Is My Marketing Agency Charging Me Just to Maintain Google Rankings?
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cHalkLine
I hired a marketing agency to improve my website's visibility. A few months ago, I was receiving a couple of visits per week, but I asked them to pause the work. They told me I needed to keep paying $350 per month just to prevent my Google rankings from dropping, so I've continued paying for about six months. Now they say I need to increase the payment to $700 per month before I can start receiving calls again. They only publish about one blog post each month, and I'm also paying $80 separately for website hosting. Is this a legitimate SEO arrangement, or am I being charged for work that isn't actually happening? What reports or data should I request from them?
Answers
Check the site’s actual performance yourself using Google Search Console and analytics. Look at impressions, clicks, search queries, traffic sources, and average position over the six months you’ve been paying. Also verify that the blog posts are useful and properly optimized. If traffic is flat and the agency can’t connect its work to any improvement, consider taking control of the site and finding a provider with clearer reporting.
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SEO results come from ongoing work such as improving site structure, publishing genuinely useful pages, earning relevant links, improving page speed, and optimizing titles and headings. A single blog post each month might be part of a strategy, but the agency should be able to show what else it is doing and why. Don’t pay $700 solely on the promise that calls will return—ask for a specific plan, realistic targets, and evidence that the previous work produced results.
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The fee itself isn’t automatically a scam, but the explanation is a major warning sign. Google doesn’t sell permanent ranking spots through an agency. Have them explain whether the money is going toward new content, technical optimization, link outreach, advertising, or something else. Request invoices, published URLs, and a month-by-month report rather than accepting vague promises.
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Organic rankings don’t normally disappear simply because a monthly retainer ends. Ask them for a detailed activity report covering the past six months: content published, technical fixes, links earned, target keywords, Search Console impressions, clicks, and average positions. If they can’t show concrete work and measurable results, the $350 fee may not be providing anything meaningful.
~queue jumper: A monthly maintenance fee can be legitimate if they’re actively doing SEO work, but it shouldn’t be described as paying Google to hold a ranking. They need to explain exactly what the money covers.
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cHalkLine: They’ve only written one blog post per month, and I’m not seeing any traffic. Their main argument is that the payment prevents my rankings from falling, while hosting costs another $80 monthly.