A Perth digital agency should be able to show you four things before you sign: verifiable credentials (certifications, Google Partner status, an ABN and a physical office), live reporting inside accounts you own, case studies you can check with the client, and contract terms in writing. If any of the four is missing or “available on request”, treat that as your answer.
Below: the checklist, the tests behind each item, and PWD’s own answers so you can copy the format for any agency.
The proof falls into four groups: credentials, access, results and terms. Tick off all 12 points for every agency on your shortlist.
Book a strategy call or request a live case study walkthrough, or call 08 6146 0195.
Transparency varies widely between Perth agencies, and it is measurable rather than a feeling. Three tests settle it. Do you own the GA4, Search Console and Google Ads accounts? Do you see ad spend invoices separately from management fees? Are the people doing the work named and based in Perth?
An agency that passes all three lets you check every number yourself. One that fails any of them is asking you to trust a summary you cannot audit.
The safest agency to hire is the one whose claims you can verify without taking its word for anything. Six checks cover it.
An agency that passes all six is the least risky choice available, whatever its size.
Ask for read access to a live client account, with that client’s permission, rather than a PDF. A dashboard the agency built can show anything. Google’s own reporting cannot be edited after the fact.
Then call two current clients of similar size, check that every case study has start and end dates, and search the claimed rankings in an incognito window from Perth.
Yes, and a credible agency will offer it before you ask. The format is a screen share of GA4 and Search Console for a current client: the before and after dates, the work done in between, what moved and what did not.
A live case study should show a baseline period, the dates of the work, organic sessions and conversions rather than rankings alone, a note on lead quality, and either the client’s name or a stated reason it is anonymised.
Our published case studies follow that format. The Direct Homes WA study compares March to August 2026 with March to August 2025: organic search visits rose 96% (7,541 to 14,754) and organic enquiries rose 46% (357 to 521 forms and phone clicks). It also states what fell short: enquiries did not keep pace with traffic. A case study that only reports wins is a brochure.
SEO results can be faked, and the fakes follow a pattern. If a report contains any of these, ask for the raw data in your own Search Console.
The honest version of each number lives in Search Console and GA4, which is why owning those accounts matters.
The KPIs that matter tie to revenue: qualified enquiries, cost per enquiry, organic conversions, and revenue or pipeline where you can track it. Everything else is supporting evidence.
Supporting metrics: non-brand organic sessions, ranking movement for commercial terms, Google Ads conversion rate and cost per conversion, and page speed. Vanity metrics to discount: total impressions, total keywords ranking, social followers and any third-party “score”.
Four SEO KPIs prove revenue impact: organic conversions (forms, calls and quote requests), assisted conversions where organic was part of the path, non-brand organic traffic to the pages that make you money, and calls tracked through call tracking numbers. Anything less is activity, not outcomes.
Honest reporting is a one-page summary in plain English: the numbers drawn from your own accounts, the work done that month, the work planned next month, and a line on what went wrong. The cadence, weekly or monthly, should be written into the agreement.
The credible ones give ranges and reasons rather than dates. A new site in a competitive Perth niche typically needs six to twelve months before organic leads are consistent, because Google has to index and trust the site, content has to be built page by page, and links have to be earned. An agency that gives you a date or a guaranteed position is guessing.
Check tenure rather than testimonials. A quote tells you a client was happy once. A client that has stayed for years tells you the work held up.
Five places to look: case studies with dates, Google reviews spread across years rather than clustered in one month, whether the agency’s own site ranks for its own services, WALGA or government supplier panels, and staff tenure on LinkedIn. Our client testimonials and Google reviews page includes a client that has worked with PWD since 2015: dated evidence of the kind to ask any agency for.
The same checklist, filled in with PWD’s published facts.
Any Perth agency can fill in the same lines. To see ours in a real account, request a live case study walkthrough or call 08 6146 0195.
Run the same checklist against your incumbent, then this ten-line audit.
If lines 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 are not you, fix that before changing agencies. The handover is where rankings get lost.
Three things: a baseline conversion rate measured in your own GA4 before any work starts, a written test plan that says what will change and why, and tracked goals (forms, calls, quotes) so the result is measured the same way. Without a baseline, any improvement claimed after launch cannot be checked.
Impressions, average position and domain authority. Impressions count how often a page appeared in results, not visits. Average position blends every query, so ranking for hundreds of irrelevant terms drags it around. Domain authority is a third-party estimate Google does not use. Ask for organic conversions and non-brand sessions instead.
We cannot verify other agencies’ claims, so we will not list them. The method is consistent: fix technical blockers, rebuild the target page around what searchers want, add supporting content and earn relevant links, then measure sessions and enquiries rather than position alone. Our published case studies show that method applied, with dates and figures.
Bring this checklist to a 30-minute strategy call and we will answer every line for PWD in writing. Or see the evidence first: we can walk you through a live client account with that client’s permission.
Book a strategy call or request a live case study walkthrough. Phone 08 6146 0195.
SEND US A MESSAGE
Let’s grow your business, together!
