How to Choose an SEO Agency: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Sign (2026)

Most people start asking how to choose an SEO agency once two proposals are already on the table: one cheap and bold, the other expensive and cautious. Both come with a polished presentation, and both say "we'll get you onto page one". The way to tell which one will actually bring in business is to look past the pitch and at how they answer your questions.

SEO is an investment whose results show up months later. Six months with the wrong agency isn't just wasted money; it's six months in which your competitors moved ahead while you stood still. Worse, your site may have been damaged by low-quality links and duplicate content along the way.

In this article we've gathered the questions to ask an SEO agency, the good answer to each and the red flags to walk away from. At the end you'll find a contract checklist to use before signing.

How to choose an SEO agency: start by defining your own goal

Before you question an agency, ask yourself one thing: what do you expect from SEO? "Showing up on Google" is not a goal. "Getting more monthly quote requests for bedroom sets from buyers in Bursa" or "increasing direct hotel bookings from abroad" is a goal. When your goal is clear, you can weigh the agency's answers properly.

Have this information ready: your most profitable products or services, the regions and markets you target, how you currently track enquiries from your website and the monthly budget you can commit. If you'd like a refresher on the fundamentals, our article what is SEO and how does it work is a good place to start.

Questions about results and strategy

1. Do you guarantee first-page rankings?

This is a deliberate trick question. Nobody controls Google's algorithm, and Google's own guide to hiring an SEO warns against anyone who guarantees rankings.

• Good answer: "We can't guarantee rankings, but we can give you in writing what we'll do, in what order, and how we'll measure progress."
• Red flag: Promises like "number one in three months, guaranteed" or "money back if it doesn't work". These guarantees are usually based on long, meaningless keywords that nobody searches for.

2. How will we measure success?

Rankings and traffic are intermediate signals. The real question is whether your website is bringing you business.

• Good answer: They propose tracking conversions such as form submissions, phone clicks, WhatsApp messages, quote requests, add-to-carts and sales, and the first thing they check is whether these are set up correctly in GA4.
• Red flag: A report that consists only of "we're 8th for this keyword" and a total visitors chart.

3. What exactly will you do in the first 90 days?

A good agency can describe the first three months as a concrete work plan.

• Good answer: For example, month one covers a technical audit, measurement setup and a keyword map; month two improves priority pages and fixes technical errors; month three starts content production and the first link-building work. Each step has a defined output.
• Red flag: "Let's get started and we'll plan once we've seen the site", or offering every client the same ready-made package.

Questions about execution and methods

4. Who will implement the technical fixes?

A lot of SEO work gets stuck at the "we've identified the problems" report. If slow pages, broken redirects and incomplete structured data aren't actually fixed, the report is useless.

• Good answer: The agency's own development team applies the fixes directly, or it gives your developer a clear, prioritised task list and follows up on it.
• Red flag: A 40-page PDF every month while nothing on the site changes. We cover what to look at for performance in our article on how to speed up your website.

5. How do you earn backlinks?

Link building is the most abused part of SEO. Ask about the method directly.

• Good answer: News and interviews in industry publications, links from supplier and dealer websites, guide content that is genuinely worth sharing, and relationships with local associations and chambers of commerce. The agency can show which site each link came from and why.
• Red flag: "100 backlinks a month" packages, unnamed site networks, bulk forum and comment links. These go against Google's spam policies and can come back to hit your site as a penalty.

6. What are you doing for visibility in Google AI Mode and ChatGPT?

Some users now get their answers from AI summaries in search results or from assistants like ChatGPT. In 2026, an SEO agency should have a view on this.

• Good answer: They talk about content structured to answer questions clearly, structured data, getting the brand mentioned on trustworthy sites and consistent business information. They're also honest that measurement in this area is still limited. For more detail, see our article what is GEO.
• Red flag: Guarantees such as "we'll make you the first brand ChatGPT recommends", or brushing the topic off entirely.

Questions about transparency and ownership

7. How and how often will you report?

• Good answer: A monthly report listing the work done, changes in conversions and traffic, problems encountered and next month's plan. The report is walked through in a short call where your questions get answered.
• Red flag: Charts pulled from an automated tool with no commentary. If "what did you do this month?" doesn't get a concrete answer, your money is being wasted.

8. Who will own Search Console, GA4 and the content?

This question decides how much damage you'll take if you and the agency part ways.

• Good answer: Google Search Console, GA4, Google Business Profile and Tag Manager accounts are registered to your company account, and the agency is only added as a user. Usage rights to the text, images and pages produced pass to you.
• Red flag: Accounts opened with the agency's own email address, or a "the content is ours, we'll remove it if you leave" attitude.

Questions about the contract and references

9. What are the contract length and termination terms?

Because SEO takes time to deliver results, it's understandable that agencies ask for a minimum term. What matters is that the term is reasonable and that leaving is possible.

• Good answer: An initial period of a few months, then month-to-month; the right to terminate with reasonable notice; and a written commitment that access, files and work history will be handed over if you leave.
• Red flag: A long lock-in, heavy penalty clauses, a contract that quietly auto-renews, or a scope of work described with a single vague phrase such as "SEO services".

10. What have you done in my sector?

SEO for a furniture manufacturer is not the same as SEO for a hotel. One is chasing dealer and wholesale enquiries, the other direct bookings and multilingual content.

• Good answer: They explain the problems they've faced with similar businesses and the solutions they applied, and, with permission, let you speak to a past client. At Fietto Creative, for example, our deepest experience is with furniture brands in İnegöl and Bursa and with hotel and tourism businesses, which is why we describe the sectors we work in separately.
• Red flag: Showing only a wall of logos, or saying "we can't share examples for confidentiality reasons" without describing any concrete work.

The 10 questions at a glance

You can print this table, take it to the meeting and note the answers beside each row.

Realistic expectations on SEO agency pricing

Price shouldn't be the deciding factor when choosing an SEO company, but it shouldn't be ignored either. The monthly fee depends on the size of your site, the competition, the number of target languages and cities, and the content and technical workload. In the Turkish market, we see a wide range: from starter packages of a few thousand TL a month for a local service business to budgets of tens of thousands of TL for multilingual, competitive e-commerce projects. These are indicative ranges we observe in Türkiye, not fixed prices; because of inflation and differences in scope, quotes can change quickly.

When comparing proposals, look beyond the total figure at what it includes: how many pieces of content per month, how many hours of technical work and what kind of link building. For a line-by-line comparison, see our article on SEO pricing.

SEO contract checklist

Before you sign, make sure the contract clearly covers the following:

• Monthly scope of work: number of content pieces, technical work, link building, meeting frequency
• Success metrics and which conversions will be tracked
• Reporting frequency and report content
• Search Console, GA4, Tag Manager and Business Profile accounts registered in your name
• Usage rights and copyright of the content produced passing to you
• Methods that will not be used: paid links, duplicate content, hidden text
• Contract length, renewal terms, notice period and termination conditions
• Files, access and work history to be handed over if you part ways
• A confidentiality and personal data protection clause
• Fees, price adjustment terms and payment schedule

If an agency explains a commitment verbally but won't put it in writing, treat that commitment as non-existent.

Contract law differs by country, so we recommend consulting a lawyer before making a final decision on the legal validity, penalty clauses and termination provisions of the contract.

Test your website yourself before the meeting

If you know the state of your site before you sit down with an agency, the conversation goes very differently. When you already know what the problems are, you can easily see whether the agency spots them and how it prioritises them.

You can use our free Site X-Ray website audit tool for this. It runs more than 40 checks, shows the first 10 issues instantly and emails you the full report. Take that report to the meeting and ask the agency: "Which of these would you fix in the first month?" The answer will tell you a lot about most of the 10 questions above.

If you'd like SEO and ad management run by one team with a focus on enquiries and sales, take a look at our digital continuity service.

Frequently asked questions