How do you spot a credible SEO agency?

First, the price: it is settled before you sign, as a concrete monthly amount or a fixed price with a clear scope. An agency that names its price only after several meetings, and only verbally, is negotiating against your expectations rather than against the work.

Second, the description of the work: the quote says which work happens in which month — which pages get reworked, which content gets written, what happens to the Google Business Profile. Third, the accounts: Search Console, Analytics and the Google Business Profile run on your accounts and the agency gets access. If cancelling means your own data leaves with the agency, those were never your accounts.

Fourth, the proof: every month you see what was actually done, not just a ranking table. Fifth, the cancellation terms: monthly notice is possible — that is how we work. An agency that needs a long commitment to make the engagement add up has moved the risk onto your side.

A guarantee of position 1 is the clearest sign. Google decides positions, and nobody outside Google can promise them — anyone who does is selling a promise they cannot keep. The same goes for guaranteed visitor numbers or revenue increases that depend on rankings.

A quote with no description of the work is the second. “SEO support, monthly” is a heading, not a scope. It leaves you no way to check whether the invoice matches what happened — and that is exactly what matters, because the result only becomes visible months later.

The third is a long minimum term. Twelve or 24 months tie you to a result the agency does not decide. That SEO takes time is an argument for patience; it is not an argument for you being unable to leave when nothing happens.

Convert the monthly price into hours. Divide it by an hourly rate you would consider realistic for skilled work in your own industry. If one or two hours a month are left, there is no ongoing support in it, only automated reporting — whatever the package is called.

Then ask four questions: What happens in month 1? Whose accounts do Search Console, Analytics and the business profile run on? How will I see in month three that the work happened? And what stays with me if I cancel? Every one of these has a factual answer. Evasion is itself the answer.

On price, for orientation: at Floxa ongoing support starts at 850 euros a month for a standard website, at 1,200 euros for larger sites with several services and locations, and at 4,000 euros for very large sites in competitive markets. These are our own numbers, not an industry benchmark — useful as an order of magnitude, not as a test for every quote.

Because a position is not a test result, it is a comparison. You do not reach page 1 at a certain score; you reach it when Google ranks you above everyone else — and nobody can promise what everyone else will do. On top of that, Google re-evaluates continuously, and results differ by location and device.

Some guarantees are therefore worded so that they always come true: a position for a search term almost nobody uses, or for your own company name. With any promise, check which search term it refers to and how many people actually type it in a month.

What can be promised is the work: which tasks happen in which month, documented and verifiable. That is the part within the agency's control — and the only part you can hold it to.

Less than both suggest. A long client list proves someone has won work, not that your website is in good hands there — a logo says nothing about who handled the project, when, or with what result. A short list, in turn, does not mean the work is worse.

The initial analysis says more. Someone who looks at your website and tells you concretely what is technically broken, which pages are missing and in what order they would proceed is showing you how they work on your own case. That cannot be lifted from a slide deck.

Floxa is a young, small company from Remseck am Neckar. That means short lines and direct contact, and it also means we have no long reference list to show — instead we show you the analysis of your website before the first invoice.

Price: from 850 euros a month for a standard website, from 1,200 euros for larger sites, from 4,000 euros in competitive markets; a new website at a fixed price from 2,500 euros, separate from the monthly price. Work: after the analysis you get a roadmap naming tasks and months.

Accounts: Search Console, Analytics and the Google Business Profile run on your accounts; we get access, you keep them. Proof: every hour of work is documented in the client portal, plus a monthly report that also says what moved and what did not. Cancellation: monthly, with no minimum term.

What you do not get from us is a promise about positions or a date by which a certain ranking is reached — Google decides that. If nothing is visibly moving after a few months, you stop at the end of the month. Hold us to the same five points you would hold any other agency to.