What Does an SEO Agency Actually Do? A Month-by-Month Look

What most guides leave out

We read the pages that rank for this question before writing this one. On 11 November 2026 we opened the top results on Google UK and Bing UK and could read ten different guides. Two gave any kind of month-by-month timeline. None said who should own your Search Console, analytics or website logins. None gave a contract length or notice period. None gave a UK price. Only four warned that rankings can't be guaranteed, and none quoted Google on it.

Those are the things that decide whether hiring an agency goes well, so this guide covers them.

The work, in six parts

Every SEO campaign we run is built from the same six parts. The mix changes with your goal and budget.

• Technical SEO. Making sure Google can crawl and index your site: speed, mobile, redirects, broken pages and structured data (code that describes your business to search engines).
• On-page and content. Pages written around the questions buyers actually type, with titles, headings and internal links that match.
• Authority. Links and mentions earned from relevant sites, such as suppliers, trade bodies and the press.
• Local search. Google Business Profile, reviews and genuinely local pages, if you serve customers in particular areas.
• Ecommerce. Category and product pages, product data and filters, if you run an online shop.
• AI search. Getting your business named in Google's AI Overviews and in assistants such as ChatGPT. With us it's included in national campaigns and available as an add-on to local ones.

Our SEO services page sets these out with prices. The rest of this guide shows what they look like over time.

Month by month: what the agency does and what you do

This is the table we wish someone had shown our clients before they hired anyone. The right-hand column matters as much as the middle one.

Month one: the audit and the plan

The first month is mostly diagnosis. A good agency won't start writing pages before it knows what's wrong. You should receive a document that covers:

• How Google sees your site now: pages indexed, pages left out and why, crawl errors and speed on real pages.
• Where your traffic and enquiries come from, using your Search Console and analytics data.
• Competitors: who ranks for the searches you want, and what they have that you don't.
• Keyword groups by buying intent: the searches likely to produce enquiries, not just visits.
• A prioritised plan: what gets fixed or written first, and why.

If you want this as a one-off, a paid SEO audit produces the same document without a monthly plan. With us it costs about £300 for a small site and £750 to £1,000 for a larger site or online shop, delivered in 48 or 72 hours.

Months two and three: fixes and the first new pages

With the plan agreed, the fixing starts. Typical work in this period:

• Correcting redirects, broken links and pages that shouldn't be indexed
• Improving speed on the templates that matter, such as service, product and location pages
• Adding structured data for your business, services and reviews
• Rewriting titles and headings on pages that already sit on page two
• Publishing the first new pages, usually a missing service page or two

This is also when tracking gets checked. If calls and form fills aren't traced back to the page that produced them, nobody can prove anything later.

Months four to six: content, links and local work

Once the foundations are sound, the work shifts to building:

• Content: new and rewritten pages each month, written to be read by people and quoted by AI tools.
• Links and mentions: supplier listings, trade bodies, partner case studies and press comment. Our guide to link building strategies explains the methods.
• Local: Business Profile updates, a steady review routine and location pages where you genuinely serve the area. See local SEO.

This is where most of the hours go, and where agencies differ. Ask what was published and what was earned, not what was "worked on".

After month six: refine, refresh and expand

By now there's enough data to see which pages produce enquiries. So the agency refreshes pages that slipped, builds supporting pages around the ones that work, and merges or removes pages that got a fair trial and did nothing. A crawl every quarter catches problems that plugin updates and new pages introduce.

What progress really looks like

Results don't climb in a straight line, and it helps to know that before the first wobble.

One of our SEO clients, an East Midlands solar installer, went from 167 Google clicks in July to September 2025 to 349 in the same months of 2026. Average position moved from 49.7 to 20.4 (Google Search Console, same three months each year, position weighted by impressions). Two things in the quarters between are worth knowing:

• Rankings moved before clicks did. In October to December 2025, average position improved from 49.7 to 26.9, but clicks were flat (156). They more than doubled the next quarter, to 337.
• One quarter went backwards. In April to June 2026, clicks fell 27% (to 245) even though average position improved. They recovered to 349 the following quarter.

A newer client, an industrial parts supplier, shows the early months. Its Search Console data starts in late July 2026: 19 clicks in August at an average position of 44.5, then 56 in September and 69 in October, at around 27.

The lesson: judge a campaign over quarters, not weeks, and look at position and impressions as well as clicks.

What a monthly report should show

A report should answer one question: is this producing business? Ours includes:

• Enquiries from organic search, such as calls, forms and chats, traced to the page that produced them
• Search Console clicks and impressions. AI Overview clicks are counted in there too, under the "Web" search type, as Google doesn't report them separately
• Whether you're named in AI answers for the searches that matter. Because Search Console doesn't separate them, we check those searches by hand and log what we find
• Rankings for the keyword groups agreed at the start, not a long vanity list
• Pages published, links earned (each with its address and date) and technical issues fixed that month
• Business Profile calls, direction requests and new reviews, where local is in scope
• A plain-English note on what happens next

On national campaigns we also sit down every 90 days and decide with you whether to continue, adjust or stop.

Who should own your accounts

You should. Your domain, website, hosting logins, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Business Profile should all be in your business's name, with the agency added as a user. If an agency sets them up under its own account, ask for them to be transferred before you sign.

It matters most on the day you leave. With us, everything is handed over: domain, hosting, code, content and access. We help you move it if you go elsewhere. Pages and links we built for you stay yours.

Contracts and notice

None of the guides we read gave contract terms, so here are ours as a benchmark: rolling monthly, with one month's notice, and no long tie-in. If an agency asks for twelve months up front, ask what you get for that commitment that you wouldn't get month to month.

What the agency needs from you

SEO can't be handed over completely. To do it well, an agency needs:

• Access to your website admin, Search Console, analytics and Business Profile, with you as the owner.
• Quick approvals: someone who can sign off a page within a few days. A page waiting three weeks for sign-off is three weeks of nothing.
• Your knowledge: the questions customers ask, the jobs you want more of, your prices and how you work. Twenty minutes on the phone with the person who does the work makes better pages than a week of research.
• Time: an hour or two a month, more in month one.

What an SEO agency can't do

It can't guarantee rankings. Google says so directly: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google" (Google Search Central, "Do you need an SEO?", updated 5 June 2026). Rankings depend on competitors, algorithm updates and where and how people search.

It also can't fix problems outside the website on its own: slow replies to enquiries, prices that don't compete, or a service area that doesn't match where customers are. A good agency will tell you if one of those is the real issue, even if that means less work for them.

Agency, freelancer or in-house?

• An agency gives you several skills, such as technical, writing and outreach, under one contract.
• A freelance consultant gives you one senior person, usually for strategy while your team does the work. See our freelance SEO consultant service.
• In-house makes sense once SEO is a full-time job for your business, often with outside help for technical work.

Warning signs

Walk away from guaranteed rankings, a claimed "special relationship" with Google, secrecy about methods, accounts set up in the agency's name, and a refusal to put the monthly scope in writing. Our guide to SEO costs in the UK shows how to compare quotes before you sign.

How much does an SEO agency cost in the UK?

With us, local SEO starts from £400 a month and national campaigns cost £1,000 to £4,000 a month, plus VAT. What moves the price is how many locations, keyword groups, new pages and outreach the plan needs. Our guide to how much SEO costs in the UK compares that with other agencies.

SEO agency questions, answered

How long before an SEO agency gets results?

Local campaigns usually show movement in one to three months. National campaigns take six to twelve months to produce clear results, longer in crowded sectors or on new domains. Expect rankings and impressions to move before clicks and enquiries do.

Should I own my Search Console and analytics accounts?

Yes, always. They should be in your business's name, with the agency added as a user, so nothing is lost if you change agency. The same goes for your domain, hosting and Google Business Profile.

What should be in an SEO contract?

The monthly scope, how results are reported, the notice period, and who owns the content and accounts. Rolling monthly terms are reasonable. A long tie-in with no clear scope is a warning sign.

Does an SEO agency write the content?

Usually, yes, but it should draw on your knowledge. Content written without input from the business tends to be generic, and generic pages rarely rank or get quoted by AI tools.

Will my rankings drop if I stop?

Not straight away. Pages, links and your Business Profile keep working, but rankings tend to drift over the following months as competitors keep publishing.

Can an SEO agency guarantee page one?

No. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and warns about anyone who claims to. An agency can commit to a plan, a timeline and honest reporting.

See what an agency would find on your site

Our free website SEO audit is a small version of month one. Send us your website address and we'll reply with an on-page review naming the three issues costing you the most enquiries, in plain English, with no obligation.

Request a free audit or call 0115 647 0444.