Questions to ask before choosing an SEO agency

By Josh Willett, founder of SEO Yolo. Published 15 October 2026.

You’re buying a route to more profitable work. Before choosing an SEO agency, ask questions that show whether its plan fits your customers, your capacity and the services you want to sell.

For an industrial or commercial B2B business, a report full of traffic gains leaves plenty unanswered. SEO Yolo focuses on this market. These are the questions we recommend taking into an agency meeting, with the evidence worth asking for before you sign.

1. Which work would you help us win, and is there demand for it?

Start with the jobs you actually want. An air compressor company might want maintenance contracts within its engineers’ service area, while a packaging manufacturer might prioritise repeat production orders.

Expect the agency to ask about margins, minimum order values, capacity and unsuitable enquiries. It should connect those answers to relevant searches and explain how it checked demand. A keyword spreadsheet needs that commercial judgement alongside it.

If you’re still deciding whether the investment fits your business, work through when to invest in SEO before comparing retainers.

2. Can you show relevant results and explain what caused them?

A graph needs a date range, a starting point and an explanation. Ask what the agency changed, when those changes went live and what else happened during the period, including advertising, a new website or a change in sales activity.

Ask how the agency separates searches for your company or branded products from other searches, such as “commercial pest control Bristol”. Agree how variants and misspellings are classified. Then ask which enquiries improved and how the agency established their source.

Google recommends checking industry experience and speaking to business references in its SEO hiring guidance (developers.google.com). Its checklist also covers geographic experience, expected results, timing, measurement and clear explanations of website changes. Request a reference who can discuss delivery as well as results.

A relevant example might share your buying process or service model without sharing your exact sector. Confidentiality may limit what can be disclosed. An anonymised example should still explain the work, period and measurement limits.

3. Where would you start, and why?

Ask for the first priorities and the evidence behind their order. The agency may need an initial audit before committing to a detailed plan. That’s reasonable if it explains what it needs to inspect.

“More content” is too vague. A useful answer identifies a problem, such as a poorly explained priority service, then sets out the proposed change and its dependencies. Find out whether progress relies on developer time, technical specifications or interviews with your engineers.

4. Who will implement the recommendations?

An audit can leave your team holding a substantial to-do list. Establish who writes the pages, changes the website, checks forms and verifies completed work.

Ask who handles your website platform and who checks technical claims. For industrial services, your subject specialist may need to approve capabilities, standards and product details before publication. Agree an approval owner and turnaround time so work doesn’t sit waiting in an inbox.

5. Will we meet the people doing the work?

Meet the person responsible for the plan. Ask who writes, who makes technical changes and who you’ll speak to when something needs attention.

Subcontracting isn’t automatically a problem. You should know which work is outsourced, who checks it and who remains accountable. Request named contacts, a meeting schedule and an explanation of what happens when the main operator is unavailable.

6. Does the fee cover the whole job?

Get the scope in writing. Check whether content production, website changes, developer work, tracking, reporting and any third-party costs sit inside the quoted fee.

Also confirm VAT, any initial charges, the minimum commitment and how extra work is approved. “Content included” needs a definition. Does it cover research, drafting, revisions and publishing, or will your team finish the job?

Use the SEO business case template to compare the agency fee alongside your internal time and other delivery costs. A proposal is easier to assess when the total commitment is visible.

7. How will we measure qualified enquiries and sales?

Agree what makes an enquiry worth having before reporting starts. For a commercial cleaning firm, that could mean a contract enquiry for an eligible building within its service area. Recruitment messages and domestic requests need their own categories.

Ask for a baseline covering existing organic traffic, enquiries, enquiry quality and available sales outcomes. The agency should explain how forms and calls are recorded, who qualifies leads and how won work is fed back from your sales records.

Then test the limits. How will it handle a buyer who searches today but calls next month, missing tracking data or a returning customer? Attribution is the process of assigning credit to a marketing source. Ask which model the report uses and where the agency can’t confidently assign credit.

You’ll need to supply commercial information too. Our SEO break-even calculator uses total costs for the period, revenue per win, contribution margin and close rate to estimate the additional wins and enquiries needed to break even.

8. When should we review progress, and what would change the plan?

Ask for milestones tied to your starting position. Separate dates for completing work from expectations about search visibility and sales. A long procurement process needs a different sales review from an urgent repair service.

Agree review dates, evidence to examine and decisions those reviews will support. If enquiries remain unsuitable, what will the agency investigate? If approvals delay publication, how will it revise expectations?

Walk away from a guaranteed number-one Google ranking. Google explicitly warns against these promises in its agency selection advice (developers.google.com).

9. Can we keep control of accounts and leave cleanly?

Keep ownership of your domain, website and reporting accounts. Use individual logins with access appropriate to the work. For an initial audit, Google recommends read-only access to its Search Console reporting tool in its audit access guidance (developers.google.com).

Before signing, confirm notice terms, content ownership, account access and the handover package. Request a change log, outstanding work and usable reporting exports. Clarify any tools or licences that stop working when the relationship ends.

10. Which link-building methods would you use?

Ask for examples of the methods and sites involved, whether placements are paid and how links are labelled. “Authority building” doesn’t explain what you’re buying.

Google classifies buying links to manipulate rankings as link spam. Paid advertising and sponsorship links can comply when qualified with the `nofollow` or `sponsored` link attribute, as explained in its link spam policy (developers.google.com).

Challenge packages promising a guaranteed quantity of ranking links. Get the proposed method and risks in writing before approving any spend.

11. Will AI handle our content or business information?

Ask which tasks use AI and what information enters those tools. Customer details, confidential drawings and unpublished commercial information need an agreed handling policy.

For content, request the accuracy check and approval process. Who verifies specifications, sources and claims about your services? A named reviewer who can explain those checks gives you something concrete to assess. “Everything is human reviewed” needs more detail.

12. How would you test claims about AI search visibility?

If AI search is part of the proposal, ask which platforms, buyer questions and outcomes it covers. Request dated tests that record the prompt, platform, answer and cited pages. A single favourable screenshot gives you little basis for comparison.

Google says existing SEO fundamentals remain relevant to its AI search features. It doesn’t use llms.txt, and special AI text files or markup aren’t required. That guidance concerns Google Search. It doesn’t establish requirements for every AI platform. See its AI optimisation guide (developers.google.com).

The agency should explain what it proposes to test, what the test can establish and whether the evidence justifies the cost for your buyers.

Take these notes into the next meeting

Download the meeting checklist (.txt)

Create one sheet per agency. Leave space beside each field for the answer, supporting evidence and any follow-up due date:

• Commercial fit: priority work, service area and demand evidence.
• Proof: relevant example, dates and reference contact.
• Delivery: initial priorities, named operators and your team’s responsibilities.
• Commitment: included work, extras, VAT and notice terms.
• Measurement: baseline, qualified enquiry definition and first review date.
• Unresolved questions: missing evidence and who will provide it.

Send the completed notes back for confirmation before signing. You’ll have a written record of what was promised and what still needs an answer.

To discuss your industrial or commercial business with SEO Yolo, book a free local SEO audit. Bring your website, priority services and service area so we can discuss where to start.