How Do I Fire My Current SEO Agency?

Before you tell your SEO agency you’re leaving, do this: download every report they’ve ever sent you, screenshot your current rankings and traffic baselines, confirm you have admin access to your own Google Business Profile, Search Console, and Analytics, and pull a list of every piece of content they’ve delivered. The order matters. Once the agency knows you’re leaving, some of that access tends to disappear.

Here’s the full sequence — six steps, in order, with the common dirty tricks agencies pull and how to head them off.

Step 1 — Document everything before you say a word

This is the step most firms skip and regret. Before you send any cancellation notice, before you mention the word “leaving” to your account manager, do a full inventory. Download every monthly report the agency has sent you. Screenshot your current rankings for your most important queries (use an incognito window to avoid personalized results). Pull your last 13 months of Google Search Console impressions and clicks data. Pull your last 13 months of Google Business Profile insights. Pull your Analytics organic traffic and conversion data.

Then check that you — your firm, not the agency — are the owner of record on every account. Specifically: Google Business Profile (you should be listed as the primary owner, not the agency), Google Search Console (your firm’s email as an owner, not just a user), Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, any call-tracking software, and your domain registrar. If any of these show the agency as the owner, get yourself added as an owner immediately. Don’t wait. Once they know you’re leaving, the cooperation tends to evaporate.

Step 2 — Check the contract

Find your signed agreement. Read the termination, notice, and renewal clauses carefully. Specifically: how much written notice is required, what form must the notice take (some require certified mail to a specific address), and what’s owed if you terminate inside a minimum term. Calendar the notice deadline. If you’re getting close to an auto-renewal date, send notice now to stop the renewal even if you’re not 100% sure you’re leaving — you can always rescind. You can’t always undo a missed window.

See our breakdown of cancellation clauses for the specifics.

Step 3 — Notify in writing

Send the cancellation notice in writing, following whatever form the contract requires. Keep the email short and factual. Something like:

“Per Section [X] of our agreement dated [date], this email serves as written notice of termination, effective [date that complies with the notice period]. Please confirm receipt and provide a final invoice covering work through the termination date. I’ll be in touch separately about transition of accounts and final deliverables.”

Do not relitigate the relationship in this email. Do not explain why you’re leaving in detail. Do not threaten or accuse. The shorter and more factual the notice, the harder it is for the agency to find leverage against you later.

Step 4 — Get all assets back

Send a second email, the same day or the day after, requesting the standard transition package. Be specific. Don’t ask for “everything you have” — ask for the items by name:

Owner-level transfer of Google Business Profile
Owner-level access to Google Search Console
Owner/edit access to Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
All content delivered during the engagement, in editable format (Word, Google Doc, or the source file from the CMS)
Image rights and source files for any photography, illustration, or infographics they produced
The current citation list — every directory, lawyer listing, or business listing they’ve claimed on your behalf, with the login credentials
The current keyword tracking sheet and any working documents (audits, content briefs, technical issue lists)
Login credentials for any tool or platform they set up under your firm’s name (call tracking, schema generators, review platforms)

Get this in writing. Save the email. If anything is missing later, you have a paper trail.

Step 5 — The transition gap

You’ll usually have a 30-to-60-day notice period before the agency stops working, followed by whatever gap exists before your next provider starts. During that gap, don’t break anything. Don’t make sudden changes to your GBP categories or service area. Don’t republish or rewrite pages. Don’t remove the agency’s tracking codes — yet. Just hold steady. Most rankings damage from agency transitions happens because somebody (you, the outgoing agency, or the new one) made an aggressive change in the gap without context for what the others had been doing.

If you’ve already hired your next provider, have them do a 30-day diagnostic before they make any changes. If you haven’t hired anyone yet, that’s fine — your site won’t fall off Google in a month. Take the time to vet your next agency properly. See how to vet an SEO agency.

Step 6 — Watch for the dirty tricks

Most agencies handle cancellation professionally. Some don’t. Here are the moves to watch for, in rough order of how common they are.

Revoking analytics or GBP access. They pull themselves off and “forget” to transfer ownership to you. Easy to prevent by confirming your own ownership before sending notice. Easy to fix after the fact through Google’s recovery process, but annoying.

Taking content down. Some agencies claim that the content they produced is licensed only while the contract is active, and they’ll quietly remove or 404 pages after termination. This is almost never enforceable if you paid for the work, but it can happen on sites they host. If they host your site, get a full backup before sending notice — copy of every page, every image, every database export.

Holding your domain hostage. If the agency registered your domain on your behalf and never transferred it, this is the worst-case scenario. Check your domain WHOIS now. If the registrant is the agency, contact your domain registrar about a transfer ASAP.

Refusing to remove themselves from your GBP. If the agency was the primary owner of your GBP and refuses to transfer or remove themselves, you can file a request through Google to take back ownership. It takes 7-14 days and requires verification, but it works.

Slow-walking the final invoice. Some agencies will drag out the final billing for months, hoping you’ll pay just to make it stop. Pay what you legitimately owe under the contract — no more, no less — and document it.

The agency that built nothing is rarely the agency that lets you leave gracefully. The cleanliness of the breakup tells you a lot about what kind of vendor they were the whole time.

A note on ABA bar rules

Two things to keep in mind that don’t apply to non-legal businesses. First, if the outgoing agency was managing your reviews, make sure their handoff doesn’t include any content that would violate your state’s rules on testimonials, case results, or solicitation. You’re responsible for what’s on your site — even if the agency wrote it. Re-read your About page, Practice Pages, and case results section for anything questionable before the transition closes.

Second, if the agency had access to client information (names, matter details) for the purpose of soliciting reviews or generating case-result content, confirm in writing that all client data has been destroyed or returned. Your bar’s confidentiality rules — ABA Model Rule 1.6 and the state equivalents — apply to vendors as well as to your own staff.

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