When you hire an SEO company, keyword research is one of the first deliverables you should expect to receive. It is worth being clear about what the word “research” means here. This question is about the output: the documented set of keywords and the guidance that comes with it, handed to you as something you can read, review, and act on. The method behind that output, the tools and steps used to build it, is a separate topic. What follows describes the deliverable itself and how far its scope usually reaches.

The keyword list

The core of the deliverable is a list of search terms relevant to your business, products, or services. This is rarely a plain column of words. It is typically a spreadsheet or document where each keyword sits alongside supporting data: estimated monthly search volume, a difficulty or competition score, and often cost-per-click figures pulled from advertising data. Volume tells you how many people search a term in a given period. Difficulty is a comparative score that estimates how hard it would be to reach the first page for that term. Together these numbers let you weigh how popular and how contested each term is, rather than guessing.

Intent grouping

A useful keyword deliverable does more than collect terms. It sorts them by search intent, meaning the reason a person types the query. Common categories are informational, where the searcher wants to learn something; navigational, where they are looking for a specific site or brand; commercial, where they are comparing options; and transactional, where they are ready to buy or act. Grouping keywords this way matters because a term with high volume but the wrong intent will not move your business forward. Intent grouping is usually paired with clustering, where related terms are gathered into topic groups so that one page can address a set of closely connected searches rather than a single term.

Priority targets

Because no business can pursue every keyword at once, the deliverable should identify priority targets. These are the terms the SEO company recommends focusing on first, chosen by balancing factors such as search volume, difficulty, relevance to your offering, and how close the term sits to a sale. Lower-difficulty terms are often suggested early so a site can build relevance, with more competitive terms positioned for later. A clear deliverable explains the reasoning behind these choices, not just the ranking, so you understand why a term was placed where it was.

Content recommendations and keyword mapping

Most keyword research deliverables connect the list to your website. This often takes the form of a keyword map, which assigns keyword groups to existing pages or to new pages that should be created. Alongside the map you should expect content recommendations: notes on which clusters suit blog posts, which suit service or landing pages, and where gaps exist between what people search for and what your site currently offers. This bridges the research into a plan you can hand to writers or developers.

The documentation you receive

The deliverable should arrive as something durable, usually a spreadsheet plus a short written summary. Expect the spreadsheet to include the keyword, its metrics, intent label, cluster or group, assigned page, and priority level. The summary should explain the data sources, any assumptions, and the recommended order of work. Good documentation lets your team act without needing the agency present for every decision.

What is usually outside the scope

It is helpful to know the limits. Keyword research is a research deliverable, not a guarantee of rankings or traffic, and search volumes are estimates rather than exact counts. The deliverable identifies opportunities; it does not by itself write the content, build the pages, or earn the links needed to compete for those terms. Those are separate stages of work. Keyword research is also a snapshot in time, so many SEO companies revisit and update it on an agreed schedule as search behavior and your priorities change.

When reviewing a proposal, ask exactly what the keyword research deliverable will contain, what format it arrives in, and how often it will be refreshed. A clear answer tells you the agency treats it as a working document, not a one-time formality.

A typical SEO company offers a broad menu of services that together aim to improve how a website performs in search results and how much qualified traffic it earns. A companion question covers the essential core services that almost every engagement includes. This answer takes the wider view: the full real-world service menu you are likely to see on agency websites and proposals. Keep in mind that no single rule forces every company to offer every item below. Smaller firms often specialize, while full-service agencies bundle most of these areas. Reading the menu carefully helps you match a provider to what your site actually needs.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO addresses the parts of a site that affect how search engines crawl, render, and index it. Common work includes site audits, fixing crawl errors and broken links, correcting redirects, resolving duplicate content, improving site architecture, generating XML sitemaps, and adding structured data, also called schema markup. Page speed and Core Web Vitals checks usually fall here, as does mobile usability. Many companies also handle site migrations, where the goal is to move a website to a new domain or platform without losing rankings.

On-Page Optimization

On-page work improves individual pages so they target relevant queries clearly. This covers keyword research and mapping, title tags and meta descriptions, heading structure, internal linking, and image optimization. The aim is to make each page understandable to both search engines and visitors, and to ensure the right pages target the right terms without competing against each other.

Content Services

Content sits at the center of most SEO programs. Typical offerings include content strategy and editorial calendars, new article and landing page writing, refreshing or rewriting older pages, and recommendations on which topics to cover. Some companies provide writers in-house; others coordinate freelance writers or focus on editing and direction rather than production. If content quality matters to you, it is worth asking exactly how a company handles it.

Link Building and Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO focuses on building a site’s authority and reputation beyond its own pages. Link building services aim to earn backlinks from other reputable websites, often through editorial outreach, content placement, or original research that other sites cite. Practices and quality standards vary widely across the industry, so this is an area where it pays to understand a company’s exact methods.

Local SEO

For businesses that serve a specific area, local SEO improves visibility in map results and location-based searches. This usually includes Google Business Profile management, local listing and citation consistency, location pages, and review-related guidance. A company focused on national or ecommerce clients may treat local SEO as a smaller part of its menu, while local specialists make it the main focus.

Analytics and Reporting

Most SEO companies provide regular reporting so you can see what work was done and how the site is performing. This typically covers rankings, organic traffic, conversions, and progress against agreed goals. Reporting formats range from standard dashboards to custom reports built for in-house teams and executives. Clear reporting also includes explanation, not just numbers, so you understand what the data means for your business.

Common Add-On Services

Beyond the areas above, many companies offer additional services that overlap with SEO or extend it. Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, works to turn more existing visitors into customers rather than simply increasing traffic. Digital PR earns coverage and links through newsworthy content and outreach to publications. Other common add-ons include ecommerce SEO, international SEO, penalty recovery, and increasingly, support for visibility in AI-driven and answer-based search results. Some agencies also bundle related services such as paid search or web design, though those sit outside SEO itself.

Matching the Menu to Your Needs

The practical takeaway is that the SEO service menu is broad, and the right mix depends on your site, market, and goals. A new local business and a large ecommerce site need very different combinations. When reviewing a company, ask which services it delivers directly, which it treats as specialties, and which it does not handle at all. A clear answer helps you avoid paying for a wide bundle when you need depth in one area, or hiring a narrow specialist when you need broader support.

Certifications can be a useful signal when you compare SEO companies, but they should never be the deciding factor. The most important thing to understand first is that SEO has no official license. There is no governing board, no required exam, and no regulatory body that approves SEO providers. Unlike accountants or lawyers, an SEO company cannot hold a state license to practice. So when a company says it is “certified,” it helps to know exactly what that means.

What SEO certifications actually are

The certifications you will see are educational credentials issued by software companies, training platforms, and universities. Google does not certify SEO companies, but it does run free training through Google Skillshop, where individuals can earn certifications in Google Ads and Google Analytics 4. Those are paid-search and analytics credentials, not SEO credentials, though analytics skills do support SEO work.

Other widely recognized programs include HubSpot Academy, which offers a free SEO certification course, and Semrush Academy, which offers free SEO courses with a certificate for each one completed. Coursera hosts a respected introductory SEO specialization created by the University of California, Davis. Ahrefs and other tool makers also issue their own course certificates.

These are real and genuinely useful for learning. The catch is that almost any platform can create a course, give it a name, and hand out badges. A certificate confirms that a person sat through training and passed a quiz. It does not confirm that the company can rank your site or that it follows ethical practices.

How much weight to give certifications

Treat certifications as one small data point. They tell you a company invests in keeping its team trained, which is a positive sign, especially since search changes constantly. A team that holds current Google Analytics 4 certifications, for example, is more likely to measure your results accurately.

But certifications say nothing about results on real client websites. SEO is judged by outcomes: rankings, qualified traffic, and revenue. A certified team that has never improved a site is worth less than an uncertified team with a long track record of doing so. Be especially cautious if a company leans heavily on badges in its sales pitch. That can be a way to substitute symbols for evidence.

Also watch for inflated language. “Google Certified Partner” is a real status, but it applies to Google Ads management, not SEO. If a company implies Google has endorsed its SEO work, that is a misrepresentation, because no such endorsement exists.

What to ask for instead

When you evaluate an SEO company, ask for proof of actual work rather than a list of badges. Useful requests include:

A few examples of past clients, with permission to view the sites and the changes that were made. Specific results those clients saw, described in plain terms such as growth in organic traffic or rankings for target keywords. A clear explanation of the methods they use, so you can confirm they rely on content, technical fixes, and legitimate links rather than shortcuts that risk a penalty. References you can contact directly.

You can also ask which tools the team uses day to day, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and a research platform like Semrush or Ahrefs, and how comfortable they are with each. Practical familiarity matters more than the certificate that came with it.

The bottom line

Choosing an SEO company with certifications is fine, and current training credentials are a mild plus. But do not let a badge stand in for a track record. The strongest evidence a company can give you is real results on real websites, a transparent description of how it works, and references who confirm the experience. If a provider has those, certifications are a nice extra. If it does not, no number of certificates will make up the difference.