Ranked San Francisco SEO Companies

Key Takeaways

Here are key takeaways and what you should know:

• Our top San Francisco SEO agencies: The top San Francisco SEO agencies include Victorious, known for their domain-expertise and thought leadership in the SEO space. And RankScience, known for their founding in Silicon Valley and working with a number of technology startups.
• Most experienced San Francisco SEO agency: The most experienced SEO agency in San Francisco is going to go to the agency Victorious. Known for their deep SEO expertise in almost all industries.
• Cheapest San Francisco SEO agency: The cheapest SEO agency in the San Francisco, CA area is going to go to ProLeadSoft, a smaller digital agency with accommodating rates under $4,000 per month.

Top San Francisco SEO Agencies (Ranked List)

Our research aimed at finding the best SEO agencies located in the San Francisco area that had validated office locations. As you might know, many of the agencies that "say" that they're in the San Francisco area simply don't have office locations there. If you wanted to meet with your agency, then you'd want them to be local. Here are the agencies that we've validated.

1. SERPdojo

Okay so we have to put ourselves at the top of the list. While we don't have a physical office location in San Francisco, which punts us from the list—we work with a ton of companies in San Francisco. The reason? We have deep expertise in SEO for software, technology, SaaS, and startup businesses.

We're going to be fair with our own review, though. And mention that our complete scoring from the above is based on our domain expertise in SEO. However, we have dropped much of our complete SERPdojo score just because the main factor for this list is whether an office location exists or not.

Our team is extremely specialized in what we do. Working closely with software, technology, and startup businesses to help them scale their organic reach and impact business KPIs that matter to them. Our small, nimble, boutique team is extremely knowledgable about all of the Google patents. This has given us a competitive advantage that many other agencies don't have.

Here's our overview of SERPdojo:

• Overall rating: 91 out of 100.
• Benefits: Highly experienced in startup and technology companies SEO needs.
• Drawbacks: Doesn't have an office location in the San Francisco area.

For more information on SERPdojo, visit their website right here.

2. RankScience

It was really hard to choose between RankScience and the company that comes next on this list (Victorious). Both of these agencies display a deep knowledge about SEO. Both of these agencies serve multiple industries. And both have a great list of companies that they've worked with.

However, RankScience gets higher up on the list just because they've worked with a number of YCombinator startups. And I really like seeing that. Knowing most YCombinator startups need a highly competetive approach to their SEO game (or organic search as a channel) tells me that they know what they're doing.

With great companies like Career Karma, Shutterfly, Calm, and Zapier on the list, it's hard not to suggest that Rank Science is going to be up there in terms of my "SEO analysis" of them. In addition, they have the #1 way to rank highly on this list—an office in San Francisco. They're currently located at: 2443 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115.

Here's our overview of RankScience:

• Overall rating: 94 out of 100.
• Benefits: Clearly has worked with a number of high-profile technology businesses. Founded in San Francisco.
• Drawbacks: Not a ton of work in the portfolio. And unclear where their primary industry focus is.

For more information on RankScience, visit their website right here.

3. Victorious

If you're in the SEO space, then you know of Victorious. They've won a number of US search awards, been named one of the top SEO agencies in the nation, and have a really deep expertise in the SEO space. If you start scrolling through their knowledge base, it's very evident that the team has a strong comprehension of modern SEO practices.

Victorious has a really strong B2B portfolio. Working with companies like OpenCare, SoFi, ClassDojo, BlinkHealth, and many more. The only major drawback is that Victorious doesn't have a "primary specialty" of SEO That they work in or on. Meaning, you're probably going to be engaging with general strategists that execute "more general SEO."

However, with that, the company does have their primary location in San Francisco. Which again, is the #1 way to get ranked highly on this list. Their current location is 548 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94104.

Lastly, they have some incredible reviews. A few recent clients on Clutch said, "They were more accommodating than almost every other vendor I’ve worked with." And "The number of backlinks Victorious is able to deliver per month is impressive."

Here's our overview of Victorious:

• Overall rating: 93 out of 100.
• Benefits: Incredible domain expertise about executing modern SEO best practices.
• Drawbacks: May go the "general strategist" route when it comes to creating SEO engagements with them.

For more information on Victorious, visit their website right here.

4. AdLift

AdLift seems to be one of those "marketing departments in a box" type of companies. With the agency having a location at 533 Airport Blvd, Burlingame CA 94010—we had to put them on this list. In addition, some great companies pop up in their portfolio when you take a look. Including National Debt Relief, eBates, Walmart, Shopify, and PayPal.

The only thing that I don't like seeing is this lack of focus into SEO. It's only fair that if we're going to be ranking and rating SEO agencies in the valley based on their domain expertise with SEO, that we see companies really leaning into that.

I tried looking around on their blog to see if I could find some additional articles that might suggest they really understand modern SEO, however, I couldn't really find anything that stuck out to me.

Due to all these factors, AdLift is going to be here at our #4 spot. However, still worth a look and maybe a call if you're really looking for agency that's close to the downtown San Francisco area.

Here's our overview of AdLift:

• Overall rating: 89 out of 100.
• Benefits: Has worked with some great companies like Walmart and Peloton.
• Drawbacks: Unclear where the focus is for the agency and whether that has an impact on its ability to execute for clients.

For more information on AdLift, visit their website right here.

5. ProLeadSoft

ProLeadSoft makes it #5 on our list of Silicon Valley agencies. I will say that it was much harder to validate that agencies actually had presence in the SF area than I initially thought it would be. As a result, ProLeadSoft makes it onto the list just because of their office location.

There's a pretty clear digital marketing background for the agency. However, it somewhat feels like one of those agencies that "do everything" to me and doesn't feel "extremely trustworthy" just if I'm looking at the marketing site with an initial glance.

There's not really a great list of clients that they've worked with. Or a great list of SEO work. It seems like most of the SEO work in the portfolio was really just a list of web design projects that also had some SEO added to it.

ProLeadSoft has an office location at 4686 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114.

Here's our overview of ProLeadSoft:

• Overall rating: 88 out of 100.
• Benefits: Has an office location in San Francisco.
• Drawbacks: Very unclear whether they truly do SEO work or who they've done it for. A little unclear who the agency is and whether this is a more trusted agency to work with.

For more information on ProLeadSoft, visit their website right here.

Choosing an San Francisco SEO agency to work with

Here's how we recommend vetting an agency before you decide to work with them:

1. Choose domain expertise

We always recommend picking an agency to work with based on their domain expertise. Do they have a deep knowledge of your industry? And are they able to bring innovative and well-designed tactics to the table to advance your organic reach? If they are, then great! Look for a company that knows your DNA inside and out.

2. Look for modern SEO practices

Does the company know about the information gain patent from Google? Or are they still selling you a plethora of backlinks and telling you it will work? SEO has changed. And if they don't know how it's changed, it's time to move on. They are not domain experts.

3. Prove their work actually worked

If you can use tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs to put in their portfolio companies and see that the companies they grew are continuing to grow—that's the best. It's important to validate that the work they provided actually scaled beyond just the initial growth phase.

Common SF/Silicon Valley SEO agency questions

Common questions and answers about San Francisco SEO agencies:

How much do San Francisco SEO agencies charge?

Most basic SEO engagements begin in the $3,000 to $4,000 per month range. Typically, this is more of a "guidance" type of engagement where the SEO team will be working closely with you to advise on your strategy. SEO agencies in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley area seem to be charging the exact same amount.

Should I be shopping for an agency based on their office location?

We don't recommend it. And here's why: let's say you are working with an SEO agency and it's time to do a quarterly business review (QBR) or its time to kick off a new year with a brand new strategy—it's better if that agency comes to you. If you're in an office and you want to involve multiple team members, it's usually easier if that agency comes to you rather than you going to them.

As a result, we don't really see office location being that important. However, for smaller companies, it may be a bigger factor to want to work with someone local just to be working on the same time zones.

Written by Joshua Davis - VP of SEO
Published on October 14, 2024
Updated on October 14, 2024