Wondering what questions to ask an SEO company? Overly technical SEO interview questions aren’t useful for most small businesses because it can be difficult to assess the correct answers. The common sense questions below will be particularly helpful to SMBs when interviewing SEO consultants, freelancers, or agencies.

First do the research suggested in our article on hiring SEOs, and learn how to spot spammy SEO, then use the 6 questions below to learn a little more about the background and approach of the providers you interview.

1. Have you worked with our industry?

Google recommends this common question, but we suggest assessing this from a high-level versus granular perspective. Consider the SEO skills your business needs and find someone with that particular experience: local, international, ecommerce, content, etc.

• B2B services. B2B businesses, consultants, coaches, and professional services firms need to create authoritative, thought leadership content. Does the SEO have the educational and professional background to guide this process?

• Local businesses. Make sure your SEO consultant is skilled in providing local SEO help—it really doesn’t matter if you own a hair salon or build pools. Note, many SEO companies work with multiple competing local businesses which creates a conflict of interest. This is common for “best SEO [insert city]” or “dental SEO” type agencies. Select an agency where your business will be a top priority, not one of many.

• Affiliate sites. Product reviews and recommendation sites need to compete alongside large media conglomerates. Your SEO will need experience with Google’s reviews system.

• YMYL. Financial, legal, medical or health sites need a YMYL expert.

• Ecommerce sites. Your products need to stand out among larger retailers.

2. Who will we work with?

Does the agency outsource their SEO work? Who will work on your account: a newly hired trainee following a checklist, or a senior SEO who deeply understands the field? Is the person taking your call a sales guy trying to hit a quota or are you speaking with an SEO expert? Will you have direct access to the person making updates on your behalf?

The answers to these questions will tell you a lot about the particular style or approach of the group you are considering. In general, make sure an experienced SEO is on the team you choose—learn how to identify high-quality SEOs.

3. How holistic is your approach?

Does the SEO only do on-page optimization? Do they only want to discuss “backlinks”? Or will they also assess your off-page profile and make recommendations? Are they skilled in website design, user experience, and conversion optimization?

Will they analyze your competitors? How do they do keyword research? Do they over-rely on tools?

True SEO requires a comprehensive, holistic approach, sometimes referred to as “Search Experience Optimization” (SXO). You need to focus not only on rankings, but also on the overall user experience, including site usability, content relevance, and engagement.

A good SEO will want to evaluate your entire online presence versus sell you a “5-page optimization package.” Search engine optimization is hands-on and nuanced. SEO is a business consulting role, success is not achieved via SEO software and plugins.

4. What platform is your own site built on? Why?

Everyone is partial to one website platform over another for different reasons. Insights you might glean from asking this question include:

• Perhaps the consultant uses Wordpress for their own business, but primarily targets their services to users of a different CMS (Wix, Magento, Squarespace, etc). If so, why? SEO is SEO, but everyone best understands the nuances of the CMS they use for their primary business. Ask how familiar they are with your platform’s settings.

  You can easily determine a provider’s CMS for yourself. Be cautious of agencies that use one platform for their own business yet primarily target users of a different platform, this might raise some red flags. 

• And this leads to: Will the SEO agency ask you to switch to their preferred platform? Sometimes a website migration is warranted, but this is detailed work for an experienced SEO and not a decision to be made lightly. If an agency charges very little for site migration services—or nothing at all—or insists a small business moves to a proprietary platform, it means they want to lock you into a long-term relationship.

5. How much time will be needed from our team?

Consider the on-boarding process, initial site audit, and any future meetings. Maybe your business prefers a done-for-me approach. Or perhaps your team wants hands-on education and training. Either way, your team should be involved in the SEO process to some extent.

Good SEO consultants will request an in-depth discovery meeting to learn about your business. Beyond this initial meeting, what does the project timeline look like? How often will the SEO team want to meet with your team? Can you work on a project basis or do they require a monthly contract?

Despite what many SEO agencies want you to believe, a large number of small businesses do not require on-going monthly SEO or reporting. One-time assistance and training can set many small sites in the right direction. Will the agency let you reach out on an as-needed basis? If you prefer regular monthly help, what do those interactions involve?

Note, if an SEO agency plans to communicate only by email—which is common with the “choose package A, B, or C” agencies that outsource—you should keep looking.

6. Can you show us examples?

If you’ve read up on finding a good SEO and done your homework, then you’ve already seen their SEO case studies. When interviewing, also ask about their favorite side projects or biggest wins. They should be able to show you real-world examples of their hard work and what they’ve learned along the way.

Many SEOs are enthusiastic about their projects, but don’t mistake enthusiasm for expertise. You can verify some claims with simple free tools, such as a keyword difficulty checker or website traffic estimator.

Conclusion

Your business, website, competitors, and audience are unique. Look for an SEO partner who understands your business needs and can help you reach your goals.

Note, Google also offers a list of suggested questions for SEOs.