Signs your SEO agency is ripping you off
If you have ever paid an agency hundreds a month and had nothing to show for it but a PDF full of graphs, you are not alone.
The issue is well documented in Australia. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman raised formal concerns about the SEO industry after collecting accounts from owners around the country, describing the sector as a "minefield of dodgy practitioners" and asking the ACCC to look at misleading conduct.
This is not an attack on the whole industry. There are good operators. But the burden is on an agency to earn trust with evidence, not promises. Here are the warning signs, and what an honest operator does instead.
01"We guarantee you will rank number one"
This is the oldest line in SEO, and it is a lie. Nobody can guarantee a number one ranking. The algorithm changes constantly, competition shifts, and what ranks today may not next month. Google says plainly that anyone guaranteeing rankings is either misleading you or planning tactics that will eventually hurt your site. The guarantee is bait to lock you into a contract on a promise they cannot keep.
What good looks like
Honest operators give realistic ranges: based on the current competition, we expect meaningful movement in three to six months. They tie success to business outcomes, not vanity rank. A number one ranking for a term nobody searches is worthless.
02The contract is 12 months with no way out
A long lock-in protects the agency, not you. If the work is good, clients stay without being forced to. The only reason to trap someone in a year-long deal with a painful exit is a lack of confidence that the work will speak for itself. This pattern showed up repeatedly in the Ombudsman complaints: businesses that tried to leave were hit with fees or could not get out.
What good looks like
Month to month, or a short term. You stay because results justify staying. If it is not working, you leave. The agency's income depends on doing good work, not on a piece of paper.
03They will not show you exactly what they did
The monthly report arrives with rank screenshots, a list of "activities", and a traffic graph that is hard to read. But ask what pages they changed, what links they built, what specifically was done, and the answer goes vague. That usually means not much was done, or what was done will not survive scrutiny.
What good looks like
Specific, itemised delivery. This page updated, this content written, these links from these sources. You can audit every line. Good work has nothing to hide.
04They hold your logins or Google accounts hostage
The Ombudsman's report specifically noted agencies taking ownership of websites at the start of a contract, then closing them down when it ended. It happens because the agency knows that if you can leave cleanly, you might. You should always own your domain, your hosting, your Google Search Console, and your Analytics.
What good looks like
They ask for access to your accounts as a collaborator, not as the owner. When the relationship ends, you remove their access and walk away with everything intact.
05They charge you to "submit your site to search engines"
This is a relic of the 1990s. It has not been a real activity for decades. Search engines discover sites and pages automatically by following links. There is no paid queue to join. Charging for "search engine submission" is pure theatre.
What good looks like
They submit a sitemap in Google Search Console, which is free and done once, then focus on what actually moves rankings: content, structure, page speed, and genuine links.
06The report shows activity but no business outcomes
Traffic up 12 percent. Impressions increased. Keywords tracked: 47. Domain authority improved. But phone calls, enquiries, bookings? Silent. SEO exists to bring paying customers, not to lift internal metrics with no link to revenue. Burying outcomes in activity is a way to deflect the only question that matters: is this making me money?
What good looks like
They connect the work to outcomes you can verify, and help you set up tracking so you can see enquiries from organic search. If the numbers are not there yet, they say so and explain why.
07They build links from spammy sites or blog networks
Link building is legitimate, but the method matters. Some agencies use private blog networks: collections of junk sites that exist only to pass link authority to paying clients. Google treats this as spam and issues manual penalties that can remove your site from results entirely. The risk is asymmetric. They keep the fee, you carry the penalty, and recovery can take months.
What good looks like
Links earned through genuine outreach, relevant directories, local citations, and content worth linking to. They show you every link and you can check the source.
08No named human, and a copy-paste strategy
You signed up online, you pay a recurring invoice, support is a generic inbox, and nobody's name is on anything. Each email is a different person who does not know your history. It is a volume operation running templated work, and your business is a ticket in a queue. The giveaway is a content plan that could apply to any business in any city, with none of your suburbs, competitors, or customer language in it.
What good looks like
A named person who knows your business and your market. The strategy starts with your actual suburbs, the competitors ranking above you, and the questions your customers type. The specificity is visible in the work.
What it all comes down to
There is one more sign worth naming: an agency that keeps selling you more before the current work has delivered anything. Social media, ads, a redesign, all pitched in month three before the SEO has had a chance to land. The right answer for your business is not always more services. Sometimes it is fewer, and a good operator will tell you so.
That is the heart of it. We built Bantam Growth Studio on the opposite of every flag above: no lock-in, you own all the work, ranges not guarantees, and we do not sell work a business does not need. If your site is already doing the job, we tell you, and we do not take the engagement. The antidote to a dodgy agency is simple. You own the accounts, you see the work, you understand the numbers, and you can leave any time. If a relationship does not give you that, you have your answer.
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Common questions
Can an agency guarantee a number one ranking?
No. Nobody can guarantee a specific ranking. The algorithm is complex and constantly updated. Any agency guaranteeing number one is either making a claim it cannot support or planning tactics that risk penalising your site. Honest agencies give realistic ranges.
What should I own when working with an agency?
Your domain, your hosting, your Google Search Console and Analytics accounts, and your website files. The agency should be a collaborator, not the account owner. When you leave, everything stays with you.
What is a private blog network?
A set of low-quality sites built only to link to paying clients. Google treats it as link spam and can penalise your site, removing it from results. The agency keeps its fee while you carry the risk, and recovery can take months.
How should a good agency report its work?
Specific actions taken, which pages and which links from which sources, connected to outcomes you can verify: enquiries, calls, and bookings from organic search. Activity metrics like domain authority are not a substitute for real customers.