Questions to Ask an SEO Company Before You Hire, for Small Business Owners
Updated: 5 days ago
The questions to ask an SEO company before you hire are the ones that settle what "working" will look like: what happens in a normal week, who does the work, what is excluded, what will change and by when, and whether you are a fit. This page gives you those, Google's list, and what a weak answer sounds like.
If you have paid for SEO before and could not tell whether it worked, the problem was probably not the effort. It was that nobody agreed up front on what working would look like. The same questions work whether the provider calls itself an SEO company or an SEO agency.
What questions should you ask an SEO company before hiring?
Ask five: what happens in a normal week in month four; who does the work, and will it be the same person in month six; what will you not do; what number will change, where will I see it, and by when; and when would you say I am not a fit. Then ask Google's questions.
Question | Why it matters | A weak answer sounds like |
What happens in a normal week, in month four, when nothing is new? | It shows the work that recurs, which is what a monthly fee buys | A description of onboarding or a strategy call |
Who does the work, and will that be the same person in month six? | Context is lost when work moves between people | A team name, with no person attached |
What will you not do? | The boundary tells you more than the offer | "We do it all" |
What number will be different, where will I see it, and by when? | It sets what "working" means before you pay | "More traffic", with no page or search named |
What would make you tell me I am not a good fit? | A provider who can say no is choosing clients, not just taking them | "Everyone is a fit" |
The rest of this page is why each one is worth asking, and what to listen for.
What does Google say to ask an SEO?
Google publishes its own list for interviewing an SEO. It asks for examples of previous work, whether they follow Google Search Essentials, what results they expect and in what timeframe, their experience in your industry and your country or city, how long they have been in business, and whether they will share every change they make to your site.
The last question is the one to press hardest. Google's wording is: "Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?" An SEO company that answers yes, in writing, is describing work you can check. Google also suggests checking references: ask past clients whether the provider was useful, easy to work with, and produced positive results.
From Capron Media: the free Lite subscription
Choosing a provider? Know where you stand first
See where your site shows up in Google search, and which searches moved since the last check. Lite does not include the work on your site. Starter does.
Why ask what happens in a normal week?
Because the normal week is what you pay for. Not the onboarding, not the strategy call: a week in month four when nothing is new or broken. Ask the SEO company to walk you through what gets looked at, what gets changed on the site and by whom, and what happens when they find nothing worth changing.
That last one matters most. A provider who has never had a quiet week may be changing things to look busy.
Why ask who does the work?
Because context is lost each time the work changes hands. Ask who you will be speaking to in month six, and whether that person also writes and makes the changes. Ask, too, whether any of the work is passed to a subcontractor or done with AI tools, and who checks it. A written record of each change keeps the history even when the person changes.
Why ask what they will not do?
A provider who does everything has not decided what they are for. Ask for the list of things that are out of scope, and what counts as an extra charge. Listen for whether it sounds rehearsed or considered. The boundary is more informative than the offer, and a provider who publishes it is easier to hold to it.
How will you know the SEO company's work is working?
Agree on it before you start. Get a specific answer to one question: what number will be different, where will I see it, and by when. If the answer is traffic, ask which pages and from which searches. If it is rankings, ask what happens to your business when a ranking moves and nothing else does.
An honest provider will tell you which results they can attribute to their work and which they cannot. That answer is worth more than a confident one. Google's own guidance says the same thing a different way: no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google.
What should you ask about AI search?
Ask how the SEO company handles the AI answers that now appear above some search results, and what it would change on your site because of them. Listen for specifics about your pages, and be wary of a guarantee: nobody controls what an AI answer quotes, just as nobody controls a ranking.
How do you read an SEO proposal?
Read an SEO proposal for three things: the list of work each month, what is excluded or charged extra, and how the work will be reported. A proposal that names pages and changes can be checked. One that promises strategy, monitoring and growth cannot, however good it looks. Ask for anything missing to be added in writing.
What are the red flags when hiring an SEO company?
Walk away from a guaranteed ranking, a claimed special relationship with Google, or a "priority submit" to Google. Google warns against all three by name. Be careful, too, with a provider that is secretive about what it will change, that contacted you out of the blue, or that asks you to link to it from your site.
If an SEO company offers an audit first, Google's advice is to give it read access to Search Console only, not the ability to make changes, at that stage. And remember who carries the risk: Google says "you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire."
Who should own your website and accounts?
Before you hire, confirm in writing that the website, the domain, and your Google accounts (Analytics, Search Console and your Business Profile) stay in your name, with the provider given access rather than ownership. Ask what happens to that access, and to the changes made, if you leave. What a contract means in law is a question for a lawyer; the practical step is to keep the logins in your name.
Our own answer, as it appears on our pricing page: "Every change is made on the site you already own, so it stays yours if you leave, once the month is paid for." On Starter, we remove our access to your website, Analytics and Search Console within 14 days of cancelling, and ask you to remove it too.
What should you ask about the contract and leaving?
Ask how long the commitment is, how much notice leaving takes, and what you keep when you go. Ask for those answers in writing before you sign. A provider who is confident in the work can describe its exit as plainly as its start.
What should an SEO company report every month?
A record of the changes made, not only a chart of rankings. For each change: what it was, on which page, why it was made, and when. Rankings move for reasons neither of you controls; a record of changes shows the work happened. Google's interview question asks for the changes and the reasoning behind them.
Way to check an SEO company's work | What it tells you | What it cannot tell you |
A monthly rankings report | Where you appear for chosen searches | Whether anyone changed anything on your site |
A record of every change | What was done, where, and why | Whether each change moved a result |
A free check of the site yourself | What needs fixing on the site today, so you can compare later | What the provider did |
Capron Media (ours) | Starter, our monthly SEO subscription: see every change on your site: what it was, why it was made, and when it was done. | We don't promise any ranking, traffic or sales result |
How much does an SEO company charge?
SEO companies price by scope, so ask for the price with the written list of work it buys. What different providers charge, and why quotes differ, is in our guide to SEO company prices. Capron Media's price is on our pricing page, next to what it includes and what it does not.
When should you not hire Capron Media?
These are the answers that should rule us out, and we would rather you found out now.
You want someone to take the whole marketing function off your hands. Starter does not include Google Business Profile or local listings work, link building, a redesign, social media, ads or email marketing.
You need a new website, a redesign, or custom development. We do not build or redesign websites.
You want a ranking promised up front. We don't promise any ranking, traffic or sales result. Nobody can.
You want to hand it over and not look at it. This works better when you read what changed.
If you want to ask these questions of us rather than read about them, book a free call about your site. If you are still narrowing the field, how to choose an SEO agency covers the wider decision this page sits inside, and what a Google Partner badge certifies covers one credential you may be shown.
From Capron Media: the free Lite subscription
Check any website, a provider's or your own
Your own site doesn't use up a check. You can check up to three other sites, each once every 30 days. Lite does not include the work on your site. Starter does.
If you would rather have the work done for you, Starter is five optimizations a week, made for you on the site you already own, and each one shown in your portal. See every price.
Written by Spencer Capron, founder of Capron Media, a Middleborough, Massachusetts SEO service for small business owners. Spencer is HubSpot SEO II certified, holds CompTIA Security+, and has run recurring SEO programs for 30+ small-business clients. He wrote this post in collaboration with our AI agents, and he reviews everything published here.
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