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They manage it.

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Period.

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If an agency insists on creating these accounts under their umbrella, that is a red flag.

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Full stop.

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Here's a real thing that happens.

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An agency brags that they generated you 200 leads last month.

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You look at the actual leads.

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40% are out of your service area 20% are looking for a service you don't offer 30% are price

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shoppers who want the cheapest option in town that leaves about 60 leads that were worth talking to a

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legit agency understands this they talk about cost per booked job not just cost per click they

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understand that a garage door installation has a different value than a garage door spring repair

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they understand that restoration leads from insurance claims behave completely differently

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than residential remodels ask them directly how do you qualify leads for a

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contractor like me ask them what metrics do you track beyond lead volume if they

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look at you blankly or pivot back to impressions and clicks they don't

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understand your business well enough to help it this is a newer question but

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it's becoming a real one a growing share of people are searching by typing their

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question into an AI assistant instead of Google they ask something like what

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what's the best digital marketing agency for contractors if an agency is

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genuinely authoritative in their space they show up in those answers go test it

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right now open chat GPT or perplexity type what digital marketing agencies

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specialize in contractor SEO see who comes up this is not the whole picture

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AI results are still inconsistent but it tells you whether an agency has built

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enough authority online that even a large language model recognizes them as

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relevant it's one more data point to stack on the others if you can't

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understand what they're selling you that's a problem jargon is often used to

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make simple things sound complicated when something sounds complicated you're

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more dependent on the agency when you're more dependent you're less likely to ask

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hard questions that dynamic works in their favor not yours a legit agency

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should be able to explain their entire strategy in plain language not we

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We leverage omni-channel attribution modeling, more like we get your website ranking so people

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find you first, we run ads to fill the gaps, and we track which ones turn into jobs.

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You should walk away from a sales call understanding exactly what they're going to do every month

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and why.

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If you feel confused and just decide to trust them anyway, that's a setup for a bad outcome.

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If an agency guarantees you a number one Google ranking, run.

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run. Google has said directly and repeatedly that no one can guarantee rankings. Search algorithms

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have hundreds of signals. Competition shifts. Markets change. Anyone guaranteeing a specific

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position is either lying or planning to use tactics that could get your site penalized.

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Same goes for anyone promising fast results. Legitimate SEO is typically a three to six

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month process minimum before you see meaningful organic traction. Paid ads can generate leads

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faster but even those need optimization time and watch out for the proprietary

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system pitch some agencies say they have a secret method they can't share with

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you because it's their competitive advantage legitimate strategy isn't

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secret it's just consistent well-executed work there's no magic

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there's just doing the right things well over time go look at their Google

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business profile how many reviews do they have what are the reviews actually

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say are their responses to negative reviews and do those responses look

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look professional look at their own website is it fast does it rank does the

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content actually help someone or is it generic filler look at their portfolio

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if they have one ask to see websites they've built for contractors call those

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contractors and ask if the site performs not just if it looks nice an agency's

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own online presence is a working sample of their work if their own house is a

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a mess, don't pay them to fix yours. Read the contract before you sign it. Specifically look

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for three things. One, contract length. 12-month minimums are common, but you should understand

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what you're locked into. Shorter terms or month-to-month arrangements are possible with

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the right agency. Two, setup fees. Some setup fees are legitimate, but ask this, if I leave after

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three months do I keep everything that was built the website the content the ad

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structure all of it if the answer is no that fee was really a ransom deposit

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three ownership clauses any contract should clearly state that you own your

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website your content your accounts and your data if you don't see that in

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writing ask for it explicitly a fair agency has nothing to lose by giving you

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ownership of your own assets. You should know before you sign exactly who you're going to hear

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from, how often, and what they're going to tell you. At minimum, you should get a monthly report

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that covers leads generated, cost per lead, rankings movement, and what work was done that

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month. You should have a dedicated contact, not a support ticket queue, a person who knows your

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account. Quarterly calls to review strategy are reasonable. Anytime something significant changes,

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you should hear about it before you notice it on your own if an agency goes

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quiet for weeks and only surfaces when it's billing time that's not a

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partnership that's a subscription you forgot to cancel a lot of agencies sell

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you one thing and deliver another the salesperson is sharp and sounds very

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experienced the person actually doing your work may be an intern they might be

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an overseas contractor working from a checklist they may have no context about

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your business at all ask directly who will work on your account day-to-day ask

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how many accounts that person manages at one time ask if they have worked with

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trade contractors before if they cannot give you a name and a background be

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cautious if your account is one of a hundred attention suffers that lack of

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attention directly affects the quality of your results you are not buying a

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software product here you're buying someone's time and their expertise make

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Make sure you know exactly whose time you are buying.

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Here's how I'll leave you.

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Before you sign with any agency, run this test.

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Get the full proposal, the contract, the pricing breakdown, all of it.

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Sit down with whoever else has a stake in your business.

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Your spouse, your partner, your accountant.

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Walk through every piece of it with them.

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If the agency has been straight with you, that conversation should be easy.

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Everything should check out.

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Nothing should require defending or explaining away.

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If you catch yourself saying things like, I know it sounds weird, but they said it's normal, or they said I just have to trust the process, that's not a green flag dressed up in patience.

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That's a red flag dressed up in patience.

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A legit agency gives you a proposal you can defend to anyone because every line of it makes sense.

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That's the standard.

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Hold every agency to it.

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If you want us to look at your current visibility and tell you honestly where you stand, get a free visibility teardown at seo.pushleads.com slash audit or call us at 828-348-7686.

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No pitch, just the data.

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A real agency quote lists every deliverable as its own line item with a price attached.

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If yours doesn't, you're probably overpaying for work you can't verify. Most small businesses

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hand over a retainer check every month and get back a PDF with phrases like ongoing optimization

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and content strategy support. Those phrases mean nothing without numbers behind them.

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This video gives you a checklist you can use to read any agency quote, compare two agencies

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sees side by side and spot the line items that signal a serious vendor versus one that's padding

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the bill. A line item quote breaks your monthly spend into individual rows. Each row names one

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service. Each row shows the unit, the quantity, and the price. Think of it like a contractor's bid

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for a bathroom remodel. You don't just see a total number. You see tile labor, demo work,

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fixture installation and permits all listed separately a marketing quote

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should work the same way you should be able to point to any row and ask what

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exactly happens here how many times per month and how do I verify it if an

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agency can't answer those three questions for every line that's your

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first red flag here are the three numbers I look for before anything else

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number one keyword count per page how many keywords is the agency planning to

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target on each page of your website, the right answer is roughly one to three focused keywords

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per page, occasionally up to five on a longer page. If an agency says they're targeting 20

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keywords on your homepage, that's not strategy, that's noise. Industry ballpark and my own

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experience say the pages that rank are the ones built around one primary keyword and a tight

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cluster of two or three supporting terms get the keyword count in writing number

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two keyword density or percentage your primary keyword on any given page should

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appear naturally not be stuffed a common guideline is around 1% of total word

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count so on a 500 word page you'd expect to see your target phrase used roughly

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five times some agencies promise full optimization without ever committing to

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what that means. If the quote doesn't name a target density or at least a review process,

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push back. Number three, total organic keywords being actively targeted site-wide. This is the

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number I see ignored most often. Ask the agency across my whole website, how many organic keywords

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are you managing and tracking? For a small local business, in my experience, a focused agency is

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actively watching somewhere between 30 and 150 keywords broader than that and

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you're often looking at vanity reporting narrower than that and you're paying for

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very light work get the number here's what should show up as its own row in

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the SEO section of any quote keyword research is one row on page optimization

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is one row blog content production is one row with a number of posts per month

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written out technical SEO or site health audits should be their own row local

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Local ranking tracking should be its own row.

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Link building or citation work should be named and priced separately.

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If all of that is bundled under SEO services $1,500 per month, you have no idea what you're buying.

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Site health matters.

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Local rankings matter.

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Conversions matter.

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Each one should be tracked and each one should be tied to a deliverable in the quote.

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Let's talk about blog content specifically because this is where agencies get vague fast.

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When you see a line item for blog posts, it should specify how many posts per month, the target word count, and which keywords each post is built around.

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A common question I hear is how many times should a target keyword repeat in a blog post?

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My answer, enough to be clear to the reader, not enough to feel robotic.

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That usually means your primary keyword appears in the title, the first paragraph, one or two subheadings, and then naturally throughout the body.

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There's no magic number like use it exactly seven times.

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What matters is that the agency has a documented approach

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and can show you the keyword map for each post before they write it.

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If the quote just says four blog posts per month, ask for the keyword list.

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If they don't have one ready, they're writing content without a targeting plan.

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Watch the language.

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Certain phrases in a quote almost always hide a lack of accountability.

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flexibility, ongoing optimization with no deliverable count, content strategy with no

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post schedule, link building with no monthly target or link type named, reporting without

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specifying which metrics, what frequency, and what format.

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Agencies that use this language aren't necessarily dishonest.

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Some are just sloppy, but sloppy means you can't hold them to anything, and that's

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money at risk.

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A quote isn't just a list of things the agency will do.

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it should also tell you how you'll know those things happened a solid reporting

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section names the dashboard or tool lists the metrics tracked and gives you

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a delivery schedule for an SEO engagement I'd want to see site health

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score organic keyword rankings organic traffic and conversions all reported

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together not just traffic not just rankings all of them together because

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rankings without conversions is a vanity metric ask the agency does your

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dashboard show revenue impact or conversion data if the answer is no you're flying blind on roi

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the query data i pulled for this video includes a recurring question about how much a small business

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should spend on marketing each month here's the honest answer it depends on your revenue and your

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growth goal a common industry ballpark is five to ten percent of gross revenue for a business

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trying to maintain its position and up to 15 for one trying to grow aggressively i'm not going to

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to invent a number and tell you it applies to your situation. What I will say is that once you

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have a number in mind, every line in the quote should connect to that budget in a traceable way.

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If you're spending $2,000 a month and you can't point to which line items are driving calls or

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form fills, that's the problem the line item format solves. Picture a typical garage door

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company doing about 80 calls a month. They're on a retainer that bundles everything together for

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$1,800. When we break that into line items, here's what often surfaces. Local SEO management, $600.

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Two blog posts per month, $400. Google business profile optimization, $200. Reporting and account

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management, $300. Link building, $300. Now you can have a real conversation. Is two blog posts

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per month enough to move the needle given the competitive keywords in your market? Are those

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blog posts being built around specific keywords or are they generic tips

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articles is the reporting actually showing you which calls came from

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organic versus paid that conversation is impossible when everything is bundled

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line items create the questions good questions protect your budget when you

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have two quotes in front of you line them up by category SEO versus SEO

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content versus content reporting versus reporting look for three things first

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First, which quote has more specificity?

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The quote that names the number of keywords, posts, and reports is more accountable by design.

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Second, which quote connects deliverables to outcomes?

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Any agency can write blog posts.

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The question is whether those posts are targeting keywords your buyers actually search.

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Third, which quote tells you what success looks like?

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A serious agency puts a measurable goal in the agreement.

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rankings for named keywords, traffic to name pages, or calls from organic search.

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If one quote has all three and the other doesn't, the decision is mostly made for you.

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Before you sign anything, ask these questions out loud and watch how the agency responds.

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Can you give me the keyword list you're targeting on my site?

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How many organic keywords will you actively track each month?

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What does your reporting dashboard show and how often do I get access?

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How do you decide when to refresh old blog content versus write new content?

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If I want to pause or cancel, what's the notice period? The answers matter less

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than the speed and specificity of the response. An agency that knows their

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process answers these in under two minutes. An agency that gets defensive or

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vague is telling you something. All of this, the keywords, the content, the

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reporting, it only works if the foundation is right. The foundation is

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visibility if Google can't find and understand your site no number of blog

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posts fixes that no amount of keyword targeting works if your site has

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technical errors slow load times or a broken local presence before you sign a

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retainer know where you stand get a visibility audit first know your site

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health score your current ranking keywords and your local presence gaps

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then look at the quote and ask whether the line items actually address what's

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broken that sequence changes everything audit first retainer second go to SEO

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dot push leads dot-com slash audit or call 8 2 8 3 4 8 7 6 8 6 will run a free

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visibility teardown on your site you'll see exactly where you rank what's broken

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and what a real line item proposal for your market should look like no

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obligation no sales pressure just the numbers