Questions to Ask
an SEO Agency
Ten essential vetting questions. With sample good answers plus the warning answers to walk away from. Use this as your interview script before signing any retainer.
Ask ten essentials. Kick-off process. Recent cluster plan. Schema plus on-page approach. Monthly report contents. Specialist headcount per piece. Ranking guarantees. Month-12 success measurement. Reference clients. Contract length. Content ownership at parting. Good answers are specific plus concrete with documents to show. Bad answers are vague plus generic. The pattern is unmistakable within three questions. Walk away when answers stay vague. A 90-minute vetting call surfaces 95% of what you need to know.
Three numbers that shape
the vetting conversation
A proper agency vetting call is not a sales pitch. It is a structured interview. These three numbers describe what a well-run one looks like.
Core questions
Essential vetting questions covering process, results, team, contract plus content ownership. Skipping any leaves a blind spot. Adding more usually means duplicating coverage.
Vetting call length
Enough time to ask the ten questions, see the requested documents plus follow up on weak answers. Less than 60 minutes means questions were skipped. Book the time.
Questions to read
The pattern usually becomes unmistakable within the first three questions. Specific or vague. Documented or improvised. Trust your read by question four. Do not extend out of politeness.
The pattern of the answers matters more than the answers themselves
Most founders ask agencies the wrong things. They ask about price, contract length plus what is included. These questions are useful but secondary. The questions that actually predict whether an agency will deliver are about process, specifics plus how they prove the work. Process questions reveal whether there is a system or just a person. Specifics reveal whether there is real experience or rehearsed language. Proof requests reveal whether there is actual work or stock decks.
Good agencies welcome these questions. They have the documents to hand. They know their process well enough to describe it without reading from notes. Weak agencies deflect to slides or pivot to talking about strategy without producing the actual artefacts. By the third or fourth question the pattern is clear. Trust it. Politeness is not a reason to extend a vetting call past the moment the answer becomes obvious.
The Q&A scorecard below shows the ten essential questions with sample good answers plus the warning answers to walk away from. Each shows the actual phrasing of a healthy plus unhealthy response. Use as your interview script.
For the full commercial picture of how we deliver this for UK startups, the SEO for Startups service page sets out exactly what is included, what it costs plus what results to expect inside the first twelve months.
Three categories every essential question sits inside
The ten essentials cover three categories. Each category reveals a different aspect of the agency's competence. Strong agencies handle all three categories well. Weak ones reveal themselves by category.
Process Questions
How they work. Kick-off plan, weekly cycle, specialist roles, documentation. Reveals whether SEO is run as an industrialised system or improvised case by case. Strong agencies have documents. Weak ones have slides.
Results Questions
How they measure success, how they report plus what they would consider a successful month 12. Reveals whether they understand commercial outcomes or just SEO metrics. Best agencies talk about both.
Team plus Contract Questions
Who actually does the work, contract length, content ownership at parting. Reveals whether the agency is built for the long term or for sales. Watch for lock-ins plus content ownership traps.
Content ownership at parting is the most under-asked question plus arguably the most important. Many agencies retain rights to content they produce for clients. When you switch agencies, the new agency has to rewrite from scratch. Ask explicitly plus get the answer in writing before signing.
The ten-question vetting scorecard
Each question with a sample good answer plus a sample bad answer. The pattern of language plus specificity tells you almost everything you need.
Four phases over 30 days. Setup days 1-7, audit days 8-14, strategy days 15-21, launch days 22-30. Twelve milestones total. Here is the project board template.
We get started right away, build out an SEO strategy plus begin publishing content in week one to start ranking as fast as possible.
Here is a recent one. Anonymised. Landing page, hub plus 22 spokes around a single topic. Note the internal link map plus priority order. Took 2 weeks to build.
We do strategic content planning around our clients' key topics. Cannot share specifics for confidentiality reasons but trust us, it is thorough.
Article, FAQ, Person plus Organisation schema on every piece. JSON-LD validated against Rich Results test before publish. On-page checklist of 14 items. Here is the template.
We make sure all the technical SEO best practices are followed including schema markup where appropriate. Our team has years of experience with this.
Rankings change, traffic delta, indexation rate, top-performing pieces plus pages needing intervention. Plus enquiries attributed to organic. Here is last month's redacted for a similar client.
We share a comprehensive monthly dashboard with all the key SEO metrics our clients need to track progress.
Six. Account lead writes brief. SEO specialist does research plus outline. Writer drafts. Editor handles technical edit. Developer publishes. Analyst measures.
Our team works collaboratively across each project. Different team members contribute their expertise depending on the needs of each piece.
No. Anyone who guarantees rankings is either guaranteeing already-ranking terms or using risky tactics. We can show typical outcomes from similar clients which is the closest honest answer.
We guarantee top-3 rankings within 6 months for your top keywords or your money back. Our proprietary methods get results.
30 to 80 first-page rankings. 800 to 3,500 monthly organic sessions. 8 to 15 organic enquiries per month. Cost per lead 3-5x below paid. Agreed in writing at month 1.
Success looks different for every client but we work hard to deliver meaningful improvements in your SEO performance over time.
Yes. I will email you two introductions today. Both are happy to talk. Suggest you ask them about communication, problem-handling plus whether they would re-sign.
Our clients prefer not to be contacted directly but we can share testimonials plus case studies from our portfolio.
Three-month minimum then monthly rolling. We recommend 12 months for SEO to compound properly but no lock-in beyond 90 days. 30-day notice to leave.
We require a 12-month commitment up front since SEO takes time. Early termination fees apply.
You do. Always. Content is yours, schema is yours, keyword research is yours. We hand over editable source files when an engagement ends. Written into contract.
Content remains the property of the agency while you have an active retainer. We can discuss licensing options if you choose to leave.
Take notes during the call. If a question is answered vaguely, ask for the specific document. If they cannot produce it, mark the question failed. Three or more failed questions out of ten is a strong walk-away signal.
Five proof artefacts to ask for
on the vetting call
Beyond the questions, ask for these five documents. A good agency can produce all five within 24 hours of the call. A weak one will promise to follow up plus never do.
Recent case study
Sample monthly report
Schema example
Cluster map sample
Reference intros
The sample monthly report is the highest-signal request. It reveals exactly what you will see from them every month for the next 12. If the sample is vague, dashboard-heavy plus light on commercial metrics, the actual reports will be the same. If it is specific, narrative plus tied to commercial outcomes, that is what you will get.
Specialist agency vs
generic agency on the same call
The same ten questions, two different agencies, two very different conversations. The patterns below repeat almost every time. Trust them.
Words without artefacts
- ✗Answers framed in benefit language. Talks about strategy, partnership, results without saying how those things actually get produced. Sales-coded vocabulary.
- ✗Documents promised, rarely delivered. "We will send those over after the call." Two follow-up emails later, still nothing. Pattern continues into engagement.
- ✗Long contract length pushed. 12-month lock-in framed as "needed for results". Actually exists to protect agency revenue if delivery slips.
- ✗Reference clients unavailable. Testimonials offered instead. Direct client conversation declined for "confidentiality". Translation: clients would not say flattering things.
- ✗Content ownership ambiguous. Question deflected or answered in legal-speak. Real answer hidden in the contract that arrives later.
Words backed by artefacts
- ✓Answers framed in process language. Talks about specific stages, owners, deliverables plus measurements. Operational vocabulary. Easy to verify.
- ✓Documents shared during the call. Brief templates, cluster maps, sample reports. All anonymised, all real. The work exists rather than being claimed.
- ✓Short minimum, recommended long. "3-month minimum, we recommend 12 for SEO to compound." Honest about timeline without locking you in.
- ✓Reference clients introduced within 24 hours. Two emails sent. Both clients respond. Both willing to discuss good plus bad of the relationship.
- ✓Content ownership clear plus written. "Yours. Always. Source files handed over at the end if you leave." Confirmed in writing before retainer signed.
We will answer every one of them
with documents, not slides.
We work with UK startups on a clear monthly retainer from £350. No setup fee. No twelve-month tie-in trap. Bring the ten questions to the first call. We will share the brief template, cluster sample, sample report plus reference intros within 24 hours.
This article is the fifth in the Mistakes, Hiring plus Getting Started section of our complete SEO Guides for Startups series. The final guide covers the specific red flags to walk away from during agency vetting.
SEO Guides for Startups
The full index of every startup SEO question we have answered. Cost. Timescales. Strategy. Mistakes. Use it as your reference plus come back to it whenever a new question comes up.
More from the startup SEO guide
Once you know what to ask, the next question is what to walk away from. Red Flags When Hiring an SEO Agency covers the warning signs. How to Get Started with Startup SEO covers the kick-off plan once you have hired. DIY SEO vs Hiring an Agency for Startups covers the in-house versus external decision.