SEO onboarding questions: what I ask every new client before I touch the site
The questions I ask a new service business client before I change anything: which jobs pay, which towns you want, how calls get answered, what's been done to the site before, and the accounts I need. Answer them yourself first and you'll know more about your site than most agencies will.
The short answer: before I change anything on a new client's site, I ask about money, place, phones, history and access. Which jobs pay best, which towns you want, how calls get answered, what's been done to the site before, and who owns each account. About an hour on a call. Below is the full list, with the reason behind each question.
If you're hiring an SEO, answer these yourself first. You'll walk into the first call knowing more about your own site than most agencies bother to find out. If you're interviewing providers, my questions to ask before hiring an SEO covers the other direction.
The money questions
Which three jobs make you the most money? Not the most common jobs; the most profitable. A roofer might do ten repairs for every replacement and still want replacement calls. That answer decides which pages get built first.
What's an average job worth, roughly? It turns "we got 12 more calls" into a number you can weigh against what SEO costs.
What work do you not want? Small jobs you turn down, a service you're phasing out, commercial work if you only want homes. There's no point ranking for calls you'll decline.
When's your busy season? Pages need to be indexed and ranking before demand arrives, which takes months. If spring is your season, the spring pages get built in winter.
The place questions
Which towns do you want work in? Ranked, if you can. The list usually differs from where you currently get work, and the gap is where town pages go.
Which towns are too far? Saying no to a call 50 minutes away costs you a review and an annoyed homeowner.
Do you have jobs, photos or reviews from each town? A town page with real jobs on it ranks and converts. A page with only the town name swapped gets ignored by Google, so I don't build those.
The phone questions
Who answers the phone, and what happens when nobody can? Missed calls are where SEO money leaks out. If calls go to voicemail during jobs, I'd rather know on day one.
What counts as a lead for you? A call over 60 seconds, a form with a phone number, a booked estimate. We agree on it once, so every monthly report counts the same thing.
Where do leads come from now? Referrals, Google, lead sites, Local Services Ads, yard signs. That's the baseline the SEO gets measured against. If you pay for shared leads now, shared leads vs your own website is worth a read.
The history questions
Has anyone done SEO on this site before? What did they do? Especially: did anyone buy links, build pages for towns you don't serve, or change the site's address? Those leave marks Search Console can show me, but it's faster to hear it.
Has the domain or website changed in the last few years? A redesign or a domain move without redirects is one of the most common reasons a site that used to get calls stopped getting them. Website traffic dropped walks through how I check.
Who are the two or three companies you lose jobs to? Not who you think is biggest; who you actually lose quotes to. Their Business Profiles and sites show what Google is rewarding in your area.
The access questions
Who owns the domain, the website, the Business Profile, Search Console and GA4? It should be you, the business, on every one. I get added as a user. If a past agency or web designer owns any of them, getting that back is job one, because whoever owns the accounts owns the history. Who owns your Google Business Profile shows how to check and take it back.
The access list:
| Account | What I use it for |
|---|---|
| Google Search Console | Which searches you show up for, indexing problems |
| Google Analytics 4 | Calls, forms and where they came from |
| Google Business Profile | Categories, services, photos, review replies |
| Website admin or hosting | Fixes and new pages |
| Domain registrar or DNS | Verifying Search Console, fixing redirects |
If Search Console or GA4 doesn't exist yet, I set them up in the business's name. Search Console for contractors shows what's in it.
What I do with the answers
The money and place answers become the page plan: which services and towns get pages, in what order. The phone answers become the tracking setup and the definition of a lead in the monthly report. The history and access answers become the month-one fix list.
That fix list is what my delivery guarantee covers: if I don't finish it within 30 days, you get your first payment back. The plan is $500 a month and the audit before it is free; both are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What questions should an SEO ask a new client?
Which jobs make the most money, which towns the client wants work in and which they don't, how calls and forms are answered, what counts as a lead, what SEO or link buying has been done before, who the competitors are, and who owns the domain, website and Google accounts.
What access does an SEO need from a new client?
Search Console, Google Analytics 4, the Google Business Profile, the website admin or hosting, and the domain registrar or DNS. Each should be shared by adding the SEO as a user, so the business keeps ownership of every account.
How long does SEO onboarding take?
The questions take about an hour on a call. Getting access to every account usually takes a few days, mostly waiting on logins nobody remembers. The first fixes can start as soon as Search Console and the website are shared.
