A real audit
Names your pages and your problems: a page of yours competing with another of your pages, a listing inconsistency with the source named, a specific reason a competitor outranks you.
How to compare SEO service providers
Package names are not comparable. Three questions make them comparable again. Here is what to ask, how to test an audit, and the warning signs that matter.
Rankure's plans are published: $599, $1,094 and $2,196 a month, month-to-month. See pricing.
Listed on Clutch, G2, DesignRush and GoodFirms. Office in Arlington, Virginia.
Comparing proposals? Send us one.
Send your website and we will tell you what we would do first and why, in the same specifics this page asks other providers for. One business day.
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The short answer
How do you compare SEO providers?
Ignore the package names. Compare the work, the people and the reporting.
To compare SEO providers, compare what is actually delivered each month as specific work, who does that work, and whether the reporting ties back to enquiries rather than only rankings. Two packages at the same price can differ widely on all three.
- The clearest warning sign: a provider who cannot say specifically what happens in the first month.
- Choosing for reviews? See how to choose a reputation management company.
Make proposals comparable
Three questions to ask every provider
- 1
What is actually done each month?
Not categories like "on-page optimisation", but the work itself: how many pages, which ones, and what changes to them. A provider doing real work can answer in specifics.
- 2
Who does it?
Whether the person in the sales conversation is involved afterwards, and whether the work is done in-house or passed on. Neither answer is disqualifying. Not being told is.
- 3
What do you receive, and does it connect to enquiries?
A report of rankings is not a report of outcomes. Ask what the report will show in a month where rankings improved and enquiries did not.
Test the free audit
Telling a real audit from a generated one
Most free audits are a tool export with a logo on the front. The tools find real problems, but that is not evidence anyone looked at your business.
A generated audit
Every finding would read the same for any business in your sector. If you cannot find one finding that needed a person to look, nobody reviewed it.
Measure the right thing
How success should be measured
| Metric | Why it is reported | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic totals | Easy to show rising | Traffic can rise while enquiries stay flat |
| Keyword counts | Easy to make look good | The keywords that matter may not have moved |
| Enquiries and the visibility that produces them | Ties work to your outcome | Nothing, which is why it is worth agreeing at the start |
Local pack and organic results are separate contests ranked on different signals. SEO rank services explains what moves each one.
What you actually need
Software, agency, or something built for you
Software
Rank tracking, audit reporting or an API for position data. Cheaper than a retainer when someone on your side will act on what it shows.
Agency
The right purchase when reports would arrive and nobody internally would act on them. You are buying the work, not the visibility of the problem.
A build
When off-the-shelf tools do not fit your systems or workflow. See custom SEO software, dashboards and APIs and custom software development.
Before you sign
Warning signs that matter
None of these means a provider is dishonest. They mean the arrangement is not yet defined well enough to compare.
- 1
No specific first month
A provider who cannot say what happens in the first month usually has a generic plan, or has not looked at your situation yet.
- 2
Guaranteed positions
Nobody controls the ranking systems. A guarantee is either meaningless or attached to searches nobody runs.
- 3
Metrics chosen afterwards
If success is defined when the first report is written rather than at the start, it will be defined in the provider's favour.
Prices and facts verified · Reviewed by the Rankure team · Next review November 2026
Questions
Comparing SEO providers: questions
How do you compare SEO packages from different companies?
Ignore the package names and compare three things: what is actually delivered each month as specific work, who does that work, and whether the reporting ties back to enquiries rather than only to rankings.
How do you tell a real SEO audit from a generated one?
A real audit names your pages and your problems. If the findings would read the same for any business in your sector, a tool produced it and nobody reviewed it. Look for at least one finding that needed a person to look at your site.
How should an SEO provider measure success?
Against enquiries, and then the rankings and visibility that produce them. Traffic totals and keyword counts can rise while enquiries stay flat. Ask what the provider will report if enquiries do not move.
Do SEO agencies change their approach by industry?
The mechanics change little. What changes is which searches matter, how customers phrase them, and which directories and platforms carry weight in that sector and country. Ask how your industry differs from the last one they worked in.
Do I need an SEO agency or SEO software?
Software reports what is happening, which works if someone on your side will act on it. An agency does the work. Where no existing tool fits the job, the tool can be built instead.
Rather we just looked at it?
Find out what is holding your site back.
Send us your website. Within one business day you get a written answer on what is stopping it ranking, and a plan with the price on it.
One named specialist, month-to-month terms. See client results in Google's own numbers.