How to Compare SEO Proposals From Different Agencies
Three agencies have quoted for SEO. One wants to fix your online shop before writing anything. One has priced an audit and a monthly content plan. The third includes development but assumes your team will write the copy. You could spend an afternoon comparing them and still be unclear about which one would get your most important pages live.
To compare SEO proposals, give every agency the same business objective, ask each to price a common scope, and write down which parts of the job fall to your team. Then compare the price and quality of the work you could actually get done. If an agency recommends a different approach, ask it to explain the alternative and price it separately. That lets you see where the agencies genuinely disagree and where they simply quoted for different jobs.
Give every bidder the same problem to solve
Imagine a South African workwear retailer that ships nationwide and takes bulk orders by enquiry. Its marketing team can approve product copy. Its developer has one release slot a month. The owner wants to improve the online buying experience for two priority ranges and make sure bulk enquiries reach the sales desk.
That brief tells an agency far more than “we need SEO.” It also gives the owner a basis for comparing bids. One agency might recommend rewriting the category pages. Another might want to investigate whether shoppers can reach all the products in a range. Both should explain what evidence supports their view and what they need to check before committing to the work.
Send the same facts to every bidder, including anything you learn between calls. If one agency discovers that the ecommerce platform can’t make a proposed change without custom development, tell the others about the constraint. Give them a chance to revise their assumptions before you compare final prices.
Borrow a principle from the UK government’s bid evaluation guidance, which treats price and quality as separate considerations. Write down what matters before you see the final bids. Otherwise, it’s easy to give extra credit for whatever the most persuasive presentation happened to emphasise.
Ask for a common quote and leave room for a different recommendation
Define enough of the work to make pricing comparable. For the retailer, that could mean investigating the two priority ranges, implementing the agreed changes, and testing that both the checkout and the bulk enquiry route still work after release. Ask for a price over a defined period, a list of assumptions and the names or roles of the people responsible for delivery.
Let bidders propose a second option if they think the common scope misses something important. Ask them to describe what they would add, remove or sequence differently, and what that does to the price. A Search Marketing agency might say a template issue needs fixing before either range is rewritten. That’s a potentially useful alternative. You can judge its merits without comparing its fee directly with a quote for copy alone.
For each proposal, put the scope into three columns on a page or in a spreadsheet.
- The agency will deliver. List what it commits to complete, including whether the work stops at recommendations or continues through publishing and checking.
- Our team must supply. Name who approves claims, writes or reviews the copy, provides development time and checks that orders or enquiries arrive.
- We still need a price or answer. Include unclear development allowances, optional tools and work the agency can only price after discovery.
A vague line belongs in the third column until the agency clarifies it. Give the same treatment to a proposal that says “technical fixes included” and one that says “technical support included.” Ask what the words buy and whether your developer still needs to do the work.
Compare two prices for every proposal
The first price is what you expect to pay for the common scope. The second is what you would pay if one plausible extra job came up. Use real uncertainty from the bids. A platform restriction or the need for a second developer release is more informative than adding an arbitrary contingency to every quote.
Here’s a hypothetical comparison over four months. The amounts share the same VAT basis and cover the same agreed core work. The extra scenario assumes that one more developer release is needed.
| Cost over four months | Agency A | Agency B | Agency C |
| Agency fee and setup | R48,000 | R60,000 | R72,000 |
| Development and copy outside the agency fee | R16,000 | R6,000 | Included |
| Base cost for the common scope | R64,000 | R66,000 | R72,000 |
| Extra cost if a second developer release is needed | R12,000 | R4,000 | Included under an agreed allowance |
| Cost if the extra release is needed | R76,000 | R70,000 | R72,000 |
Agency A costs R2,000 less than B in the base case. If the second release is needed, B costs R6,000 less than A. The buyer’s next question is whether that extra release is likely. Ask the developer what can fit into the first slot. Ask Agency C to put its allowance in writing, including who does the work and what happens if it exceeds the agreed hours.
If a supplier can’t quote implementation until after an audit, put the known fee in your sheet and show implementation as open. Ask what would allow it to give you a range or a ceiling. When none of the bidders can price the risk yet, you can compare a defined discovery phase first and request implementation quotes once there’s enough information. The UK Sourcing Playbook’s discussion of should-cost modelling offers a broader version of this principle. Estimate the cost of delivering the work, including costs that sit outside the supplier’s headline price.
For South African quotes, check how each proposal presents VAT and use the same basis in your comparison. Capture internal time separately if you can’t price it reliably. A team with a full production schedule still needs to make room for approvals and testing, even when those hours don’t appear as an invoice.
Decide what must be true before a bid can win
The retailer has one release slot a month. If the agency needs weekly changes and offers no workable release plan, the retailer has an unresolved delivery problem. A strong case study or attractive fee can make that proposal worth clarifying. The bid only becomes workable once someone shows how the schedule can fit.
Set two or three requirements that work this way. For example, your business may need a named owner for publishing, an agreed way to verify enquiries, and access to the records your team will use to review the work. Give the bidder a chance to clarify anything it hasn’t covered. Then compare the eligible proposals on the qualities that matter most to this job.
If you want a scorecard, keep it simple. Give delivery readiness, fit with your objective and quality of measurement a score from zero to three. A zero means the proposal gives you no answer. One means it makes a claim with little detail. A two means the plan is clear but depends on an unresolved assumption. A three means there’s a clear plan and enough evidence to judge whether it can work. Weight the category that matters most. For the retailer, delivery readiness might count twice because the developer’s time is limited. Write a sentence beside every score. If two bids finish close together, read those sentences and resolve the uncertainty that could change the choice.
Compare case studies by what had to happen to get the result
EcoSEO’s Gileo Van Zach case study describes work on technical issues and the shopping experience for a jewellery business, and reports a 32% increase in online sales. That’s an agency-reported result from a project with several changes. Its value to a buyer depends on what the proposed project needs and which parts of that work the bidder would take responsibility for today.
If your main constraint is getting changes through a developer, ask who implemented the changes in the case and how they were checked. If your main question is whether search is bringing in customers who buy, ask which sales were counted and over what period. An agency that can answer those questions gives you more to compare than a percentage on a slide.
Send one final round of questions
Once you’ve lined up the scope, cost and delivery commitments, send each bidder the rows that could still affect your choice. Keep the questions narrow. For instance, ask whether publishing is included, who tests the bulk enquiry route, and what a second release would cost. Request an updated scope or price wherever an answer changes the offer.
Then write a sentence you could defend to your finance manager. We chose this bid because the agency can deliver the two priority ranges within our release schedule, and we understand what the extra work would cost. If the sentence relies on a promise from a call, get it into the written scope. If you’d like to discuss a common brief or an alternative approach, EcoSEO’s SEO services give you a starting point for that conversation.
Frequently asked questions
Should I tell each agency my budget?
Sharing a range can help bidders propose a realistic scope. Give each the same range and ask what it would prioritise within it. If you also want to see a bigger option, ask for it as a separate price so the comparison stays clear.
How do I compare a fixed project with a monthly retainer?
Choose a period and list the outcomes you want by the end of it. Ask which jobs the fixed project completes and which jobs the retainer would cover in that time. Check what support remains once the initial work is live and what you would pay for it.
What if the cheapest agency excludes implementation?
Ask your team or developer to price the excluded work and confirm they can schedule it. A strategy-only proposal can make sense when you have that capacity. If a critical task has neither a budget nor an owner, get those in place before you treat the quotes as comparable.
How should I compare proposals with different traffic forecasts?
Ask what each forecast starts from, which pages and searches it covers, and what assumptions would have to hold. Compare the reasoning and how the agency will update it. Use the price for the agreed work when budgeting, and treat forecasts as scenarios.
Is it worth asking for a third proposal if two look similar?
A third bid can help if both leave the same important question open. If the first two are clear and the difference comes down to one unresolved cost or delivery risk, a targeted clarification may tell you more than another full sales process.