What SEO Buys And What It Does Not
Businesses hire a search engine optimisation agency to earn unpaid positions in Google, which is a program of work rather than a product you buy once. It covers technical fixes, keyword and intent research, on page changes, content, links and reporting. It is not advertising, and no part of it buys a click, a placement or a position.
The work itself falls into six areas, and a proposal should name all of them.
- Technical SEO: crawling, indexation, page speed and site architecture, so search engines can reach and understand every page worth ranking.
- Website Structure: how pages are grouped and linked to each other, which decides which page ranks for which search.
- Keyword And Intent Research: matching pages to what people actually type and to what they expect to find once they click.
- On Page And Content: titles, headings and body copy written for the search behind the page, plus new pages where none exists.
- Link Building Strategy: earning and reviewing the external links pointing at your site, and removing the ones doing damage.
- Analytics And Reporting: Google Analytics 4 configured so organic sessions can be traced through to enquiries.
What is not included is ad spend, and a full website rebuild, which is a separate web design engagement. We also need things from your side: someone who can approve copy, developer access or permission to make changes, and a person who will answer questions about the business when content is written. Engagements stall on approvals far more often than on strategy.
Our Three Step Approach To Organic Growth
Every engagement starts the same way, with a complimentary, no obligation SEO audit and a half hour discovery session, before anyone discusses a retainer. That audit reviews four areas: technical SEO, website structure, search engine optimisation and link building strategy. What it finds is what drives the three stages below.
- 1. Foundation And Discovery: the audit above, benchmarking of current rankings, traffic and conversions, and agreement on which pages and searches carry real commercial value.
- 2. Execution And Optimisation: technical fixes first, then structure, content and links, adjusted as data arrives rather than shipped as a fixed checklist.
- 3. Reporting And Scaling Success: a report and a call with the person who runs your account. We break the numbers down in plain language rather than exporting a dashboard and calling it a report.
In month one you should expect findings and fixes, not rankings. Within the first few reporting cycles the conversation should have moved to which pages are earning enquiries and where the next investment goes. Clients here deal with a person, not a ticket queue, which is the difference between chasing an update and asking a question.
Proof From Our Own Organic Work
The strongest evidence we can offer on organic work is a published case study rather than a claim. One client picked up over 100 toxic backlinks in a single month, 70% of them from pornography sites. After a revised disavow file was uploaded, page impressions recovered within seven days. The full write up sits in our toxic backlink disavow case study.
We use 5 different tools to analyse our clients’ backlink profiles, which is how a pattern like that surfaces before it costs rankings. We have over 15 years in this industry and hold a 96% retention rate, which is the number we would want to see if we were the ones buying.
A client put it this way: “Would highly recommend Purge Digital to any business. They have gone above and beyond in helping our business achieve outstanding growth in the last 4 months since we have been working together. Looking forward to where we can go from here.” Shane Norman, 30 April 2023.
How To Judge An SEO Proposal
Read a proposal for what it promises and what it can be held to. Deliverable counts, twenty links a month and similar, measure effort rather than outcome. A guaranteed first position is the clearest warning sign, because nobody controls Google’s results. The ACCC states that advertising must not be misleading or deceptive under the Australian Consumer Law, and that any claim made must be capable of being substantiated.
The ACCC also publishes the consumer guarantees that apply to services: they must be provided with due care and skill, be fit for the purpose you made known, and be supplied within a reasonable time, and they cannot be excluded by contract. That last point is useful leverage, so state the outcome you are buying in writing and make fit for purpose mean something specific.
Contract, Ownership And Exit Terms
Settle before signing who holds the Google Analytics 4 property, the Search Console access, the Google Business Profile and the content produced, and what happens to each if the relationship ends. Ask for that in writing from any agency, ours included. On the contract itself, the ACCC advises that standard form contracts with small businesses, meaning fewer than 100 employees or under $10 million annual turnover, must not contain unfair contract terms, which are prohibited and penalisable under the Australian Consumer Law. A long lock in with no exit clause is worth a lawyer’s time before a signature.
When SEO Is The Wrong First Spend
SEO is not the right first spend for every business, and a search engine optimisation agency that recommends it to every enquiry is selling the only thing it has. If you need enquiries in a hurry, if the domain is brand new in a competitive vertical, or if a customer is worth a small amount once and never returns, paid channels will usually get you there faster.
In those cases we would start you on Google Ads management or Meta ads management and use the search term data to prove which keywords convert before commissioning a single page of content. For comparison, and on the paid side only: across 216 client Meta ad accounts we have managed $1,988,241 in ad spend and generated 96,069 leads, and cost per lead varies enormously by industry. Those are Meta advertising figures, not organic ones. If you are unsure which side of that line you sit on, say so in the first conversation and we will tell you which channel to fund first.
Where We Work And How To Start
We are a full service digital marketing agency with an office in Eagle Farm, Brisbane, working with clients in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and across the rest of Australia. We work with Australian business owners and marketing managers, from trades and automotive through to cosmetics and services. We are a Google, TikTok and Facebook Partner, and hold Meta Business Partner status.
If you run a smaller operation locally, our SEO for small business page covers what the work looks like at that scale. To start, get in touch on 07 3053 5322 or email hello@purgedigital.com.au. The office is at 5/106 Fison Ave W, Eagle Farm QLD 4009, open Monday to Thursday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Friday 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, closed weekends.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Before SEO Shows Results
Months, not weeks. Technical repairs can move things quickly, as the disavow work above shows, but building rankings for competitive commercial searches takes sustained work across several reporting cycles. Anyone offering a firm timeline on the first call is guessing.
Agency, Freelancer Or In House
An in house hire carries a salary plus licences for the tools the work needs, and one person rarely covers technical, content and links equally well. A search engine optimisation agency spreads those costs across clients. A freelancer can suit a small, simple site with modest competition.
Can You Guarantee A Number One Ranking
No, and nor can anyone else. See the proposal section above on what the ACCC says about claims that cannot be substantiated.
Do You Work With Clients Outside Brisbane
Yes. Campaigns run remotely with regular reporting and a call, and the rhythm is the same wherever you trade.
What Do You Need From Us Each Month
Approvals turned around promptly, access to the site or a developer who will actually ship changes, and someone willing to answer questions when we write about your business.
How Do I Tell If My Current Agency Is Working
Open Search Console and compare impressions and clicks on your commercial pages year on year, then check in GA4 whether organic sessions are producing enquiries. Traffic climbing while enquiries stay flat usually means the wrong searches are being targeted.
