What Questions Should I Ask an SEO Agency Before Hiring Them?

You have two proposals. Both are confident, both are full of words you cannot verify, and a decision is due this week. There are twenty-two questions to ask an SEO agency before signing on, plus what a good answer will sound like and the four answers that will end the call.

This guide explains:

• The twenty-two questions, grouped and ready to copy
• How to grade the answers you get back
• The four answers that should end the conversation
• Which questions most agencies dislike, and why
• What to do if you are not ready to commit to a retainer

What questions should I ask an SEO agency before hiring them?

Ask 22 questions on six topics: what is delivered, who is doing the work, what is measured, what happens at month 6, what are the terms, and what would they do if a tactic failed. Duplicate the entire block below and bring it to each call. Repeat the questions to each agency, in the same order, and record the responses, including the reporting frequency they provide.

Google has always offered its own tips to the owners who are about to hire some help, as the industry has a history of needing it. Its advice on hiring an SEO follows: ask for specifics, and be suspicious of those who don’t give specifics or are secretive.

At least one of these is difficult for an agency to answer, on purpose. Questions 7, 10, 12, 15, 16 and 22 are the ones we would dread and the ones that tell you the most. Most of the questions that you should ask before hiring SEO are those that are uncomfortable to ask, but asking them early is the key.

What should the answers sound like?

Countable things are names, page numbers, notice periods, dates; these are good answers. Bad answers have adjectives in them, and the quickest way to tell if you will get what you will next month is if the answer has an adjective.

A grading key is more helpful when used with a clear description of the work, so request each agency to provide a written description of the work for the first month, the third month and the sixth month. Our page on the SEO work itself lists the parts of the job, and you can compare each answer to what should be done each month, simply.

The most owners that will miss out on the row is the Risk row, and that is important because the tactics that an agency uses now may be a problem when the rules change. Link schemes and scaled content abuse are violations, and “how do you build links” is a serious question and not a technicality according to Google’s spam policies.

How to choose an SEO agency comes down to this table, so score each answer and let the numbers decide when the pitches sound the same.

Which four answers should end the conversation?

A guaranteed ranking, refusal to disclose who does the work, a ranking-only report, and a contract that doesn’t give you your own Analytics, Search Console or Google Business Profile accounts.

A guaranteed ranking. There is no one who owns Google, and there is no one who can promise you a #1 ranking on Google, as Google states in their own guidance: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” It adds that if an agency guarantees first place, “find someone else.” A guarantee is a sign that they’re selling something they can’t control, or outlining tactics that go against the rules.

A refusal to say who does the work. You can’t evaluate work you can’t credit, and you can’t ask a question of a pool.

A rankings-only report. Rankings can rise while calls fall. A report with no calls and no forms measures the agency’s activity, not your result.

No ownership of your own accounts. This is the one that readers never thought about. An agency that owns your Search Console, Analytics or Business Profile is a lock-in device, because you don’t know how much they are costing you until you want to leave.

Data ownership should be in your hands, and the agency should be brought in as a user. These are the SEO agency red flags that we would give more consideration than any other answer.

Who will actually do the work?

This is the one that readers never thought about. An agency that owns your Search Console, Analytics or Business Profile is a lock-in device, because you don’t know how much they are costing you until you want to leave.

Data ownership should be in your hands, and the agency should be brought in as a user. These are the SEO agency red flags that we would give more consideration than any other answer. We cover white label arrangements in a separate guide. How to vet an SEO company starts with asking.

When it is hidden, you lose three things. You lose a direct line to the person who knows your site, you pay a margin on top of a margin, and nobody in the room can answer a technical question. If an account manager does not check and return, watch out.

Names are most important for technical work, as that is where specialisms differ and where a vague answer is the most difficult to find. Before signing up, ask who handles crawl and site health, what they have resolved on sites like yours and if they will be available for a pre-signing call to hear the answers in person.

This is true of a good pitch: A good pitch is only as good as the people behind it, and the person selling you the pitch is not the person who is going to execute it. Also, before making a commitment, get to know the people who would be on your account, and not just the salesperson, so you know who will be responding to your emails and who will be fixing your site.

What should they be able to prove?

A real case study report (with name removed), a report with numbers (with name removed), and references that you can call on without the agency having to call.

Specify what weak proof is. A screenshot of a rankings tool, a traffic chart without any dates on the X axis and a testimonial without any business attached actually say little.

There is good evidence that is documented, dated and easily accessible to a stranger at a later time. Our case study on Cypress Towne Dental is an example of a result with the numbers attached, which shows what a client outcome looks like when the starting point, the work and the measured change are all written down in one place.

References come next. Call 2 or 3 former clients, and one who left, then call them. Our page of what clients say unprompted is representative of the public feedback that an agency can expect to get, whether it’s positive or negative, and it also includes the comments that no agency would post on a sales page.

Even the writing does, too, as a sample page will demonstrate what you will actually receive monthly. Check any sample page against Google’s helpful content guidance, which includes questions like: Was the page created to help people? Does the page demonstrate real-world experience? This test can quickly tell you if your SEO agency is legit or not.

What should I ask about the money?

Inquire about the minimum term, notice period, whether tools are charged separately, what is included in the setup fee and what you will be entitled to if you leave.

Have answers written down. The most expensive options can be a low number of months, long exit terms, setup fees for onboarding, and separate tool costs. Look for published plans and inclusions where an agency shows them, because a published scope is easier to hold to than a promise made on a call.

If you have not yet worked out what a fair number looks like, and do not want to guess from a sales call, start with what the market actually charges in our guide to monthly SEO pricing, which outlines the typical ranges of local, national and ecommerce work and what those ranges actually encompass.

Here is the quiet thing. If the price is given as “custom” and there is no range mentioned anywhere during the conversation, then this price is likely to be the agency’s estimate of what you will pay, and not the price of the work itself. We are not exempt from that observation.

Does the agency need to be local to me?

Yes, for the technical and content work, which is done remotely by all parties, including local agencies and no for the parts that require someone to understand the market, the competition and how customers in that area search.

In Texas, that could be someone who is aware of the differences between searches in Houston and Dallas Fort Worth.

Do not oversell proximity. There is a local agency that has no experience in your industry and a distant agency that has five clients just like you. Before asking if they are distant, ask if they have experience in your industry, because a local agency with no experience is a worse fit than a distant agency with five clients just like you.

What if I am not ready to commit to a retainer?

Consider hiring an audit from one of the companies you are thinking of, evaluate them on the audit they give you, and then choose, since an audit is the most inexpensive sample of thinking.

An audit is a sales tool and a deliverable; read it with that in mind. If you are weighing an audit before you commit, look for prioritized findings, effort estimates, and at least one thing the agency recommends that it would not be paid to do.

It can take months for an audit and ramp up, and you may need new enquiries to keep the business going in the meantime. Many owners cover the gap with paid search, as it will generate enquiries whilst the organic pressure is on the retainer decision for a certain period.

The questions to ask an SEO agency, in order of what they reveal

Here’s an order to ask an SEO agency on a call, as the last question is the most telling and requires the rest of the call to get an honest answer.

1. Start with deliverables.
2. Ask for names.
3. Move to measurement.
4. Cover the terms.
5. Finish with the failure question.

One honest limit: a good answer to every question is not a guarantee of a good engagement, and a competent agency can still be a poor fit. The list rules out the obviously wrong choice. It does not pick the right one.

The list ends at the signature, but your job does not, and once the work starts you will want a clear and simple way of checking the work once it starts, which our next guide covers with six checks you can run on accounts you already own, with no help from the agency.

Want to put these questions to us and see how we answer each one before you decide anything about anyone else?
Pink Socials is at 13121 Louetta Rd, Cypress, Texas, and we would rather be interviewed with this list than hired without it.