As someone who has been working in the SEO industry for more than 15 years, I’ve seen founders stay too long with agencies that weren’t delivering, and I’ve seen founders pull the plug too soon. Knowing when to fire your SEO agency is one of the most important business decisions you can make, especially when you’re running an early-stage startup with a limited budget and even less time to waste.
This article walks you through the following:
- When to let go and move on
- What to do before you make the move
- How to set yourself up for success after
I hope this gives you an unbiased, honest guide to help you finally make the decision. I’ve worked with many startups as a freelancer, full-time, and now as an agency owner.
When to Fire Your SEO Agency
Not every agency relationship is worth saving. But knowing the difference between a slow start and a failing strategy takes more than a gut feeling. Here are the clearest signs that it’s time to move on.
If There Are Integrity Issues
Integrity issues are a big deal in our agency. Integrity and transparency are part of our core values. If I know for a fact that an agency or a freelancer has compromised their integrity, it is a big reason to let them go.
If integrity is a big thing for you, then you might want to take the same approach when it comes to deciding if you want to continue working with an SEO agency.
Examples of integrity issues:
- Inconsistent statements: They tell you one thing in a meeting and something entirely different in a report. Or their numbers don’t match up across tools. If you’re constantly catching discrepancies, that’s not a mistake. That’s a pattern.
- Engaging in black-hat strategies: Buying links, keyword stuffing, creating spammy content, or using private blog networks are shortcuts that can get your site penalized by Google. If your agency is doing this, they’re putting your entire domain at risk.
- Outright lying: If they claim they published five blog posts and you can only find two, or they say they built ten backlinks, but you can’t verify them in Ahrefs, that’s a dealbreaker.
If You Can’t See the Deliverables
SEO success is built on consistent output. New blog posts need to be published every week. Old articles need to be updated regularly. If no deliverables are done, it is very unlikely that the SEO metrics will move.
Ask yourself:
- How many blog posts have been published by the agency in the past 3 months?
- Do they continue updating links internally?
- Do they pitch to other sites and build links? If yes, how many links went live in the past weeks?
This is the bare minimum to meet their contract. If they’re not even doing it, then it’s a fair reason to fire an SEO agency.
For example, in our SEO agency, we do a weekly and monthly report, which includes:
- How many blog posts were published
- How many old articles were updated
- How many blog posts were repurposed for videos
- How many links went live outside of our blog for link building
Here’s an example of a weekly report for one of our clients. We publish 8 blog posts per month and update around the same number of articles.
If You Don’t See Any Progress
Consistently publishing the deliverables is one thing, but seeing the numbers move is another. It’s possible that the strategy isn’t working.
Questions to ask before firing your SEO agency:
- Are the impressions and clicks in Google Search Console increasing or decreasing?
- Are you ranking for the right keywords?
- Are you seeing growth in new visitors?
If there is no indication of progress, it’s time to talk to your agency and ask why. Having this discussion provides more insight into whether it’s worth continuing to work with them or if it’s time to fire them.
One thing to keep in mind: SEO takes time. If you’ve only been with an agency for two or three months, that’s not enough time to see significant movement. But if you’re at the six-to-twelve month mark with nothing to show for it, that’s a real conversation you need to have.
Pro tip: Try to do an external SEO+GEO audit. This way, you’ll have another objective insight that can make sense of the current SEO results.
If There Are No Regular Reports
If the strategy is tanking, it might be because the agency isn’t tracking the reports regularly. Regularly tracking reports is key to ensuring you have the right strategy.
It’s especially important nowadays, with so many shifts in SEO.
The report should include analytics data from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and other analytics tools. This is to assure our clients that every deliverable is done, and nothing slips through the cracks.
Here’s an example of data from our weekly report from Mixpanel:
The CEO we are working with has a hands-off approach. We are a fractional SEO team that does everything, from strategy to execution. While she is not involved in the daily SEO operation, it’s important that she knows where everything stands.
Ask for a regular report that makes sense. If you have hundreds of blog posts and publish more than 2 weekly, it’s worth creating a weekly report. But if the site is new and you publish once a week, ask for a monthly report.
The format matters less than the consistency. What you need is a regular cadence of accountability.
If the ROI doesn’t make any sense
Deliverables and reports are important, but at the end of the day, SEO has to make business sense. If you’re spending more on your agency than you’re getting back in revenue, that’s a problem worth addressing.
As a fractional SEO team working with SaaS startups, we always make sure the ROI is clear from the start. The numbers we track are straightforward:
- Total money spent on the blog (agency fees, tools, content costs)
- Total free sign-ups coming from organic traffic
- Conversion rate from free to paid
- Total number of paying users each month from the blog
- The lifetime value (LTV) of a paying customer
These five numbers give you everything you need to calculate whether your SEO investment is actually working.
Here’s how the math works: calculate how many paying users your blog brings in each month, then multiply that by the LTV. For example, if the blog brings in 30 paying users and the LTV is $250, that’s $7,500 in revenue generated. What you pay your agency should ideally be lower than that number, or at a minimum, break even.
The exact numbers will look different for every startup. But the point is to establish your own ROI calculator based on what makes sense for your business model.
If you can’t draw a clear line between what you’re paying your agency and what you’re getting back, that’s not an SEO problem. That’s a clarity problem, and your agency should be helping you solve it, not avoiding the conversation.
Things to Do Before Firing Your Agency
Don’t fire your agency in the heat of the moment. There are a few practical steps you need to take first to protect your site and your data.
Get All the Access
Before you say anything to your agency, make sure you have full ownership and access to everything. This includes:
- Google Analytics and Google Search Console: Confirm you are the owner, not just a viewer or editor.
- Your website CMS: Whether it’s WordPress, Webflow, or another platform, you should have admin-level access under your own login.
- Your domain registrar: Make sure your domain is registered under your name or your company’s account, not the agency’s.
- All content files: Request all blog drafts, published articles, and any content calendars they’ve been managing.
- Link-building records: Ask for a full list of backlinks they’ve built on your behalf, so you have a baseline when you transition to a new team.
It’s common for agencies to hold access, even unintentionally. Getting your access sorted before any conversation protects your site from unnecessary disruption.
Document Everything
Before you initiate offboarding, take screenshots and export your reports. Download your Google Search Console data, your GA4 reports, and any dashboards the agency has shared with you. You want a clear record of where your site stands today so the next person you work with has a clean and accurate starting point.
Review Your Contract
Check the notice period in your agreement. Most agencies require 30 days’ notice. Some require 60. Know what you agreed to so you’re not caught off guard with an unexpected invoice or a dispute about deliverables during the transition.
What’s Next: What to Do After Firing Your SEO Agency
Firing your SEO agency is only the first step. You don’t want to completely abandon your SEO efforts.
So, what does firing your SEO agency actually mean? It means you’re ending one working relationship, not the strategy itself. The goal is to keep the momentum going, even if things slow down a little during the transition.
Understand Which Processes You Want to Keep Going
Not everything stops when the agency does. Take stock of what was working and make sure those processes continue. Was the blog published on a consistent schedule? Keep it going, even at a slower pace. Were internal links being updated regularly? Assign that to someone internally.
Think of it as an audit of what your SEO engine actually looked like, so you can rebuild it intentionally. If you want a framework for what a healthy content operation looks like, this breakdown of how we grew SEO traffic by 156% is a good reference point.
Assign Internally or Delegate to a Contractor
Someone needs to own SEO while you figure out your next move. That might be a team member who can take on basic tasks like publishing and reporting. It might be a freelance SEO writer or specialist you bring in on a short-term basis.
The key is not to leave it completely unattended. Google notices when a site goes quiet, and rankings can drop faster than you’d expect when publishing stops. If you’re considering hiring writers to keep content moving in the interim, that’s a smart short-term bridge.
Have a Clear Picture of Success
One of the most common reasons founders end up in a bad agency relationship is that they never defined what success looked like in the first place. Before you hire anyone new, get clear on your goals.
Ask yourself:
- What does organic traffic growth look like for my business in the next six months?
- Which keywords matter most to my product and audience?
- What does a good monthly report include for my stage of growth?
Having these answers ready makes it much easier to evaluate whether your next agency or contractor is actually delivering.
Hire Another SEO Agency
When you’re ready to bring in a new partner, take your time. Use the experience you just had to ask better questions during the vetting process. Ask for case studies. Ask how they report. Ask what their deliverables look like in the first 90 days. Ask directly if they use any black-hat strategies, and pay attention to how they answer.
If you’re an early-stage startup and a full-service agency feels like too much overhead right now, a fractional content marketing team might be a better fit. You get a dedicated team without the cost of a full retainer, and the accountability is built into the model.
Conclusion
Firing your SEO agency is not a failure. It’s a business decision, and sometimes it’s the right one. The key is doing it with clarity: knowing your reasons, protecting your assets, and having a plan for what comes next.
If you’re unsure whether your current agency relationship is worth saving or if it’s time to let go, consider conducting an external SEO and GEO audit. This way, you can have an objective view of the SEO efforts.
FAQs About Firing Your SEO Agency
How long should I wait before firing my SEO agency if I’m not seeing results?
Give it six months minimum. You should see early signals like growing impressions within three months. At twelve months with nothing to show, it’s time to move on.
What are the most common red flags of black-hat SEO strategies?
Watch for sudden backlink spikes from low-quality sites, keyword stuffing, and guaranteed ranking promises. No legitimate agency can guarantee rankings. If something feels too good to be true, ask your agency directly how they’re building links and where their traffic growth is coming from.
What access should I have from my SEO agency before ending the contract?
Owner-level access to Google Analytics, Search Console, your domain registrar, CMS, all published content, content calendars, and a full backlink list. If your agency resists sharing any of these, that’s a red flag in itself.
Should I pause SEO completely after firing my agency?
No. Going dark causes rankings to drop fast. Keep publishing at a reduced pace and assign basic tasks internally or to a contractor. Consistency matters more than volume during a transition.
What’s the difference between hiring a new SEO agency vs. a fractional content team?
Traditional agencies manage everything behind the scenes and report through account managers. Fractional content marketing teams operate like an in-house hire: embedded in your workflow, accountable to your goals. For startups watching spend, it’s often the more flexible and cost-effective model.
