Questions to Ask an SEO Agency Before Hiring

Most SEO pitches sound alike. Everyone promises more traffic, everyone has a dashboard, and everyone says they are "data-driven". The difference between a good agency and an expensive mistake usually shows up only when you ask specific questions and listen carefully to the answers.

This guide groups the questions that matter into six areas: their understanding of your business, their method, how they build links and content, how they measure results, how the relationship works, and the contract. For each, we explain what a good answer sounds like and what should worry you. There's a printable checklist at the end so you can score every agency the same way.

Google publishes its own advice on this in Do you need an SEO?. It's short and worth reading before any meeting. Several questions below come straight from it.

Before the meeting: do your homework

You'll get far more out of a pitch if you arrive with three things:

• A clear goal. "More traffic" isn't a goal. "More enquiries for our commercial cleaning service in Leeds" or "more online sales of our two best-selling product lines" is. Agencies can only propose sensible work if they know what success means to you.
• Your current numbers. Organic visits, enquiries or sales from organic search, and your top landing pages. If you have Google Search Console and Google Analytics set up, export the last 12 months. If you don't, that is the first thing to fix, whoever you hire.
• A budget range. Agencies shape proposals around budget. Giving a range saves everyone time and makes proposals easier to compare. Our guide to how much SEO costs explains the common pricing models.

It also helps to look at each agency's own website. Is it fast, clear and well written? Does it rank for anything relevant? An agency's own site isn't proof of skill (busy agencies often neglect their own), but sloppy work there is worth noting. You can get an estimate of a page's authority with our Page Authority Checker and whether Google can index it with the Google Index Checker.

Questions about your business

A good agency spends the first meeting asking about you. Google makes the same point: your SEO "should ask questions about what makes your business unique, who your competitors are, how search results can help, and how your customers find you". If an agency launches straight into a slide deck about itself, take note.

"What would you need to know about our business to do this well?" Good answers mention your customers, margins, sales process, seasonality, competitors and the products or services that matter most. A weak answer jumps straight to keywords.

"Who do you see as our real competitors in search?" These are often different from your commercial competitors. Directories, marketplaces, publishers and comparison sites compete for the same results. An agency that has looked at your search results before the meeting will have an opinion.

"What experience do you have in our industry, country and city?" These are three of Google's suggested questions. Industry experience matters most in regulated or technical fields such as health, finance and law, where accuracy and E-E-A-T carry more weight. Local experience matters for businesses that serve a specific area. If you operate in several countries or languages, ask about international sites specifically.

Questions about their approach

"What would you do in the first 90 days, and why in that order?" This is the single most useful question. A competent agency will describe a sequence: usually an audit and fixing technical problems first, then research and planning, then content and authority building. They should be able to explain why. Our guide to the first three months of SEO describes what a sensible start looks like.

"What does your audit cover, and what will we get at the end?" An SEO audit should produce a prioritised list of problems with an estimate of effort and impact, not a 90-page export from a crawling tool. Google advises that an audit "should be about giving you realistic estimates of improvement, and an estimate of the work involved".

"Do you follow Google Search Essentials?" Another question from Google's list. The Search Essentials cover technical requirements, spam policies and best practices. The answer should be an unhesitating yes, followed by an explanation of how that shapes their work.

"Who will actually do the work?" Ask to meet the people who would work on your account, not just the person selling it. Ask how many other clients they handle, and whether any work is outsourced or white-labelled. Outsourcing isn't wrong in itself, but you should know about it.

"How do you handle technical changes on our website?" Many recommendations need a developer: fixing canonical tags, speeding up pages, changing templates. Find out whether the agency implements changes itself, writes specifications for your developers, or just lists problems. Each model can work. What matters is that someone is responsible for getting fixes live.

Questions about content and links

"How do you decide what content to create?" Good answers start with keyword research and search intent, then consider what you can credibly say that competitors can't. Be wary of a fixed quota ("four blog posts a month") with no link to your goals.

"Who writes the content, and how do you make sure it's accurate?" If content is produced with AI tools, ask how it's checked. Google's guidance on using generative AI content focuses on whether content is helpful and original, not on how it was produced. Mass-producing pages mainly to rank is a spam policy issue regardless of the tool used.

"How do you build links, and can you show me examples?" This is where many problems hide. Ask where links come from, how they are earned, and whether any money changes hands. Google's spam policies treat buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as link spam. A good answer talks about digital PR, useful assets, partnerships and outreach. Read our glossary entry on link building for more.

"Will you ask us to link to your site?" Google says plainly: "You should never have to link to an SEO." A discreet credit in your footer is a common request; you're entitled to say no.

Questions about results and reporting

"What results do you expect, and in what timeframe?" Google suggests asking exactly this. A good agency gives a range, explains what it depends on and is clear about uncertainty. It should not guarantee rankings. Google is explicit: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." See our guide on how to spot fake SEO guarantees.

"How will you measure success?" The best answers connect to business outcomes: enquiries, sales, revenue or qualified leads from organic search. Rankings and traffic are useful leading indicators, but they aren't the goal. Ask which tools they use and whether you'll be able to see the raw data yourself.

"What will a monthly report contain?" Ask to see a real (anonymised) example. A useful report explains what was done, what changed, why, and what's planned next. A report that's all charts and no explanation is a warning sign.

"Can you show me previous work and put me in touch with clients?" Google recommends checking business references and asking past clients whether the agency "provided useful service, was easy to work with, and produced positive results". Case studies should state the timeframe and starting point, not just a percentage increase.

Questions about the relationship

"How often will we hear from you, and who is our main contact?" Agree a rhythm up front: a monthly call and report is common, with a way to raise urgent issues in between.

"Will you tell us about every change you make to our site?" Google suggests asking whether the agency will "share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them". The answer should be yes. You are responsible for what happens to your website.

"What do you need from us?" SEO needs input from the client: approvals, product knowledge, developer time, access. An honest agency will tell you what it needs and what happens if it doesn't get it.

Questions about the contract

"What is the minimum term, and what is the notice period?" Many agencies ask for an initial commitment because early months involve set-up work. That's reasonable if it's explained. Long lock-ins with large exit fees are not.

"Who owns the accounts, content and data?" You should own your website, domain, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Business Profile accounts, and the content you've paid for. Agencies should be added as users, not owners.

"What happens if we part ways?" Ask what you'll get on the way out: access handed back, a record of changes, content files, and any tracking or tools they set up.

Red flags to watch for

Some answers should end the conversation:

• A guarantee of a specific ranking, or a claim of a "special relationship" with Google. Google says to beware of both.
• Refusing to explain how links are built, or calling it a "secret method".
• Unsolicited emails telling you that your site "isn't listed" on search engines. Google calls these out by name.
• A proposal that's the same for every client, with no reference to your goals.
• Pressure to sign quickly, or discounts that expire by Friday.
• Asking for ownership of your accounts or domain.

Your printable checklist

Use this in every pitch meeting. Tick each item the agency covers well. An agency that can't answer most of the "approach" and "results" questions clearly isn't ready for your business.

After the meetings

Compare your scores, then read each written proposal side by side. Our guide to comparing SEO agency proposals shows how to line them up fairly. If you'd like a shortlist to start from, you can get matched with up to three SEO agencies or browse SEO agencies by country.