I'm trying to figure out how to actually evaluate an SEO company in Noida before committing to anything, and I could use some outside perspective from people who've been through this already.

There seem to be a lot of agencies making similar promises — "guaranteed rankings," "page one results," that sort of thing — and I don't have enough experience to know which claims are realistic versus which ones are just sales talk. So I wanted to ask directly: what do you actually look for when evaluating one?

A few specific things I'm trying to understand. What kind of SEO strategy or process should they be able to explain clearly upfront — keyword research, technical audits, local SEO, that kind of thing? How transparent were they about what they were actually doing month to month, versus just sending a report full of numbers that didn't mean much? And for those of you who've stuck with an SEO company for six months or longer, did the long-term results actually match what they set expectations for early on?

I'm also curious how people handle the slow start — since I know SEO usually takes a few months to show real movement, how did you personally judge whether things were on track versus stalled?

Would really appreciate hearing how others have approached this.