Hiring a good agency is only half the job. The results you get depend heavily on how the relationship is set up and run: who owns what, how work is approved, how progress is reported, and how problems are raised. This lesson covers onboarding, governance, reporting, reviews at key milestones, and how to change agencies cleanly if you need to.

Onboarding: the first 30 days

Own your accounts

Before work starts, confirm you own and control:

  • Your domain name registration (in your business's name, with your login).
  • Website hosting and the CMS administrator account.
  • Google Analytics 4 property, Google Search Console property, Google Business Profile, Bing Webmaster Tools.
  • Google Tag Manager container, ad accounts, and any SEO tool accounts that hold your data.

Then add the agency as a user with the permissions they need. Never hand over your own passwords, and never let an agency create these accounts in its name. If an agency has to set something up, make sure ownership is transferred to you immediately.

Agree how you'll work

  • Single points of contact on both sides.
  • Approval process: who approves content, technical changes and anything touching brand, legal or compliance, and in what time frame (for example, within five business days).
  • Communication rhythm: a monthly report and call is common, with a short weekly or fortnightly update during busy phases.
  • Change management: how technical changes are tested, deployed and documented, especially on live ecommerce sites.
  • A shared roadmap in a document or project tool, showing what's planned, in progress and done.

Write ethics into the contract

The contract or statement of work should state that all work follows search engine guidelines (such as Google's spam policies) and applicable laws, including consumer law on reviews and advertising, and that you'll be told before any link-building, review or outreach activity is carried out in your name.

Reporting that's actually useful

A good monthly report answers four questions:

  1. What work was done? A list of completed tasks, published pages and fixes, with links.
  2. What changed? Organic enquiries, sales or revenue compared with the same period last year (to allow for seasonality), plus supporting metrics such as clicks, impressions and visibility for priority topics.
  3. Why? Interpretation, not just charts: what drove changes, including outside factors like algorithm updates, seasonality or competitors.
  4. What's next, and what's needed from you? Next month's priorities and any approvals or input required.

Be wary of reports that show only rising graphs, ranking screenshots for obscure terms, or "visibility scores" without any link to enquiries or revenue. Ask for access to the underlying data (GA4 and Search Console), so you can check it yourself.

Getting tracking right

Reports are only as good as tracking. Make sure key events in GA4 are set up for what matters: form submissions, phone calls (via click-to-call tracking or a call tracking service), bookings and purchases. Tag enquiries in your CRM by source where possible, and periodically compare reported leads with what your sales team actually received.

Milestone reviews

At 3 months

Mainly check that foundation work is done and early indicators are moving:

  • Technical issues identified in the audit fixed or scheduled.
  • Priority pages improved; first new content published.
  • Tracking working correctly.
  • Early signs such as more impressions, rankings improving for long-tail queries, more pages indexed.

It's usually too early to judge revenue impact, but not too early to judge whether the agency does what it said.

At 6–12 months

Now you should see movement in business outcomes: more organic enquiries or sales, better visibility for important commercial queries. If results aren't improving by 6–12 months, ask why, openly:

  • Was the work delivered as planned?
  • Were there delays on your side (approvals, development)?
  • Did the market change, or were there algorithm updates?
  • Was the strategy wrong, and what will change?

Agree an adjusted plan with specific actions and a review date. A good agency welcomes these conversations.

Being a good client

You'll get more from the relationship if you:

  • Respond to approvals promptly.
  • Give access to experts in your business for interviews, and share case studies, photos and data.
  • Tell the agency about changes: new services, price changes, website projects, marketing campaigns, PR coverage.
  • Involve them before redesigns or migrations, which are one of the most common causes of lost traffic.
  • Give honest feedback early, rather than letting frustration build.

Changing agencies cleanly

If you decide to move on:

  1. Check the contract for notice periods and handover obligations.
  2. Request a handover pack from the outgoing agency: the history of changes made (with dates), content produced, links earned, redirects implemented, tool accounts and exports, and outstanding issues.
  3. Confirm you hold all accounts and admin access.
  4. Remove the outgoing agency's access from analytics, Search Console, Business Profile, CMS, hosting, tag manager and tools once the handover is complete. Check for shared logins and change those passwords.
  5. Brief the new agency with the history of changes, so they can interpret past data and avoid repeating or undoing work.

Keep everything professional. You may need the old agency's cooperation for questions during the transition.

Worked example: turning a struggling relationship around

A Canberra allied health clinic was six months into a retainer with little to show. A review revealed content was waiting weeks for approval because only the busy principal could sign off, the agency's reports focused on rankings for terms patients never searched, and phone calls (most bookings) weren't tracked. The clinic delegated approvals to its practice manager with a five-day turnaround, the agency added call tracking and reported on bookings, and both agreed a revised three-month plan focused on condition and treatment pages written with the practitioners, following AHPRA's advertising guidelines. Within the next quarter, organic bookings rose clearly against the same period the previous year.

Handling common friction points

Even good relationships hit bumps. Some common ones and how to handle them:

  • "We sent recommendations but nothing was implemented." Agree upfront who implements technical changes. If your developer is the bottleneck, budget for their time or ask the agency to implement directly with appropriate access and testing.
  • "The content doesn't sound like us." Provide a short tone-of-voice guide, examples you like, and access to your team. Review the first few pieces closely, then give feedback in writing so it sticks.
  • "Rankings dropped after an update." Ask for an analysis of which pages and queries were affected, against Google's published updates, and what the agency recommends. Avoid panic changes; many fluctuations recover.
  • "We're not sure what we're paying for." Ask for the scope to be broken down by deliverable or hours each month, with the roadmap kept up to date.
  • "Our account manager keeps changing." Staff turnover is common. Ask for continuity, handover notes, and the senior strategist to stay involved.

Keeping your own records

Whatever the relationship, keep a simple change log of your own: dates of site launches, migrations, major content updates, pricing changes, PR coverage and campaigns. In GA4 you can't annotate charts the way older analytics tools allowed, so a shared spreadsheet works well. These notes make it far easier for anyone, your current agency, a future one or your own team, to explain changes in traffic and enquiries.

Key takeaways

  • Own your domain, hosting and accounts; give the agency user access, never your passwords.
  • Agree contacts, approvals, communication and change management upfront, and write ethical practice into the contract.
  • Good reports show work done, business results, interpretation and next steps.
  • At 3 months check foundations; at 6–12 months expect business outcomes, and ask why if they're not improving.
  • Be a responsive client and involve the agency before redesigns.
  • When changing agencies, get a handover pack, then remove old access.