We’ve all been there. A potential business owner starts the conversation by absolutely slating their previous SEO consultant.

“They were useless!”

“Complete waste of money!”

“Didn’t know what they were doing!”

And while you’re nodding sympathetically, part of you is thinking: “If this is how you talk about your last supplier, what’ll you say about me when we part ways?”

It’s the business equivalent of telling your new boyfriend “My last bloke was an arsehole, treated me like shit, and had a small dick.”

But it’s not just business owners doing the slagging. Plenty of SEO consultants are just as guilty. They launch into critiques of previous work before they’ve even understood the full picture.

Immediate red flags from both sides

When someone spends the first 20 minutes of a consultation trashing a previous SEO provider, it tells you more about them than their ex-consultant.

🟠 Business owners who constantly criticise previous suppliers might be difficult to work with. If every previous supplier was “incompetent,” the common factor might not be the suppliers. (#JustSaying…)

🟠 SEO consultants who immediately slag off previous work look insecure. Professional confidence doesn’t require putting down other people’s efforts. Don’t be a desperate Debbie.

🟠 Both show they don’t understand SEO basics. Criticising someone for “only getting us to position 5” when you’re in a competitive market shows unrealistic expectations. Consultants claiming previous work was “completely wrong” without understanding the strategy behind it? Pure arrogance.

Some things in SEO ARE subjective

This is what pisses me off a lot – people slagging off perfectly reasonable SEO decisions because they don’t understand why those choices were made.

“They put our main keyword at the end of the title tag!” Maybe because the brand name at the beginning tested better for click-through rates?

“They wrote our meta descriptions too short!” Perhaps because concise descriptions were converting better than longer ones?

“They structured our FAQs differently than industry standard!” Could be they were following proven formats that actually get featured in search results?

But SEO consultants are just as guilty.

“Whoever did this clearly doesn’t understand modern SEO” when actually, there was solid reasoning behind the approach. Don’t criticise what you don’t understand, it makes you look like an idiot.

Many formatting and structural decisions in SEO have valid reasoning behind them. Just because you’d do it differently doesn’t mean the previous approach was wrong. Or that your approach is right, for that matter, but that’s another story.

When previous work actually was poor

Don’t get me wrong – there are genuine SEO disasters out there. Websites with broken redirects that create endless loops. Internal linking structures that make no logical sense. XML sitemaps that haven’t been updated since 2019.

But even then, starting new relationships by slagging off the previous work is shitty and unprofessional. Focus on what needs fixing, not whose fault it is.

Business owners: “Our site has some technical issues we need to address” sounds infinitely better than “Our last SEO was a complete muppet who broke everything.”

Consultants: “I can see some opportunities to improve the technical setup” is more professional than “Whoever did this clearly had no idea what they were doing.”

What constant criticism says about you

Whether you’re a business owner or consultant, constantly criticising previous SEO work just isn’t a good look.

For business owners, it suggests:

You can’t move past disappointments and focus on solutions
You have unrealistic expectations about SEO results
Working with you probably involves a lot of drama
You might exaggerate problems to justify switching suppliers

For consultants, it suggests:

You’re insecure about your own abilities
You don’t understand that different approaches can work
You’re more interested in looking clever than solving problems
You’ll probably slag off business owners when relationships end

Neither is a fab look.

How to handle SEO handovers professionally

Want to switch SEO suppliers or take on new clients without looking like a nightmare to work with? I’m going to push the boat out a little and say – try being professional.

Business owners should:

Focus forward, not backward: “We’re looking to improve our search visibility” rather than “Our last SEO was rubbish”
Be specific about issues: “Our site speed needs work” instead of “They made everything slow”
Acknowledge what worked: “They improved our local rankings, but we need help with content strategy”
Ask questions about approaches rather than just criticising previous ones

Consultants should:

Assess before criticising. Understand the strategy behind previous decisions
Focus on opportunities: “I can see ways to improve this” rather than “This is completely wrong”
Be honest but diplomatic: “There are some technical issues to address” not “This is a disaster”
Build confidence without putting others down

This advice should eb common sense, and should apply to shitloads of industries, notjust SEO – BE PROFESSIONAL!

Different SEO approaches can and do work

The SEO industry is full of different philosophies and approaches. Some consultants prefer longer title tags, others prefer shorter ones. Some focus heavily on technical optimisation, others prioritise content. Some structure FAQs one way, others prefer different formats.

Most approaches have merit when applied correctly. Just because someone does things differently doesn’t mean they’re doing them wrong.

Good consultants explain their approach and why they recommend changes, rather than immediately dismissing previous work.

Good business owners ask questions about different approaches rather than assuming one way is automatically better.

Professional relationships need professional behaviour

Business owners, your next SEO consultant doesn’t need a detailed breakdown of why your last one was supposedly shite. They need to understand your business, your goals, and what you want to achieve.

And SEO consultants, you don’t need to trash previous work to demonstrate your expertise. Let your knowledge and approach speak for itself.

Because ultimately, how you talk about previous suppliers tells everyone exactly how you’ll talk about current ones when they become previous suppliers.

And nobody wants to work with someone who’ll slag them off to whoever comes next.

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