Before hiring anyone for SEO, ask how they will work out what your site needs, what exactly they will do each month, how you will see progress, who will own the accounts and content, and how they get links. Good providers answer these clearly and in plain words. Vague answers, "secret" methods, or a promise of the top position by a certain date are reasons to keep looking. Below are the questions, grouped by topic, with what a sensible answer usually sounds like.

About their approach

1. What will you look at first? A good answer starts with your business: your customers, services, area and competitors, then a review of the site and its Search Console data. Be wary of a fixed package offered before anyone has looked at your site.

2. Which searches should we target, and why? Listen for talk about what your customers actually type, including Bangla and Banglish searches, and about intent: people ready to buy versus people still researching. "High-volume keywords" on their own are not a strategy.

3. What will you actually do each month? Ask for a list: technical fixes, pages written or improved, Google Business Profile work, outreach. "Optimisation" by itself is not a task.

4. Who will do the work? With an agency, find out whether the person you meet is the person who works on your site, and whether any of the work is passed on to someone else.

About results and reporting

5. How will we measure progress? Look for impressions, clicks and enquiries from search, alongside rankings for searches that matter to you. Rankings alone, especially for obscure phrases, can look good while nothing useful happens. The guide to measuring SEO with Search Console and GA4 shows what to expect in a report.

6. What can I realistically expect, and when? An honest answer explains stages and what they depend on, not a date for "page one". Nobody controls Google's results, so a firm ranking promise is a warning sign. The article on how long SEO takes describes realistic progress.

7. Can I see examples of similar work? Ask for examples they are allowed to share, and ask what exactly they did on each. Be cautious with screenshots of graphs you cannot check.

About access and ownership

8. Whose name will the accounts be in? Google Search Console, analytics, your Google Business Profile, your domain and your hosting should all belong to your business, with the provider added as a user. If they leave, you keep everything. See who owns your website for what to put in writing.

9. What happens to the content if we stop working together? Pages and articles you paid for should stay yours.

10. What will you change on the site, and how will you tell us? You want to know before anything changes, especially on a live online shop.

11. How will you get links to our site? Good answers involve useful content, real relationships, suppliers, trade associations, local press and directories that real people use. Link packages, private blog networks and "thousands of backlinks" are risks that you would carry, not them.

12. Do you use AI to write content, and who checks it? AI can help with drafts, but a knowledgeable person should check the facts and add real experience. Mass-produced pages can harm a site.

13. What would you do if our site received a manual action from Google? An honest provider will explain how they avoid one, and how they would respond if it happened.

About the agreement

14. Is there a minimum term, and what is the notice period?

15. What exactly is included, and what costs extra? Content writing, developer time and ad spend are often separate.

Warning signs

  • A promise of the first position, or of rankings by a fixed date.
  • Refusing to explain methods because they are "secret".
  • Wanting to own your Search Console, Business Profile or domain.
  • Reports full of activity with no link to enquiries or sales.
  • Pressure to sign quickly, or a price that seems far too low for the work described.

How to decide

  1. Write a short brief about your business and what you want more of.
  2. Speak with two or three providers and ask them all the same questions.
  3. Compare the answers on clarity, honesty and fit, not on confidence.
  4. Start with an audit or a short, defined project before any long commitment.
  5. Review progress together at the end of that first stage.

If you would like to put these questions to me, you are welcome to get in touch.

Related service SEO, AEO, GEO and AIO Get found on Google and in AI answers: technical SEO, content, local SEO and Google Business Profile.