It's not me, it's you: Why your SEO agency (probably) hates you - Brendan Bennett

In this talk, Brendan Bennett (Principal SEO Consultant at Candour) discusses the realities of working in an SEO agency.

Brendan draws from a decade of agency experience and highlights common issues such as unrealistic expectations, urgent demands, unimplemented recommendations, unannounced changes, and dealing with difficult clients.

By identifying these problems, rating their severity, and offering practical solutions, Brendan provides valuable insights for both in-house and agency SEOs.

Transcript

2. It's Not Me, It's You And what this really means… 2 Why your SEO or agency (probably) hates you
3. I hate this $%!ing client
5. 01 Identify thing 02 Examples
6. 03 Rate AB CD EF
7. 04 Why annoying? 05 What do?
8. Expecting impossible things
9. • Demands not based in reality • “I want to rank #1 for ‘insuranceʼ yesterdayˮ • “I want to 10x-100x-1000x organic trafficˮ • “I want to rank consistently for all of the thingsˮ Examples
11. Annoying why?
12. 01 Start at the beginning Solution
13. 01 Start at the beginning 02 Case studies and historic data Solution
15. 01 Start at the beginning 02 Case studies and historic data 03 Explainers and graphics Solution
16. Typical timeline and hierarchy for KPIs
17. Typical timeline for SEO growth
18. 01 Start at the beginning 02 Case studies & historic data 03 Explainers and graphics 04 Forecast (if you have to) Solution
19. Work done quick – NOW – this instant
20. • Impatience for delivery. Fast unscoped projects. • “Canʼt I have [task] today? Itʼs urgent.ˮ • “Does [task] really need X hours to complete?ˮ • “Weʼre deploying a new navigation tomorrow. Can you help?ˮ Examples
22. Annoying why?
23. 01 Enforce, reinforce timelines Solution
25. 01 Enforce, reinforce timelines 02 Enforce impact, penalty cost Solution
26. 01 Enforce, reinforce timelines 02 Enforce impact, penalty cost 03 Highlight quality risks Solution
27. Time Cost Quality
28. Time Cost Quality
29. 01 Enforce, reinforce timelines 02 Enforce impact, penalty cost 03 Highlight quality risks 04 Offer interim deliverables Solution
30. Not doing anything, ever
31. • Nothing to show for actions/recommendations. • “Been too busyˮ, “Our team had other prioritiesˮ • “[dev/writer] has other things in the pipelineˮ • “Thought youʼd be doing all that yourselfˮ • “Needs sign-off from 10 people… and Bob from compliance is on holiday right nowˮ Examples
33. Annoying why?
34. 01 Start at the beginning (again) 02 Roadmaps & documentation Solution
35. 01 Start at the beginning (again) 02 Roadmaps & documentation 03 Tough love + competitor data Solution
37. 01 Start at the beginning (again) 02 Roadmaps & documentation 03 Tough love + competitor data 04 Know when to walk Solution
38. Sudden unforeseen site changes
39. • Unannounced changes, fixes, deployments. • “We just did a casual replatform, no big dealˮ • “We changed subfolders – for the lolsˮ • “We completely rewrote this landing pageˮ Examples
41. Annoying why?
42. 01 Life-changing toolage Solution
44. 01 Life-changing toolage 02 From the start: documentation Solution
45. SEOI
46. Demanding. Belittling. Difficult.
47. • Blame games. Constant questioning. Sniping. • Undermining expertise. • Unreasonable demands. • Pushing boundaries. • Shouting. • Biting. Examples
49. Annoying why?
50. Solution
51. And more… And more… And more…
53. Conclusion
54. • SEO = long-term engagement • SEO = relationships, communication, shared knowledge • Arm yourself & clients with knowledge • Thereʼs always room to improve • Hate is good, actually? Takeaways
55. Summary Issue Solutions Expecting impossible Set expectations early. Work done instantly Roadmaps. Meetings. Highlight risks. Not doing anything Documentation. Tough conversation. Competitor benchmarking. Site changes Provide a list. Get monitoring. Difficult to work with Try boundaries. Walk away.
56. 56 Thank you!