How to Hire an SEO Marketing Company: 12 Questions Before You Sign

Most advice on how to hire an SEO marketing company stops at “check their reviews and ask for case studies”. That helps, but it doesn’t protect you once you sign. What protects you is what the contract says and what the monthly report shows. Weak agencies are rarely exposed by a sales call. They are exposed by precise questions about scope, ownership, access and reporting.

I have worked in SEO and digital marketing for more than 16 years, and I have read a lot of agency contracts on behalf of clients who wanted a second opinion. The same gaps come up again and again. Below are the 12 questions I would ask before signing, with the answer I would expect from a good agency and the answer that should worry you.

If you are still building a shortlist, start with our guide to shortlisting SEO companies without getting burned, and read what Google itself says an SEO can and can’t do. This article picks up where those stop: at the contract.

How to hire an SEO marketing company: start with the contract, not the pitch

Google’s page on hiring an SEO contains a sentence every buyer should keep in mind: “Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire.” If an agency builds spam links or hides changes, the consequences land on your site, not theirs.

So send your questions in writing and ask for written answers. It takes an hour of your time, and it does three things. You can compare agencies like for like. You have a record if promises change later. And you learn how clearly each agency communicates, which is half of what you are buying.

Questions 1 to 3: who does the work and what you get

1. Who exactly will work on my site, and who do I talk to?

Good answer: names and roles, including who does the technical work and who writes content, plus one named contact and how quickly they respond.

Weak answer: “our team of experts”. You can’t hold a team accountable. If the person who sold you the deal disappears after signing, you should know that now.

2. What will you do in the first 90 days, in writing?

Good answer: a short plan with an audit or review first, then specific fixes and pages, in order, with the reasoning behind each.

Weak answer: a list of activities such as “on-page optimisation” and “link building” with no pages, no order and no reasons. If the plan would fit any website, it was not written for yours.

3. What does each month (or hour) actually buy?

Good answer: a breakdown in hours or deliverables, so you can see how much time goes to analysis, implementation, content and reporting.

Weak answer: a package name. Packages are not wrong in themselves, but you need to know what is inside them. This is also the question that tells you whether you are paying for senior work or for a report template.

Questions 4 to 6: money, term and ownership

4. What is the minimum term, and how do I end the contract?

Good answer: a clear minimum term (or none), a notice period you can live with, and no penalty beyond paying for work already done.

Weak answer: a long lock-in justified by “SEO takes time”. SEO does take time, but a good agency keeps clients by showing progress, not by contract clauses.

5. Who owns the content, the accounts and the data?

Good answer: you do. Content written for you, your Search Console, analytics, Google Business Profile and any tools set up for your site are yours, and stay yours if you leave.

Weak answer: accounts created under the agency’s name, or content licensed to you only while you pay. I have seen businesses lose years of analytics history because the property belonged to a former agency.

6. What is extra, and what triggers an extra charge?

Good answer: a written list of what is out of scope (development work, design, paid tools) and a rule that nothing extra is billed without your approval first.

Weak answer: “we’ll sort it out as we go”. That is how a fixed monthly fee becomes an open-ended one.

Questions 7 to 9: access, changes and links

7. What access do you need, and at what level?

Good answer: the lowest level that lets them work, added as named users, never shared passwords. Google advises that for an audit you “only grant read access to Search Console (at this stage, don’t grant them write access).”

Search Console Help on owners, users and permissions describes the levels: a full user “has view rights to all data and can take some actions”, and a restricted user “has simple view rights on most data”. Google Analytics works the same way: its access roles run from Viewer up to Administrator, which has “full control of Analytics”, and you can even hide cost or revenue metrics from a user. Keep owner and administrator roles inside your business.

Weak answer: “just send us your logins”.

8. Will you share every change you make, and why?

Good answer: yes, in a change log: date, page, what changed, why. Google says that an SEO with FTP access to your server “should be willing to explain all the changes”.

Weak answer: “our methods are proprietary”. If you can’t see what was changed, you can’t judge the work or undo it later.

If an agency won’t tell you what it changed on your website, assume you will be the last to find out when something breaks.

9. How do you build links, and can I see every one?

Good answer: a description of how links are earned (content worth citing, digital PR, relevant partners), and a list of every link they obtain, with the page it points to.

Weak answer: a fixed number of links per month, or “we have a network”. Google’s spam policies define link spam as “creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings”, including “exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links”, and they warn that sites that violate the policies “may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all.” If you already have doubts about past link work, a links audit shows what is there before you add more.

Questions 10 to 12: reporting, results and exit

10. What will you report, how often, and from which data?

Good answer: a monthly report built on data you can open yourself: Search Console clicks and impressions, analytics conversions, and rankings for an agreed keyword list, each compared with the baseline from before the work started.

Search Console’s Performance report defines the basics: clicks are “the number of times a user clicked your site from Google Search results”, and average position is “the average position of the topmost result from your site.” A report that uses these terms correctly, and says what was done that month, is a good sign. Our monthly SEO report template shows what a useful one contains.

Weak answer: a dashboard of the agency’s own scores you can’t check anywhere else, or reports full of charts and empty of actions.

11. What results do you expect, by when, and what happens if they don’t come?

Good answer: realistic outcomes tied to pages and searches, a rough timeframe, the risks, and what the agency will do if progress stalls. Google suggests asking exactly this: “What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?”

Weak answer: a guaranteed position. Google is plain: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”

12. What happens when we part ways?

Good answer: a written handover: the change log, all content, keyword and page plans, reports, and a list of every account the agency accessed, followed by removal of their access.

That last step needs care. Search Console Help says that if you do not delete a removed owner’s verification tokens, “the removed owner will be able to re-verify ownership if they choose to”. Ask the agency to confirm how they verified, and remove those tokens yourself.

Weak answer: “we’ll cross that bridge later”. Our article on contract terms for hiring an SEO freelancer covers exit clauses in more detail; the same clauses work for agencies.

The 12 questions on one page

Copy this into your email to each agency and compare the replies side by side.

Hiring an SEO marketing company or a consultant

Some businesses send these questions and realise they don’t need an agency’s capacity. They need someone senior to find the problems and guide their own developer and writers. Others need production every month and nobody in-house to do it, and an agency is the right buy.

I run onwardSEO as a consultancy. I charge by the hour, with no fixed packages, so questions 3, 4 and 6 have short answers: you pay for the hours used, you can stop when you want, and nothing is added without your agreement. My background is on my profile page, and our SEO services page lists what I take on. I also review agency proposals for clients who want a second opinion before signing. If an agency answers all 12 questions well, I will tell you to hire them.

FAQ

What should I ask before hiring an SEO marketing company?

Ask who will do the work, what the first 90 days include, what each month buys, who owns the accounts and content, what access they need, whether they share every change, how they build links, what they report and what happens when you part ways. Get the answers in writing.

How do I know if an SEO agency is legitimate?

A legitimate agency explains its work, follows Google Search Essentials and never guarantees rankings. Google’s own advice is to check business references and ask past clients whether the SEO provided useful service. Be careful with any agency that wants shared passwords or full ownership of your accounts.

Should I hire an SEO expert or a digital marketing agency?

It depends on what you need. A digital marketing agency suits businesses that want SEO, ads and content produced by one supplier. A specialist SEO expert suits businesses that need diagnosis, technical work or a second opinion, and have people who can implement.

How long should an SEO contract be?

Long enough to see results, short enough to leave if the work is poor. Google’s own guidance suggests asking an SEO what results to expect and in what timeframe. Use that answer to set review points, and avoid lock-ins that outlast them.

What should an SEO agency report every month?

What they did, what changed, and the effect: Search Console clicks and impressions, conversions from your analytics, and rankings for agreed keywords, each against a baseline. Every report should end with the next actions.