21 Questions to Ask an SEO Agency Before You Hire Them

Whether you’re hiring an SEO company for the first or third time, it’s a time- and resource-intensive step. Based on more than 25+ years of working in SEO, we’ve learned which questions to ask an SEO agency to find the best SEO services for your business and are sharing them below:

Best questions to ask an SEO agency

The best questions to ask an SEO agency include the following:

1. What SEO Areas Will You Optimize My Site For?
2. Do You Specialize in SEO for Specific Markets?
3. Do You Work with Any of My Competitors?
4. How Do You Define Success in SEO?
5. How Do You Incorporate SEO into a Broader Marketing Strategy?
6. Will You Work with My Other Agencies?
7. Do You Require Site Access?
8. When Should I Expect to See SEO Results?
9. What Type of SEO Reporting Will You Provide?
10. What SEO Tools Do You Use?
11. How Do You Communicate with Clients?
12. Who Will I Communicate with on My Account?
13. How Much of My Time Will You Need?
14. What Do You Need from My Business to Be Effective?
15. Are You Willing to Travel for In-person Meetings?
16. Do You Require an SEO Contract?
17. What Happens if I Terminate My Contract?
18. What is Your SEO Pricing Model?
19. What Are Your SEO Deliverables?
20. Can You Provide Some Client References?
21. Why Should We Hire You vs. Another SEO Agency?

1. What SEO areas will you optimize my site for?

No matter what the SEO company’s website said, ask them this question.

We’ve seen too many times when businesses sign with an agency expecting XYZ but get ABC instead. Ask this question, and you can confirm if this firm meets your needs, like building your backlink profile or optimizing your technical SEO.

2. Do you specialize in SEO for specific markets?

Hiring an SEO marketing company that specializes in your industry, like manufacturing, or business model, like B2B, can give your SEO strategy a competitive advantage because the agency comes into the partnership understanding your market, challenges, and more.

If the agency has experience in your industry, ask some related questions, like:

• How many businesses have you worked with in my sector?
• Will my account be assigned an industry-specific expert?
• Do you have references or case studies to share?

3. Do you work with any of my competitors?

Even if an agency doesn’t specialize in your market, one of the questions to ask an SEO marketing agency is if they work with your direct competitors.

Reputable SEO providers will not work with direct competitors…If they do, many will offer referrals to recommended agencies.

Reputable SEO providers will not work with direct competitors, and often research this piece of information before continuing discussions with you and your team.

If they do, many will offer referrals to recommended agencies.

4. How do you define success in SEO?

This is one of the most important questions to ask when hiring an SEO company.

People define success differently in search engine optimization (SEO). Some focus on rankings and traffic, while others focus on leads and revenue. With this question, you can understand how the agency measures SEO success.

Ideally, you want a firm that:

• Asks how your organization defines SEO success
• Shares your organization’s definition for SEO success

We include the second point because the relationship is often more successful when you and the SEO company share the same opinion on what makes an SEO strategy a success. While firms can adapt to different client opinions here, an experience element is often missing.

5. How do you incorporate SEO into a broader marketing strategy?

You’re likely investing in more than search engine optimization for your website. Like other digital marketing strategies, from paid advertising to email marketing, SEO works best when part of an omnichannel marketing plan.

So, ask how the agency incorporates their work into your overall marketing strategy.

For example, do they consider your lead magnets for your email marketing efforts when producing and publishing content on your site? Or, do they assist with ensuring paid landing pages follow best practices for SEO, like being noindex?

SEO companies that provide this support (and consideration) often serve more as a partner to their clients rather than a service provider. For businesses of all sizes, partnership is often critical when outsourcing services.

6. Will you work with my other agencies?

From web design agencies to social media management companies, it’s common for businesses to partner with multiple agencies to meet their marketing needs. If this sounds like your organization, then it’s critical to ask SEO providers this question.

When your agencies collaborate with one another, your benefits include:

• Streamlining project management
• Meeting project deadlines
• Syncing marketing initiatives
• And more

In comparison, service providers that don’t collaborate often motivate companies to partner with a full-service agency. These agencies offer all the solutions a company needs without hiring multiple agencies.

7. Do you require site access?

SEO optimizations require site updates, from publishing new content to updating title tags to implementing page speed fixes. While some SEO agencies can work without site access, others require it.

If you can’t provide site access, which is common for enterprise-level organizations (and familiar territory for top enterprise SEO companies), ask this question! As a follow-up question, ask how often the agency has worked with no site access, and how that impacts their processes, performance, and more.

8. When should I expect to see SEO results?

In our experience, this question tends to reveal spammy SEO companies.

These businesses will often promise an unrealistic timeline for SEO results, like within 30 days or a few months. Typically, SEO takes three to six months to show results, with some websites requiring up to 12 months of work.

If the agency has audited your site’s SEO, they can likely provide a more tailored estimate.

Download checklist: Questions to ask an SEO agency

9. What type of SEO reporting will you provide?

Every SEO provider should provide SEO reporting. However, asking this question can help you better understand how that agency reports. For example, you can learn what metrics they measure, which attribution model they use, and more. It’s not unrealistic, either, to ask for a reporting example.

10. What SEO tools do you use?

While you likely won’t have access to the tools used by your SEO agency, understanding their toolkit can help you better understand their data sources, processes, and more. Typically, the best SEO companies will mention Ahrefs, Semrush, and other paid SEO platforms.

If the firm mentions an in-house or exclusive tool, ask some follow-up questions, like:

• Is this a white-label or proprietary tool?
• Will I have access to this tool?
• Where does this tool source its data?
• If this data uses my business’s data, is it secure?
• Can you provide a demo?

Based on these questions, you can better understand the tool’s role. We recommend further researching the platform afterward and compiling additional questions to ask the SEO agency at your next meet-up.

11. How do you communicate with clients?

Communication is key to a successful agency and client relationship, so it’s important to understand:

• What communication methods the agency uses, like email, phone, or video conferencing
• How often the agency communicates with you, like weekly, monthly, or quarterly
• Who will communicate with you and your team
• Whether the agency can meet your custom communication needs

Before contacting an SEO company, we recommend looking for communication mentions in their reviews. Based on client reviews, you can gauge in advance whether the agency excels (or fails) in this critical area.

12. Who will I communicate with on my account?

While the previous question can cover this one, it’s important enough to include here. Whether you’re looking to share information or troubleshoot an issue, you need a dedicated point of contact (POC) at your SEO company. However, not all agencies provide dedicated POCs.

13. How much of my time will you need?

Ask SEO agencies this question no matter your preferred involvement level, from hands-off to hands-on. Typically, SEO companies will require more of your time initially, but time requirements can vary based on who manages your account.

This question also helps you decide if your preferred involvement level works for the agency.

14. What do you need from my business to be effective?

Your SEO performance is influenced by your agency, but also your team. That’s why it’s valuable to ask SEO marketing companies what they need from your business or team to succeed.

For example, agencies often need:

• Brand or style guidelines
• Target audience
• Site access
• Top-selling products or services

Often, you’re providing SEO companies with context about your business and products or services. This context can help them research keywords, develop content topics, and other ideas for your marketing efforts.

15. Are you willing to travel for in-person meetings?

If you’re hoping to meet your SEO team in-person, ask this question! While some SEO companies will travel to your location, especially if they’re local to your area, some won’t because of the distance.

As an alternative, if you’re willing to travel to them, ask if you can visit.

16. Do you require an SEO contract?

In most cases, SEO companies will require an SEO contract. How long the contract lasts depends on the agency. In our experience, most companies have a six-to-twelve-month contract, though some operate on a month-to-month basis.

17. What happens if I terminate my contract?

Get informed before you sign with an SEO agency, and ask what happens in the worst-case scenario (in this instance, terminating your contract). How agencies approach termination often depends on why you’re ending the relationship, like due to results, service, budget cuts, or something else.

18. What is your SEO pricing model?

Most SEO companies do not post their pricing online, so we recommend asking this question to your SEO agency. The most common pricing models for SEO services include monthly. If you’re hiring an SEO firm for SEO consulting services, they might charge an hourly or one-time project fee.

19. What are your SEO deliverables?

Your service deliverables outline what an SEO agency will do for your business. That’s why we strongly recommend avoiding SEO companies that refuse to provide you with a list of deliverables and include those deliverables in the SEO contract.

20. Can you provide some client references?

Client references are fantastic, especially if they’re from your industry. Add this as one of your questions to ask an SEO marketing company, and you can receive unmatched insight into what it’s like working with that agency.

21. Why should we hire you vs. another SEO agency?

What we love about this question to ask SEO companies is you get insight into the other agencies you’re interviewing. For example, you might learn that ABC firm raises prices frequently or that YXZ company buys links. Of course, you should take what is said with some skepticism.

For even more questions, browse our SEO FAQs!

Get these questions answered with our SEO company

So, you’ve debated in-house vs. agency SEO and decided to take the leap with an experienced agency! Are you looking to test these questions? Give them a go with our SEO company, one of the best SEO companies in Canada, U.S., and around the world, which has provided SEO services for more than 25+ years to businesses across the globe. Contact us today to speak with our award-winning team!