How to choose an SEO company without getting burned

Choosing an SEO company is hard because almost every sales call sounds the same. Everyone promises more traffic, more calls, and a spot at the top of Google. The difference shows up months later, when you either have new customers or a stack of invoices and nothing to show for them. This guide gives you the questions to ask, the red flags to walk away from, and the accounts you should always keep in your own name. It is built on Google's own advice on hiring an SEO, checked in November 2026, so you can use it with any company, including us.

First, decide whether you need to hire at all

Google is unusually direct about this. Its hiring guide says that if you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself. That is true for the basics: a complete Google Business Profile, accurate hours, real photos, a steady flow of honest reviews, and a website that loads fast on a phone and clearly says what you do and where.

Hiring makes sense when your time is worth more than the learning curve, when competitors keep outranking you even after the basics are done, or when you are about to redesign or launch a site. Google calls a redesign a great time to bring in an SEO, because fixing problems before launch is cheaper than fixing them after. If you are not sure where you stand, run our 30-minute local SEO audit first. You will walk into every sales call knowing what is actually broken.

10 questions to ask before you hire an SEO company

Send these by email before the call, so you can compare written answers side by side. The first five follow the questions Google itself suggests. The rest come from what we see go wrong for local businesses.

1. Can you show me examples of past work? Ask for real businesses you can look up, not screenshots with the names blurred. A good answer names the client, the country or city, and what changed.
2. Do you follow Google Search Essentials? This is Google's rulebook for sites in its results. A company that hesitates or calls it optional is telling you something.
3. What results do you expect, by when, and how will you measure them? Listen for calls, form leads, and booked jobs, not only rankings or "visibility."
4. What is your experience with businesses like mine, in my area? A plumber in Round Rock and a law firm downtown need different work.
5. Will you tell me every change you make, and why? You should get a plain list of changes, not a mystery.
6. Who owns the accounts? The only acceptable answer is you. More on this below.
7. Who will actually do the work? Ask whether it is the person on the call, a team, or an outside contractor.
8. How do you get links and mentions? Vague answers about "our network" often mean paid links, which break Google's rules.
9. What happens if I want to leave? Look for month-to-month terms and a clean handover of logins and files.
10. What will you do in the first 30 days? A real plan names specific fixes. A weak one only promises "optimization."

Also notice what they ask you. Google's guide says a good SEO should want to know what makes your business unique, who your competitors are, and how your customers find you. If the conversation is all about their packages, keep looking.

Red flags Google warns about

Google lists several warning signs in plain terms. These are worth taking seriously, because Google also says you are responsible for the actions of any company you hire. If they break the rules, your site pays for it.

• Guaranteed rankings. Google says no one can guarantee a top ranking on Google. Be wary of anyone who claims a "special relationship" with Google or a "priority submit."
• Cold emails about your site. Google says to treat unsolicited SEO emails with the same doubt as any other too-good-to-be-true offer. It even gets them itself.
• Secrecy. If a company will not clearly explain what it plans to do, walk away.
• Links back to them. Google says you should never have to link to an SEO.
• Link schemes and mass submissions. Offers to submit your site to thousands of search engines or directories are, in Google's words, typically useless.
• Tools sold as "Google approved." Google says it does not endorse third-party SEO tools, and those tools do not have access to its internal ranking data.

For local businesses, add one more: anyone who offers to rank your Google Business Profile with a virtual office, a fake address, or keywords stuffed into your business name. Those shortcuts can get a profile suspended.

Keep these accounts in your name

This is the single most important protection you have. If an agency owns your accounts, leaving them can mean starting over.

• Google Business Profile. Google allows several owners and managers, but only one primary owner. You should be the primary owner. Add your SEO company as a manager, which, according to Google's help page on roles, lets them edit info and reply to reviews but not add or remove users.
• Your domain and website hosting. Registered to you, paid by you.
• Google Search Console and Google Analytics. You own them. Google's guide suggests giving read-only Search Console access during an audit and not write access at that stage.
• Ad accounts and call tracking numbers, if they are part of the work.

We work this way ourselves: month to month, and you own every account. You can read our full terms on the how we work page.

Agency, freelancer, or consultant?

There is no single right answer, but each fits a different situation. A freelancer can be a good value for a defined task, such as fixing a website's technical issues. An agency brings more hands for ongoing work across your profile, site, reviews, and listings. A consultant gives you a senior review and a written plan that your own team or web person can carry out. If you want straight answers before committing to monthly work, our SEO consultant page explains how that option works.

Whichever you choose, the same questions and red flags apply. Size does not protect you from bad work, and a one-person shop can be excellent.

Related readingHow long does SEO take to bring in customers?

What a fair first month looks like

The first month should leave you with something you can see and check, even before rankings move. A reasonable first 30 days usually includes:

• A written audit of your Google Business Profile, website, reviews, and top competitors, in priority order.
• Fixes to anything that blocks customers from reaching you: wrong phone numbers, wrong hours, broken forms, or a slow mobile site.
• Call and form tracking set up, so you can tell later whether the work is paying off.
• A short plan for the next 60 to 90 days, with what will be done and how progress will be measured.

Be careful with promises about timing. Rankings rarely move in weeks, and Google itself says some changes take months to show. Our guide on how long SEO takes walks through a realistic timeline.

How to compare two proposals side by side

Put the written answers in a simple table with one column per company. Then score each one on four things: proof you could verify, a specific first-month plan, clear ownership and exit terms, and how they will measure calls and leads. The cheapest proposal is rarely the best, and the most expensive is not automatically safe. The one that is clearest about what it will do, and what it cannot promise, is usually the one to pick.

If you are in Austin and want a second opinion on a proposal you already have, or on where your business stands today, request a free audit. A real person checks your listing, website, and competitors and replies within one business day, and the findings are yours to keep whoever you hire.