How to choose an SEO company: the red flags, and the questions to ask before you sign

What a good SEO company actually does

SEO (search engine optimisation) means making your business easier to find in Google's normal, unpaid results and on Google Maps. Most good SEO work is unglamorous and easy to describe:

• Fixing technical problems that stop Google reading or trusting your site.
• Making sure each service you offer has a clear page that answers what customers ask.
• Setting up and improving your Google Business Profile, the listing that shows on Google Maps.
• Helping you earn reviews and mentions from real local sources.
• Measuring what changed and reporting it in plain language.

Plenty of agencies and freelancers do this well and honestly. The goal of this guide isn't to make you suspicious of everyone. It's to help you tell the good ones from the rest in one or two conversations. Google publishes its own advice on this, in a page called "Do you need an SEO?", and several of the points below come straight from it.

Decide what you need before you shop

You'll compare proposals much more easily if you know what problem you're paying to solve.

• Is something broken? If your business doesn't show on Google at all, or your Maps listing is suspended, you need a fix, not a monthly plan.
• Do you need a one-off project or ongoing help? Many small businesses need a clear audit and a round of fixes, then light upkeep. Our guide on one-time SEO versus a monthly retainer covers the trade-offs.
• Where do your customers come from? A dental practice, a solicitor or a plumber mostly needs local visibility in one town. An online shop selling nationally needs something different.
• What would success look like? More calls? More booking requests? Write down the number you track today, so you can tell later whether anything improved.

Google also suggests that a good time to hire is before a redesign or a new site launch, "the earlier, the better", so the site is built right rather than patched afterwards.

The red flags

1. Guaranteed rankings

Google is blunt about this: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." It tells businesses to beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, and if someone guarantees first place, to find someone else. Google decides rankings, and it changes how it ranks all the time. A company can promise work, effort and transparency. It can't promise a position.

Watch for softer versions too: "page one in 30 days", "top 3 or your money back", or guarantees on a search nobody actually types.

2. Secret methods

Google warns to be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what it intends to do. Good SEO has no secret sauce. If the answer to "what exactly will you do?" is "our proprietary system" and nothing more, you have no way to judge the work, and no way to know whether it puts your site at risk.

3. Link schemes

Links from other websites help a site rank, so some companies manufacture them. Google's spam policies call this link spam: creating links "primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings". Its examples include buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges ("link to me and I'll link to you"), and using software or services to create links to your site. Its advice on hiring an SEO also says to avoid SEOs that talk about link popularity schemes or submitting your site to thousands of search engines.

The risk is real. Google says sites that violate its spam policies may rank lower or not appear in results at all. If a proposal promises "50 high authority backlinks a month", ask where they come from.

4. Long lock-in contracts

A minimum term isn't automatically bad: some work takes a few months to show results, and an agency can reasonably ask for time. The red flag is a long term with no way out: 12 months or more, no exit if the work isn't done, and penalties for leaving. A confident agency lets you leave with reasonable notice.

5. The agency owns your accounts

Some agencies register your domain name, Google Business Profile, Search Console or analytics under their own account. It's convenient until you want to leave, and then you find you don't control your own business listing. Everything should be in your name, with the agency added as a user. The next section shows how.

6. No access to your own data

If you can only see your results through the agency's dashboard or monthly PDF, you can't check anything independently. You should be able to log in to Google Search Console and Google Analytics yourself at any time.

7. Vague reports

A report full of charts that rise, "visibility scores" and "keyword rankings" for phrases you've never heard of tells you little. Good reports say what was done this month, what changed in calls, enquiries and visits from Google, and what comes next.

8. Cold emails and borrowed badges

Google advises being wary of SEO firms that email you out of the blue. And a "Google Partner" badge relates to Google Ads (paid advertising) skills and certifications. It says nothing about the agency's ability to improve your unpaid rankings.

Make sure you own everything

This is the single most useful thing to settle before you sign. Each account below should belong to you, with the agency added as a user it can be removed from.

Why the roles matter:

• Google Business Profile: Google says managers have mostly the same access as owners, but can't add or remove users or remove the profile. Only owners can remove other owners and managers. So the agency can do all its work as a manager, and you stay in control.
• Search Console: Google explains that if every verified owner is removed, all remaining users lose access after a grace period. If the agency is the only verified owner and leaves, you can lose access to your own data until you verify again.

Already working with someone? Log in to each account above today and check who's listed as owner. It takes ten minutes and avoids an awkward conversation later.

Questions to ask before you sign

Google's own list of questions is a good start. It suggests asking:

• Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
• Do you follow the Google Search Essentials (Google's rules for websites)?
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
• What's your experience in my industry, and in my country or city?
• How long have you been in business?
• How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share all the changes you make to my site, with the reasoning behind them?

Add these practical ones:

• What exactly will you do in the first three months? Can I see it in writing?
• Who will do the work: you, your staff, or a subcontractor?
• Where will new links to my site come from?
• Whose name will my accounts be in? Can you work as a manager or user on accounts I own?
• What will the monthly report show? Can I see a sample?
• How do I end the contract, and what do I keep when I do?
• What's included in the price, and what costs extra?

Google adds one more point worth noting: a good SEO should ask you questions about what makes your business unique. If they pitch before asking anything about your customers, that tells you something.

Good answers and worrying answers

What to check in the contract

1. Scope: the work is listed, not just "SEO services".
2. Price: fixed or capped, with anything extra named in advance.
3. Term and exit: how long, how much notice, and no penalty beyond the notice period.
4. Ownership: you own the domain, the site, the accounts and the content written for you.
5. Handover: on exit, the agency removes itself only after confirming you have full owner access everywhere.
6. Methods: a commitment to follow Google's spam policies, and to tell you before buying or building links.
7. Reporting: what you'll receive and how often.

Comparing proposals, and the first 90 days

Ask two or three companies for a written proposal and put them side by side. Don't pick on price alone: a cheap monthly plan with no named tasks often costs more than a clear fixed-price project. Look for the one that explains your current problems most specifically. If a proposal could have been sent to any business in any town, it probably was.

Once you've signed, check after the first month and again after three:

• Can you see the changes on your site and in your Google Business Profile?
• Do you still own every account?
• Does the report match what you see in Search Console yourself?
• Are you getting more calls, enquiries or bookings from Google, or at least more of the searches that lead to them?

For transparency, here's how we work at Echofama: fixed prices agreed before work starts, the client owns every account and file, and no guaranteed rankings. If you'd like a second opinion on where you stand before talking to anyone, our free visibility check looks at how your business shows on Google and Google Maps.

Questions