Choosing an SEO agency: the questions to ask and the red flags that end the call

What to look for, in one paragraph

Choose the SEO agency that can explain exactly what it will do in your first three months, who will do it, how it will measure success in leads rather than rankings, and how you can leave without losing anything. Walk away from any agency that guarantees a #1 position, will not explain its methods, or wants control of accounts that should stay in your name. Google's own guide for business owners hiring an SEO makes the same points, and it is worth reading before any sales call.

I have spent more than thirteen years in marketing, and many of the owners I meet have already paid an agency that produced reports and no customers. Almost every one of those engagements showed warning signs before the contract was signed. Here is how to spot them.

Ten questions worth asking every agency

Google's guidance suggests asking for examples of previous work, whether the agency follows Google Search Essentials, what results to expect and in what timeframe, its experience in your industry and your city, how you will communicate, and whether it will share every change it makes to your site along with the reasoning. I add a few of my own that come from watching engagements go wrong.

• What will you do in the first ninety days, in order?
• Who exactly will work on my account, and will I speak with that person?
• How will you measure success, and what does a monthly report look like?
• Will you share every change you make to my site, and why you made it?
• How do you earn links and mentions, and can you show me examples?
• How do you approach AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews?
• What do you need from me each month?
• What experience do you have with businesses like mine, in a market like this one?
• What happens if results stall at month four?
• How do I leave, and what do I keep when I do?

Answers that should end the conversation

Some answers are disqualifying on their own. Google's guide says that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, and that if an agency guarantees its changes will give you first place, you should find someone else. It also warns about anyone who claims a special relationship with Google or advertises a priority submit, and about agencies that talk about link popularity schemes or submitting your site to thousands of search engines.

Secrecy is the other big one. If an agency calls its method proprietary and will not tell you what it is doing to your website, you have no way to know whether that work is helping or putting you at risk. Google's spam policies say that sites which violate them may rank lower or not appear in results at all, and buying links for ranking purposes is one of the practices they name. You are the one who carries that risk, not the agency.

• Guaranteed rankings or a guaranteed position by a date
• A claimed special relationship or insider access at Google
• A method they will not explain because it is secret
• Large numbers of links for a flat price
• Reports built only on rankings and traffic, never on calls or forms
• A cold email telling you your site has problems and offering to fix them

The cold email and the cold call

Every business owner gets them: an email that says your site is not ranking, has errors, or is losing customers, followed by an offer. Google's guidance specifically says to be wary of SEO firms and web consultants that email you out of the blue. The message is usually generated from a free tool, sent to thousands of businesses at once, and written to create urgency.

That does not mean every point in the email is false. Your site may well have problems. But an agency whose sales process is mass email is telling you how it intends to work: high volume, little attention to any one client. If an email worries you, take it to someone you choose and ask them to check the claims.

Protect your accounts before you sign anything

Your domain, your website, your Google Business Profile, your Google Analytics and your Search Console should all be in your name, with the agency added as a user. If an agency sets these up under its own account, leaving can mean losing the profile your reviews sit on or starting your analytics history over. Ask about this directly and get the answer in writing.

Google's guide also suggests a careful start: while you are still evaluating an agency, give read access to Search Console rather than full control. Once you hire them, they will need more access to do the work, and that is normal. The point is that access is something you grant and can remove, not something the agency owns.

• Domain registered to you, with the login in your hands
• Website hosting and admin owner accounts in your name
• Google Business Profile owned by you, agency added as a manager
• Analytics, Search Console and Ads accounts owned by your business
• A written statement that content and pages built for you stay yours

Comparing three proposals side by side

When you have proposals from several agencies, put them on one page under the same headings: what happens in months one to three, who does the work, how success is measured, what is included, what costs extra, and the contract terms. Differences that looked like style become obvious. One proposal may promise twenty keywords on page one; another may promise a tracked increase in calls and forms. One may run twelve months with a cancellation fee; another may run month to month.

Price belongs on that page too, but compare it last. I explain what drives the number, and why quotes vary so widely, in my guide to what SEO costs a Dallas small business. A cheaper proposal that describes less work is not cheaper; it is a different product.

Checking what they told you

Ask for two or three clients in a business like yours who will take a short call. Ask those clients how quickly the agency answers, whether the reports made sense, and whether calls and customers actually increased. Read the agency's Google reviews and look for specifics rather than generic praise. Search for the agency's own business: an SEO company that cannot make itself findable in its own city deserves a follow-up question.

Pay attention to how they handle your questions in the sales process. An agency that gets defensive when you ask how it builds links will be harder to work with when results are slow. The good ones expect these questions and answer them plainly.

What a good first meeting sounds like

A strong agency spends most of the first meeting asking about your business, not presenting its own. It wants to know which services earn the most, which customers you want more of, which areas you serve, what a new customer is worth, and what you have tried before. It has usually looked at your website, your Google Business Profile and the first page of your main searches before the call, and it can tell you something specific it noticed.

It also tells you things you may not want to hear. If your budget is too small for the market you want to win, a good agency says so and suggests a narrower starting point. If paid ads would serve you better for the next few months, it says that too, even if SEO is what it sells. If your website needs to be rebuilt before SEO can work, you hear it in the first meeting rather than in month five.

Be cautious with the opposite: a polished presentation that could have been given to any business, a package chosen before your situation was discussed, and enthusiasm about everything with no mention of risk or time. Search work takes months, and anyone who sounds certain about fast results has either not looked closely or is not being straight with you.

Big agency, small agency or freelancer

Size matters less than structure. A large agency can bring more specialists, but your account may be run by a junior coordinator after the senior person closes the sale. A freelancer may be talented and attentive but stretched thin across technical work, content, links and reporting. A small firm sits between the two.

Our team is small by design, and I am the single point of contact for every engagement I run, which is a choice that suits owners who want to talk to the person doing the work. Whatever size you choose, ask the same thing: who will I talk to in month six, and will that person know my business?

After you hire: keep the right to judge

Choosing well is half the job. The other half is checking the work once it starts. Agree in writing on what the first ninety days will produce, ask for a monthly report that lists the work done and the leads tracked, and review it rather than filing it. I have put together a guide on how to tell whether your SEO is working once you are paying for it.

Our agreements are month to month with thirty days' notice, and I think every owner should look for that, here in Dallas or anywhere else. If you want a second opinion on proposals you have already received, a short call is often enough to point out what each one leaves out, and you can read more about why good businesses lose searches before you decide.

Questions people ask me