Ranked by the one thing an SEO agency cannot fake: the search optimisation of its own website. All 14 were measured the same way, with no paid placement and nothing self-reported. Rank My Business leads the city at 90/100 against a market average of 78.
Across the 14 agencies rated here the median score is 80/100, and the spread runs from 58 up to 90. That gap is the useful part: it is the difference between a shop that practises what it sells and one that has not touched its own site in years. The services this market leans on most: SEO, Local SEO, Graphic Design, Social Media Marketing, Web Development, Website Design. The industries they most often name as clients are Medical, Retail, Education, Healthcare, Professional Services.
Use the score to cut the list, then use the profile to make the call. Three checks that catch most bad fits:
The most common minimum engagement in this market is $5,000+. Where an agency states its rates publicly we mark the figure Published; where it does not, the band is our estimate for a firm of that size in this city and is labelled Estimated. Either way it is a starting point for the conversation, not a quote, and any agency worth hiring will scope before pricing.
By the SEO quality of their own websites, measured automatically and identically for all 14 of them. The score blends technical setup (30%), on-page basics (28%), content depth (22%) and whether the agency actually ranks for local searches in Ballarat (20%). Nobody pays for placement and nobody submits their own numbers.
It is evidence, not proof. An agency that cannot get structured data, meta descriptions or headings right on its own site is showing you how it works. But a great score with no case studies means little, so read the reviews, the case studies and the local visibility number together before you shortlist anyone.
The most common minimum engagement across these 14 agencies is $5,000+, with hourly rates typically falling between $100 and $200. Figures we could confirm on a public page are marked Published; the rest are labelled Estimated, so treat them as a starting range rather than a quote.
Local visibility counts how often an agency appears in the search results their own prospects would use in Ballarat, such as "seo agency Ballarat". Of the 14 rated here, 3 show up in at least three of those eight searches. A low number usually means the agency wins work by referral or ads rather than by ranking.
Sites are re-measured as the crawler comes back around to each city, so a redesign or a technical fix shows up in the score. Agencies that claim their profile can also submit corrections, which our team reviews before anything goes live.
Listing is automatic: the crawler finds agencies from public search results, so there is nothing to buy. To manage a listing, open your profile and claim it with an email on your own domain. That unlocks a dashboard with profile analytics, quote requests, editable details and an updates feed.
SellSEOFind businesses that provably need SEO. Pitch with evidence, not cold emails.
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