How to choose an SEO agency for 2025

According to a report published by Global Market Insights this year, the global SEO market is set to reach a value of more than 103 billion dollars in 2025. With the ongoing rise in the number of websites, which currently exceeds two billion, the fight for a top positioning in search results has become tougher than ever.

The wrong choice of SEO agency could well end up in a failure to achieve primary goals, penalties from Google for using what’s known as ‘black hat SEO’, which is to say, the use of unethical techniques, and reputational collapse, not only among the algorithms, but also in the eyes of clients. Not to mention that badly executed SEO activities frequently necessitate reoptimisation, which will have to be paid for, of course, and will also cost valuable time.

• Numerous studies have shown that around 75% of all experiences online begin with a search engine, with the websites listed on the first page of results generating more than 90% of the entire traffic.
• According to a study conducted by Ahrefs in 2020, an astonishing 90.63% of websites generate no traffic from Google whatsoever. This shows both how difficult and how vital SEO is.

The first step towards choosing the right SEO agency should be an analysis of the potential candidates’ experience. Agencies that have been active on the market for several years will usually have an established position and the know-how necessary to shape a strategy for maximum efficacy in different sectors. 

What should you to begin with? Check out things like a candidate agency’s:

• portfolio;
• case studies;
• successes achieved for other clients.

In addition, a professional SEO agency should field a multidisciplinary team that includes:

• content and link building experts;
• SEO technology experts;
• analysts.

Before you finally select the agency that will help you attain SEO success, you need to ask some extremely important questions. The answers will be crucial, because they will allow you to determine whether you are talking to serious professionals who cut their teeth on effective positioning or to amateurs.

Make sure that they use popular tools such as:

• Ahrefs, for detailed analysis of profile links and optimal website positioning;
• SEMrush, for organic keyword testing and analysing the competition;
• Screaming Frog, for comprehensive technical SEO analysis;
• Google Analytics, for monitoring results and analysing website traffic statistics.

An agency that uses numerous advanced tools will be capable of carrying out precise diagnoses of problems and implementing effective solutions.

Professional agencies offer regular reports containing data on organic traffic, keywords, conversions and other KPIs. Regular reporting is the foundation of transparent collaboration. Before you sign a contract, ask the agency what KPIs they report on and how they interpret them. Their list should include indicators like keyword positions, organic traffic and conversions. Remember, if you’re not kept regularly informed on progress, it will be hard for you to evaluate the efficacy of the activities and their impact on your business.

If you’re operating in a particular niche, choose an agency that’s aware of those realities. Why? Because SEO is never one-size-fits-all. Every sector and industry faces its own challenges in the form of competition, seasonality and customer behaviours, to name just a few. An agency with experience of these factors will be better equipped to shape their strategy to your needs.

Given that the foundation of SEO is an audit evaluating a website’s current condition and highlighting the areas that require improvement, you need to ask agencies if this is integral to their modus operandi. The most common audit activities include:

• technical optimisation of the site: loading speed, responsiveness and the correctness of the code;
• content analysis: unique content that is suited to the users and optimised in terms of keywords;
• link profiles: the quality and quantity of the links leading to the website;
• analysis of the competition: an analysis of direct rivals’ SEO activities.

If you’d like to find out more about pre- and post-migration SEO audits, here’s an article that will help: Website migration and SEO.

A contract for SEO services should contain precisely defined information about what the agency will be doing for you. It should include:

• the scope of the SEO activities, along with their description: the optimalisation of on-site and off-site content, technical SEO improvement;
• link building: a description of the link acquisition strategy. N.B. It is essential ask what will happen to the links when the collaboration with the agency ends!
• project goals (KPIs): clearly stipulated KPIs, such as increases in traffic or keyword positions;
• responsibility for performing the activities: the assignment of the experts responsible for carrying out the contract on both the agency’s part and yours;
• payment methods: detailed information on the total cost of the services, a payment schedule, potential additional costs and the consequences for failing to pay on time;
• reporting: the agreed frequency for the delivery of reports describing the progress made with the activities;
• intellectual property: appropriate clauses concerning the owner of the content created while carrying out project activities;
• contract duration and notice period: the terms and conditions of the collaboration and its termination. N.B. A one-month notice period is most commonly applied;
• contractual penalties: the consequences for the agency’s or your failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the contract;
• an NDA: the rules for protecting confidential information shared between the parties to the contract.

The reporting specifications should encompass relatively detailed data. With SEO, it’s easy to create the appearance of analytical activities that give the impression of the goals being reached, even though that isn’t the case at all in reality. At the very minimum, the reports should cover:

• keywords: the volume, their progress in the rankings, estimated current traffic:
• actual organic traffic;
• the competition’s results.

Search engine algorithms are always changing, so ask the agency how it monitors updates like Google Search’s Core Updates and how it adapts its SEO strategy so that your website won’t lose its position. A professional agency should keep you informed about forthcoming updates and propose preventative or corrective action of its own volition. If it doesn’t, this could well be a sign that it lacks knowledge or commitment.

Link building is a vital element of SEO and it needs to be done in a properly thought-out way. Ask the agency about their source for links. What are their quality parameters? Domain authority (DA), for example? Or domain rating (DR)? Do the links come from worthwhile websites? It’s also worth finding out what will happen to them once the contract terminates. Do they remain active? Or will they be removed?

Make certain that the agency avoids unethical, black hat SEO practices like link spamming, purchasing low-quality links or content cloaking. Activities like that can lead to penalties from Google and a fall in website positioning. White hat SEO techniques are more challenging to implement and demand more work and time. They do produce lasting results, though.

Ask what will happen to your website when the collaboration with the agency ends. Be sure that you retain access to all the content, links, tools and reports created during the contract period. The characteristics of professional SEO agencies include:

• transparency: everything should be clearly set out in the contract for their services;
• assistance in handing over projects: good SEO agencies offer project handovers to an in-house team, for instance;
• no hidden fees: a professional SEO agency shouldn’t charge additional fees at the end of the collaboration and they most certainly shouldn’t block your access to your data.

“We can make you Number 1 in Google searches”... No agency can guarantee that, because Google doesn’t make the details of its algorithms public. Agencies that make those promises often use black hat techniques like link spamming, which would expose your website to penalties. In a nutshell, promises to send you to the top of the ranking, often accompanied by more promises of getting you there with amazing speed, should set a huge red flag waving wildly.

SEO is a long-term process. Avoid agencies that are only focused on short-term results and have no long-term vision for developing your website. Ask them how they develop their strategies. A plan drawn up by a good SEO should include:

• carrying out a technical audit;
• conducting a content audit;
• performing a detailed analysis of the competition;
• selecting operations on the basis of concrete business goals, such as increasing sales, image building or improving the website’s visibility.

Yes. As a rule, more expensive SEO is better SEO. Why? Because when we spend more, we receive a wider spectrum of activities. That’s in practice with the good agencies and at any rate in theory with the less reputable. 

For the purposes of this article, let’s set up three sets of SEO services.

I. Price range
Up to PLN 5,000 net per month

Sample scope of monthly services

1. Basic website optimisation
   • keyword analysis
   • technical SEO, such as fixing site structure errors
2. Basic link building
   • A handful of links from fora and external articles
3. Reports and monitoring
   • monthly report with results such as traffic and position on Google
   • Consultation with the project manager
4. Content marketing
   • creating or optimising 1-2 blog posts per month

Who would find this scope of services sufficient? It’s intended primarily for small companies just setting out on the SEO path or operating on their local market.

II. Price range
From PLN 5,000 to PLN 15,000 net per month

Sample scope of monthly services

1. Advanced technical optimisation
   
   • Improving site performance in terms of Core Web Vitals
   • Structural data (schema.org)
   • Mobile optimisation and improving responsiveness
2. Extended link building
   
   • Regularly acquiring links from sponsored articles, industry blogs and high DA/DR websites
   • Strategic activities for acquiring natural links
3. Content marketing
   • Creating 4-6 blog posts or subpage content per month
   • Publishing and optimising content for voice searches
4. Monitoring and analytics
   
   • Weekly reports on position, traffic and new links
   • Support from a dedicated expert at least once a week
5. Optimisation of local SEO
   
   • Updating Google My Business
   • Building local citations

Who would find this scope of services sufficient? It’s intended primarily for small companies just setting out on the SEO path or operating on their local market.

III. Price range
From PLN 15,000 per month to... the sky’s the limit!

Sample scope of monthly services

1. Comprehensive SEO strategy
   
   • Daily monitoring and activity optimalisation
   • Ongoing analysis of the competition and adaptation of the strategy
   • An extensive SEO campaign in Poland and abroad, in 3-5 countries for example 
2. Advanced link building
   
   • Building a wide portfolio of links, including linking with the largest industry portals
   • Publishing sponsored articles on premium websites
3. Intensive content marketing
   
   • Daily creation of content, such as blogs, advice, case studies and news
   • Publishing and optimising content for voice and visual searches
4. Technical services
   
   • Automating SEO, for instance by deploying AI analytical tools
   • Carrying out ongoing improvements to the website structure, such as optimising code and repairing internal links
   • Constant contact, even daily, with a dedicated expert
5. Advanced analytics
   
   • Frequent reporting of KPIs
   • Using artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast changes in search trends
6. Online reputation management (ORM)
   
   • Monitoring and reacting to opinions on the web
   • Image building on Google and social media

In what situations would this packet be the best choice? It’s designed for large companies, international brands and e-commerce operations in the most competitive sectors, where intensive SEO activity is required on a daily basis.

As you can see, SEO costs will differ widely, depending on the scope of the activities, which is why it’s always wise request a detailed quote. Beware of agencies offering suspiciously low prices. It’s often a sign that they will be using low-quality techniques that could damage your website. Transparency about costs is SEO 101!

When choosing an SEO agency for 2025, you need to bear in mind the trends that will be predominant in the upcoming months. So let’s have a look at what will most probably be affecting SEO success.

Artificial intelligence is steadily becoming an integral part of SEO. Search engine algorithms like Google RankBrain and BERT are already using it to understand users’ intentions better. In 2025, SEO agencies will have to invest even more in AI-supported tools to improve their analysis of data, predict trends and optimise their strategies.

How is AI changing SEO?

• Automating data analysis: AI accelerates the analysis of vast quantities of data, such as keyword rankings, traffic patterns and user behaviours.
• Better understanding of users’ intentions: AI makes it possible to predict more precisely the questions users will ask and to adapt content to their needs.
• Generating SEO-friendly content: AI-based tools like Jasper, ChatGPT and Copy.ai help to create high-quality content, optimised for SEO, in less time. 

Something else worth knowing

According to a report published by BrightEdge this year, as many as 60% of SEO experts have declared that their use of AI in their daily work has risen by more than 50% over the past two years.

Core Web Vitals has been one of the most important Google ranking factors since 2021. In 2025, this role will become even more crucial, because search engines will be increasingly rewarding sites that offer their users an excellent experience.

The three primary Core Web Vitals indicators are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures the loading time of the largest element visible on the screen, such as an image or a header. We can assume that the optimum loading time in 2025 will be under 2.5 seconds;
• First Input Delay (FID), which defines the time that passes between a user’s first interaction and a website’s response. The FID value should be lower than 100 ms;
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures a website’s visual stability. The CLS value should be lower than 0.1.

Why is UX design so crucial?

• Users expect websites to be fast, transparent and responsive. Studies conducted by Google show that up to 53% of users leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
• The introduction of Web Vitals to the ranking algorithms is forcing website owners to focus on the technical aspects of SEO.

Voice search is gaining in popularity thanks to the growing number of devices like smartphones, smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon Echo and voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa. According to a 2024 report from ComScore, more than half the questions asked of search engines were asked vocally.

How is SEO adapting to voice searches?

• Long-tail question optimisation, where users using voice searches ask more detailed questions, such as ‘Where can I find the best pizza in Warsaw after 10.00 PM?’
• Creating content in question-and-answer form, with FAQ pages and articles responding to specific user questions gaining in importance.
• The significance of local SEO, since voice searches are often local in nature, with phrases like ‘near’, ‘nearby; and ‘near me’ are becoming even more crucial.

Google has been emphasising E-A-T, in other words, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness for a long time. The concept was enlarged to include Experience in 2022, further underscoring the absolute necessity of having high-quality content created by experts in a given field.

What does E-E-A-T mean for SEO?

• Content created by experts: websites have to provide valuable, detailed content that builds the trust of users and search engines.
• Verified information: Google prefers content that cites sources and contains references to credible data.
• Author profiles: publishing content signed off with the author’s given name and surname. Another good practice that enhances an author’s credibility is adding a link to their portfolio or social media profile(s).

Also worth knowing

In the medical sector, Google specifically promotes websites and pages created by certified specialists. This raises the bar considerably for less well-known sites.

Visual search technology like Google Lens enables users to search the Internet using images instead of text. Statistics provided by Gartner suggest that 40% of young users will be using visual search at least once a month in 2025.

How do we adapt SEO to visual searches?

• Image optimisation: using high-quality images with suitable alt descriptions and filenames.
• Structural data is important: using schema.org markups so that search engines will understand the content of an image better.
• Create product galleries: in the e-commerce sector, it’s going to be particularly vital to adapt product pages to the requirements of visual searches.

In 2025, SEO is set to be a marriage of technical innovation, an even better understanding of users’ intentions and a focus on their experience. When you select an SEO agency, make sure that it comprehends those trends and is capable of putting them into practice. The ability to combine cutting-edge technology and a long-term strategy that puts the user front and centre will be pivotal to SEO success.