What does an SEO company do?

And who are their clients?

Results of a new survey by SEO software providers SEO FOMO reveal the kinds of work most often done clients, what their clients' businesses do, and how they get these clients.

Responding SEOs said they specialize in:

• Technical SEO 64%
• Content-focused SEO 60%
• General SEO 54%
• SEO management 51%
• Link building 14%
• Other 8%

Sizes of websites with which they work:

• Small - fewer than 100K URLs 49%
• Medium - 100K to 1M URLs 33%
• Large >1M 18%

Types of websites their clients have:

• Ecommerce 72%
• Software as a Service (SaaS) 46%
• Blogs/independent publishers 34%
• Marketplaces 24%
• Education 23%
• Non-profit 18%
• News 17%
• Reviews and comparisons 12%
• Job boards and Careers 10%
• Government 6%
• Other 47%

Types of engagements SEOs have with clients:

• Ongoing advisory/process 79%
• Ongoing execution 69%
• One-time advice/research/audit 56%
• One-time execution 35%
• Other 7%

How these SEOs get clients:

• Referrals from client or other companies 77%
• SEO (which I take to mean "via own website") 39%
• Social media/online communities 26%
• Events, conferences, meetups 25%
• Blog posts/studies/research (which I take to mean self-published material) 17%
• Cold outreach 14%
• Online paid ads 9%
• Other 15%

Level of difficulty in selling SEO in 2024 vs. 2 years ago

• More difficult 43%
• As difficult 20%
• Less difficult 17%
• Not sure 20%

How these SEOs say they deliver work product to clients:

• Video conference calls 88%
• Messaging platforms, e.g., Slack 53%
• Project management systems 39%
• In-person meetings 35%
• Other 11%

Formats in which SEOs deliver work product:

• Google Sheets/Excel 90%
• Google Docs/Word 65%
• Google Slides/PPT 62%
• Via project management/messaging system posts 29%
• Other 13%

How SEOs said they prioritize recommendations/advice:

1. Benefit to client website
2. Effort vs. reward (i.e., pick low-hanging fruit)
3. Technical SEO is highest priority
4. Client revenue and business goals
5. Competitive positioning of client
6. Client's ability to implement/execute
7. Quick wins

How often SEOs said they achieve project goals:

• >90% of the time 18%
• 70-89% of the time 55%
• 50-69% of the time 20%
• 20-49% of the time 6%
• Less than 20% of the time 1%

Reasons SEO projects aren't achieving expected goals in 2024:

1. Slow/inadequate client implementation
2. Client budget/resource limitations
3. Lack of client engagement/cooperation
4. High competition in client's market
5. Google updates and algorithm changes
6. Web development issues
7. Unrealistic client expectations/goal setting

58% of SEOs said it's harder to achieve SEO goals in 2024 than it was 2 years ago. Reasons cited include:

1. More of clients' competitors are investing in SEO.
2. Frequent Google updates and changes
3. Increased complexity: technical., numbers of people involved, changing user behavior
4. Limitations of client budgets/resources available to support SEO

Top SEO tools being used in 2024:

• Screaming Frog 19.90%
• Semrush 19.04%
• Google Search Console 16.44%
• Ahrefs 13.85%
• 5.38% Google Analytics
• 2.69% Sitebulb
• 1.92% Sistrix
• 1.44% SE Ranking
• 1.35% ChatGPT
• 0.77% Moz
• 0,58% Keyword Insights
• 0.58% Surfer

81% of respondents said they are using AI tools or functionalities for SEO.

Results are based on survey data collected between 21 July and 21 August 2024 from a self-selected sample of SEO practitioners - 76% working full-time in an agency or freelance, 59% in North America, 57% in Europe, 91% with 5 or more years' SEO experience.

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Comment: Issues these SEOs have cited re client and web developer resources, cooperation, timeliness, execution, etc. point up the importance of agency/client fit to the success of SEO engagements. Agency or freelance SEOs working outside a client company cannot unilaterally execute every aspect of an SEO project.

This is why I have on my website a page entitled What Makes a Good Working Relationship. If you're about to be involved in an SEO project from either side, agency or client, I strongly recommend that you consider and take to heart the message of that page.