What should an SEO agency deliver in its first 90 days

An SEO agency should establish a baseline, agree priorities, improve important pages, address agreed technical issues and explain progress through clear reports. The exact sequence depends on your website. Ninety days is a useful period for reviewing delivery and learning; it is not a deadline for guaranteed rankings or sales.

If you are searching for the best SEO agency in Kolkata, use the proposal and evidence to judge fit. Ask the provider to show how its work connects to the customers you want: nearby shoppers, appointment seekers, restaurant guests, ecommerce buyers or B2B decision-makers.

This scorecard gives you a practical way to conduct that conversation without needing to become an SEO specialist.

Agree what success means before measuring it

“More visibility” needs a business definition. A clinic may want suitable appointment enquiries. An ecommerce store may want buyers discovering particular collections. A B2B company may want relevant demo requests.

Record the starting position and agree which measures are reliable. Search Console shows search visibility and clicks; enquiry records help show whether those visits matter. If tracking is incomplete, the first task is to improve measurement rather than announce a percentage increase.

You should own or retain appropriate access to the website and analytics accounts. Define the agency’s permissions, approval process and responsibilities before it starts making changes.

Days 1 to 30 should establish the priorities

The first month should answer three owner questions: what is working, what is obstructing customers and what will the team improve first?

Expect a review of the business offer, customer geography, relevant competitors, important website pages and available performance data. Ask for a short priority list rather than an unexplained export of hundreds of technical warnings.

A useful issue entry identifies the affected page, why it matters, who can fix it and its status. A tracking check should explain what counts as an enquiry or purchase and whether the event actually fires when tested.

For a local business, the review should also check genuine business information. For an ecommerce website, it should examine product and collection priorities. The plan should follow the offer rather than force every client into one template.

Days 31 to 60 should show implemented work

By the second month, you should be able to identify the changes being made. These could include clearer service pages, repaired links, improvements to important product categories and useful customer answers.

Ask to see before-and-after examples. A rewritten heading should help a customer understand the page. A new article should answer an actual question and connect to a suitable service or collection. A technical task should show whether it was implemented and checked.

If a developer has not completed a change, the report should identify that dependency. Do not classify a recommendation as a completed fix. Equally, do not blame the agency for an implementation step it was never authorised or contracted to make.

This is also the point to examine content overlap. Two articles answering the same question may need updating or consolidation rather than a third version with a slightly different title.

Days 61 to 90 should turn findings into the next plan

By the third month, the agency should review which pages are gaining relevant visibility and where users are having difficulty. It should compare agreed data and explain its next priorities.

A page receiving impressions but few clicks might need a better match to the search. A page receiving visits but few enquiries might need clearer offer details or a simpler contact route. These are investigation prompts, not automatic diagnoses.

AI-search work should also have a record. If the report mentions citations, ask for the actual answer, source link, query, platform and capture date. Ordinary rankings alone do not show whether an AI system cited the page.

Use this ten item agency scorecard

Give each item 0 when there is no evidence, 1 when it is partly documented and 2 when it is clear and supported. The maximum is 20. This is a House of Leads evaluation framework, not a Google ranking model or an independently validated performance benchmark.

Do not use an arbitrary pass mark. Compare the missing evidence and ask what will resolve it. For a business that does not need local work, agree a replacement criterion before scoring so the comparison stays fair.

How to interpret numbers in an agency report

Illustrative example: clicks rise from 200 to 260 in comparable periods. The increase is 60 clicks, or 30%. If impressions rise from 10,000 to 15,000, they increase by 50%. Those figures describe visibility and visits, not a 50% increase in customers.

Check the query mix. Branded searches, irrelevant searches and seasonal topics can change the overall number. Ask whether the pages attracting new clicks relate to the business priority.

For rankings, distinguish a point-in-time tool result from an average Search Console position. For sales, ask how the business connects enquiries to completed purchases. Keep claims within what the data can show.

Questions to ask when a proposal sounds impressive

Ask the provider to explain any guaranteed position, unexplained AI-citation promise or secret technique. Google explicitly states that nobody can guarantee a number-one ranking. Source: Google advice on hiring an SEO.

Then ask practical questions: who will write the content, who checks industry facts, who implements website changes, and who presents the monthly report? The answers tell you more about the working relationship than a claim to be the best SEO company in Kolkata.

If your provider proposes links or external publishing, ask where the work will appear, why it helps the intended audience and how the placement will be disclosed or qualified when required. You should understand the work performed in your name.

How House of Leads approaches the engagement

Our process starts with a review of your business and available performance, followed by an agreed plan. Work is produced for approval, implemented or published within scope, and reviewed through monthly reporting.

The team brings content strategy and development perspectives into the discussion. Co-founder Piyush Sethiaa has more than ten years of writing experience. Co-founder Krishna Agarwal supports design and development requirements. Assignments and responsibilities are set around the project.

House of Leads SEO engagements start at ₹10,000 per month and combine agreed SEO, answer-focused content and AI-search preparation. Request a proposal from our SEO services page and use this scorecard to assess the scope before you sign.