How to Choose an SEO Agency (and Spot a Bad One in Ten Minutes)

SEO is uniquely easy to sell badly. The work is invisible, the results are delayed, the metrics are easy to select flatteringly, and the buyer usually cannot tell the difference between real work and a monthly report.

That combination attracts a particular kind of seller. The good news is that they are easy to identify, because the questions they cannot answer well are specific and you can ask them all in one meeting.

Nine Questions Worth Asking

1. What Are the First Three Things You Would Do for Us?

As above. "Fix your service pages, which currently all target the same phrase" is an answer. "We start with a comprehensive audit and strategy phase" is a brochure.

2. Which of My Pages Currently Rank, and for What?

Any competent agency will have checked before the meeting. It takes five minutes and not doing it says everything about how they will treat you as a client.

3. How Do You Get Links?

The single most revealing question. Good answers involve digital PR, industry directories, supplier and partner relationships, genuinely useful content, and local sponsorship. Bad answers involve "our network", "private blog networks", buying, or vagueness. Paid links violate Google's guidelines and the penalty lands on you, not on them.

4. What Will You Report, and Can I See a Sample?

Ask for a real, anonymized client report. You want work done, positions on named terms, traffic to specific pages, and inquiries — not "keywords in top 100" and "domain authority increased".

5. Who Actually Does the Work?

Not a trap — outsourcing is normal and often fine. The question is whether they will tell you. "Our team" that turns out to be a reseller three layers deep is where accountability disappears.

6. What Do You Need from Me, and What Happens If I Am Slow?

A good agency has a clear answer, because client delay is the most common cause of a stalled engagement. If they say "nothing, leave it with us", they either do not intend to write anything specific to your business or have not thought about it.

7. What Is the Contract, and How Do I Leave?

Twelve-month lock-ins are common and rarely in your interest. Month-to-month means they have to earn it again every month. If there is a minimum term, ask what it buys you.

8. Who Owns the Work If We Part Ways?

Content, accounts, and any tooling. Some agencies build on their own systems and the work leaves with them, which you should know before rather than after.

9. What Would Make You Tell Me Not to Bother?

The best answer any agency can give. Somebody who has never turned work away either has not been doing it long or does not do it honestly. We publish ours on the how we work page under "when we are the wrong choice", because it is more useful to both sides than a case study.

Answers That Should End the Meeting

• "We guarantee page one." Nobody controls the results page. A guarantee means either bought links or terms nobody searches.
• "We have a special relationship with Google." There is no such thing. Google Partner status relates to ads, not organic rankings.
• "We will submit you to 500 directories." A 2005 tactic that is now, at best, worthless.
• Reporting built on "domain authority". A third-party metric invented by a tool vendor. Google does not use it. It is useful for rough comparison and meaningless as a deliverable.
• Pressure to sign today. Nothing about SEO is urgent enough to justify a deadline on the proposal.
• They cannot explain what they did last month in plain English. If it cannot be explained simply, either it is not understood or it is not happening.

What It Should Cost

The most common small-business retainer band sits around $500–$1,000 a month, with competitive markets running well past it. Below roughly $500 you are almost certainly buying a template report and some automated directory submissions — the arithmetic simply does not support real work at that price. The survey figures, and what each budget buys, are in how much SEO costs per month.

Be equally wary at the top end without a matching scope. Expensive is fine if the deliverables are countable; expensive and vague is the worst combination available. Our own SEO packages are published with the page counts, post counts and reporting stated, which is the format worth insisting on from anyone.

Doing It Yourself Instead

If your budget is under a few hundred a month, you are better off doing the fundamentals yourself than buying a cheap retainer. The Google Business Profile, consistent citations, decent titles, one good page per service and asking customers for reviews will outperform most low-end agencies.

Start with the local SEO checklist, and use our free website check to see the technical issues before paying anyone to tell you about them. If an agency's audit says the same things, at least you will know they actually looked.

Common Questions

What Questions Should I Ask an SEO Agency?

The most revealing is "what are the first three things you would do for us, and why those" — a practitioner names specifics about your site, a salesperson describes a process. Also ask how they get links, what they will report with a real sample, who does the work, what they need from you, and what would make them tell you not to bother.

How Much Should SEO Cost per Month for a Small Business?

The common band is roughly $500 to $1,000 a month, higher in competitive markets. Below about $500 the arithmetic does not support real work, so you are usually buying a template report and automated directory submissions. Be equally wary of expensive retainers without countable deliverables.

What Are the Warning Signs of a Bad SEO Agency?

Guaranteeing page one, claiming a special relationship with Google, submitting you to hundreds of directories, reporting built on third-party metrics like domain authority that Google does not use, pressure to sign immediately, and being unable to explain last month's work in plain English.

Is Domain Authority a Real Google Ranking Factor?

No. It is a third-party metric created by a tool vendor for rough comparison between sites. Google does not use it and does not publish anything equivalent. It is a reasonable shorthand in analysis and a meaningless thing to report as a deliverable.

Should I Do SEO Myself Instead of Hiring an Agency?

If your budget is under a few hundred a month, yes. Claiming and completing your Google Business Profile, keeping citations consistent, writing decent titles, building one good page per service and asking customers for reviews will outperform most low-end retainers, and costs time rather than money.