Choosing an SEO company on evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

A four step way to choose an SEO company

1. Write down what you are buying before you call anyone. Decide first whether the problem is local visibility, national organic traffic, ecommerce discovery or technical repair after a site migration. These are four different engagements with different specialists. Buyers who skip this step end up comparing incomparable proposals and choosing on price or personality.
2. Use Google's own hiring questions. Google publishes guidance for people hiring an SEO. It advises asking for examples of previous work and references, asking what results are expected and in what timeframe, and warns against anyone guaranteeing a top ranking or claiming a special relationship with Google. Ask those questions verbatim and note who gets uncomfortable.
3. Ask for the ninety day plan before you sign. A credible candidate can say what they would do in the first three months without seeing your analytics: an audit, a defined set of pages, technical fixes, a measurement baseline. A retainer with no page plan is an invoice with no deliverable, and the plan is the document you will hold them to later.
4. Check ownership and exit terms. Confirm in writing that you own the website, the content, the analytics property, the search console property and any Google Business Profile, and that the agency merely has access. Confirm the notice period. The single most expensive mistake in this market is discovering at the end that the assets were never yours.

The evidence a firm publishes is the cheapest filter you have

Before any call, three published signals separate the field. Does the firm publish pricing or a stated minimum? Publishing a number is a small act of commitment that most agencies avoid, and the ones that do it are easier to compare and harder to surprise you later. Does it name clients, and does the named work still exist? Case studies with no verifiable client are marketing about marketing. Does it describe a method rather than only outcomes? A firm that explains how it selects target queries, how it decides what to publish and how it measures is a firm you can argue with; a firm selling only results is one you can only trust or not.

Their own site is the second free test. Search for the services they sell in their own city and see whether they appear. This is not conclusive, because good agencies often deprioritise their own marketing while busy, but a firm invisible for its own core terms should have an explanation ready, and the quality of that explanation tells you a great deal.

The promises that should end a conversation

Google states plainly that no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and that a claimed special relationship with Google is a warning sign. Add to that: any offer to buy links at scale, which is against Google's own spam policies and puts your site rather than the agency's at risk; any refusal to name which people will do the work; and any proposal that reports only rankings with no enquiry or revenue figure attached. None of these require expertise to spot, which is why they are the most useful filters a non-specialist buyer has.

Be equally wary of the opposite failure, the agency so cautious it commits to nothing. A serious firm will not guarantee a ranking, but it will happily commit to deliverables: this many pages, this technical work, this reporting, by these dates. If neither results nor deliverables are on the table, there is nothing in the contract at all.

What a fair contract contains

A named scope with monthly deliverables. Clear ownership of the site, the content, the accounts and the profiles, with the agency holding access rather than title. A reporting cadence that includes enquiries or revenue and not only positions. A notice period measured in weeks or a couple of months rather than a year. A named point of contact and some statement of who actually performs the work, including any subcontracting.

Two clauses deserve particular attention. The first is what happens to work in progress if you leave mid-month, which decides whether half-finished pages come with you. The second is any exclusivity term, which can quietly prevent you from hiring a specialist for a channel the agency does not cover well. Both are negotiable before signing and neither is negotiable afterwards.

Questions people actually ask

How much should SEO cost?

The honest answer is a range set by competition, scope and who writes. A single-location local business buys a much smaller engagement than a national ecommerce brand, and the same monthly figure can represent wildly different amounts of delivered work. Compare scope per month rather than headline price, and ask each candidate what their number buys in pages, technical hours and writing.

How long should I commit for?

Long enough for the work to be fair and short enough to leave. Meaningful results in competitive markets take two to three quarters, so a one-month rolling deal encourages an agency to chase quick wins. A twelve-month lock with no exit is the opposite problem. A three to six month initial term followed by rolling notice suits most buyers.

Should I hire a freelancer, an agency or a staff hire?

A skilled freelancer is often the best value for a focused problem and carries key person risk. An agency brings a bench and continuity at a higher price. An in-house hire makes sense once search is central to the business and there is enough work to fill a role. Many buyers get the best result from an in-house owner plus specialist help, rather than either alone.

What is the first thing to check after signing?

That the accounts are in your name. Within the first week, confirm you can log into the analytics property, the search console property, the ad accounts and the Google Business Profile as an owner, not merely a viewer. This takes minutes and prevents the single most common and most expensive dispute at the end of an engagement.

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