Ten questions to ask before hiring an SEO for your business

Hiring someone for SEO is hard to judge from the outside. Most of the work happens where you can't see it, and results take months. Asking the right questions before you sign is the cheapest protection you have.

Here are ten we'd ask, with what a good answer sounds like. We've added our own answer to each.

1. Who owns the accounts?

Google Analytics, Search Console, your Business Profile, Tag Manager, the domain and the hosting. A good answer is "you do, and I'll be added as a user." If they want to create the accounts under their own login, ask what happens to them when you leave. With us, the client owns every account.

2. What happens if I cancel?

You should keep your website, your pages, your tracking setup and your history. A good answer names what stays with you. A vague answer, or one that mentions a "transfer fee," tells you something about how the relationship ends.

3. What will you do this month?

Ask for specifics. "Two new town pages, a rewrite of the roof repair page's title and meta description, and Business Profile posts" is an answer. "Ongoing optimization" is a placeholder. On our Growth plan, for example, that means 2 new town or service pages a month, Business Profile posts and upkeep, on-page work and internal linking, and a monthly call.

4. How will I see calls?

This is the question that separates SEO you can judge from SEO you have to take on faith. A good answer covers phone taps on the website, calls from your Business Profile and form submissions, all recorded somewhere you can see. If they only talk about traffic and rankings, they can't show you whether the phone rang. We covered the options in call tracking for contractors. If you're hiring because traffic fell, find out why it dropped first; you'll ask better questions.

5. Do you guarantee rankings?

If the answer is yes, that's a red flag. Google's own guidance says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. A good answer tells you what they'll do and how you'll measure it. We don't guarantee rankings.

6. Who does the work?

The person selling to you may not be the person touching your site. That can be fine, as long as they tell you. Much of our own work is done for agencies under their brand, so we know how common it is. Ask who will make changes to your site and whether you can talk to them.

7. Can I see results with real numbers?

Ask for numbers from Search Console or call tracking, with dates. A screenshot of one keyword at position one isn't much to go on. Two of our own we can name: a game shop in Charles County, Maryland, with 614 keywords on page one, and a window tint shop in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where every version of its name ranks at position 2 or better. More is on our work page.

8. What does a report look like?

Ask to see a real one with the client details removed. It should fit on a page: calls, forms and bookings, Search Console clicks and impressions against last year, the pages added or fixed, and next month's list. Here's what a monthly SEO report should include.

9. How long is the contract?

Long lock-ins protect the provider. A short minimum makes sense, because the first months go into setup and SEO takes time to show up in the numbers. After that, month to month is fair. Our plans have a 3-month minimum, then run month to month with 30 days' notice.

10. What do you need from me?

A good provider will ask for things: access to your accounts, a list of the towns and services you want more of, and photos from real jobs. When we built a flat roof repair page for a roofing client, it was built from the client's own job photos, compressed, renamed and converted to WebP. If a provider needs nothing from you, ask where the content will come from.

Two answers that should end it

If you only remember two of these, make them number 1 and number 5. A provider who keeps your accounts can hold your business hostage when you leave. A provider who guarantees rankings is promising something Google itself says nobody controls.

Next step

Our prices, plans and terms are all on the pricing page, including the $750 Site Audit that's credited in full if a monthly plan starts within 30 days. If you want to know what SEO usually costs elsewhere, start with what roofing SEO costs. Then ask us any of these ten and judge the answers yourself.