How to Choose an SEO Agency: Questions to Ask
Direct answer
Choose an SEO agency by what it will put in writing: the work it will do each month, who will do it, how results will be counted in enquiries and sales, and what it refuses to promise. Google's own advice is to interview the agency, check its references, and walk away from anyone who guarantees a first-place ranking.
Key takeaways
- Google publishes its own advice on hiring an SEO, and it is the best free checklist available.
- No one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google, so a guarantee is a reason to leave.
- A good agency asks about your business before it talks about itself.
- Get the scope, the price, the term and the reporting in writing before you sign.
- You stay responsible for what an agency does to your site, so insist on being told every change.
In this guide
This guide is for owners working out how to choose an SEO agency, or how to replace one that disappointed them. It turns Google's published advice on hiring an SEO into questions you can ask on a call, with the answers to listen for and the warning signs to act on. Taskcover is an SEO agency too, so hold us to the same list.
Do you need an SEO agency at all?
Not always. Google says the owner of a small local business can probably do much of the work, starting from its SEO Starter Guide.
Google names two moments when hiring makes most sense: when you are planning a redesign, the earlier the better, and when you are launching a new site. An agency also earns its fee when you sell in several cities or countries, or when nobody on your team has the hours. If you have people who can do the work and only lack direction, SEO mentoring can cost less than a full agency plan.
What questions should you ask an SEO agency?
Ask the questions Google itself recommends, then add the commercial ones Google leaves out. The first seven below follow Google's list. The last five are ours.
Twelve questions to ask an SEO agency, and what a good answer sounds like
- Can you show me work for a business like mine?Real examples with before and after figures, and a past client you can phone. Google suggests asking those clients whether the agency was useful, easy to work with and produced results.
- Do you follow Google's published rules?A plain yes, and the habit of pointing to Google's own documentation when they recommend something. The rules are called Google Search Essentials.
- What results do you expect, and when?A range with conditions attached, and what they will look at first. Not a position on a date.
- How do you measure success?Calls, enquiries and sales traced back to search. Positions for search terms should be one signal among several.
- What is your experience in my industry and in my country or city?Specific past work. Search habits and competitors differ between the USA, Canada and Australia, and between cities.
- How will we communicate?A named person, a regular call and a report you can read without a glossary.
- Will you tell me every change you make to my site, and why?Yes, in writing. Google says an SEO with access to your site should be willing to explain every change.
- Who will do the work?The names and roles of the people on your account, and whether any of it is passed to another company.
- What is included each month, and what costs extra?A written scope. Writing, development, translation and advertising spend are the usual extras, and how much SEO costs explains why.
- What is the minimum term, and what do I keep if I leave?A short minimum, a clear notice period, and confirmation that the content, the website and every account stay yours.
- How do you get other websites to mention us?By earning it: useful content, press, partnerships. Never by buying links, which Google lists as link spam.
- What is your advice on AI search, and where does it come from?Advice that matches what Google has published about its AI features. Google suggests checking exactly this when an agency sells services labelled AEO or GEO.
Google's list also suggests asking how long the agency has been in business and what experience it has with international sites, which matters if you sell in more than one country.
Source1Google Search Central
What should a good SEO agency ask you?
A good agency asks about your business before it talks about itself. Google says that if an SEO is not interested in your business, you should find one who is. Expect questions about:
- What makes your business different from its competitors.
- Who those competitors are.
- How customers find you today.
- What a new customer is worth, and which services earn the most.
- Who on your side can approve changes to the website, and who can make them.
The first three come from Google's advice. The last two are what we need to know before we can price a plan.
What are the SEO agency red flags?
The clearest red flags are a guarantee, secrecy and an offer that arrives uninvited. Most of this list comes straight from Google.
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
| Warning sign | Why it matters | Who says so |
|---|---|---|
| A guaranteed first place | Nobody controls Google's results. Google's advice is to find someone else. | |
| A “special relationship” with Google, or a “priority submit” | Google tells owners to beware of both claims, and says it takes no payment to crawl or rank a site. | |
| An email out of the blue saying your site has problems | Google says to treat these with the same suspicion as any other unsolicited offer. | |
| Vague answers about what they will do | You are responsible for what is done to your site. Google warns that deceptive content created on your behalf can get a site removed from its index. | |
| Talk of link schemes, or of submitting your site to thousands of search engines | Google calls these typically useless, and buying links breaks its spam policies. | |
| A request that you link to the agency | Google says you should never have to link to an SEO. | |
| A tool that is “approved by Google” | Google does not evaluate or endorse third-party SEO tools. | |
| A demand for full access before the audit | Google's advice is to grant read-only access to Search Console at the audit stage. | |
| A claim that buying Google Ads lifts your regular rankings | Google says advertising with it has no effect on where a site appears in search results. | |
| Reports that show positions and nothing else | A position is not a customer. Ask what the work brought in. | Our view |
| A price far below every other quote | Something has been left out, usually the human work. | Our view |
Can an SEO agency guarantee rankings?
No. Google states that no one can guarantee a first-place ranking, and that covers agencies of every size, including ours.
What an agency can commit to is its own work: what it will deliver, by when, and how it will report. Ask for those commitments in writing, and treat an honest “we cannot promise that” as a point in the agency's favour.
How to choose an SEO agency, step by step
Work through these seven steps in order. By the last one the choice is usually clear.
From shortlist to signature
- Write down the goal
Decide what you want search to bring: calls, bookings, orders. Work out roughly what one new customer is worth.
- Shortlist two or three agencies
Pick ones that show work for your kind of business and your country, and that publish how they work or what they charge.
- Hold the same call with each
Ask the twelve questions above, and note who asks good questions back.
- Ask for an audit with read-only access
Compare what each agency finds. Google says an audit should give you realistic estimates of the improvement and of the work involved.
- Phone a reference
Ask a past client what went wrong as well as what went right.
- Compare the written scopes
Line up what each includes, what costs extra, the term and the price.
- Start with a term you can leave
Agree a review date, and decide then on the evidence. How long SEO takes explains what to expect by then.
What if an SEO agency has already misled you?
Take back control of your site first, then decide whether to report it. Remove the agency's access to your website, your Search Console and your business profile, and ask for a written list of every change it made. If you are unsure what was done to the site, an independent SEO audit will show it.
Google points owners in the United States to the Federal Trade Commission, which handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices, and owners dealing with a company in another country to econsumer.gov.
Source1Google Search Central
Our own answers to this guide are public: starting prices, case studies with the figures behind them, and what an SEO agency does each month.
Related servicePut these questions to us
Taskcover publishes its starting prices, does not guarantee rankings, works to 90-day plans you approve first, and reports in calls, enquiries and sales.
See the serviceRelated serviceSEO strategy
A lot of SEO turns into a list of tasks with no clear link to sales. We start with how your business earns money, then put the work on your website, your content and your reputation into one plan. The jobs most likely to bring enquiries come first.
See the serviceShould I choose a local SEO agency or one based anywhere?
Experience in your market matters more than the agency's address. Google suggests asking about experience in your country or city, because competitors and search habits differ. Taskcover's office is in New York and we work with businesses across the USA, Canada and Australia.
Should I give an SEO agency access to my website?
Yes, in stages. For an audit, read-only access to Search Console is enough, which is what Google recommends. Give editing access once you have signed, keep every account in your company's name, and ask for a log of changes.
What should an SEO proposal include?
The goal in your words, the work for the first 90 days in order, who does it, what is excluded, the price, the term and how results will be reported. If a proposal is mostly about the agency and its awards, ask for one about your business.
Is the cheapest quote a bad sign?
Not by itself. A narrow job described honestly can be cheap and good. The warning sign is a low price attached to a large promise, because the human work is what gets cut. How much SEO costs lists what usually goes missing.
Can I change SEO agency without losing progress?
Yes, if you own the website, the content and the accounts. Ask the outgoing agency for a list of what it changed and what was planned next, and give the new one read access before the handover. Pages already improved stay improved.
Start with a free audit.
Send us your website and we will show you, free, what we would fix first, so you can compare our answer with anyone else's.
The authors
Who wrote and checked this guide
Written by
Jamiez Nguyen
Founder & CEO
Jamiez Nguyen founded Taskcover and leads strategy and client growth. He started it in 2017 as a team doing search work behind the scenes for other agencies, then opened it to businesses in the USA, Canada and Australia.
Reviewed by
John Edward
CTO
John Edward leads the technical side of Taskcover: how sites are built, how fast they load, and how search engines read them.
Updated Fact-checked About the people at Taskcover
Sources
Where the facts in this guide come from
Facts last checked on October 12, 2026.
- 1Do you need an SEO?Google Search CentralChecked on October 12, 2026
- 2Spam policies for Google web searchGoogle Search CentralChecked on October 12, 2026
- 3In-depth guide to how Google Search worksGoogle Search CentralChecked on October 12, 2026
