Invest in content editors or SEO agency?

It's interesting to see that our clients who are managing content of their website without being given any advice from an SEO agency are experiencing better growth in number of visitors than clients using a SEO Agency. For example one our client is heavily investing in SEO since mid 2012 and their website is constantly performing worse than our other clients who are investing only in content production. That shouldn't be a surprise actually.

Please note that the only time when the client who is paying a SEO agency performed better was after a transition to fully HTTPS website, which is recommended by us for security reasons.

All users (source Google Analytics)

2013 vs 2012

• SEO Agency Controlled Website -1%
• Without SEO Agency Website UK +103%
• Without SEO Agency Website CZ +28%

2014 vs 2013

• SEO Agency Controlled Website +11%
• Without SEO Agency Website UK +14%
• Without SEO Agency Website CZ +17%

2015 vs 2014 (Jan to August)

• SEO Agency Controlled Website +19%
• Without SEO Agency Website UK +3%
• Without SEO Agency Website CZ +9%

New users (source Google Analytics)

2013 vs 2012

• SEO Agency Controlled Website -33%
• Without SEO Agency Website UK -3%
• Without SEO Agency Website CZ +82%

2014 vs 2013

• SEO Agency Controlled Website +46%
• Without SEO Agency Website UK +101%
• Without SEO Agency Website CZ +21%

2015 vs 2014 (Jan to August)

• SEO Agency Controlled Website +7%
• Without SEO Agency Website UK +10%
• Without SEO Agency Website CZ +31%

Out data set is quite limited to bring any solid conclusions, however, it seems it might be wiser to invest in high quality content rather than focusing on highly specialised SEO optimisations with an uncertain outcome.