Questions to Ask an SEO Agency

"Walk me through how you'd manage my Google Business Profile."

This is the fastest test of whether an agency actually does local SEO. The map pack is where local conversions happen, and the GBP is the lever. A real local specialist talks fluently about primary category, review velocity, posts, suspension risk, and profile health. A generalist talks about "your website."

If the answer is vague, or GBP is an afterthought, they're running a national-SEO playbook on a local business. The work won't transfer and the map pack won't move. Local vs traditional SEO →

"How will you report, and can I verify it myself?"

A good answer offers access, not just a monthly deck — the ability to see the accounts, the work, and the data directly. A weak answer offers a glossy report the agency controls, heavy on impressions and traffic, light on leads.

Push on it: will you report on booked jobs, or just rankings? Can I see the actual numbers, or only your summary of them? Reporting you can't verify is theater designed to retain billing. What honest reporting looks like →

"How do you track which leads came from your work?"

Most local conversions are phone calls. If the agency doesn't have a clear answer about call tracking and lead attribution, they can't actually tell you whether their work produced revenue — they can only show you rankings and hope you don't ask.

A real operator ties leads to source as a matter of course, because it's the only way to manage to booked jobs instead of vanity metrics. No attribution answer means no real accountability. The KPIs that matter →

"Do you guarantee rankings?"

This one's a trap, and the right answer is no. Guaranteeing rankings violates Google's terms — any agency that promises "Page 1 guaranteed" is either lying or about to get you penalized. The honest answer is a commitment to a standard of care and a track record, not a guarantee.

If they guarantee outcomes, walk. If they explain why they won't — and what they'll commit to instead — you're talking to someone who understands the platform and respects you enough to be straight. Red flags in proposals →

"Who owns the accounts, and who does the actual work?"

Your domain, GBP, ad accounts, and CMS must stay yours — an agency that owns your assets owns your business. And the work should be done by people who know the craft, not a junior or an offshore arbitrage shop dressed up in the pitch.

Ask directly: do my accounts stay in my name, and who specifically will execute? Vague answers here are where the bait-and-switch lives. Clear ones tell you the relationship is built to be fair. When to switch agencies →

The answers sort the field in one call.

You don't need a long evaluation — you need these five answers. GBP fluency, verifiable reporting, lead attribution, no guarantees, and clean account ownership. An agency that answers all five well is rare and worth talking to. One that fumbles them is telling you exactly what working together would be like. Or start with a diagnosis →