Eleven questions to ask an SEO agency before you sign
The questions that separate a scoped SEO proposal from a template — and the answers that should end the conversation.
Before the questions, one principle
You are not evaluating whether the agency knows SEO. Almost all of them can talk fluently for an hour. You are evaluating whether they have looked at your specific situation and whether they will tell you something you do not want to hear. Every question below is designed to test one of those two things.
The eleven
1. What did you find when you crawled our site? A serious agency has crawled you before the meeting. If the answer is general, they are pitching a template.
2. Which keywords are realistically winnable for us this year, and which are not? The second half of that answer is the one that matters. An agency unwilling to name unreachable terms is planning to bill you against them.
3. What is the single biggest constraint on our organic performance right now? Forces a diagnosis rather than a service list. If the answer is 'you need more content' without evidence, ask what evidence.
4. Does this quote include implementation, or only recommendations? The most common hidden gap in Indian SEO proposals. Recommendations you cannot apply are worth very little.
5. Who actually does the work, and what is their experience? Ask to meet them, not the account manager. Pricing at the mid-market level buys seniority or it does not.
6. How do you build links, specifically? Listen for whether they describe earned coverage and digital PR, or whether they describe volume, placements and packages. Paid link networks work briefly and create a liability you inherit.
7. What will you report, and against what? If the answer is rankings and traffic without any connection to enquiries or revenue, you will be unable to judge the engagement in twelve months.
8. What happens to the work if we leave? Content, accounts, documentation and data should be yours. Agencies that host your site on their account or publish content on their own domains are building a hostage.
9. What have you failed at? A genuine answer is the strongest signal in the whole list. Everyone has lost a client and mishandled a migration.
10. Can I speak to a client in a similar situation? Not a logo — a conversation. Note that the logo wall is the most-copied and least-verified element in this category; several of the agencies we reviewed display blue-chip marks with no case study behind them.
11. What would you do first if we only had three months of budget? Reveals prioritisation instantly, and gives you a sequenced plan whether or not you hire them.
Answers that should end the conversation
A guarantee of specific rankings or of placement in AI Overviews. Neither is purchasable and neither is verifiable, because results vary by user, location and session.
A fixed monthly price quoted before anyone has looked at your site.
Any description of a link-building process that involves buying placements at volume. This creates a risk that lands on your domain, not theirs.
Reluctance to name anything they would not pursue. An agency that thinks every keyword is winnable is not planning, it is selling.
And a proposal built entirely around content volume with no technical diagnosis. On a large share of underperforming sites the constraint is crawl, indexation or rendering, and publishing more pages into that condition changes nothing.
One question to ask yourself
Is organic search actually the right channel for us right now? For a business still finding product-market fit, or one whose buyers do not search, paid or direct sales will produce answers faster. SEO compounds, which is its strength and also means it is a poor instrument when you need to know something this quarter.
An agency willing to tell you that is worth more than one that is not.
Common questions
How do I know if an SEO agency is any good before hiring them?
Ask them what they found when they crawled your site, and which of your target keywords they would not pursue. Both answers require them to have done specific work on your situation and to be willing to limit their own scope. Fluency about SEO in general tells you nothing — almost every agency has it.
Should an SEO agency guarantee results?
No, and a guarantee of specific rankings is a reason to walk away. Search results vary by user, location and session, and no agency controls the algorithm. What an agency can legitimately commit to is the work itself — the deliverables, the quantities and the timeline — and to reporting honestly against agreed metrics.
What is a fair contract length for SEO?
Three to six months is a reasonable minimum, because results genuinely take that long to appear and an agency cannot plan around a thirty-day exit. Beyond twelve months without a break clause, the length is protecting the agency rather than the work. Month-to-month with no minimum is increasingly common at the SMB tier and is a fair thing to ask for.
Is it better to hire in-house or an agency?
In-house makes sense when search is a primary channel and there is enough continuous work to occupy a specialist — usually large ecommerce or a content-led business. An agency makes sense when you need several disciplines part-time, which describes most companies. A common and sensible middle path is one in-house owner who coordinates specialist agency work.
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