Hiring an SEO Agency: 15 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Before hiring an SEO agency, ask what exactly they deliver each month, who writes your content and in which language, who owns the content and accounts, how they will access your site, and how they report. Walk away from anyone who promises first-page rankings, buys links or publishes without your approval. The 15 questions below cover all of it.

Why ask questions before hiring an SEO agency?

Because SEO is hard to judge from a sales call. Two proposals can use the same words ("content", "technical SEO", "backlinks") and mean completely different amounts of work. Clear questions turn a vague offer into something you can check every month.

They also protect you. Many problems owners discover later (a site they cannot log into, content they do not own, a penalty from bought links) could have been avoided with one question at the start. If you are still learning how SEO works, read our practical SEO guide for businesses in Saudi Arabia and Egypt first; it will make the answers easier to judge.

Questions about what you get each month

1. What exactly will you deliver each month?

Ask for a list, not a description. How many articles or pages, of what length and type? Which technical fixes? How many pages reviewed? A good answer sounds like "four service pages rewritten and two new articles, plus a monthly technical check", not "ongoing optimisation".

2. What will you do in the first month?

A sound first month usually includes an audit of the site, connecting Search Console, and agreeing on priorities. Ask to see what that audit covers. Our website SEO audit checklist gives you a reference to compare against.

3. Which searches will you target, and how did you choose them?

The agency should show you the actual phrases your customers type, in the language and spelling they use, and explain why each one matters to your business. A dental clinic in Riyadh does not need traffic from people searching for dental courses.

4. Who will actually do the work?

Ask who writes, who handles technical changes and who is your contact. Ask whether any part of the work is passed to freelancers or subcontractors. You do not need names, but you need to know who is accountable.

Questions about content, language and ownership

5. Who writes the content, and in which language and dialect?

Arabic content for Saudi customers and for Egyptian customers is not always the same. Searches differ in vocabulary and spelling: people type both «اسعار» and «أسعار», and «افضل» without a hamza. Ask whether writers are native Arabic speakers who write for your market, or whether the content is translated from English. Our guide on Arabic keyword research explains why this matters.

6. How do you check facts about my business?

Prices, opening hours, licences, service areas: content that gets these wrong costs you trust. Ask how the agency gathers facts from you and who checks them before anything goes live. Google's guidance on helpful, people-first content is a good standard to hold them to.

7. Who owns the content and the accounts?

The answer you want: you own everything. Articles, images, your domain, hosting, Search Console, Google Business Profile and analytics should all be in accounts your business controls. If the contract ends, nothing should leave with the agency.

8. Will you publish anything without my approval?

The answer should be no. Ask how drafts reach you, how long you have to review, and what happens if you ask for changes. Any page on your site speaks for your business.

Questions about access and reporting

9. Do you need my passwords?

Prefer restricted access over shared passwords. Search Console, Google Business Profile and analytics all let you add a user with limited permissions. On WordPress, create a separate user account for the agency rather than sharing yours. You can remove access at any time without changing your own login. Our Google Search Console guide shows how to add a restricted user.

10. How will you report progress?

Ask for a sample report. It should show Google Search Console data (clicks, impressions, CTR and the queries and pages behind them) compared with earlier periods, plus a list of the work done that month.

11. Which numbers do you treat as success?

Be wary of reports built on vanity metrics: total "keywords ranked" with no click data, scores from third-party tools, or traffic from countries you do not serve. The useful questions are whether the searches that matter to your business are bringing more visits and enquiries, and what the agency did to move them.

12. What happens when results are slow?

SEO takes time and depends on the competition for each search. A trustworthy agency explains this plainly, and tells you how it will adjust if a page does not move, rather than giving you a fixed number of months as a promise.

Questions about contracts and terms

13. How long is the contract, and how do I leave?

Ask about the minimum term, the notice period and what you receive when you leave: all content, reports and access handed back. Be cautious about long lock-in contracts with heavy exit penalties, especially before the agency has shown any work.

14. What is included in the price, and what costs extra?

Ask whether content writing, design, technical fixes and tools are inside the fee or billed separately. Surprises usually come from what was assumed, not from what was written.

15. What do you need from me?

A good agency will ask you for things. If it needs nothing from you, ask how it plans to write accurately about your business. See the section below on what you should provide.

Red flags when hiring an SEO agency

Some answers should end the conversation:

• Promised rankings or "first page in X months". Nobody outside Google controls its results. Read Google's Search Essentials to see what Google actually asks of a site.
• Buying backlinks or "link packages". Links bought to manipulate rankings break Google's spam policies and can harm your site.
• Fake reviews on Google Business Profile or anywhere else. They put your listing at risk and mislead your customers.
• Publishing without your approval, or refusing to show drafts.
• Keeping your accounts in their name, or refusing to give you owner access.
• Long lock-in contracts with no clear deliverables.
• Vague reports with no Search Console data.

How to compare SEO agency offers fairly

Prices are hard to compare when the work behind them differs. Put every offer on the same basis.

1. Write down, for each offer, the monthly deliverables in numbers: pages, articles, technical tasks.
2. Note the language of the content and who writes it.
3. Note the contract length, notice period and exit terms.
4. Check ownership: whose accounts, whose content.
5. Ask each agency for a sample report and compare them side by side.
6. Ask each one what it would do first on your site, and why.
7. Only then compare price, as cost per deliverable rather than one monthly figure.

An offer that is cheaper but vaguer is not cheaper. Before you meet agencies, it also helps to know where your site stands: Rankshoot gives you a free SEO audit of your site, a look at your competitors and a content plan; you create a free account and no card is needed. Get your free preview and bring it to the meeting.

What you must provide the agency

SEO goes better when the owner is involved. Plan to provide:

• Accurate business facts: services, prices or price ranges, branches, service areas, opening hours, licences.
• What makes you different from competitors, in your own words.
• The questions customers ask you most often, on the phone or WhatsApp.
• Access through user accounts, not shared passwords.
• A named person who reviews and approves drafts, and a realistic turnaround time.
• Honest feedback when content does not sound like your business.

Frequently asked questions

How long before I see results from an SEO agency?

There is no fixed answer. It depends on your site's current state, the competition for your searches and the work done. Ask the agency what progress you should be able to see in the reports along the way, such as new pages indexed and more impressions, rather than a promised date.

Is a cheap SEO agency always a bad choice?

Not always, but compare what is delivered, not only the price. A low price with clear deliverables, real content and honest reporting can suit a small business. A low price with vague promises often means very little work.

Should I hire an agency or do SEO myself?

Many owners can handle the basics themselves: Search Console, Google Business Profile and accurate service pages. An agency makes sense when you need more content, technical work or time than you have. Either way, you should own the accounts and understand the reports.

What should be in an SEO contract?

Monthly deliverables in numbers, ownership of content and accounts, your approval before publishing, reporting format and frequency, contract length, notice period and what is handed back when you leave.

Take these questions into your next agency meeting and write down every answer. Then check your own setup with the Google Search Console guide and the website SEO audit checklist, so you can judge each agency's work against your own data.