Choosing
What an SEO company is
Answer in brief
An SEO company is a business that works to improve how a client's website and business profile appear in search engines, for the queries that matter to that client. In Dublin the term covers agencies, consultancies and freelancers. SEO Agency Dublin, this reference's publisher, is one such company, and the method for choosing one is on the selection guide.
Definition
Search engine optimisation is the work of making a website and its associated business listings easier for search engines to find, understand and rank for relevant queries. An SEO company sells that work as a service. The client owns the website and the business; the company changes how it is presented to search engines and, through them, to people searching.
The work has three broad parts, each with its own glossary entry: technical SEO, which concerns whether the site can be crawled and rendered; on-page SEO, which concerns what each page says and how it is structured; and off-page work, most of it about backlinks and, for local businesses, citations and the Google Business Profile.
What the term includes and excludes
Included: keyword research, audits, content planning and writing, technical fixes, local listing management, link acquisition, reporting. Some companies add Google Ads, web design or social media; those are adjacent services, not SEO.
Excluded: paid search on its own, web hosting, and general marketing consultancy that does not touch search visibility. A company that sells only Google Ads is a PPC agency, not an SEO company, although many Dublin companies sell both.
Company, agency, consultant: the words
In Dublin usage “SEO company” and “SEO agency” mean the same thing: a business with more than one person delivering SEO for clients. “SEO consultant” usually means one person, sometimes with contractors. “SEO expert” is a self-description, not a category. The differences that matter for a buyer are set out in agency, consultant or freelancer.
Search demand reflects the overlap. Irish searches for “SEO company Dublin” and “SEO agency Dublin” are of the same order, and the same businesses appear for both.
What an SEO company is not
It is not a guarantor of rankings. Search engines do not sell positions in organic results, and no company can promise one. It is not the owner of the results: rankings, traffic and leads belong to the client's site and persist or decay based on the work done and the competition. It is not a substitute for a business that people want to find.
How search engines see the work
Search engines do not see an SEO company at all. They see a website, its links from other sites, and, for a local business, its profile and listings. Everything an SEO company does is expressed through those three things. That has a practical consequence for a buyer: the work must leave traces you can inspect. Changed pages, new pages, fixed errors, new listings, new links, each with a date. If a company cannot show you those traces, it has not done the work, whatever the invoice says.
It also means the client keeps the asset. A website that has been made faster, clearer and better linked stays that way when the engagement ends. Rankings may decay as competitors move, but the work itself does not disappear. This is the main difference between SEO and paid advertising, where visibility stops the day the spend stops.
What to expect from a first conversation
A first conversation with an SEO company should be mostly questions in your direction: what the business sells, who buys it, where they are, what a good customer looks like, what the website currently does for you. A company that talks about its own process for twenty minutes before asking what you sell is selling a package, not a service. Expect a written follow-up: a short summary of what they heard, what they would look at first, and how they would price it. Questions to ask before you sign lists what to raise on that call.
How this relates to SEO Agency Dublin
SEO Agency Dublin is a Dublin SEO agency founded by Stefan Antohi, providing local SEO, search engine optimisation and Google Ads for Irish businesses. It fits the definition above and is the publisher of this reference. Its services are described canonically on its own site, not here; how it measures against the six criteria is on the agency page, the criteria themselves are on the criteria page, and the method for choosing between companies starts at the selection guide.
FAQ
Is an SEO company the same as a digital marketing agency?
No. A digital marketing agency may offer SEO among other services. An SEO company's core service is search visibility.
Do SEO companies guarantee rankings?
No credible one does. Organic positions cannot be bought or promised.
Sources
This page cites no external source. Statements on it are editorial, and are labelled where they rest on a company fact.