Quick answer: Ask any SEO company for specifics: who does the work, what you will receive each month, how success is measured and whether you will own your accounts. Good answers are concrete and checkable. Walk away from guaranteed rankings, secret methods, link schemes, locked contracts and anyone who will not give you access to your own data.
Choosing an SEO company is hard because you are buying something you cannot easily inspect. The work happens in the background, results take time, and the vocabulary is unfamiliar. That gap is where poor providers hide, and it is also why a few good questions can tell you so much.
This guide gives you 12 questions to ask, what a good and a poor answer sounds like, the red flags to watch for and a few ways to check what you are told. It applies whether you are talking to an agency, a freelancer or a small team like ours.
What are the 12 questions to ask an SEO company?
1. Who will actually work on my account?
Good answer: Names and roles, plus how much of their time goes to your project. Poor answer: A vague “our team” with no detail, or a sales contact who is not involved in the work.
2. What exactly will you do in the first 90 days?
Good answer: A concrete plan such as a site and Google Business Profile review, fixing technical issues, updating key pages and setting up tracking. Poor answer: “We will optimize your site” with no list of tasks.
3. How will you measure success?
Good answer: Goals tied to your business, such as calls, form submissions, direction requests and visibility for important searches, with a baseline recorded first. Poor answer: Only vanity numbers like total keywords or traffic with no link to leads.
4. Will I own my accounts and website?
Good answer: Yes. You are the owner of your Google Business Profile, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and domain, and the provider is added as a user. Poor answer: They set up accounts under their own login, or they hold your domain.
5. What kind of reporting will I get, and how often?
Good answer: A regular report in plain English that shows what was done, what changed and what happens next. Poor answer: No reporting, or a dashboard of numbers with no explanation.
6. How do you get links, and what do you avoid?
Good answer: They talk about earning mentions through useful content, local relationships, real citations and directories, and they decline paid link schemes. Poor answer: Bulk links, link networks or “proprietary” link sources they will not name.
7. Do you guarantee rankings?
Good answer: No. Nobody outside Google controls rankings, and a trustworthy provider says so. Poor answer: Any promise of a specific position or a fixed timeline.
8. What is the contract length and how do I cancel?
Good answer: Clear terms, a reasonable notice period and a statement of what you keep if you leave. Poor answer: Long lock-ins, automatic renewals buried in the fine print or penalties for leaving.
9. What do you need from me?
Good answer: Access, answers about your services and service areas, photos, reviews and approval of content. SEO works better with your input. Poor answer: “Nothing, we handle everything”, which usually means generic work.
10. How do you handle content, and who writes it?
Good answer: A clear process for researching topics, writing for real customers, reviewing for accuracy and getting your approval. Poor answer: Mass-produced pages with no review, or content that could be about any business in any city.
11. How do you approach local search and AI answers?
Good answer: They explain Google Business Profile, consistent business details, reviews and clear page content, and they are careful about what they claim about AI features. Poor answer: Buzzwords with no explanation or promises to “get you into” AI results.
12. Can I speak to a current client?
Good answer: They can offer a reference or a sample report, with the client’s permission. Poor answer: Refusal, or only anonymous testimonials you cannot verify.
What are the biggest red flags when hiring an SEO company?
Some warning signs are serious enough to end the conversation.
- Guaranteed first-page or number one rankings. No one can promise this, and Google itself says no one can.
- Secret methods. Real SEO work is explainable. If they will not describe what they do, you cannot judge whether it is helping or putting you at risk.
- No reporting or unclear reporting. You are paying for activity you cannot see.
- Link schemes. Buying links or joining networks to manipulate rankings can lead to penalties and expensive cleanup.
- Locked contracts. Long terms with heavy exit fees shift the risk to you.
- No access to your own accounts. If they own your Google profile or analytics, you are tied to them.
- Unsolicited, urgent pitches. Messages claiming your site is “broken” with a countdown to act are a sales tactic, not an audit.
- Pressure to pay everything up front for work that will take months.
One red flag does not always mean bad intent, but several together should make you cautious.
How can I verify what an SEO company tells me?
You do not need technical skills to check a provider. A few simple steps go a long way.
Check their own site
Does their own website explain what they do, who they are and how they price? A company that sells SEO should be able to make its own pages clear. Search for their business name and see how it appears.
Ask for a sample report and a sample plan
A provider with a real process can show you what a monthly report and a first-month plan look like, with client details removed. If everything is “custom” and nothing can be shown, be careful.
Look at reviews with care
Read reviews on Google and elsewhere, and look for detail. Specific descriptions of the work are more useful than short praise. Remember that reviews alone do not prove results.
Test their explanations
Ask them to explain a recommendation in plain terms. If you cannot follow the reasoning after a fair attempt, that is worth noting. Good providers can describe technical work without jargon.
What should happen in the first 30 days?
A trial or onboarding period tells you a lot about how a company works. Here is what to expect from a sound start.
- Access and setup. You grant access to your accounts, and they confirm tracking is working.
- Baseline. They record where you stand: current visibility, calls, form submissions and any technical issues.
- Audit and priorities. You receive a plain-language list of what to fix first and why.
- First changes. Early work may include correcting business details, improving the Google Business Profile and fixing page titles or speed problems.
- First report. You see what was done and what comes next.
Do not expect large ranking changes in the first month. Search engines need time to process changes, and how long it takes varies by site, competition and market. What you should see is activity you can verify.
How much should I expect to pay?
Prices vary with the size of your site, the number of locations, your competition and the services included. Be careful with very low prices that promise a lot and with high prices that explain little. Compare what is included, not the headline number. Our pricing page shows how we set out SEO plans, which start at $199 per month on a month-to-month basis.
What if I am not sure which service I need?
Many small businesses need a mix of local SEO, fixes on their website and a steady content plan. Start with a short call and ask the company to tell you what they would do first and what they would leave alone. A good provider is willing to say “you do not need that yet”. Read more about our SEO services, or check SEO for Oregon businesses if you work locally.
If your website itself is the problem, outdated or hard to edit, it can make sense to fix that first. See our WordPress services for how we handle that.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if an SEO company is legitimate?
Look for clear explanations, named people, written terms, regular reporting and your ownership of every account. Legitimate companies describe their work and admit what they cannot control. Be cautious if they promise rankings, avoid questions or will not give you access to your own data.
Is it a red flag if an SEO company contacts me first?
It can be. Cold emails that claim to have found problems on your site are often templates. That does not make every outreach a scam, but you should verify the sender, ask for specifics and compare them with providers you find yourself.
Should I pay for SEO in advance for several months?
Be careful. Paying for a long period up front reduces your leverage if the work does not meet expectations. Month-to-month billing, or short terms with clear exit conditions, keeps both sides accountable.
How long before I can judge an SEO company?
You can judge communication and activity in the first month. Judging search results takes longer, and the timeline depends on your site and competition. Look at trends in leads and visibility over several months, alongside the reports.
Can I switch SEO companies later?
Yes, if you own your accounts and website. Ask for documentation of what was done. A good provider will help with a handover, and a new one can continue from the baseline.
Next steps
If you would like to put these questions to us, request a quote at /instant-quote/ and we will answer them in writing.