Questions To Ask An SEO Company Before Hiring: Good Answers & Red Flags

The best question to ask an SEO company is the one that makes the agency show its working. How will it choose what to fix first, who does the work, and how will results get proved? An agency that guarantees a ranking, hides its method or will not name a client reference should lose the contract.

This applies to any B2B company shortlisting an SEO or GEO agency for a retainer. The twenty questions below each pair a good answer with a red flag, so you can score replies instead of trusting a pitch.

No question proves an agency will perform, and nobody can guarantee rankings or AI citations. Read the answers as evidence of how the agency works, then confirm them with references.

The 20 Questions At A Glance

The list comes first because that is what you came for. Take the table into your next agency call, then use the sections below for the reasoning behind each row.

Strategy And Method: Questions 1 To 4

These four questions test whether the agency has a method or just a menu. Strategy questions are the cheapest to ask and the hardest to fake.

1. How will you decide what to fix first?

• Why ask: Every site has more problems than a retainer can fix. The order of work shows whether the agency understands your market or is running a template.
• Good answer: A good answer names the keyword source, the page the keyword maps to and the reason it comes first. Expect questions about your business before any talk of cost.
• Red flag: A fixed package that looks identical for every client, or an agency that focuses only on payment.

2. What is your backlink and mentions approach?

• Why ask: Links are where agencies hide the most risk. Buying links or running private blog networks risks penalties, and the agency, not you, picks the tactics.
• Good answer: The agency names the types of site it targets and explains how each placement is earned. Google's own guidance warns against agencies that push link schemes or mass submission to search engines.
• Red flag: Vague link-building tactics, a secret method, or a refusal to show example placements.

3. What on-site changes will you make, and across how many pages?

• Why ask: "On-site optimisation" can mean a title tag fix or a full rebuild. You need the scope in pages and change types.
• Good answer: A list of page types in scope, such as service pages, posts and templates, with the change planned for each. It lines up with the services SaaS teams need from an SEO and AI search partner.
• Red flag: A promise to "optimise your site" with no page count, no list and no way to check the work was done.

4. What is your content and blog strategy, and who writes it?

• Why ask: Content is where most retainers spend their hours. A cheap writer with no subject knowledge produces posts nobody cites.
• Good answer: A named writer and editor, a clear point at which your experts review drafts, and a rule for what gets published and what gets killed. Ask to see one brief the agency wrote for a past article, and check that it names the reader, the question the page answers and the sources to be used.
• Red flag: A monthly post quota with no mention of your product, your buyers or who checks the facts.

Promises And Proof: Questions 5 To 8

Promises are cheap. Proof takes work, so these four questions separate agencies that have done the job from agencies that sell it well.

5. What do you guarantee?

• Why ask: No agency can honestly guarantee a ranking. Google's own guidance states that no one can guarantee a top ranking in Google search, and it lists guaranteed first place or a special relationship with Google among the warning signs of an SEO vendor.
• Good answer: A commitment to process, reporting and response times. The agency promises what it controls, such as work delivered on schedule and honest reporting.
• Red flag: A guaranteed position, a guaranteed number of citations, or a claim of inside contact with Google.

6. How long until we see results?

• Why ask: Timelines test honesty. Results depend on site age, authority, competition and how fast changes ship.
• Good answer: A range tied to the current state of your site, with early signals to watch before traffic moves. The agency explains what it would need to see to revise the range. Ask it to write down the first three signals it will report, so you can hold it to them at the first review.
• Red flag: One fixed date for every client, or a promise of fast results with no reference to your site.

7. Can I speak to current clients?

• Why ask: Direct client references are worth more than testimonials. Reluctance to share references, or an NDA excuse, is a warning sign.
• Good answer: Two or three names you can call, ideally with a site similar to yours. Ask the reference what the agency got wrong, not only what it got right.
• Red flag: Written testimonials only, logos with no contact, or a sudden NDA problem. Unsolicited SEO emails also deserve suspicion, and Google's guidance says so directly.

8. Can I see past campaigns with baselines?

• Why ask: A result with no start point is a story. You want the baseline, the window and the counted outcome.
• Good answer: A case study with a stated window and counted outcomes. TRM's PSOhub case study reports 12 of 18 pages on page 1 of Google and 54 AI citations in 90 days. The Avaza case study reports 49 AI-ready posts driving 65 percent of non-homepage organic sessions in 5 months. Treat these as examples of the shape to expect, not as a benchmark.
• Red flag: A traffic chart with no baseline, no date range and no account of what changed.

GEO And AI Search: Questions 9 To 13

Most agency checklists skip this part, and it now decides who gets found. 68.01 percent of US Google searches ended without a click between January and April 2026, up from 60.45 percent in 2024, according to techwyse's report on SparkToro and Similarweb panel data. When most searches end on the results page, being quoted in the answer matters as much as ranking below it.

Be sceptical here. GEO vendor criteria are less settled than SEO ones, and most GEO checklists are written by GEO vendors. So these questions lean on what you can check, which is an artefact the agency can show you. If you meet unfamiliar acronyms, how AISO, AEO and GEO differ is a quick primer.

9. How do you structure pages so single passages can be quoted in AI answers?

• Why ask: Passages that get cited in AI answers tend to be self-contained, specific, attributed and answer-first. An agency that works on this should be able to show it.
• Good answer: A before and after passage from a real page, with the reason each edit was made. This is the core of answer engine optimization work.
• Red flag: A line such as "we optimise for AI" with no example and no description of what changes on the page.

10. How do you earn mentions on the sources AI engines cite?

• Why ask: AI engines repeat what trusted sources say about you. Without mentions on those sources, clean pages are not enough.
• Good answer: A named set of source types, a method for earning each placement and an example. The approach is close to what earned mentions work looks like in practice.
• Red flag: Bulk purchased mentions, or a claim that the agency can place you anywhere for a flat fee.

11. How do you measure AI visibility against named competitors?

• Why ask: AI visibility is only meaningful against a comparison set. A score with no competitors is a number with no context.
• Good answer: A prompt set built around your buyers' questions, a citation-rate report and the named competitors tracked on the same prompts. See traditional SEO versus AI SEO for what changes in measurement.
• Red flag: A single proprietary "AI score" with no method, no prompt list and no way to repeat it.

12. How does your approach differ across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews?

• Why ask: The platforms draw on different sources and show answers differently. One approach copied across all three is a shortcut.
• Good answer: A short account of how each platform behaves, what the agency tests on each and how often it re-checks, since these systems change. A simple test is to ask for the same buyer question run on all three platforms, with the agency's notes on what each one cited.
• Red flag: Treating every AI engine as one product, or claiming a secret formula that works on all of them.

13. How do you handle schema and AI crawler access?

• Why ask: If crawlers cannot reach or parse a page, no amount of good writing helps. This is a technical check with a yes or no answer.
• Good answer: A description of what is marked up, which crawlers can reach which pages and how the agency checks it. It belongs under technical SEO and AI readiness.
• Red flag: The agency has never looked at crawler access, or hands the question to your developer without a recommendation.

Team, Tools And Reporting: Questions 14 To 17

These four questions cover the day to day. They show how much of your time the engagement needs and whether you will understand what you are paying for.

14. Who actually does the work, and how much of my time does it need?

• Why ask: The person who pitches is rarely the person who delivers. You need the roles named and the hours you will give.
• Good answer: Named roles for strategist, writer and technical lead, plus a clear list of what the agency needs from you each month, such as access, approvals and expert input. Ask who attends the monthly call and ask to meet the person who will do the day-to-day work before you sign.
• Red flag: A senior pitch followed by junior delivery, or an agency that needs nothing from you at all.

15. Which tools do you use, and do I get access?

• Why ask: If the agency owns the only view of the data, you cannot check it. Access is how you stay honest with each other.
• Good answer: Read access to the reporting and tracking tools. Ask for a baseline, then compare it with your own view in a tool you can log into, such as Semrush, which covers keyword research, rank tracking and site audits. Google's guidance advises giving an agency only read-only Search Console access during an audit, and asking vendors to back claims with citations to official Google documentation.
• Red flag: Private dashboards, no read access and reports that arrive as a PDF with no source data.

16. What do you report, and how often?

• Why ask: Reporting cadence shows how the agency communicates. Reports should arrive weekly or biweekly, and reports only every few months signal poor communication.
• Good answer: A sample report that explains each metric and gives an action for it. Real-time views help here, and real-time visibility dashboards show what a leadership-ready version looks like.
• Red flag: Quarterly-only reporting, or generic answers about measuring success.

17. How do results tie to pipeline and revenue?

• Why ask: Traffic and rankings are inputs. Your board cares about leads, pipeline and revenue.
• Good answer: Goals set against conversions and revenue rather than traffic and rankings alone, with a plan for connecting search data to your CRM. Ask the agency to show one past report where a metric is traced from a search visit to a lead, and which tool made the link.
• Red flag: A report that stops at sessions and positions, or a shrug when you ask where the leads are.

Contracts, Ownership And Risk: Questions 18 To 20

The last three questions protect you if the relationship ends. Ask them before you sign, because afterwards nobody is listening.

18. Who owns the content, links and accounts if we part ways?

• Why ask: Ownership of content, site and analytics accounts, and link records must be written into the contract. Without that, you may have paid for work you cannot take with you.
• Good answer: The contract states you own the content, the accounts and the records of every link placed, and the agency hands them over at exit without conditions.
• Red flag: "We keep the account until the final invoice clears and then transfer," or any answer that uses your data as a bargaining chip in a dispute.

19. What are the contract length, exit clause and payment terms?

• Why ask: Terms decide how costly a bad fit is. Pricing should come with a 30, 60 or 90-day exit clause.
• Good answer: A clear exit clause, monthly billing and a plain description of what each payment buys. If the agency offers performance-based payment, ask what counts as performance, who measures it and what happens when the measure is gamed. For TRM's own terms, see what TRM's plans cost. Detail on contracts lives in evaluating an agency before signing.
• Red flag: A long lock-in with no exit, payment in full up front, or a pitch that talks only about price.

20. How do you handle Google updates and penalty history?

• Why ask: Google updates can change results for any site. What matters is how the agency responds, and whether its link tactics put you at risk.
• Good answer: The agency discloses any penalty it has dealt with, describes how it recovered and explains how its link tactics avoid the risk. Link schemes carry penalty risk, and a good agency says so unprompted.
• Red flag: A claim of never being affected by an update, or a refusal to discuss past penalties.

Red Flags That End The Conversation

Eight answers should end the conversation. One red flag is a prompt for another question, and three is a pass.

• Guaranteed rankings, a guaranteed first place or a claimed special relationship with Google (Question 5).
• A secret method the agency will not explain (Question 2).
• No client references, or testimonials only (Question 7).
• Vague link tactics, bulk purchased links or private blog networks (Question 2).
• Reporting only every few months (Question 16).
• No contract exit, or a long lock-in with payment in full up front (Question 19).
• Generic answers about how success is measured (Question 16).
• Pressure to sign before you have seen a proposal. No question above tests this one, so use your own judgement and walk away.

How To Score The Answers And Build A Shortlist

Score every answer good, partial or red flag, and pass on any agency with three red flags. Evaluate three to five agencies before choosing, so you have enough to compare without losing the thread.

Weight the questions for your situation. If AI search is the reason you are hiring, give the GEO questions 9 to 13 the most weight. If you have been burned before, weight ownership and exit terms first.

Once you have scores, move to the scorecard and RFP to compare agencies side by side. If your shortlist is led by AI visibility, choosing an AI-ready SEO agency covers the extra checks. The answers you collected here feed straight into both.