Does it matter if an SEO agency isn't based in Melbourne or even in Australia?

Not by itself. What matters is that someone accountable understands your customers and suburbs, answers your questions and is clear about which legal entity invoices you. If the agency has an ABN, check it. If it doesn't, ask how tax invoices will be handled and run it past your accountant before you sign. We are based in Christchurch and work remotely, so this is a fair question to put to us too.

What does ABN Lookup tell me about an agency?

Whether the ABN is active or cancelled, the business type, the GST status and historical trading names where available. A cancelled ABN is a serious warning. A business that isn't registered for GST isn't automatically a problem, but ask why, and make sure every quote clearly says whether GST is included.

Does Australian Consumer Law protect my small business if I sign an agency's contract?

The unfair contract terms rules cover standard form contracts with small businesses, defined as fewer than 100 employees or turnover under $10 million. If the agency hands you a take-it-or-leave-it contract, one-sided terms can be unfair and, since 9 November 2023, businesses are prohibited from proposing or relying on them. It's not a substitute for reading the contract, and I'm not a lawyer, so get advice on anything large.

Where do I go in Victoria if a dispute with an agency can't be settled?

The Victorian Small Business Commission offers free preliminary help with commercial disputes such as unpaid invoices and disagreements over contracts or quality of services. If that doesn't settle it, it may encourage mediation, which has a fee for each party. Keep your proposal, emails and invoices, because that paper trail is what they will ask for.

When is the best time to start with a new agency in Melbourne?

Whenever you're ready, as long as the plan accounts for the calendar. Melbourne Cup Day is a Victorian public holiday on Tuesday 3 November 2026, and the Christmas period includes extra days off, so ask the agency when the first deliverable lands and who is working over those dates.

How to Choose an SEO Agency in Melbourne: Compare Three Proposals Side by Side

Choosing an SEO agency from a Google search and a good phone call is how people end up paying for something they can’t compare. The fix is boring and works: get three proposals, make them answer the same questions, and put them next to each other. This guide shows you how, including the Australian checks that take ten minutes and save months.

Step 1: send all three the same brief

If you brief each agency differently, you get three proposals you can’t compare. Write one page and send it to all of them:

Your business, your main services and the suburbs you actually want work from (not “all of Melbourne”).
Your website address and whether you have a Google Business Profile.
The outcome you care about, in enquiries or booked jobs, not “more traffic”.
A monthly budget range in Australian dollars.
A request to state every price with GST clearly marked as included or excluded.

That last line matters. If one quote includes GST and another doesn’t, the cheaper-looking one may not be cheaper.

Step 2: ten minutes of Australian due diligence

Before you compare quality, confirm each agency is a real business. These registers are free.

ABN Lookup. Run the agency’s ABN. It shows whether the ABN is active or cancelled, the business type, the GST status and any historical trading names. It’s a good test of whether the name on the proposal matches the name on the tax invoice.
The ASIC companies register. If the agency is a company, search its name or ACN to see its registration status. Watch for a company name that is different from the trading name in the proposal.
The ASIC business names register. If it trades under a business name, this shows who holds the name, the ABN, the registration date, the renewal date and whether the registration is current. Trading names are not registered business names, so a trading name won’t appear here. Check it on ABN Lookup instead.

If the agency won’t give you an ABN or company name, you have your answer.

Step 3: put the proposals in one table

Draw this table on a page or in a spreadsheet, one column per agency. The right-hand column tells you what to look for.

What to compare	Good sign	Warning sign
Named person doing the work	A name and a direct contact	“Our team will look after you”
First 90 days	Specific jobs: pages, fixes, profile work	A list of tools and buzzwords
Reporting	Calls, form fills, direction requests	Rankings and traffic only
What you own	Content, accounts and access, in writing	Silence, or agency-held logins
Contract term and exit	Short notice, no exit fee	Auto-renewal, long minimum, penalties
Price	Scope listed, GST stated	One number and a vague description
Guarantees	None on rankings	A promised position or date
Tracking	Enquiries measured and reported	“We’ll look at analytics”

Score each agency out of five on each row. Do the scoring the day after the last call, not straight after the best pitch. A confident presenter can drag a weak proposal over the line, and a table stops that.

Step 4: read the contract before you pay anything

Ask for the contract at the proposal stage, not after the deposit. In Australia this has a useful legal angle.

Under the unfair contract terms rules, a small business is one with fewer than 100 employees or an annual turnover under $10 million. Where a contract is a standard form, usually a take-it-or-leave-it document, terms that are unfair are prohibited, with large maximum penalties for the business that proposes or relies on them. These rules apply to standard form contracts made or renewed from 9 November 2023.

You can’t do the legal analysis yourself, but you can flag clauses to question:

An automatic renewal you only learn about in the fine print.
A fee or price that the agency can change without your agreement.
A cancellation penalty that has no link to any actual loss.
Terms that let the agency end the deal freely while locking you in.

If a clause worries you, ask for it to be changed. A confident agency will either change it or explain why it’s there.

Step 5: keep a record of every promise

The Australian Consumer Law’s rules on misleading and deceptive conduct are not limited to dealings with consumers. They apply to conduct towards other businesses too, and the ACCC looks at the overall impression a business creates. In practice that means two things for you: save the proposal, the emails and any screenshots of what you were told, and treat a flat guarantee on rankings with suspicion. Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. If a promise matters to you, get it written into the contract.

Step 6: plan the start around the Victorian calendar

Public holidays shape when work gets done. In 2026, Melbourne Cup Day is a Victorian public holiday on Tuesday 3 November, Christmas Day is Friday 25 December, and there is an additional public holiday on Monday 28 December. Ask each agency:

When is the first concrete deliverable, and what is it?
Who is working during the Cup week and the Christmas shutdown?
Will any change to your website go live on a day when your phones are busiest?

Retailers and hospitality businesses in particular should avoid site changes in the middle of a peak weekend.

Step 7: use what’s left to break a tie

If two proposals score the same, ask both one more question: “What would you do in the first month if my website was unchanged?” The answer shows whether they understand SEO beyond the sales deck. Then ask each for a Melbourne client you can ring. If an agency can’t name one, ask why.

If things go wrong

Start with a clear email asking the agency to fix the problem by a stated date. If that fails, the Victorian Small Business Commission offers free preliminary help with commercial disputes, including unpaid invoices and contractual disagreements. Mediation is possible after that and costs a fee for each party. Keep your paper trail from Step 5.

Where EightySix Digital fits

I’m not based in Melbourne. EightySix Digital is based in Christchurch, New Zealand, and SEO is managed remotely, directly. There’s no account manager layer: the person who talks to you about strategy is the same person doing the work. Plans start from AU$520/mo with no lock-in contract. Full detail is on the SEO Melbourne page.

If you want someone you can meet in person, a local agency may suit you better, and Do You Need a Local Agency in Australia? covers that trade-off honestly. Put us in your three-proposal table and mark us the same way. If you’d like to talk it through first, get in touch.