Maybe your first question is simply this: Is SEO worth it? Your second question: Is hiring an SEO company worth it? The answer to both is YES! Here are the best questions to ask an SEO company, plus red and green flags to be aware of when looking to hire a digital marketing agency!
Top 10 Questions to Ask When Hiring an SEO Company
1. What is your SEO strategy?
Search engine optimization is so much more than writing content and hoping it ranks for a specific keyword. It starts with SEO website development (security, design, speed, responsiveness, user-friendliness, etc.), then quality, shareable content, reviews, local listings, and backlinks.
2. Do you have experience in my industry?
While most SEO methods are beneficial across industries, an SEO services agency needs to take the time to understand and evaluate the nuances of your specific business. If they have worked with businesses like yours, ask for case studies!
3. How do you stay up to date with algorithm changes and AI?
This is another one of the best questions to ask an SEO agency! AI search is changing at a rapid pace, and those who can’t keep up will only fall further and further behind the competition.
4. What does your SEO process include?
If the answer to this question begins and ends with keyword research and buying backlinks, that’s not even scratching the surface. Any bare-minimum SEO process requires:
- Technical SEO
- Local SEO (if applicable)
- On-Page SEO
- AEO & GEO
- Link Building
A company offering a template or website SEO checklist may give you surface-level benefits, but in reality? Your business remains practically invisible.
5. Do you work with structured data?
Knowing how to use schema markup and structured data isn’t going above and beyond; it’s a critical (and necessary) component of SEO and GEO. It’s how AI chatbots and other search engines crawl, index, and cite your content in their answers.
6. Is your content written by AI?
SEO & content marketing: you can’t have one without the other. It’s possible for content written by AI to rank, but most agencies make the mistake of thinking ChatGPT and other AI tools are a shortcut. They’re not.
Read more about our approach to AI-written content as an SEO content marketing agency!
7. How do you optimize existing content?
Mass producing new content without considering content that already exists on your website is a poor SEO tactic. Continuously updating old content not only strengthens your internal linking strategy for new content but also improves accuracy, trust, and visibility for both traditional and AI search engines.
8. What metrics do you track?
Understanding important data (organic traffic, conversion rate, leads, and revenue, etc.) versus data you shouldn’t put all your focus on is key.
9. How do you measure success beyond rankings?
With AI impacting SEO trends, online visibility and organic search is less about the number of keyword rankings you have and more about your website’s overall structure, content, and performance. Learn more about how to create an SEO marketing strategy that fuels long-term growth.
10. Do you offer an SEO audit?
Marketing audits are the best way to measure if your current strategy is working, where you can improve, and even how you can save money.
SEO Agency Red Flags & Green Flags
Now that we’ve answered some SEO frequently asked questions, here’s the next step: actually choosing who to partner with for SEO services.
A good SEO company will:
- Set realistic expectations (no guarantees, false promises)
- Explain transparent processes, pricing, and reporting
- Focus on long-term business outcomes, not just short-term wins
- Tailor SEO strategies to your specific business (no one-size-fits-all)
Avoid SEO agencies that:
- Promise instant results
- 100% guarantee first-page rankings
- Refuse to plainly explain their methods
- Talk in vague terms (“secret” strategies)
Why Work With IMEG?
Our SEO experts have years of experience working with a variety of businesses, ranging from small SaaS companies to large vacation rental businesses and everything in between. Questions like the ones above don’t intimidate us; in fact, we would love to speak with you and go into more detail about what we do!
Still have SEO questions? Reach out to our expert team for a free audit or a conversation about how we can help your business grow!
