The best way to choose an SEO agency is to look at what they’ll actually do each month and how they’ll show you it’s working, not at promises about rankings. Ask the questions below before you sign anything and you’ll soon see who’s worth talking to.
Most business owners don’t hire an SEO agency often, so it’s hard to know what good looks like. The questions people ask us are usually the same ones: what will it cost, how long will it take, and will we actually show up on Google? Those are the right questions. This guide helps you get straight answers to them.
1. Be clear what you want SEO to do
Enquiries and sales, not just rankings
Before you speak to anyone, decide what success means for your business. For most, it’s more enquiries, bookings or sales from people who didn’t already know your name. Rankings matter because they lead there, but a page one position for a search nobody buys from won’t pay for anything. An agency worth hiring will ask what you sell and who buys it before they talk about keywords. Our guide on why search intent matters more than keywords goes into this in more detail.
Where your customers are
Do your customers come from your town, across the UK or abroad? It changes the work. A local business needs its Google Business Profile and local listings looked after as much as its website. A national shop needs its category and product pages to bring in most of its visitors.
2. Look at their results and their clients
Case studies you can check for yourself
Ask to see work for businesses like yours, and look for results you can check: a site you can visit, searches you can try yourself, enquiries or sales that went up. Google suggests the same thing in its own advice on hiring an SEO: ask for examples of previous work and success stories. You can see the kind of work we do for a physio clinic in Manchester, a security installer near Glasgow and a sneaker shop in Cyprus.
Reviews from real clients
Read reviews on Google and anywhere else the agency is listed. Look for detail. “Great service” tells you very little; “they explained everything and our enquiries went up” tells you a lot.
3. Ask what you’ll get each month
The work itself
Ongoing SEO can mean anything from a monthly report to a full programme of work. Ask exactly what happens each month: which pages they’ll improve, whether they’ll write new content, how they’ll look after your Business Profile and how they’ll earn links. If the answer is vague, the work probably will be too. And when you compare prices, compare the work: a cheaper plan that covers less isn’t a saving. For what it’s worth, our SEO clients work month to month with no long contract, get a plain-English report every month and can see what we’re doing in their client portal.
Who actually does it
Ask who’ll be working on your account and whether you can speak to them. Some agencies sell the work and pass it on to someone else. That isn’t always a problem, but you should know before you sign.
4. Ask how they’ll show you it’s working
Searches for your name and everything else
People searching for your business by name were likely to find you anyway. The real test of SEO is whether you’re being found by people who’ve never heard of you. A good report shows the two separately, so you can see whether the work is bringing in new customers.
Enquiries, not just traffic
More visitors is good. More enquiries is better. Ask how the agency will track calls, forms and sales, not just clicks, and make sure the numbers in their reports are ones you can check yourself. Our guide to website analytics explains what’s worth measuring.
5. Check the contract and who holds the keys
Notice periods
SEO takes time, so some commitment makes sense, but be careful with long contracts you can’t get out of. Ask what notice you’d need to give and what happens to the work if you leave.
Access to your Search Console, analytics and Business Profile
Your Google Search Console, analytics and Business Profile should be in your name, with the agency given access, not the other way round. If you part company, you keep the accounts and all their history. Google’s advice is to give an SEO read-only access to Search Console when they’re first auditing your site.
6. Red flags worth walking away from
Guaranteed rankings
Nobody can guarantee a top ranking on Google. Google says so itself, and warns against anyone who claims a special relationship with Google or a way to jump the queue. If an agency promises you first place, look elsewhere.
Links for sale
Be wary of anyone selling links, whether it’s a handful or hundreds for a fixed price, or offering to submit your site to thousands of search engines. Google says buying links to improve your ranking is against its spam policies and can do your site real harm, and calls the mass submissions a waste of time.
Reports you can’t follow
If you can’t understand your monthly report, ask for it in plain English. An agency should be able to explain what they did, why, and what changed. Google’s advice is to be careful with anyone who won’t clearly explain what they’re doing.
Making the choice
Shortlist two or three agencies and ask them all the same questions. Then pick the one whose answers you understood, whose results you could check, and who asked you the most about your business.
If you’d like to talk through what SEO could do for your business, have a look at our SEO services.
You can email us at hello@thesocialbay.co.uk, fill in our start a project form, or call or message us on 07441 918230.
Frequently asked questions about choosing an SEO agency
What questions should I ask an SEO agency?
Ask what they’ll do each month and what’s included for the price, who’ll do it, how they’ll report results, what they’ve achieved for businesses like yours, and what notice you’d need to give. Google also suggests asking whether they follow its guidelines and what results they expect, and over what timeframe.
Can an SEO agency guarantee first place on Google?
No. Google is clear that no one can guarantee a number one ranking. A good agency will tell you what they’ll do and how they’ll measure it, not promise a position.
How long should I give an SEO agency before judging results?
SEO usually takes months rather than weeks, and it depends on where your site starts and how competitive your searches are. Ask the agency what they expect to see and by when, then hold them to it. You should see signs of progress, like more searches showing your site, before the enquiries arrive.
Should I sign a long SEO contract?
Only if you’re confident in the agency. A rolling arrangement with a sensible notice period gives you the flexibility to leave if the work isn’t delivering, and keeps everyone focused on results.
What makes a good SEO agency?
One that asks about your business before it talks about keywords, tells you plainly what it’ll do each month, shows you results you can check, and never promises a ranking. You should always know what’s been done and why.