Once proposals arrive, you need to judge which agency understands your business, has a sound plan, and will act ethically. Polished presentations and confident promises are easy to produce; genuine expertise and honesty take more effort to assess. This lesson shows what a strong proposal looks like, the red flags to watch for, and how to make a structured decision.
What a strong proposal includes
A diagnosis, not just a menu
A good agency has looked at your site and market before proposing. Expect specific observations: "Your service pages for Geelong and Ballarat share near-identical text", "Your March migration left 140 old URLs returning 404", "Competitors rank with cost guides you don't have". Generic statements that could apply to any business suggest they haven't looked.
A prioritised plan
The plan should say what happens first and why, usually fixing technical issues and high-value pages before producing lots of new content. Look for a three- to six-month roadmap with clear deliverables, and an explanation of how priorities may change as data comes in.
Measurable outcomes tied to your goals
Success should be measured in business terms: qualified enquiries, sales, revenue from organic search, visibility for relevant commercial queries. Rankings and traffic are useful supporting metrics, not the goal.
Clear scope, team and terms
Who will work on your account, their experience, how many hours or which deliverables each month, what's excluded, the minimum term and notice period, and how you'll communicate.
Relevant evidence
Case studies with specific, verifiable results in similar businesses or markets, and references you can call.
Red flags
Guarantees
"Guaranteed page one in 30 days", "#1 on Google or your money back". Nobody controls rankings. Google's own guidance warns against anyone who guarantees a #1 ranking or claims a special relationship with Google. Guarantees often rely on obscure keywords nobody searches for, or on risky tactics.
Secrecy
"Our methods are proprietary" with no explanation of what will be done. Good agencies are happy to explain their approach. You need to know what's happening to your website and brand.
Link schemes
Offers of "500 backlinks a month", private blog networks (PBNs), paid links on unrelated sites, or link exchanges. Google's spam policies prohibit buying or selling links that pass ranking credit and other manipulative link schemes. Penalties can wipe out your visibility, and cleaning up takes months.
Scaled, thin content
Plans to create hundreds of near-identical location pages ("Plumber Bondi", "Plumber Bronte", "Plumber Coogee" with only the suburb swapped), or to mass-produce articles with little original value. These can breach Google's spam policies on doorway pages and scaled content abuse.
Fake or incentivised reviews
Offers to "boost your Google reviews", write reviews, or suppress negative ones. In Australia, the ACCC has taken action against fake and misleading reviews, and the Australian Consumer Law prohibits misleading conduct. In the US, the FTC rule on consumer reviews and testimonials bans fake reviews and certain review-suppression practices, with civil penalties. Selectively publishing only positive reviews can also be misleading. Google's own policies prohibit fake engagement on Business Profiles.
Ownership traps
The agency registers your domain in its name, owns your Google Business Profile, builds your site on a platform you can't take with you, or keeps content if you leave. Insist on owning everything.
Long lock-ins with exit penalties
Twelve- to twenty-four-month contracts with heavy cancellation fees, especially with vague deliverables.
Vague reporting
Reports with only ranking screenshots or "visibility scores", no list of work done, and no link to enquiries or sales.
Unsolicited outreach with alarming claims
Cold emails saying "your site has 87 critical errors" or "you're invisible on Google". These are usually automated scans used as sales hooks. Some may be accurate, most aren't urgent.
Questions to ask in the shortlist call
- What would you do in the first 90 days, and why in that order?
- What do you see as the biggest risks for our site?
- Who exactly will work on our account, and what's their experience?
- How do you earn links? Can you show examples?
- How will you measure and report success? Can we see a sample report?
- What do you need from us to succeed?
- What happens to our content, accounts and data if we part ways?
- Can we speak to a current client in a similar business?
The answer to "what would you do if this goes wrong?" or "tell us about a campaign that didn't work" is revealing: honest agencies can describe mistakes and what they learned.
Checking claims independently
- Call references and ask about communication, results, and whether they'd hire the agency again.
- Check case-study sites yourself: do they still rank? Are the results plausible?
- Look at the agency's reviews on Google and independent platforms, reading the negative ones carefully.
- Look at their own content: is it useful and accurate?
- Verify credentials claimed, such as partner badges, which usually relate to advertising platforms rather than SEO.
Making the decision
Use a simple weighted scorecard so the decision isn't based on the best presenter:
| Criterion | Weight | Agency A | Agency B | Agency C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understanding of our business and market | 25% | |||
| Quality and specificity of the plan | 25% | |||
| Relevant experience and evidence | 20% | |||
| Team, communication and fit | 15% | |||
| Value for money and fair terms | 15% |
Score each from 1 to 5 and multiply by the weights. If two agencies score closely, consider starting with a paid audit or a short initial term to test the relationship.
Reading between the lines of a proposal
Some warning signs are subtle. Compare these pairs of statements:
| Vague or worrying | Specific and reassuring |
|---|---|
| "We'll optimise your site for Google" | "We'll fix the 140 broken URLs from your migration with 301 redirects in month one" |
| "We'll build high-authority backlinks" | "We'll pitch your renovation cost data to Victorian property media and approach the three trade associations you belong to" |
| "Content creation: 8 blogs per month" | "Two in-depth guides per month, based on interviews with your installers, targeting cost and comparison queries" |
| "You'll see results fast" | "Expect technical improvements in weeks and meaningful enquiry growth over 6–12 months" |
| "Full reporting" | "A monthly report with work completed, organic enquiries versus last year, and next month's priorities" |
The specific versions show the agency has studied your business and will be accountable.
Due diligence beyond the pitch
- ABN and company details: in Australia, check the ABN Lookup and ASIC registers; in the UK, Companies House; in the US, state business registries. Make sure you know who you're contracting with.
- Insurance: professional indemnity insurance is a sign of an established business.
- Contract review: read termination, ownership, liability and payment clauses carefully. For larger engagements, a lawyer's review is worth the cost.
- Data handling: ask how they store your data and who else accesses it, including subcontractors and overseas teams.
- Platform knowledge: if you're on Shopify, WordPress or a custom platform, ask about their experience with it specifically.
A trustworthy agency welcomes these checks. Pressure to sign quickly, "this price expires Friday", is itself a red flag.
Key takeaways
- Strong proposals offer a specific diagnosis, prioritised plan, business-based measures, clear scope and evidence.
- Red flags: guarantees, secrecy, link schemes, mass location pages, fake reviews, ownership traps, long lock-ins and vague reporting.
- Fake reviews breach consumer law (ACCC in Australia, FTC in the US) and platform policies.
- Ask practical questions and verify claims with references and your own checks.
- Use a weighted scorecard to decide.