What should I ask before hiring an SEO company?
Short answer
Ask who will do the work, what they will do in the first few months, how results will be measured, and what the terms are if you want to leave. Listen for specifics. A company that works carefully can describe its work in plain terms, name what it won't do, and say what it can't promise.
Before hiring an SEO (search engine optimization) company, ask who will do the work, what they will do in the first few months, how it will be measured, and what the terms are if you want to leave. How polished the answers are matters less than how specific they are. A company that works carefully can describe the work in plain terms. Answers that are vague at the sales stage are unlikely to get clearer once you’re a client.
Questions about who does the work
The person selling the service is often not the person carrying it out, and that is normal in a larger company. Find out who will work on your account, and whether you can speak to that person before you decide. You still want to know:
- Who makes the changes to my site and my Google Business Profile?
- Is the work done by your own staff or passed to another company?
- Who do I call with a question, and can that person answer it?
No single answer here rules a company out. You’re finding out what you’d be buying.
Questions about the work itself
Each question below is paired with what a useful answer sounds like. Together they cover what will be done, in what order, and why.
| Question | A useful answer |
|---|---|
| What will you do in the first three months? | Named tasks in a set order, based on something they have looked at |
| What did you look at before proposing this? | Your site, your profile, your competitors and your service area, in some detail |
| What will you need from me? | Specific account access, photos, help with review requests and some of your time |
| How do you get links and produce content? | A method they are willing to describe fully, with no bought links and no mass-produced pages |
| What will you not do? | Clear limits, with the reason for each |
The third row raises the matter of what access an SEO company needs, and what is reasonable to hand over.
Questions about measurement
Local rankings change from one neighborhood to the next, so the first thing to settle is where positions are checked from: across your whole service area, or from a single point. After that come how calls and form submissions are counted, how often you’ll see the measurements, and whether the report lists the changes made that month. Ask too how they will tell which SEO change made the difference when a result appears.
Then ask one more: what will you tell me if nothing improves? The answer shows how a company handles bad news.
Questions about terms and ownership
Ask for the terms in writing and read them before any call about price.
- How long am I committed, and how much notice do I give to leave?
- Does the agreement renew automatically?
- Who owns the website, the content, the domain, the profile and the ad accounts?
- What do I receive if I leave?
- What does the fee cover, and what is charged separately?
The first of these leads to the question of whether to sign a 12-month SEO contract. This isn’t legal advice, so go by the document itself.
Answers that should slow you down
A promised position is the first, because nobody can guarantee a ranking that Google controls. A refusal to say what is done because the method is secret is another. Pressure to sign the same day and a price quoted before anyone has looked at your business belong on the same list. Each is a reason to ask more questions, and none is proof of bad faith on its own.
You can put every one of these questions to me. My answers begin with measurement, in a Scientific SEO Audit. On terms, I don’t use long contracts, and the person you talk to is the one doing the work.