What to look for when hiring an SEO agency

When you are hiring an SEO agency, judge it on four things: who will actually do the work, whether it reports leads instead of traffic, how it tracks those leads, and whether you keep ownership of your website and accounts. A good agency answers all four in plain language before you sign. An agency that guarantees rankings, locks you into a long contract or holds your Google accounts under its own login is telling you how the relationship will end.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the work of making your business easier to find and trust in Google, Google Maps and, increasingly, AI assistants like ChatGPT. The work is real, but it is hard for a buyer to inspect. That is why the questions below matter more than the pitch.

First, decide whether you need an agency at all

Google's own documentation on hiring an SEO says that if you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself. It recommends starting with Google's SEO starter guide, and it points out that knowing the basics helps you spot a technique an SEO shouldn't be using. You can read it on Google's page on hiring an SEO.

An agency earns its fee when you lack the time or the specialist skills: fixing site problems, building service pages, managing your Google Business Profile, earning links and mentions from credible sources, and tracking what turns into leads. If your calendar is already full of consults, cases or jobs, you are paying for hours you do not have.

Questions to ask before you sign

Who actually does the work?

Ask who writes the content, who builds the links, and who fixes technical problems. Then ask whether those people are employees, contractors or an overseas white-label vendor. Outsourcing is not automatically bad, but you should know about it, and someone senior should be reviewing the output.

Ask who your day-to-day contact will be and whether that person is the one who sold you. The salesperson and the strategist are often different people, and you will be working with the second one.

What will you report, and how often?

Ask to see a real report, with the client name removed. A useful report shows the leads that came from search: calls, form submissions, booked consults or booked jobs. It then connects those leads to the work done that month.

If the sample is mostly traffic, impressions and keyword positions, ask what that has to do with revenue. Traffic is a means, not a result. One example makes the point: a law firm can double its visitors with a blog post about a celebrity lawsuit and gain zero clients.

How do you track leads?

This is the question that separates serious agencies from the rest. Ask specifically:

• Do you use call tracking numbers on the website and the Google Business Profile, and does the phone number shown stay consistent everywhere else online?
• Are form submissions and click-to-call taps recorded as conversions in Google Analytics?
• Can you tie a lead to the page or search that produced it?
• How do we find out which leads became paying clients?

The last question usually requires your help. The agency can see that a call came in. Only you know whether it was a $9,000 treatment plan, a signed retainer, a new tax client or a booked furnace replacement. Good agencies set up a simple way for you to mark leads as won or lost. Our article on conversion tracking explains how tracking goes wrong when a platform counts the wrong events.

Call recording also touches legal ground. Recording consent laws vary by state, and professional advertising rules vary by industry and state bar. Ask whether the agency has worked within the rules that apply to you.

Who owns the website and the accounts?

You should own everything the agency touches: the domain name, the hosting account, the website itself, your Google Business Profile, Google Analytics, Search Console, any call tracking account and your ad accounts. The agency should be added as a user, not the other way around.

Google's own help pages show why this matters for your Business Profile. Only the primary owner can transfer primary ownership, and Google notes that transferring it properly keeps your business info, including reviews, intact. If the agency is the primary owner of your profile, getting it back after a dispute can be slow and stressful. Keep primary ownership on your own Google account and give the agency Manager access.

Ownership of the site matters too. If your agency built it, ask in writing whether you own the design, the content and the code if you leave. If you are planning a rebuild, see how website design and SEO should be planned together so you don't redo work.

How will you build links and authority?

Links and mentions from other credible websites remain a strong signal of trust. Ask where they will come from. Good answers are specific: local associations, chambers of commerce, legal or medical directories, supplier and manufacturer pages, local news, sponsorships and original content that others cite. See off-page SEO for how this works.

Be wary of answers like "we have a network of sites" or "high-authority backlinks." Ask for examples from a past client, and ask whether any links are paid for. Google's spam policies treat buying links to influence rankings as a violation, and the Google guidance on hiring an SEO is clear that you are ultimately responsible for what companies you hire do on your behalf.

What will happen in the first 90 days?

A credible plan has an order. Typically that means an audit, a fix list for the site and Business Profile, new or improved pages for your core services, then ongoing content and authority work. If you are unsure what an audit should contain, read what an SEO audit is.

Expect months, not weeks, before search leads move in a meaningful way. Anyone promising results in 30 days is either choosing keywords nobody cares about or taking risks with your site.

Red flags that should end the conversation

• Guaranteed rankings. Google's documentation states that if an SEO guarantees you first place in search results, you should find someone else. No agency controls Google's results. A guarantee usually means easy, low-value keywords, or tactics that can get you penalized.
• Claims of a special relationship with Google. No agency has a back door. Google also warns about "priority submit" style offers.
• Reports with only traffic and rankings. If lead counts never appear, the agency is not measuring what you pay for.
• Vague link building. Not being able to name the kinds of sites that will link to you is a warning sign.
• Accounts under the agency's login. If the agency insists on owning your Business Profile, Analytics or website hosting, or refuses to add you as an admin, that is leverage over you, not a technical necessity.
• Long lock-in contracts. A 12-month or 24-month term with a heavy exit penalty protects the agency, not you.
• Pressure to sign today. Real SEO plans do not expire at midnight.
• Unrequested access. Google advises that if an SEO offers an audit, you should grant only read access to Search Console at that stage. Do not hand over write access or admin rights to start.

What a fair contract looks like

A fair contract is short, specific and easy to leave. Here is what to look for.

Term	Fair	Concerning
Length	A short minimum (often 3 months), then month to month	12 to 24 month terms with exit fees
Scope	Named deliverables each month (pages, fixes, profile work, links)	"Ongoing optimization" with no detail
Reporting	Leads, calls, forms and bookings, plus work completed	Rankings and traffic only
Ownership	You own the site, content, domain and all accounts	Agency owns or hosts critical assets
Access	Agency added as user or manager, removable by you	Agency holds primary ownership
Exit	Credentials, files and content handed over on request	Fees or delays to release assets
Pricing	Flat monthly fee, stated plainly	Hidden setup fees, percentage of revenue

Costs vary widely with scope and market. Retainers commonly run from a few hundred dollars to several thousand a month, and the competitiveness of your city and your service matters a lot. A surgeon in a big metro faces a different job than a plumber in a mid-size town. Our article on SEO cost for plastic surgeons walks through the factors in one high-cost field. For comparison, SEOS pricing starts at $500 a month with a 3-month minimum, then month to month, and the rest of the tiers are month to month.

Whatever the price, ask what is excluded. Content, ad management, web development and extra locations are common add-ons.

How to compare two or three agencies fairly

Give each of them the same short brief: your services, your service area, your best clients and what a new lead is worth to you. Ask each for a plan for the first 90 days and a sample report. Then compare:

1. How specific the plan is to your business, not a template with your name on it.
2. Whether they ask about your close rate and lead value.
3. Whether their answers on ownership and access are given in writing.
4. Whether they explain local search, including Maps, as well as your website. A good overview is in what local SEO is.
5. Whether they talk about AI assistants and Google's AI answers honestly, without promising control over what they say.

If you want a second opinion on what your own visibility looks like today, a free visibility audit is a no-risk way to get a baseline before choosing anyone.

Frequently asked questions

How long does SEO take to work?

Plan on several months before search leads move in a meaningful way, and longer in competitive cities and fields. Local Maps results and low-competition service pages can improve sooner. Be skeptical of anyone who promises a specific date.

Should I worry if an agency won't guarantee results?

No. That is the honest answer. Google's own guidance says no one can guarantee a number 1 ranking, so a guarantee is the thing to worry about. Ask for a plan, a reporting method and a defined way to judge progress instead.

Can I cancel an SEO contract if I'm unhappy?

That depends entirely on what you signed. Read the term, the notice period and any exit fee before agreeing, and look for a short minimum followed by month-to-month billing. Also confirm in writing that you keep access to your accounts, site and content.

Should the agency own my Google Business Profile?

No. You should hold the primary owner role and give the agency manager access. That way you can remove the agency at any time without losing your reviews or listing.

What should I ask for in a first report?

Ask for leads first: calls, forms and booked appointments from search, with the work completed alongside. Traffic and rankings can appear as context, but they should not be the headline. If you cannot tell from the report whether the phone rang more, it is not a good report.