SEO Agency Evaluation Guide: 31 Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Contract

The wrong SEO agency can waste 6-12 months of your time and burn through $50K+ with nothing to show for it.

And here’s the frustrating part: on sales calls, most SEO agencies sound the same.

They all promise “data-driven strategies,” “high-quality content,” and “sustainable growth.”

They all show polished decks with impressive graphs.

And almost all of them say, “SEO just takes time.”

That statement is true, but also incomplete.

Here’s what makes choosing an SEO agency such a high-stakes decision: SEO is expensive, SEO is slow, and once you sign a contract, switching agencies means resetting momentum, trust, and timelines. That’s why this decision matters more than almost any other marketing choice you will make.

Why This Guide Is Different

This isn’t another generic “questions to ask” listicle.

Here’s what makes this guide different:

Written by an agency with an insider’s view of how good and bad SEO actually works (no pitches, just hard-earned insight)
Every question includes red-flag answers to watch out for
Based on evaluating 100+ SEO agencies across budgets and industries

How to use this guide:

Interview 3-5 agencies. Ask every question. Score each answer and compare responses side by side.

The best agency will make itself obvious.

Understanding What You are Actually Buying

Before diving into questions, you need to understand the SEO agency spectrum. Not all SEO is the same, even when pricing looks similar.

SEO agency spectrum

1. Budget Agencies ($500-$2K/month)

What you typically get:

Cheap, AI-heavy or outsourced content
Generic backlinks
Templated audits

Biggest red flag: Guaranteed rankings or promises like “X backlinks per month.”

When to use them: Rarely, especially not in competitive industries.

2. Mid-Tier Agencies ($3K-$8K/month)

What you get:

Decent strategy
Mixed execution quality
Often, an account manager, instead of a senior strategist

Red flag: Cookie-cutter playbooks reused across clients

When to use them: Local businesses or low-competition niches where the stakes are lower.

3. Premium Agencies ($8K-$20K+/month)

What you get:

Custom strategy tied to business goals
Senior SEO involvement
Strong content, technical depth, and links

Red flag: Aggressive or unrealistic timeline promises (still a red flag at premium pricing)

When to use them: B2B, SaaS, marketplaces, and competitive industries where SEO is mission-critical.

What You Are Really Paying For

SEO isn’t about hours worked or blog posts shipped. You are paying for:

Strategic thinking (this matters more than execution)
Quality of content and links
Industry experience
Access to senior talent
Tools, reporting, and accountability

Before You Start: These Questions Decide Everything

Before you look at pricing, proposals, or polished case studies, you need to ask the right questions first.

The following 31 questions represent the minimum due diligence everyone should do before signing an SEO contract. A strong agency will welcome them and answer clearly. A weak agency will dodge, generalize, or overpromise.

These questions are designed to:

Expose shallow, templated SEO approaches
Reveal whether an agency thinks strategically or just executes tasks
Show how they handle accountability, reporting, and results

How to use this section:

Ask every question in order. Score each answer. Compare 3-5 agencies side by side.

Compare 3-5 agencies side by side.

If an agency struggles to answer even a few of these, you have likely saved yourself months of wasted time and a five-figure budget.

Section 1: Strategy Questions (1-10)

Q1. Walk me through your 90-day approach for our business.

Why it matters: This separates real process from vague SEO talk. Anyone can promise results, but can they explain the roadmap?

Red flag answer: “We will audit the site and then strategize.” (Too vague, no real plan)

Good answer: “Month 1: Technical audit + competitor analysis. Month 2: Keyword & content strategy. Month 3: Execute quick wins and begin content production.”

Follow-up question: “Can you show me a real 90-day plan from a similar client?”

Q2. How do you validate that search demand exists for what we sell?

Here’s something most businesses don’t realize: product-market fit doesn’t equal search-market fit. You might have a great product, but if nobody’s searching for solutions like yours, SEO won’t work.

Red flag answer: “We will target high-volume keywords.” (Ignores intent and fit)

Good answer: “We map customer problems to search intent and validate with keyword and SERP data. We look at whether people are actually searching for solutions like yours, not just tangentially related topics.”

Follow-up question: “Have you ever told a client SEO wasn’t right for them?”

Q3. How do you optimize for AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.)?

Why it matters: This test determines whether the agency is future-ready or stuck in 2019.

Red flag: “We only focus on Google.”

Good answer: “We structure content for AI citation, track mentions in AI responses, and use tools like llms.txt to signal content to AI crawlers.”

Follow-up: “Show me examples of AI citations you have earned for clients.”

Q4. Show me a content brief and walk me through it.

Content brief quality equals content quality. It’s that simple. A lazy brief produces lazy content.

Red flag brief: Just keywords, headings, and word count targets.

A good brief includes: Search intent analysis, audience pain points, competitive differentiation, and conversion goals beyond just ranking.

Follow-up question: “How do you avoid writing the same content as everyone else ranking on page one?”

Q5. What’s your technical SEO process?

Why it matters: Technical issues kill all other SEO efforts. You can write amazing content and build great links, but if your site has crawl issues or loads like it’s 2005, you are wasting money.

Red flag: “Your site looks fine” or “We hand things to dev, and they handle it.”

Good answer: They explain an impact-based audit process, show how they prioritize fixes by business impact, and demonstrate they create clear dev tickets that engineers can actually use.

Q6. How do you analyze competitors?

This question reveals strategic depth. Are they just copying what others do, or do they understand why competitors succeed and where they are vulnerable?

Red flag: “We will copy their keywords and create similar content.”

Good answer: Full strategy teardown, gap analysis, weak-SERP identification where you can win faster

Q7. What’s your link-building approach?

Why it matters: This is where ethics and sustainability become critical. Bad links can destroy years of work.

Red flag answers: “50 links per month guaranteed” or any mention of PBNs (Private Blog Networks)

Good answer: Digital PR, earned links through quality content, authority-driven outreach to relevant sites in your industry

Q8. How do you measure success beyond rankings?

Let’s be real: rankings don’t pay salaries. Traffic doesn’t either. Revenue does.

Red flag: Only talking about rankings and traffic

Good answer: Leads, conversions, revenue impact, funnel-stage attribution

Q9. What’s your keyword research process?

Everything in SEO builds on keyword research. If this foundation is weak, everything else collapses.

Red flag: “We go after the biggest keywords in your industry.”

Good answer: Intent-first prioritization that balances early wins with long-term plays, understanding of keyword difficulty vs. business value

Q10. Have you worked in our industry? What did you learn?

Industry experience compresses timelines significantly. An agency that’s worked in your space understands the customer journey, competitive landscape, and common pitfalls.

Red flag: “We work with everyone; our process works across all industries.”

Good answer: Specific examples, genuine insights, and lessons learned (including failures)

Section 2: Team & Execution Questions (11-16)

Q11. Who will work on our account?

Red flag: Vague references to an “account team” or “our experts.”

Good answer: Named people with specific roles. “Sarah leads strategy, Mike handles technical SEO, and Jennifer manages content.”

Q12. Who writes our content?

This matters more than most people realize. Content quality determines whether your SEO investment pays off.

Red flag: Generic offshore writers or “our content team” with no specifics

Good answer: Expert-matched writers with subject matter knowledge, plus editorial review process

Q13. How many clients per strategist?

Why it matters: Overloaded strategists mean templated work and slow response times.

Red flag: Won’t answer or admits to 15+ clients per person

Good answer: 5-8 clients maximum

Q14. Do you use AI tools?

Here’s the nuanced answer you want: AI can assist, but humans should write and review.
Anyone claiming they don’t use AI at all is probably lying. Anyone claiming AI does everything is cutting corners.

Red flag: “AI writes everything” or “We don’t use AI at all.”

Good answer: “AI assists with research and optimization, but humans write, edit, and ensure quality.”

Q15. What tools do you use?

Red flag: No professional-grade tools, or won’t share what they use

Good answer: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, plus dashboards you can access yourself

Q16. What do you need from us?

If they say “nothing,” run. Good SEO requires collaboration.

Red flag: “Nothing, we will handle everything.”

Good answer: “We will need 2-4 hours per month for strategy calls, content review, and providing industry insights we can’t get elsewhere.”

Section 3: Results & Accountability (17-23)

Q17. Show me 3 real case studies.

Red flag: Only traffic screenshots with no context or business outcomes

Good answer: Before/after metrics tied to actual business outcomes, leads, revenue, conversions. They should also explain what they did and why it worked.

Q18. What’s a realistic timeline?

Anyone promising results in 30-60 days is either lying or doing something risky. SEO takes time, and honest agencies admit it.

Red flag: 30-60 days for “significant results”

Good answer: 4-6 months for initial movement, 9-12 months for real traction

Q19. How do you report and communicate?

Red flag: Monthly email reports only, with no opportunity for discussion

Good answer: Real-time dashboards plus regular strategy calls where you can ask questions and adjust course

Q20. What if results stall?

This question reveals how they handle adversity, which will happen at some point.

Red flag: “That never happens” or defensive responses

Good answer: Clear diagnosis process, iteration strategy, complete transparency about what’s working and what isn’t

Q21. Contract length and exit policy?

Red flag: 12-month lock-in with no flexibility or harsh cancellation penalties

Good answer: 6-month minimum with flexible exit terms after that period

Q22. Can I talk to current clients?

Red flag: Refusal or excuses about NDAs (real clients will agree to reference calls)

Good answer: Willing to connect you with 2-3 references who work in similar industries

Q23. What’s your retention rate?

High retention means clients see value and stick around. Low retention means something’s broken in their model.

Red flag: Under 70% or won’t share the number

Good answer: 80%+ with context about why some clients leave

Section 4: Culture & Fit Questions (24-31)

These final questions might seem soft, but they reveal whether you can actually work with this agency for 6-12+ months.

Q24. How do you handle disagreements?

Look for collaborative, data-backed approaches rather than “the client is always right” or “trust us, we are the experts.”

Q25. Do you work with competitors?

Good answer: No direct conflicts of interest

Q26. What makes you different?

Red flag: Trash-talking other agencies

Good answer: Honest positioning about their strengths and ideal clients

Q27. What’s your biggest weakness?

Red flag: “None” or “we care too much.”

Good answer: Real self-awareness about what they are not good at

Q28. Why shouldn’t we hire you?

Strong agencies can articulate clear non-fit scenarios. If they say everyone should hire them, they are not being honest.

Q29. What do clients wish they knew earlier?

The honest answer? SEO takes patience and consistent effort. There are no shortcuts.

Q30. How do you stay updated?

Look for specific answers about testing, trusted sources, and active experimentation rather than “we read blogs.”

Q31. Can we start with a pilot?

Red flag: No flexibility whatsoever

Good answer: 3-month pilot option to prove value before longer commitment

The Decision Framework

Now that you have asked all 31 questions across multiple agencies, here’s how to score them:

+1 point for every strong answer
−1 point for every red flag

Your scorecard:

25-31 points: Excellent, move forward confidently
18-24 points: Decent, negotiate terms and clarify concerns
10-17 points: High risk, proceed with extreme caution
Under 10 points: Walk away

Next Steps

Here’s your action plan:

Interview 3-5 agencies using these questions
Score them objectively with your scorecard
Check their references thoroughly
Compare value, not just price
Negotiate contract terms
Start with a pilot project if possible

If you want to talk through your business context, goals, and whether SEO even makes sense for your situation, start with a short intake. It helps us understand your business before any conversation.

Start here: https://tally.so/r/3EGEd4