15 Questions to Ask an SEO Agency Before Hiring

Partnering with the right SEO agency can be your key to business growth and long-term success. Yet, the challenge lies in selecting the most suitable SEO company with a strong mix of expertise and effectiveness.

To assist you in the process, we’ve gathered 15 questions to ask an SEO agency before onboarding them.

Here are the questions that will help you choose the best SEO agency for your requirements:

1. Do you think we should Invest in SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
2. What is your SEO Process?
3. What will be your KPIs?
4. How do you Compare SEO with other Marketing Channels?
5. How are Your Services Different from Other SEO Companies?
6. When Will My Site Start Seeing Results?
7. Can you share about Your Best Clients and Your SEO Achievements?
8. How do you Best Communicate with Clients and How Often?
9. What SEO reports will I receive and How Often from Your SEO company?
10. What Tools Do You Rely on for Your SEO Efforts?
11. How Long Have You Been in the SEO Industry?
12. Have You Worked in a Similar Industry Like Us Before?
13. What Backlink Strategy Do You Use?
14. What Is Your Strategy for Conducting Keyword Research?
15. What’s the First Thing You’ll Do If We Were to Hire You?

1. Do you think we should Invest in SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

As the caveat goes: SEO isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

Therefore, this is one of the important questions to ask SEO agency as it will help you shape your digital marketing journey. It’s where you actually decide if SEO is the right path for your business.

Your objectives, target market, and company are unique. So, be wary of agencies that respond to your request with an immediate ‘yes’ without delving deeper.

Instead, look for an agency that demonstrates genuine curiosity about your needs. Here’s what they should be asking:

• Are your customers searching online for your goods or services?
• Are you willing to wait 8 to 12 months for the results?

An agency that asks these questions or suggests doing some research truly values your business.

That’s the kind of partner you want – one committed to your success, not just closing a quick deal.

2. What is your SEO Process?

Understanding the SEO process of an agency is essential as it helps you to set right expectations regarding the scope of work, the targeted search rankings, and identify if the SEO tasks are aligned with your business objectives.

The standard SEO process consists of the following important activities:

• Technical Audit: During this process, the SEO experts assess your website’s technical elements to identify the technical SEO issues and correct them. Here, they even checks the site structure, site speed, and many other on page SEO and off page SEO factors to ensure your website health is at good score.
• Keyword Research: Find right keywords for your business so you can attract your target audience.
• Competitor Analysis: Reviewing the competitor SEO strategy regarding content topics and link building to help us know what is working for them.
• Content Creation: Create interesting, high-quality content for your intended audience.
• Content Optimization: Put on page optimization efforts to raise search engine ranking for your website
• Backlink Building: Increase your website’s authority by obtaining high-quality backlinks from relevant websites. Some of the link building strategies includes local citations and guest blogging on the business related websites.

Hence, when you discover an SEO company following the standard process and white hat SEO practices, it’s a green flag!

You may also find companies still practicing spammy techniques to boost the website traffic faster by publishing the articles on private blog networks. However, it doesn’t last long and your website may be penalize from the search engines. So, choose the SEO company whose SEO approach is genuine and provide long-lasting SEO benefits.

3. What will be your KPIs?

Asking about SEO metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is essential because it will help you measure SEO success in the future. It will help you understand that the agency is ethical and practices white-hat SEO techniques.

If your agency focuses on KPIs like revenue, clicks, leads, and organic traffic—these are accurate indicators of SEO success, then you can consider your agency is a green flag!

For instance, here’s how an SEO company may track the weekly KPI.

Did you know Zestard’s organic SEO services has helped a SaaS company increase organic traffic by 250K in just 12 months? Yes, it’s fascinating! Check out this case study, which speaks for itself, and learn how we can help your business thrive.

4. How do you Compare SEO with other Marketing Channels?

This is among the crucial questions to ask an SEO company. It can help you understand how their SEO efforts stack up against other marketing channels.

While conventional techniques like radio spots, TV advertising, and print ads have advantages, or performance marketing or paid acquisition channels can have quicker results, SEO stands out for its affordability and long-term effects.

The paid advertising campaigns requires an ongoing huge investment. If you stop paying, your ads stop running and so you lost website traffic and sales. However, the SEO is an ongoing process where effective SEO strategy and consistent SEO efforts play a pivotal role for improving website traffic.

According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound Marketing Trends report,

• SEO is the 2nd most effective channel for acquiring new customers after social media
• 66% of B2B marketers report using SEO, compared to 77% of B2C marketers.
• The report notes that brands are seeing more success with SEO tactics like pillar pages, optimizing page load speed, and using topic clusters.

It demonstrates how well SEO works to generate organic leads and visitors.

Therefore, when used in conjunction with other marketing tactics, SEO can yield long-lasting effects instead of paid advertising, guaranteeing a strong return on investment. By adding SEO to your marketing mix, you’re positioning your company for long-term success.

5. How are Your Services Different from Other SEO Companies?

This question is one of the vital questions to ask when hiring an SEO company to discover what makes each SEO agency unique from many SEO agencies. It also signals them to go beyond generic promises and highlight their core strengths.

Now, pay attention to how they answer. Do they emphasize data-driven strategies, industry-specific expertise, or consistent client support? Do they have retained SEO clients? Do they use advanced SEO tools? What is their SEO team size? Reasons why their SEO campaigns win or fail for any past clients. How do they keep themselves updated with algorithm changes or updates?

Their detailed response will give you invaluable insights into their SEO approach and whether they fit your business’s needs.

6. When Will My Site Start Seeing Results?

SEO is indeed a long-term game, but an experienced agency should be able to provide an estimated timeline based on your website and goals.

Google states that it usually takes 4-12 months to see good traffic on your website from SEO efforts. So, be wary of any promises of overnight success.

Remember, factors like your industry’s competitiveness, your website’s current state, and your strategy’s aggressiveness will all play a role in how quickly you see results.

See for yourself how Zestard drives real growth for businesses. Take a look at our case study, where we propelled 10x organic traffic for a medical device company in 24 months!

7. Can you share about Your Best Clients and Your SEO Achievements?

The SEO companies has several case studies or client endorsements that highlight their SEO accomplishments for previous clients. The success stories provide insightful information about their competency and efficacy.

For privacy reasons, they might not provide access to their whole customer list, but if they share a few notable names, you can assess a sample of their work. If they work with various sectors, find out if they have experience with businesses like yours.

Checking customer reviews online can also show how reliable and successful their SEO services are. Look for reviews on platforms like Clutch, a reputed B2B site, Google Business Profile or other trusted websites. These reviews offer a chance to evaluate the staff’s personality and SEO proficiency.

8. How do you Best Communicate with Clients and How Often?

This question helps you determine who will be in control and how communication will occur. It might not be the best choice if no assigned contact is available or if the agency has assigned an inexperienced intern to provide SEO services.

Additionally, knowing how they will contact you—by phone, email, or video chat, for example—keeps everyone in the loop on developments and outcomes.

Successful cooperation depends on establishing a clear point of contact and deciding on a communication method, such as emails or phone conversations.

Transparent communication is at the core of credible agency’s operations, ensuring you’re always informed about the strategies and methodologies being deployed.

9. What SEO reports will I receive and How Often from Your SEO company?

Transparent communication and timely reports ensure openness and goal alignment in SEO partnerships.

You need to know that the agency will provide thorough reports outlining their efforts, results, and what comes next. These reports should be simple to understand and cover progress, ROI, challenges, and future strategies.

Furthermore, inquire about the reporting format. Will it include interactive dashboards, personalized meetings, or a combination? Additionally, ask how they’ll demonstrate accountability, ensuring the reports clearly connect SEO activities to your business objectives.

Regular and transparent reporting keeps you informed and ensures your SEO investment aligns with your growth goals.

10. What Tools Do You Rely on for Your SEO Efforts?

While creating your campaign, SEO specialists rely on specialized tools to analyze your website, examine backlinks, measure competitors’ performance, and more. So, the use of SEO tools is essential to ensure the SEO approach works well and the SEO experts gains insights from them.

If the agency uses premium tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, Surfer SEO or any SEO tools, it shows that the agency is credible and use advanced tools to ensure the SEO success for their clients.

11. How Long Have You Been in the SEO Industry?

By asking this question, you may find out how much SEO experience the agency has and whether they have prior experience working in related fields.

If they are beginners, don’t simply dismiss them. Instead, pay attention to their portfolio and the SEO approaches they propose.

12. Have You Worked in a Similar Industry Like Us Before?

Google even recommends asking this question to your SEO expert. Every website and its niche need to follow certain best SEO practices. Hence, if your potential SEO provider understands those practices and implements them on your website, there are chances your website can appear on the search engine results pages for some keywords easily.

Also, if they have experience in your field, they’ll understand your company’s unique challenges. Knowing this enables you to assess if the agency is a good fit for you and whether it can support your objectives.

13. What Backlink Strategy Do You Use?

A link building strategy is essential to ranking your website on the first page of Google for important search terms. An effective backlink building strategy will help you gain website authority, improve search engine rankings, and increase overall website traffic.

Every SEO company has its own unique backlink strategy. You may get varied answers here. So, how will you identify a good SEO company?

Be careful if they use article submission, directory listing, or profile creation as their link-building strategy. These activities won’t work standalone to help us build good backlinks, and they are outdated techniques.

A good SEO company will instead tell you how they build backlinks through guest posting, creating quality content to naturally gain links, public relations with journalists using HARO and Featured.com platforms, and outreach to webmasters who manage resource pages. These link building methods are genuine today and help us build backlinks organically.

By asking this question, you may find out how much SEO experience the agency has and whether they have prior experience working in related fields.

If they are beginners, don’t simply dismiss them. Instead, pay attention to their portfolio and the SEO approaches they propose.

14. What Is Your Strategy for Conducting Keyword Research?

This query, which is among the crucial questions to ask an SEO agency, helps you better grasp the agency’s process for selecting the ideal keywords for your website. Listen to their keyword research process and keep an open mind.

It’s important to know that they consider factors like the volume of searches, the type of content being searched for, user intent or search intent, and the difficulty of ranking well for specific keywords. It indicates that they are aware of your and your business’s website needs.

The SEO agency should be able to select keywords that will assist you in achieving your company goals.

15. What’s the First Thing You’ll Do If We Were to Hire You?

This is an essential question to ask your potential SEO company because it lets you understand their next action plan. Most agencies will tell you they will perform technical SEO audits and resolve the issues, if any. However, a credible agency that will be genuinely interested in the growth of your business would like to understand your business and might schedule a Discovery call. They may ask you questions about your niche, competitors, targeted customers, best-selling products, organic traffic, organic orders you receive (for an e-commerce store owner), whether you have ever been affected by algorithm changes, or experience working with the previous agency to understand your dislikes.

Hire an SEO Agency That Accelerates Your Business

Are you looking to increase your visibility online via an efficient and resourceful SEO agency? Look no further than Zestard—an SEO partner with over 12 years in service.

At Zestard, we employ the latest SEO techniques to increase your website’s visibility and attract more users. We also make sure you understand every step while providing a range of link building services, including HARO, guest posting, content marketing, and technical SEO services like link audits and content optimization.

Let us take the opportunity to share one of our many success stories and happy clients with you. Check out how, in just 15 months, we assisted a healthcare website in seeing a 6x increase in traffic.

Find out more about our SEO projects and their outcomes here!

If you wish to learn more about Zestard, our past projects, and how we can help you going forward, book a call with one of our SEO experts today!

FAQs

1. Should startups invest in SEO?

Startups should invest in SEO, without a doubt. SEO assists businesses in creating their online identity, drawing in prospective clients, and successfully taking on more established competitors.

2. How important is SEO in a SaaS business?

For SaaS companies, SEO is essential because it helps them connect with their target market, increase visibility, get leads, and build a brand reputation.

3. What Are the Benefits of Working with SEO Agencies?

Here’s why working with an SEO agency can benefit your business:

• Expertise: SEO agencies offer specialized knowledge and stay up-to-date with the latest trends.
• Tailored Plans: They create strategies specifically designed for your business and goals.
• Higher Rankings: Their work aims to boost your website’s search engine visibility for more traffic.
• Transparency: You’ll receive clear reports and updates on your campaign’s progress.
• Measurable Results: Agencies track key metrics to demonstrate the impact of their SEO efforts