FIELD NOTES • WEB + SEARCH
Kansas business owners are contacted every day by digital marketing agencies promising more traffic, better rankings, more leads and growth.
Some of those companies do excellent work.
Others may be better at selling marketing than explaining exactly what they are going to do for your business.
That distinction matters.
No digital marketing agency controls Google. An agency does not control when a search algorithm changes, how competitors respond, or exactly how quickly a website will gain visibility. Search is also evolving as AI-generated answers and other search experiences change how people find businesses and information online.
An agency can control the quality of its research, strategy, content, technical work, advertising management and follow-through.
It cannot control the algorithm.
That is why I become cautious when someone promises a business owner that they will see a particular result within six months or guarantees a specific Google ranking.
Google itself warns businesses that nobody can guarantee a #1 ranking.
A good agency should be able to tell you what it plans to do.
More importantly, it should be able to explain why.
Before discussing packages, monthly blog counts or advertising budgets, ask:
What exactly are you going to do for my business, and why?
Listen carefully to the answer.
A marketing strategy for a roofing contractor should not sound identical to one for a family law firm, moving company, fence contractor or manufacturer.
The market matters too.
Marketing a business in Wichita is not automatically the same as marketing one in Hutchinson, Salina, Hays, Manhattan or Abilene.
Population matters.
Competition matters.
The businesses already occupying the search results matter.
Local industries, surrounding communities, weather, seasonal conditions, local news and economic activity can all influence how customers search and what information is useful to them.
An agency does not need to know every detail about every Kansas community before the first conversation.
It should be willing to research it.
When I evaluate a market, I want to understand what is already ranking, which established local businesses dominate the search results, whether competitors are spending heavily on advertising and which important parts of the customer’s business are poorly represented online.
For a broader look at how we approach different markets across the state, see our Kansas web design and SEO service areas.
Local SEO should involve more than changing a city name on a webpage.
One useful question to ask an agency claiming local expertise is:
Tell me something about my market that you could not have learned simply by reading my website.
Their answer may tell you quite a bit.
A salesperson does not have to personally perform every technical task.
But the person recommending an SEO, advertising or website service should understand it well enough to explain what is being recommended, why it may benefit the business and who will actually perform the work.
Over the years, clients and business owners have asked me to review marketing proposals and help evaluate services they were considering.
In one case, I asked an SEO salesperson several technical questions about the service being recommended. The salesperson acknowledged that they could not answer some of them.
That did not automatically mean the company was bad.
It did raise an important question.
If the person recommending a service cannot explain how it works, why it fits the business or who will handle the technical work after the sale, the business owner should slow down before signing.
Ask questions.
A reasonable technical question should not derail a legitimate sales presentation.
A great deal of effort can go into making the sale.
What happens afterward may receive considerably less attention.
I have seen agency onboarding and account handoffs take several weeks.
That does not happen with every agency, and some of that time may involve legitimate research, setup, account access and planning.
But a business owner should know what is happening during that period.
Ask:
What happens during my first 30 days?
Who researches the market?
Who reviews the website?
Who receives access to Analytics, Search Console and advertising accounts?
Who determines which pages need to be created or improved?
When will you actually speak with the person responsible for the account?
And what work takes place before that conversation?
“Onboarding” should describe a process, not a waiting room.
Some account managers understand SEO and digital marketing extremely well.
Others primarily coordinate communication between the customer and the people performing the work.
Either model can work.
The bigger issue is continuity.
There is no guarantee that the person managing an account today will still be managing it six months or a year from now.
Years ago, I heard about a customer whose communication deteriorated badly after an account changed hands. The customer was left frustrated because the continuity they had with the previous representative disappeared.
With SEO, personnel changes can create another concern.
An SEO strategy cannot always be transferred completely through a handful of account notes.
There may be reasons one page targets a particular service while another does not.
There may be reasons certain topics were intentionally separated.
Internal links may have been built to strengthen particular sections of the website.
Previous tests may have influenced the strategy.
A new person who does not understand that history can unintentionally undo previous work.
For example, someone could create another page targeting essentially the same service and market as an existing page. Instead of strengthening one clear destination, the website could end up with two pages competing for similar searches and dividing relevance.
Before signing, ask:
If the person managing my SEO changes, how do you make sure the new person understands the existing strategy before making changes?
That is a much more meaningful question than simply asking how many people work at the agency.
Blogs are one of the easiest places to see whether a marketing agency is actually thinking about a business.
The red flag is not that a company publishes blogs.
The red flag is generic content that does not appear to have a specific job.
A blog should directly support something the business needs.
It might answer a question customers regularly ask.
It might explain an important service.
It could help support a commercial service page.
It might address a local issue or seasonal concern.
It may help a customer compare two options before deciding what to buy.
Good content should help the person searching while remaining relevant to what the business actually does.
The goal should not be traffic simply for the sake of reporting a larger traffic number.
For most local businesses, you eventually want the right visitor to call, submit a form or take another meaningful step toward becoming a customer.
That means every piece of content should have a reason to exist.
Ask your agency:
Why are you writing this article?
They should be able to give you a better answer than:
“Your package includes two blogs this month.”
Another useful question is:
What gap on my website does this content fill?
If the agency cannot explain why the page needs to exist, it is reasonable to question why you are paying to create it.
I do not believe every business needs the same amount of content.
It depends on the customer and the competitiveness of the market.
Population is one factor.
The search engine results are another.
A smaller market with limited competition may not require the same level of content development as a larger market filled with established local competitors that have strong websites and are spending heavily on advertising.
Content strategy should make sure the important areas of the business are properly represented in the market.
That may involve:
The question is not simply:
How many blogs should we publish?
The better question is:
Does this website properly represent what the company does and what its customers need to find?
If the answer is no, that is where the strategy should begin.
Content should be useful to the person searching.
It should also have a meaningful relationship to the business publishing it.
Those two goals should work together.
If an article attracts traffic but has virtually no relationship to the company’s products or services, it may produce an impressive number on a report without producing much value for the business.
At the other extreme, content that only sells and provides nothing useful to the reader is unlikely to build much trust.
The goal is to find the overlap.
Helpful to the searcher. Relevant to the business. Connected naturally to a service, product or decision the customer may eventually make.
That is where content strategy becomes business strategy instead of a publishing quota.
Paid advertising can work extremely well.
It can also consume a small business’s marketing budget quickly when campaigns are too broad, poorly targeted or not actively managed.
When the situation allows it, I generally prefer building a strong content and organic-search foundation first.
That creates something the business owns rather than making every visitor dependent on another paid click.
There are situations where advertising makes sense.
A business may need visibility quickly.
A particular commercial search may be valuable enough to justify the cost.
A new service may need immediate exposure while organic visibility develops.
When paid advertising is used, targeting matters.
I would rather see a carefully selected keyword strategy than an advertising account opened broadly with little control over where the budget goes.
Ask the agency:
Advertising management should involve actual management.
I once reviewed an Oklahoma City business’s advertising account while the company was paying roughly $2,000 per month for agency services.
During the period I was asked to examine, I could not see evidence of active management in the account activity available to me.
One example does not describe an entire industry.
It does explain why I believe business owners should retain appropriate access to the advertising accounts they are paying someone to manage and should understand what work is actually being performed.
I am not a fan of long contracts that make it difficult for customers to leave when a relationship is not working.
There are legitimate reasons for an agency to explain that SEO, content development and other long-term strategies require patience. If you are comparing scope and budget, our Kansas small-business SEO cost guide explains why pricing and workload can vary by market and competition.
That is different from using a contract as a substitute for earning the client’s business.
When results are not developing as expected, the answer cannot always be:
Give it more time.
The agency should have an actionable plan.
It should be able to explain what it has done, what it has learned, what it intends to do next and why.
Then it needs to follow through with the plan.
Time may be part of the strategy.
Time without an actionable plan is just waiting.
Ask about ownership before the relationship begins, not while trying to leave.
There is nothing inherently wrong with an agency hosting a customer’s website.
The concern begins when the structure of the relationship makes it difficult for the business owner to leave without losing control of important digital assets.
Ask who controls:
Then ask:
If I stop working with you, what do I keep and what can I take with me?
I have heard of businesses encountering problems when an agency maintained control of the domain or other important accounts.
Your domain should not become leverage used to keep you in a marketing relationship.
Know where you stand before signing.
Marketing should be collaborative.
A business owner knows things an outside marketer cannot manufacture.
You know which services are profitable.
You know what customers are asking.
You know what has changed inside the company.
You know which jobs you want more of.
You may have photographs, project stories, customer questions or industry knowledge that will never appear in keyword research.
I want to know that the business owner is engaged and willing to work alongside me.
A good content strategy becomes stronger when the marketer and business owner communicate.
An agency that claims it can understand your company indefinitely without asking questions, learning about projects or receiving meaningful input should make you curious about where the marketing ideas are coming from.
Before hiring an agency, ask:
Can you show me exactly what you have done?
Do not stop at testimonials or a row of customer logos.
Ask to see the work.
What problem did the business have?
What did the agency change?
Why did it make those changes?
How did search visibility respond?
Did calls, form submissions or other measurable inquiries change?
What can the agency actually prove?
And just as importantly, what is it careful not to claim?
A strong case study should show more than a dramatic percentage printed in large type.
It should connect the problem, the work, the reasoning and the measurable outcome.
That is the standard I believe marketing companies should be willing to meet.
It is also the standard you should use when evaluating us.
You can review our local SEO case studies to see how we document the work, the reasoning and the measurable outcome.
You should be able to see what work was performed, why it was performed, what changed afterward and where the available data limits what can honestly be claimed.
If you are considering Stamm Web Creations for SEO, content strategy, web design or digital marketing in Kansas, do not hire me simply because you found this article.
Ask me the same questions.
Ask what I would do for your business.
Ask why I am recommending it.
Ask who will do the work.
Ask how your content strategy fits your particular market.
Ask what you will own.
Ask what happens when something is not producing the result we expected.
And ask me to show you what I have actually done.
Marketing should not require blind faith.
A business owner deserves to understand what they are paying for, why the work matters and whether the person advising them is willing to remain accountable after the sales conversation is over.
If you want to talk through what your business needs, call Stamm Web Creations at (405) 315-8724 or use our contact form.
You can ask me the same questions I just told you to ask everyone else.
No legitimate agency controls Google’s search results. An agency can improve a website, research search behavior, develop content, address technical problems and work to increase visibility, but it cannot guarantee a particular organic ranking.
Be cautious when an agency guarantees a specific Google position or promises that a certain ranking will occur by a specific date.
There is no single timeline that applies to every business.
Market size, competition, the condition of the existing website, the age and authority of the domain, content coverage, local competition and algorithm changes can all influence how quickly measurable improvements appear.
Instead of asking only when results will happen, ask the agency what it plans to do during that time and how progress will be evaluated.
A business owner should understand exactly who controls the domain registration and what happens to it if the agency relationship ends.
An agency may provide hosting, website management and technical support without requiring the customer to surrender long-term control of important business assets.
Before signing, ask what you own and what you can transfer if you choose another provider.
The answer will vary by business, but there should be an identifiable process.
That may include reviewing the existing website, researching competitors, evaluating search visibility, gaining access to analytics and advertising accounts, identifying content gaps and developing an initial strategy.
Ask the agency what it will actually do during the first month rather than accepting “onboarding” as the entire explanation.
Ask why each major page or article is being created.
The agency should be able to explain how that content relates to your services, your customers, your market and the rest of your website.
If the strategy consists primarily of publishing a predetermined number of generic blogs each month regardless of what the business needs, you may not be receiving a truly customized content strategy.