How to Evaluate SEO Consulting Firm Results After Six Months

If you are paying for SEO and wondering whether it works, this is how to evaluate SEO consulting firm results after six months without guesswork. Six months is a sensible checkpoint: long enough for agreed work to be released and for Google to pick much of it up, short enough that a bad engagement has not cost you a year.

I have worked in SEO and digital marketing for more than 16 years, and I have been on both sides of this review: reporting on my own work and being asked to give a second opinion on someone else’s. The method below is the one I use in both cases. It needs Search Console, Google Analytics, a ranking check and an honest list of what was actually done.

Start with what was agreed at month zero

You can’t judge results without a starting line. Before you open any report, collect three things:

1. The baseline. Clicks, impressions and key pages from Search Console, organic key events from Google Analytics and keyword positions, all from the weeks before work began.
2. The scope. What the firm said it would do, in writing: an audit, fixes, content, links, reporting.
3. The forecast. Google’s own hiring guidance suggests asking a prospective SEO: “What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?” If the firm answered that question, judge them against their own answer.

If any of the three is missing, the first finding of your review is that the engagement was never set up to be measured. That is fixable, but it is the firm’s problem as much as yours.

One habit makes the next review much easier. Search Console now lets you add your own notes to the performance chart. Search Engine Land reported that these custom annotations hold up to 120 characters, are visible to anyone with access to the property and are deleted once they are older than 500 days. Google’s own examples include “hiring an agency” and site migrations. Mark the start date and every major release.

How to evaluate SEO consulting firm results in four layers

Most disappointing reviews I see go straight to traffic and stop there. Traffic is the top of a stack, and it only makes sense when you know what sits underneath.

If layer 1 is weak, stop there. If recommendations sit unreleased in a document, flat traffic says nothing about the firm’s strategy, only about the process between them and your developer. That is still worth knowing, because it tells you what to fix.

Layer 1: was the work done and released?

Ask the firm for a change log: each change, the date it went live, the pages affected and the reason. Then check a sample on the live site yourself. A redirect map that was “delivered” but never implemented is the most common gap I find.

Layers 2 and 3: reading Search Console fairly

Search Console is the most honest data you have, because it comes from Google. It is also easy to misread. The Performance report help page defines the four core metrics, and each has a trap.

The same page warns that “the newest data can be preliminary”, so leave the last few days out of any comparison.

Compare the right periods

Google’s guide to debugging drops in Search traffic recommends two comparisons in the Performance report: “Compare last 3 months to previous period” and “Compare last 3 months year over year”. It also suggests selecting “Last 16 months” to see the change in context and whether a pattern repeats each year. The guide notes that “different industries have different levels of seasonality”, and points to Google Trends to check whether demand changed across the web rather than only for your site.

For a six-month review I use all three views. Months four to six against months one to three shows direction. The same three months a year earlier removes seasonality. The 16-month chart, with your annotations on it, shows whether the change started when the work went live.

Positions without the noise

For keyword positions, a fixed list checked on the same Google edition, device and depth at month zero and month six is easier to read than any average. Our guide on average position in Search Console versus a rank tracker explains why the two numbers rarely match, and our SEO rank tracking service covers the setup if you have no baseline yet.

Layer 4: SEO results that reach the business

Visibility that brings no enquiries is a cost, not a result. Google Analytics measures the actions that matter through key events. Google’s help page on key events describes one as “an event that measures an action that’s particularly important to the success of your business”, and says Analytics then reports how well each channel drives it.

Three checks before you trust the numbers:

• Were key events set up before month zero? If the contact form was only tracked from month three, there is no fair comparison for the first quarter.
• Is organic search separated from everything else? Look at the organic search channel alone, then at landing pages that were part of the work.
• Does the CRM agree? Ask sales how many leads mentioned search, or match enquiry dates to analytics. Small sites can rarely trust analytics alone.

Where revenue is known, divide the extra organic revenue by what you spent. Where it isn’t, use estimates and say they are estimates.

A good SEO review answers one question: did the work we paid for change what customers do, and can we see where it happened?

SEO reporting that makes the review easy

If your monthly reports were useful, the six-month review should take an hour, not a week. A good report shows work released, the same Search Console comparisons each month, positions for a fixed keyword list and key events from organic search, with a short note on what the firm will do next. Our monthly SEO report template shows that layout in detail, and question 10 in our list of questions to ask before hiring an SEO company covers what to agree on reporting before you sign.

Warning signs in reporting:

• Each month reports a different set of metrics, usually whichever one went up.
• Positions are shown without the device, location or date of the check.
• Traffic is reported as one total, with brand and non-brand mixed.
• No report says what was done, only what happened.

Turning the review into a decision

Keep going

The work was delivered, Google is indexing the right pages, visibility is up on the comparisons above, and key events from organic search are moving in the right direction, even if slowly. Agree the next six months and a new forecast.

Fix a specific gap

The strategy looks sound but something blocks it: releases are stuck, tracking is broken, or content is published but never linked internally. Name the gap, give it an owner and a date, and review again in three months. If you suspect a technical cause, an independent SEO website audit can confirm it before you spend more.

Stop

The work wasn’t done, the firm can’t explain what it did, reports keep changing shape, or the results contradict the firm’s own forecast with no credible reason. Collect your accounts, content and change log, and end the engagement cleanly.

Is six months long enough to judge SEO?

Long enough to judge the process, not always long enough to judge the full outcome. Technical fixes to crawling and indexing can show in Search Console soon after release. New content and earned links usually take longer to show their full effect. That is why the forecast at month zero matters: a firm that said “visibility first, leads later” should be judged on that sequence.

What six months is always enough for: seeing whether work was delivered, explained and measured. A firm that can’t show you that by month six won’t show it by month twelve.

How I report on my own work

I charge by the hour, so every report starts with what those hours produced: changes released, changes waiting and why. I compare the same periods each time, separate brand from non-brand, and tell you plainly when something didn’t work. My background and certifications are on my profile page. If you are reviewing another firm’s work, I am happy to be the second pair of eyes, and to tell you if they are doing a good job.

FAQ

What SEO results should I expect after six months?

It depends on what was agreed and done. You should at least see the agreed work released, the important pages indexed and a clear direction in Search Console comparisons. Enquiries and revenue often move later than visibility, so check the firm’s original forecast.

What should SEO reporting include?

Work released and its dates, the same Search Console comparisons each month, positions for a fixed keyword list with the device and location stated, and key events from organic search. It should end with what happens next. A report that only shows totals is not enough to evaluate anyone.

How do I know if my SEO consulting firm is doing a good job?

Check the four layers: work delivered, site health, search visibility and business results. A good firm can show progress in the lower layers even when revenue hasn’t moved yet, and explains every change in plain language.

Should I judge SEO results on rankings alone?

No. Rankings show whether visibility is moving on the searches you chose, but they don’t show clicks or customers. Use them alongside Search Console clicks and Google Analytics key events.