If you’re hiring an SEO agency in Ireland, you need to know what you’re actually paying for. Too many businesses hand over thousands of euros monthly without understanding what work is being done or whether it’s genuinely moving the needle.

I’ve watched friends and referrals get burned by agencies who charge premium prices for automated work, irrelevant tasks, and services that deliver zero business value.

This isn’t about bashing all agencies.

There are good ones out there. But the industry has tactics designed to maximize their revenue while keeping clients in the dark about what’s actually happening.

Here are eight things every Irish business should know before signing an SEO contract.

1. They’re Writing Articles with AI but Charging You Human Writer Prices

AI content generation has transformed how quickly articles can be produced. What used to take a professional writer hours can now be done in under an hour with ChatGPT or similar tools.

That’s fine. AI is a legitimate tool when used properly.

The problem?

Agencies are charging you the same rates they did when human writers spent hours researching and crafting every article. You’re paying premium prices for automated work that costs them a fraction of what they’re billing.

What to do: Ask directly if they’re using AI to write your content. If they are, make sure the pricing reflects that.

And insist they have human editors reviewing, fact-checking, and adding expertise that AI can’t replicate. AI-assisted content can be valuable, but you shouldn’t pay human rates for robot work.

2. Ineffective Link Building Practices

Some agencies sell you on packages of backlinks, promising improved rankings and authority. Then they deliver links from irrelevant websites, low-quality blog networks, or sites with zero traffic that do absolutely nothing for your business.

Not all backlinks are equal.

A single link from a respected Irish news site or industry publication is worth more than fifty directory listings or spammy blog comments.

But generic link building is easier to scale and more profitable for agencies, so that’s what they push.

What to do: Ask specifically where your backlinks will come from. Demand to see the actual sites, their domain authority, and their relevance to your industry.

If they can’t show you a list of quality targets, they’re likely bulk-buying cheap links that won’t help and might actually harm your rankings.

3. SEO Audits That Provide Zero Actual Value

Be wary of any agency that wants to charge significant money just for an SEO audit.

Here’s what they won’t tell you: comprehensive SEO audits can be generated with a click of a button using tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or SEMrush. These tools crawl your site and produce detailed reports automatically.

Simply handing you that automated report is not value for money. Any agency charging hundreds or thousands for an audit should be providing something beyond what software spits out in thirty seconds.

What to do: Get clarity on what exact value they’ll provide. A legitimate audit should include analysis of what the data means, prioritization of issues by impact, and a clear action plan for fixes, not just parroting what the automated tool said.

If they can’t explain what they’re adding beyond the software report, you’re paying for a button click.

4. Charging Big Fees for Web Hosting

It’s helpful when an agency sets up your web hosting with an external provider. That part can be complicated for businesses without technical knowledge. But ongoing subscription charges for hosting should raise red flags.

Here’s the reality: the external provider (like Maxer, SiteGround, or similar) charges maybe €50-€60 per year for hosting. The agency isn’t doing any hosting themselves. They set you up once on an external platform, then charge you €250+ annually for… doing nothing. They’re not providing servers, not offering support, not doing additional work. It’s pure profit margin on someone else’s service.

What to do: Ask exactly what ongoing work justifies the hosting fee. If the answer is “we manage your hosting,” clarify what that means. In most cases, you can manage your own hosting directly with the provider for a fraction of what the agency charges, or pay them a one-time setup fee instead of annual gouging.

5. Charging for Social Media Content as an Addon

“We’ll create five tweets and three Facebook posts per month” sounds like a service, but for most local Irish businesses, it’s a complete waste of money.

Social media platforms have their own algorithms and require serious, platform-specific strategies executed by skilled teams who understand what actually works on each platform.

A token gesture of a few generic posts per month won’t help you. Your audience probably isn’t using Twitter to discover new businesses like yours anyway.

But agencies love selling social media add-ons because they’re easy to produce and pad the monthly invoice.

What to do: Don’t get charged for unnecessary social media activity that delivers zero business results. If you genuinely want social media management, clarify exact deliverables: How many website visitors from Facebook? How many enquiries generated? What’s the ROI?

If they can’t answer those questions with data, it’s filler service.

6. General Digital Marketing Agencies Offering SEO

Be cautious of general marketing agencies offering SEO as one of many services alongside email marketing, print media, social media, PPC, and everything else.

SEO is an ever-changing specialty that requires constant learning and deep technical expertise. Agencies trying to be everything to everyone usually aren’t highly skilled in each area.

The real concern? Many general agencies will outsource your SEO work if they win you as a client. You think you’re hiring their team, but your project gets passed to a third-party contractor or white-label provider who’s never met you and doesn’t understand your business.

What to do: Ask if they handle SEO in-house or outsource it. If they outsource, you’re paying a markup for a middleman.

Go directly to an SEO specialist instead. And assess their actual SEO expertise; how long have they focused on it? What results can they demonstrate? General agencies dabbling in SEO rarely deliver the same quality as dedicated specialists.

7. Using Complex Jargon to Obscure Simple Tasks

Like other industries, SEO agencies can hide behind technical jargon to make simple work sound complicated and justify high fees. You’ll get reports saying things like “We’ve adjusted canonical tags to balance crawl budget and mitigate duplication signals.”

Translation? “We changed one setting in Yoast (an seo tool).”

The work might have taken five minutes but sounds impressive when wrapped in technical language you don’t understand. This tactic keeps clients intimidated and grateful rather than questioning what they’re actually paying for.

What to do: When agencies use jargon, ask them to explain in plain English what they actually did and why it matters for your business.

If they can’t translate their work into understandable terms, they’re either incompetent or deliberately obscuring simple tasks. Good consultants can explain complex concepts clearly.

8. Overfocus on Tasks That Don’t Move the Needle

Some agencies love obsessing over page speed scores because they’re measurable and visual. You can watch your score climb from 65 to 85, which feels like progress. So they make improving page speed a key goal, spend hours tweaking settings, and show you impressive before-and-after numbers.

But here’s the truth: unless your site is genuinely slow (taking 5+ seconds to load), minor page speed improvements won’t translate to a big uptick in leads or customers.

A site decreasing loading time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds is helpful but it won’t have the biggest impact on your business outcomes.

Page speed is one example.

There are dozens of metrics agencies fixate on because they’re easy to measure and show “progress” in reports, even when they don’t actually impact your revenue.

Meanwhile, the strategic work that would drive real results like targeting better keywords, improving conversion paths, or earning quality backlinks gets neglected because it’s harder and takes longer.

What to do: Focus on metrics that matter: rankings for commercially valuable keywords, organic traffic from qualified visitors, and most importantly, enquiries and sales from search.

If an agency is celebrating wins on metrics that don’t connect to business outcomes, they’re distracting you from their lack of real results.

The Bottom Line

Not every agency uses these tactics, and some genuinely deliver excellent value. But too many Irish businesses are paying premium prices for work that doesn’t justify the cost or worse, for work that isn’t even happening.

The solution isn’t avoiding agencies entirely. It’s asking better questions, demanding transparency, and understanding enough about SEO to recognize when you’re being sold services you don’t need or being charged inflated prices for automated work.

If an agency can’t explain their work clearly, show you exactly what you’re paying for, or connect their activities to actual business outcomes, walk away. Your budget deserves better than overpriced fluff and jargon-filled reports.

Looking for honest SEO advice without the agency BS?

Book a free 30-minute free consultation to discuss your current provider, evaluate proposals, or explore whether working together makes sense.

No sales pressure, just straightforward guidance on what would actually help your business.