Do you know the 4 secrets your SEO agency doesn't want you to know?

Find out what your SEO agency really thinks behind closed doors. Discover the top 4 secrets so you can improve your relationship.

Being a punching bag is part of the job

Television shows like Mad Men have made the advertising industry seem glamorous.

The image of the shiny, modern glass building on Madison Avenue has lured many young hopefuls into learning about account management, traffic, media buying, and even search.

But there is a dark side to the agency world.

The biggest mistake that clients make with an agency is coming in the door with a big bluster and immediately ordering agency personnel around.

It's typically not quite at forward as the stereotype of the yelling client.

It's more subtle, with lots of passive-aggressive tones and mentions of how the last agency was fired.

But don't be fooled - the agency personnel is judging you in the first meeting as much as you are judging them - and later in the column, we'll talk about why that's important.

Nice clients finish first

Anyone who has ever been in the agency when assignments are made will attest to the "underground lobbying" that goes into what team gets a particular client.

Clients that are interesting will be very popular with agency staff at first - at least until the people involved in the account truly reveal themselves.

Once a client is established in the agency, the account people know which clients are great to work with, and which ones might bite their heads off for taking a 30-minute lunch break instead of eating a sad sandwich at your desk.

Squeaky wheel gets the work

It's already established that nice clients tend to get better work than clients who are mean. But being nice doesn't mean being quiet.

Even when working with an agency that employs rigid discipline and defined processes, a silent client can be forgotten. There will still be times when quiet clients don't get all the time they deserve.

It's not because the work was done.

It's not because they weren't nice.

It's because these clients didn't want a regular check-in call.

It's because these clients never give feedback on their reports.

Clients typically judge the wrong results
It's quite concerning when an inexperienced client starts digging through analytics. It can be quite stressful and comical at the same time.

Remember that an educated client is typically better than an uneducated one. But even educated clients tend to fixate on the wrong things.

At the end of the day, it is about which agency you work with best.

And as long as you reach those goals, the relationships can look very different from client to client.