Looking for SEO services: where to start

Agencies with a verified published price

How to run the search for a provider

1. Write the problem down before you write the brief. Traffic that never converts, a drop after a redesign, a category you have never ranked in, or a site nobody can crawl. These need different specialists, and naming the problem is what stops the process becoming a taste test between three decks.
2. Build the longlist from evidence, not from best-of pages. Many ranked lists are paid placements or affiliate pages with inconsistent disclosure. Use them to collect names if you like, then verify each name against its own published address, team, prices and case detail before it advances.
3. Ask Google's published questions on every call. Examples of previous work and success stories, whether they follow Google Search Essentials, expected results and in what timeframe, industry experience, how changes will be communicated, and detailed reasoning for recommendations.
4. Start with an audit you own. A paid audit with a written baseline caps your exposure, produces a document that stays useful whoever you hire, and shows you how the agency thinks before you sign a year of retainer against a plan you have not read.

What you are actually buying

An SEO engagement is usually three workstreams under one invoice. Technical work makes the site crawlable, fast and correctly structured. Content work builds pages that answer what your buyers actually type. Authority work earns links and mentions from places that already carry weight. Google's own list of what search specialists usefully provide covers the same ground: content and structure review, technical development advice, keyword research, training, industry expertise and, increasingly, work aimed at generative surfaces.

A proposal that quotes only one workstream is quoting part of the job. A proposal that leads with link volume is leading with the layer Google polices most aggressively. Ask which workstream the agency thinks is your binding constraint, and why, before you look at the price.

The signals that should stop a conversation

Google publishes its own warning list for this exact purchase: unsolicited email about your search listings, secrecy about methods or refusal to explain them clearly, link popularity schemes and mass submission tactics, unwillingness to explain changes made to your server, and requests that you link to the provider's own site. Add the two claims Google addresses directly, that no one can guarantee a number one ranking and that nobody has a special relationship with Google or priority submission access.

There is also an access question buyers get wrong. Google recommends granting only read access to Search Console during an initial audit rather than write access. That single control costs nothing, protects the property and tells you quickly whether a provider is used to working with clients who have governance.

How to compare two proposals that look the same

Put them side by side on four axes. Deliverables: what will exist at the end that does not exist now, stated as artefacts rather than activities. People: who does the work, named, and how much of their time you are buying. Reporting: which numbers, against which baseline, at what frequency, in a document you can read alone. Exit: who owns the site, content, analytics and tracking if you leave.

Then check the specialisation claim against the evidence. Does the firm publish case detail that names clients and describes what changed? Does it rank for its own specialty phrase, which is a public demonstration of its own ceiling? Every agency in this index is listed on that kind of published proof, and the same test works on any candidate you find elsewhere.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need SEO services at all?

Google's own guidance frames it as optional but often worthwhile, and notes that a search specialist can save time and improve a site through content review, technical advice, keyword research and training. If your site is small, your market is uncontested and you have someone able to follow the starter guide, in-house may be enough. Competitive categories rarely are.

What should I ask on the first call?

Use Google's published list: examples of previous work and success stories, whether they follow Google Search Essentials, what results they expect and in what timeframe, their experience in your industry and location, how they will communicate changes, and whether they will give detailed reasoning for recommendations. Anything vague at that stage will not become clearer later.

How much access should an agency get?

Start narrow. Google recommends read access to Search Console during an initial audit rather than write access. Widen it deliberately as scope grows, keep ownership of the accounts in your name, and make sure removing access at the end of the engagement is a task someone owns.

Should I sign a twelve month contract?

Not before you have seen the agency work. A paid audit or a defined first phase gives you a document you own and evidence of how they communicate. If a longer term follows, ask for a break clause tied to the reporting you agreed, and make sure the deliverables are named in the contract rather than described in a deck.

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