/ SEO company a partner for the long run
An SEO company you can hold to account.
SEO pays off over years, so the SEO company you pick matters more than its first proposal. We work in your accounts, report in leads and revenue, log every change and make leaving simple. Here's what months 1, 6 and 12 look like, and what stays yours throughout.
Ask how reporting and the exit work on the first call. We'll walk you through both before you decide anything.
Want the full scope? SEO management services: what is included
Illustrative growth curve. The totals are real, rounded down, across four stores using our SEO playbook.
Every change dated and logged/ Sound familiar?
The contract outlasted the results.
Long relationships with SEO companies rarely fail in one dramatic month. The work drifts, the reports get thicker, and when you finally want out, you learn how little of it you own.
You don't control your own data
Search Console and analytics were set up under the provider's logins. Your history, and your access to it, now depend on staying.
Reports that measure the provider, not you
Every month, a deck of rankings and visibility scores, yet nothing your finance team would recognise as orders, leads or revenue.
Month 14 looks exactly like month 2
The same checklist tasks every month. Nobody revisited the plan when your products, markets or competitors changed underneath it.
Leaving costs more than staying
Long notice periods, content stored on their systems, and links bought through networks you now have to disown. The exit turns into a project of its own.
A good search engine optimisation company earns the next month every month. That only works if you can see the work and walk away cleanly.
/ What's included
The relationship, month by month.
What a year with us looks like, what you own along the way, and how we stay accountable once the early wins are behind us.
Month 1: foundations
In the first month, our SEO company sets up the base everything else depends on: tracking you control, a hand-checked audit, written targets and the first technical fixes going live.
Why it matters: targets agreed in writing at the start are the only fair way to judge an SEO partner a year later.
- Search Console and GA4 verified under your ownership
- Baseline recorded: non-brand clicks, leads and revenue
- Targets and dates agreed in writing
- First technical fixes live within two weeks of kickoff
- A 12-month roadmap, with the first quarter in detail
- One named senior lead and a direct line to the founder
Month 6: proof or pivot
By month six there should be evidence: pages climbing, non-brand clicks rising, the first orders or leads traced to organic search. We review it with you honestly and change course where something isn't working.
Why it matters: six months is enough to see direction, and it's also the point where weak plans tend to get quietly extended.
- A written half-year review against the original targets
- Work that didn't pay off, named and dropped
- Effort moved to the pages and topics that earn
- New content clusters planned from real search data
- Link earning running as a steady programme
- Google Ads search terms feeding the next round of targets
Month 12 and beyond
After a year, SEO should compound: pages you built keep earning without paying per click. We plan year two around new markets, categories or services, and around what competitors have done since.
Why it matters: the biggest gains often arrive in year two, once content and authority start to stack on each other.
- A year-on-year report in revenue and leads
- A year-two roadmap built with your leadership
- New markets via our international SEO services
- Older pages refreshed, merged or retired
- AI search visibility tracked over time
- A frank conversation about whether we still fit
What you own, from day one
Everything we create or set up is yours: accounts, content, data, theme changes, link records and the roadmap. It lives in your systems, under your logins, so nothing depends on staying with us.
Why it matters: a provider that holds your assets ends up holding your decisions as well.
- Search Console, GA4 and tag manager in your name
- All content, briefs and drafts in your folders
- Theme and code changes made on your site, documented
- A list of every earned link, with live URLs
- Roadmap and change log, exportable any time
- No proprietary platform you have to keep paying for
Reporting you can check
Monthly reports show what shipped, what moved and what it earned, in numbers you can verify yourself in GA4 and Search Console. Every result links back to a dated change.
Why it matters: if you can't check a number yourself, you can't tell real progress from a well-told story.
- Organic orders, leads and revenue, month by month
- Branded searches split out from everything else
- A dated change log linked from each report
- What didn't work, stated plainly
- Quarterly reviews with your leadership team
- How monthly delivery runs: SEO management services
/ How it works
How the partnership is run.
From the first check you make on us to the day you might decide to leave.
Check the work
Get the free written audit, see a sample monthly report and ask how the exit works. Judge us on those, not the pitch.
You get: evidence to set against other SEO companies.
Set the baseline
Tracking in your accounts, targets in writing, and the first technical changes shipped inside the opening fortnight.
You get: a baseline we'll be measured against.
Review and reset
We report against the targets, drop what isn't working and agree next quarter's priorities with you and your leadership.
You get: an honest scorecard and a revised plan.
Clean handover
You receive the roadmap, change log, content, link list and a handover call with your next team or in-house hire.
You get: nothing lost, nothing held back.
/ Results
Proof you can ask us about.
Across four ecommerce stores over 16 months, this is what long-term SEO with us added up to. Ask on a call how each number was measured.
SEO, across four stores
16 monthsclicks from Google, without paying for a single one
One of these stores now makes 20 to 30 sales every week from search alone.
Our clients' data stays theirs, so we show rounded totals rather than their dashboards.
/ Is this for you?
Who we're the right SEO company for.
✓A great fit if you are
- You see SEO as a multi-year channel not a three-month experiment
- You've outgrown a package provider and want work shaped around your site
- You care who owns the assets and want everything in your name
- Leadership wants revenue numbers not ranking screenshots
- You're planning growth into new categories, services or markets
✕Probably not a fit if you
- You want a fixed monthly checklist. Package providers sell that more cheaply
- You have one urgent problem. Our SEO expert work suits a single hard fix
- You want guaranteed positions. No honest partner can promise Google rankings
- You won't share data with us. We can't be accountable for numbers we can't see
/ Before you choose
How to vet an SEO company.
Proposals all look good. The differences show up later, in ownership, reporting and how the relationship ends. Run these checks on any SEO company or SEO firm before you sign a long agreement.
Ask who will own the accounts
Search Console, GA4, tag manager and your content should be set up in your name, with the provider added as a user. If they insist on owning any of it, treat that as a warning.
Request a real report, anonymised
A sample report shows how they think. Look for non-brand clicks, leads or revenue, plus a list of the changes made. Pages of ranking charts with no actions behind them are a bad sign.
Ask how the proof was measured
Every result should come with a method: which tool, which period, brand or non-brand, rounded or exact. Numbers without a method can't be compared. Ask us the same question.
Read the exit clause first
Check the notice period, what you receive on leaving, and whether content and links stay with you. A confident partner keeps leaving simple, because it expects to keep earning its place.
Find out where links come from
You want earned mentions with live URLs you can check yourself. Bought links or private networks can leave you a clean-up job after the contract ends. Our link building services page sets out what safe looks like.
Meet who actually does the work
Talk to the people who will touch your site, not only the sales lead. Ask who covers when your lead is away, and whether any work goes to subcontractors.
If a provider gets defensive about any of these checks, that reaction is the most useful answer you'll get.
/ Your options
Package provider, network agency, or us?
Most SEO companies fall into one of a few models. Here's how they compare over a long relationship, not just the first month.
| Package provider | Large network agency | Freelancer | Perfometrics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns accounts and content | Often the provider | Depends on the contract | Usually you | ✓You, from day one |
| What gets reported | Rankings and task lists | Long decks, many metrics | Whatever they track | ✓Revenue, leads and a dated change log |
| How the plan changes | Same package every month | Through formal change requests | Flexible, one person's view | ✓Reset with you every quarter |
| Leaving | Content or links can be at risk | Long notice periods are common | Usually simple | ✓Full handover of files and access |
| Cost | Low, fixed packages | The highest, often multi-year | A lower day rate | ✓Fixed quote once we've audited your site |
/ Questions
Questions about contracts, ownership and proof.
How long do we need to commit to an SEO company?
Who owns the content, data and accounts?
What happens if we stop working together?
How will you report results to us?
What proof can your SEO company show?
Is an SEO company different from an SEO agency?
What does the first year cost?
Can we switch to advice only later on?
/ Next step
Judge us on the evidence.
Share your website and what you want search to earn you. A senior specialist audits your site by hand and sends the findings in writing within 48 hours, with a note on how we'd report progress. Would you rather talk? Book a 30-minute call.
- The issues holding your site back, in order of cost
- How we'd set targets and report against them
- An honest view on whether a long-term partner makes sense now
Rather email or call? contact@perfometrics.co · +49 151 10767411
Get your free SEO audit
Takes about a minute. No cost, no obligation. We reply within one business day.
The form didn't load. Email us at contact@perfometrics.co or call +49 151 10767411, and we'll reply within one business day.
- Written audit within 48 hours
- Or a 30-minute call with a senior specialist
- Your details are only used to reply to you