The questions to ask an SEO agency before hiring are the ones that expose how they work: who does the work, what happens in the first 90 days, who owns your accounts, how they build links, how they measure results, and what they say about AI search. The answers matter more than the questions. A good agency gives specific, checkable answers; a bad one gives you confidence and adjectives.
Most lists online hand you 20 to 38 questions with no idea what a good answer sounds like. That’s how buyers end up hiring the smoothest talker. Below are 12 questions we’d actually ask, the answer you want, the answer that should end the call, and a simple scoring sheet so you can compare three agencies on paper instead of on vibes.
What does Google itself say to ask an SEO?
Start here, because it’s the only neutral source in this whole space. Google’s “Do you need an SEO?” page (last updated June 5, 2026) suggests asking for examples of previous work, whether they follow Google Search Essentials, what results they expect and in what timeframe, and what experience they have in your industry and your country or city. It also says plainly: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”
Two newer lines are worth knowing. If an SEO wants to run an audit, Google advises you “only grant read access to Search Console (at this stage, don’t grant them write access).” And if they pitch AI work, the page tells you to check whether their AEO or GEO advice matches Google’s own guidance on generative AI. So that guidance is your answer key. We’ll use it below.
The 12 questions, with good and walk-away answers
1. Who exactly will work on my account, and how many other accounts do they handle?
Good answer: names, roles, and a rough account load. You meet the person doing the work before you sign. Walk-away answer: “Our team” with no names, or the senior person on the sales call disappears after kickoff. In our view, this is the single most predictive question on the list. Senior sellers and junior doers is the most common agency model, and it’s fine only if you know about it upfront.
2. What will you do in the first 90 days, week by week?
Good answer: an audit or discovery phase, a prioritised fix list, and a named first deliverable with a date. Walk-away answer: “We’ll start optimising right away” or a package description that would be identical for a plumber and a SaaS company.
3. Show me a result for a business like mine, and let me talk to that client.
Google tells you to check business references. Do it. Good answer: a case with before and after numbers, a timeframe, and a reference who’ll take a 15-minute call. Walk-away answer: screenshots of traffic graphs with the axis cropped, or “all our clients are under NDA.”
4. Who will own the Search Console, analytics, content and any links you build?
Good answer: you own everything; they’re added as users. In Search Console, an owner “has full control over properties,” while a full user can view all data and use some tools, and a restricted user gets “simple view rights on most data,” per Google’s permissions help page. Your company should be the owner. Walk-away answer: the agency creates the accounts under its own login, or content stays theirs if you leave. We covered the contract side of this in our guide to SEO contract red flags.
5. How do you get links, specifically?
Good answer: a method you could explain to your accountant, such as digital PR, useful assets, partner and supplier pages, local sponsorships. Walk-away answer: “proprietary network,” a monthly quota of links, or anything that requires you to link back to them. Google’s page is blunt about this: “You should never have to link to an SEO,” and it warns against “link popularity schemes.”
6. What will you not recommend for a business at our stage?
This one sorts people quickly. Good answer: they talk you out of something, maybe a content volume you don’t need or a tool subscription. Walk-away answer: everything is in scope and everything is urgent.
7. How will you measure success, and what does a bad month look like in your report?
Good answer: leads, sales or qualified traffic tied to pages, with rankings as a supporting metric. They show you a real sample report and explain what they do when numbers fall. Walk-away answer: a report built on keyword positions and a third-party “authority” score. Google’s guidance on third-party SEO tools notes that “third-party tools don’t have access to our internal ranking data” and that “any predictions are their own.” Fine as signals. Not fine as the goal.
8. What results do you expect, and by when?
That’s Google’s own suggested question. Good answer: a range with assumptions attached, such as “if the technical fixes ship in month one, we’d expect to see movement on these page types by month X,” plus what could make it slower. Walk-away answer: a guaranteed position or a fixed date for page one. Google says if they guarantee first place, “find someone else.”
9. Will you show me every change you make to the site?
Google lists this almost word for word: will they share all the changes they make and explain their recommendations. Good answer: a change log, staging first, and approval for anything that touches templates or redirects. Walk-away answer: secrecy. Google’s line is “Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.”
Comparing proposals right now? Send us the two you’re weighing and we’ll tell you, in plain words, which promises are checkable and which aren’t. Get in touch with SEOIndexr.
10. What’s your approach to AI search, and does it match Google’s guidance?
Every agency now sells some version of AI visibility. Fine. Google’s guide to optimising for generative AI features (updated July 10, 2026) gives you a cheat sheet for this question. It says “You don’t need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search,” that “There’s no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces for AI,” and that “there’s no special schema.org markup you need to add.”
So if the AI part of a proposal is mostly llms.txt files, content “chunking” and special schema for Google, that’s a weak pitch. A good answer talks about being the clearest, most citable source on the questions your buyers ask, earning real mentions (Google notes that seeking “inauthentic ‘mentions'” isn’t as helpful as it might seem), and tracking which AI answers cite you across Google and other assistants. If AI search is a priority for you, our generative engine optimization services page lays out how we scope it, and this post on AI visibility tactics that hold up goes deeper.
11. What do you need from us, and how much of our time?
Good answer: a specific ask, such as a developer for a few hours a month, a subject expert for interviews, sign-off within a set number of days. SEO stalls when fixes sit in a dev queue. Walk-away answer: “Nothing, we handle it all.” On most sites that’s not true, and it means nothing technical will get shipped.
12. How do I leave, and what do I keep?
Good answer: a notice period you can live with, plus a clean handover of access, content and reports. Walk-away answer: a long lock-in with no performance exit, or “we’ll talk about that later.”
How do you score the answers?
Write each agency’s answers down during the call. Then score every question 0, 1 or 2:
- 2 = specific and checkable (names, dates, a sample, a reference you can call)
- 1 = reasonable but vague
- 0 = evasive, or a walk-away answer
Maximum is 24. Then apply one override: a 0 on question 4 (ownership), 5 (links) or 8 (guarantees) disqualifies the agency no matter the total. Those three are where a bad hire costs you more than money.
Here’s a hypothetical example with three made-up agencies:
| Agency (hypothetical) | Total score | Override hit? | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency A | 20 / 24 | Yes: 0 on Q8, promised page one in 90 days | Out |
| Agency B | 17 / 24 | No | Shortlist |
| Agency C | 13 / 24 | No | Only if B falls through |
Our decision rule: shortlist anyone at 16 or above (two thirds of 24) with no override. Agency A had the best pitch and the highest score, and it’s still out. That’s the point of the override. Polished sales calls inflate scores everywhere except the questions that can’t be faked.
If two agencies tie, go back to question 1. The one where you’ve met the person doing the work wins. Then compare price, which we break down by vertical in posts like our dental SEO cost guide.
A pre-call email you can send today
Send this before the first call. Agencies that answer it in writing save you a meeting. Agencies that ignore it have told you something too.
Hi [Name],
Looking forward to our call on [date]. To make it useful, could you reply with short answers to these first?
1. Who would work on our account day to day, and how many other accounts do they manage?
2. What would you deliver in the first 90 days, and by when?
3. Can you share one result for a business similar to ours, and a client we could speak to?
4. Will we own the Search Console, analytics and all content? (We’ll add you as a user.)
5. How do you earn links? A short description is fine.
6. What’s the notice period, and what do we keep if we part ways?
Thanks,
[Your name]
What should the agency ask you?
Google’s page puts it simply: “See if the SEO is interested in you and your business. If they’re not interested, find someone who is.” A serious agency should ask about your margins, your best customers, which pages make money, what your sales team hears, and what’s been tried before. If the agency talks for 45 minutes and asks two questions, the proposal will be a template. Count their questions. It’s free data.
FAQs
How many SEO agencies should I talk to before hiring?
Three is usually enough to see the spread of answers. More than five and the calls blur together, and you start scoring on charisma. Use the same questions for every agency so the scores are comparable.
Is it a red flag if an SEO agency won’t guarantee results?
No. The opposite. Google says “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google” and that a service or tool “doesn’t guarantee ranking success.” A guarantee is the red flag. A range of expected outcomes with stated assumptions is what you want.
Should I give an SEO agency access to Search Console before signing?
Read access only, if they need it for an audit. Google specifically advises against granting write access at that stage. Keep ownership with your company and add the agency as a user once you’ve signed.
Do I need a separate agency for AI search (GEO or AEO)?
In our view, usually not. Google’s own guide says optimising for generative AI search is optimising for search, and Google’s Danny Sullivan said on the Search Off the Record podcast that advice on hiring GEO or AEO providers is “very similar” to advice on hiring an SEO, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable. Ask your SEO agency question 10 above. If they can’t answer it well, that’s the gap to fill.
What if an agency cold-emailed me?
Google’s page says to “be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that email you out of the blue.” Not automatically a scam, but put them through every question above with extra care.
Send us your URL and goals, and we’ll reply with who’d work on it, what the first 90 days would look like, and what we’d tell you not to spend money on. Talk to SEOIndexr or email seoindexr@gmail.com.
Sources
- Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?
- Google Search Central: Guidance on using third-party SEO tools, services, and advice
- Google Search Central: Optimizing for generative AI features
- Search Console Help: Managing owners, users, and permissions
- Search Engine Roundtable: Google on hiring a GEO/AEO/SEO and buying AI-optimization tools
- Search Engine Roundtable: Google updates its hiring an SEO guide