# Questions to Ask an SEO Consultant Before Hiring > The questions to ask an SEO consultant before you hire: experience, method, results, access, pricing and AI claims, with a scorecard to judge the answers. URL: https://seoconsultantlondon.online/guides/questions-to-ask-an-seo-consultant-before-hiring/ Updated: 2026-10-24 ## Quick answer Ask an SEO consultant to show past work, explain their method, name realistic results and timeframes, describe how they document changes, state exactly what access they need, and cite official Google guidance for their advice. Vague answers, guaranteed rankings and secrecy are the signals to walk away. ## Key takeaways - Google's own hiring guidance lists seven questions worth asking, and they cover track record, rules, results, experience, tenure, communication and curiosity about your business. - You stay responsible for what a consultant does on your site, so every answer should be specific enough to check. - Start with read-only access to Search Console and widen access only when the work needs it. - Any promise of a guaranteed number one ranking, a special relationship with Google or secret methods is a reason to stop the conversation. - Score every answer against a simple scale so the decision rests on evidence, not on who sounded most confident. ## What does Google say about hiring an SEO? Google publishes its own hiring guidance for site owners, and it is the best place to start. The page, titled ["Do you need an SEO? Tips for hiring an SEO"](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo), sits in Google Search Central and was last updated on 5 June 2026. It is short, plain and unusually direct about what to ask and what to avoid. The key point for buyers is that Google does not endorse, certify or approve any SEO provider. The guidance is a checklist for you, not a list of recommended suppliers, so the quality of the hire depends on the quality of your questions. ### What is the official guidance? The Google page lists questions worth asking a potential SEO, red flags to avoid, your own responsibilities and what to expect from the work. Treat it as a neutral third-party checklist that no consultant wrote. If a consultant you are speaking to objects to any of it, that tells you something. In brief, Google suggests asking about past work and success stories, whether the SEO follows Google Search Essentials, what results are realistic and how they are measured, experience in your industry and market, how long they have been in business, how they communicate, and whether they take an interest in your business and competitors. ### Who is accountable if something goes wrong? You are. Google states that you are responsible for the actions of any company you hire. If a consultant publishes spam, buys links or creates misleading content on your behalf, the consequences land on your domain, not on theirs. That is why the questions in this guide focus on transparency. You do not need to understand every technical detail, but you do need to understand what is being changed on your site, why, and how to undo it. #### Why this matters more for small and mid-sized sites A large brand can absorb a bad quarter. A small business with one main site and a handful of service pages often cannot. A poor hire can waste budget, and a harmful one can suppress visibility for months, so the due diligence is worth the time. ## Which questions reveal real experience and track record? Experience questions test whether the consultant has done work like yours, not whether they can recite definitions. Ask for specifics and listen for detail that could only come from doing the job. The goal is not to find the consultant with the longest client list. It is to find the one whose past work resembles your problem closely enough that the lessons transfer. ### Can you show me past work and success stories? This is the first question on Google's own list. A good answer includes a described problem, what was changed, the timeframe, and an honest note on what else may have influenced the result. Seasonality, a brand campaign or a site redesign can all move traffic independently of SEO. Be wary of screenshots that show only a rising line with no baseline, no dates and no explanation. A graph is evidence of correlation. A case study should explain the mechanism. #### What a credible case study contains Look for a starting position, the specific interventions, the dates they were made, the measured outcome, and the limits of attribution. A consultant who says "we cannot be certain this was all SEO" is usually more trustworthy than one who claims everything. #### What to do if the work is under NDA Many clients do not allow named case studies. In that case ask for an anonymised example with the sector, the size of the site and the same detail on method and measurement. You can also ask whether a past client would speak to you directly. ### How long have you been in business, and in which sectors? Google lists tenure and industry experience as separate questions. Tenure shows resilience through algorithm changes. Sector experience shows that the consultant already understands how customers in your market search and buy. Do not treat either as a pass or fail test. A newer consultant with a strong method can beat an older one with a stale playbook. The point is to understand what they know and where they would be learning on your budget. ## Which questions expose how the consultant actually works? Method questions separate people who follow a repeatable process from people who improvise. You want a consultant who can explain the steps in plain English, not hide behind jargon. The best answers describe a sequence: diagnose, prioritise, implement, measure and review. The worst describe a mystery that only the consultant understands. ### Do you follow Google Search Essentials? Google Search Essentials is the set of baseline requirements and spam policies for appearing in Google Search. It includes technical requirements, spam policies and key best practices. A consultant who works within it will not suggest hidden text, link schemes, cloaking or scaled low-value content. Ask them to name the policies most relevant to your site. A consultant who has read the documentation will answer without hesitation, and will usually mention the areas where your sector is most at risk. #### How to follow up on a vague yes If the answer is a simple yes, ask for an example of a tactic they refuse to use and why. Experienced consultants can usually name several, and the reasons they give show how well they understand risk. ### How will you document every change and explain your reasoning? Google's guidance says an SEO should document changes and explain the reasoning behind them. This is a practical protection. If rankings move, you need to know which change preceded the movement, and you need to be able to reverse it. Ask what the change log looks like, who can see it, and how often it is updated. A shared spreadsheet or ticket board is enough. What matters is that nothing happens on your site that you cannot see. #### What a good change log includes Each entry should show the date, the URL or template affected, what changed, why it changed, who approved it and how success will be checked. That is a few lines per change and it prevents arguments later. ## How should you test promises about results and timeframes? Results questions are where most hiring mistakes happen. Search results are produced by a system the consultant does not control, so any promise about outcomes deserves scrutiny. The honest position is that SEO changes the odds, not the outcome. Good consultants talk about likelihood, leading indicators and the time it takes for Google to recrawl and reassess a site. ### What results can I realistically expect, and when? Google tells site owners to ask for realistic expectations and the timeframe in which they should arrive. A sensible consultant will explain that some changes, such as fixing a blocked page, can show effects within weeks, while content and authority work usually takes longer. Ask them to separate quick technical fixes from slow compounding work. If the plan promises everything within the first month, the plan has not been tied to how crawling and indexing actually behave. #### Why a range beats a single figure A forecast with a range and stated assumptions can be tested. A single confident number cannot, because it will either be missed or quietly reinterpreted. Ask which assumptions the range depends on, such as development time or content approval speed. ### How will you measure success? The answer should connect to your business, not to vanity metrics. For a service business that usually means qualified enquiries, calls and booked consultations. For a shop it means revenue from organic search. Rankings and traffic are supporting indicators, not the goal. Ask which tools they will use. Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 are the usual starting point, and you should own both properties so the data stays with you if the relationship ends. #### What to do about attribution limits Organic leads are often influenced by earlier brand visits, direct traffic and offline conversations. A transparent consultant will say what the reporting can and cannot attribute, and will not claim every enquiry as an SEO win. ## What should you ask about your market, London and the UK? Market questions test relevance. Search behaviour, competition and regulation vary by place and sector, and a consultant who has not worked in your market will take longer to become useful. Google asks about experience in your industry, your city or country and with international sites. Those are three different capabilities, so ask about each one that applies to you. ### How much experience do you have in our city or region? For a London business, ask how the consultant approaches London competition, borough-level and postcode-level searches, and the way Google Business Profile results vary by searcher location. Local ranking is shaped by relevance, distance and prominence, so the consultant should be able to explain each. If you serve the whole of the UK, ask how they separate national and local intent in the plan. Mixing the two on one page is a common reason that neither performs. #### Why generic location pages are a risk Ask whether the plan includes dozens of near-identical area pages. Google's spam policies cover doorway abuse, and thin pages built only to capture variations of a location search can do harm. A good consultant will only recommend area pages that carry unique, useful content. ### Do you have international or multi-language experience? If you sell abroad or in several languages, ask about country targeting, hreflang and URL structure. These are technical choices that are painful to reverse after launch, so experience matters. If you do not operate internationally, ask the consultant to say so honestly. A good SEO who lacks international experience is better than one who bluffs it. ## What should you ask about access, security and risk? Access questions protect your site. An SEO consultant often needs some level of visibility into your data, and sometimes access to your content management system or hosting. Each level of access carries risk. Google's guidance advises limiting access. For an initial audit, it suggests granting read-only Search Console access rather than write access. ### What access do you need for the first stage? For a diagnostic audit, read-only access to Search Console and analytics is normally enough. A consultant can also crawl your public site without any login. Ask them to justify each additional permission in writing. You should also ask who will hold the credentials, how they are stored, and how access will be revoked at the end. These are basic information-security habits and a professional will already have answers. #### How to grant access safely Add the consultant as a named user with the lowest permission that fits the task, never share a personal password, and keep a record of who has access. Remove access when the work ends. ### What happens if you need server or FTP access? Some changes, such as redirects, server-level performance work or file edits, may need deeper access. Google states that if an SEO has FTP or server access, they should explain every change they make. Ask for a staging environment, backups before changes and a rollback plan. A consultant who wants to edit your live site with no safety net is taking a risk with your business. #### What to put in writing Agree which files and settings the consultant may change, who approves each release, and how you will be notified. Putting this in the scope of work avoids misunderstandings. ## How should you question pricing, scope and contracts? Price questions are about clarity, not about finding the lowest figure. SEO is priced in several ways, and the right model depends on the work. What matters is that you understand what you are buying. Typical ranges vary with scope and seniority, and the breakdown of [how much an SEO consultant costs](/guides/seo-consultant-cost/) shows what drives the difference. Here the focus is on the questions that expose unclear pricing. ### Is the fee hourly, project-based or a retainer? Ask which model is proposed and why. A one-off audit suits a diagnostic need. A project fits a defined piece of work such as a migration. A retainer fits ongoing delivery. Each has trade-offs in flexibility and accountability. Ask what is included each month, how much consultant time that represents, and what happens if you need more. A retainer that does not state the work behind it is hard to evaluate. #### What to check in a proposal Look for a defined scope, named deliverables, a timetable, an owner for each task, the reporting cadence and the notice period. Missing items are questions to raise before you sign. ### What are the contract and exit terms? Ask about minimum terms, notice periods and what you keep when the engagement ends. You should own your analytics accounts, your content and your documentation. Be cautious of terms that tie you to a long minimum commitment before any results are visible. Also ask how disputes are handled and who is liable if a recommended change causes harm. A professional will have considered this and may carry professional indemnity insurance, which you can ask to see. ## How should you handle claims about AI search and new services? New acronyms attract new sales pitches. Services branded as answer engine optimisation or generative engine optimisation are now common, and the quality of advice varies widely. Google's current hiring guidance addresses this directly, and it is worth asking any consultant who sells these services how their advice aligns with it. ### Do you sell AEO or GEO, and what is it based on? Google says such services should align with its guidance on generative AI features in Search. Ask the consultant to show where their recommendations come from. If the answer is a proprietary method with no documentation, treat the claims as unproven. There is no secret formula for appearing in AI answers. The fundamentals remain crawlable pages, clear and helpful content, accurate structured data where it applies and a trustworthy brand. Be sceptical of anyone who claims otherwise. #### How to test an AI visibility claim Ask what would be measured, how a result would be separated from normal variation, and what the consultant would do if no change appeared. If the claim cannot fail, it is not a claim. ### How do you use third-party tools and their scores? Google's guidance states that third-party tools do not have access to its internal ranking data and cannot guarantee performance. Scores such as authority metrics or audit grades are estimates produced by each tool's own model. Ask how the consultant treats these scores. A strong answer uses them as prompts for investigation and checks findings against Google's own data in Search Console before acting. ## How do you score the answers you receive? Collecting answers is only half the task. Without a scoring method, the loudest or most polished consultant tends to win. A simple scorecard keeps the decision tied to evidence. Use the same questions for every candidate, take notes during each call and score afterwards, not during, so that charm does not influence the number. ### How can a simple scorecard work? Score each answer from zero to three. Zero means no answer or a red flag. One means vague. Two means specific but unverified. Three means specific and backed by evidence you can check. Add the scores by category. | Category | What a score of 3 looks like | Red flag (score 0) | |---|---|---| | Track record | Described cases with baseline, dates and attribution limits | Screenshots with no context | | Method | Clear sequence, change log, rollback plan | "Proprietary process" with no detail | | Results | Ranges, assumptions and leading indicators | Guaranteed rankings | | Access | Read-only first, justified escalation | Asks for full admin immediately | | Pricing | Defined scope and deliverables | Unexplained monthly fee | | Google alignment | Cites official documentation | Claims a special relationship with Google | #### How to weight the categories Give extra weight to the categories that matter most for your situation. A site about to migrate should weight method and access heavily. A new local business should weight market experience. ### Which answers should end the conversation? Google names several red flags. These include guaranteed rankings, claims of a special relationship with Google or "priority submit" services, unsolicited outreach about problems with your site, secrecy about methods, and offers to submit your site to thousands of search engines. Google also warns that you should never need to link to your SEO, and that tools claiming to be approved by Google are misleading because Google does not endorse them. Any one of these is reason enough to stop. ## What should you do after the calls? A hiring decision does not finish with the last call. Verification and a careful start protect you from the gap between what was said and what is delivered. The aim is to reduce the cost of being wrong. Small, reversible commitments first, larger ones later. ### How do you verify references and claims? Ask for two references and contact them. Google suggests asking past clients whether the SEO was helpful, easy to work with and produced results. Ask what went wrong as well as what went well, because every engagement has problems. Check that the business is real. Look up the company on Companies House, review their site and their own search visibility, and see whether they apply their advice to their own pages. #### What to look for on the consultant's own site A consultant who sells SEO should have a clean technical foundation, clear service pages and honest content. It does not need to rank first for every term, but obvious basic mistakes are worth noting. ### How should you structure the first engagement? Begin with a paid discovery or audit with a fixed fee and a defined output. That gives you something concrete to judge before any larger commitment. The audit should include honest estimates of improvement and the work involved, which is exactly what Google says to expect. If the audit is strong, move to a scoped project or retainer with clear reporting. If it is weak, you have spent a small sum and avoided a larger mistake. A good diagnostic follows a structured [SEO audit checklist](/guides/seo-audit-checklist/), and a specialist [SEO audit consultant](/seo-audit/) can run one against your own site. #### A closing checklist before you sign Confirm the scope, the deliverables, the access you will grant, the reporting dates, the ownership of accounts and content, the notice period and the first milestone. If you can state all of these in a sentence each, you are ready. ## What does a good first call sound like in practice? The questions above work best when you ask them in a planned order. A structured call is shorter, easier to compare across candidates and harder for a polished sales pitch to derail. The sequence below is built to take about 45 minutes and to give you something you can score afterwards. Send the consultant a short brief a day or two before the call. Include your website address, your main services, the areas you serve, what you have already tried, who manages the site and what a good outcome looks like in twelve months. A consultant who reads the brief and arrives with questions of their own is already showing the curiosity Google recommends looking for. ### How should you open the conversation? Start by asking the consultant to describe your business back to you in two sentences. This is a quick test of listening. Google's guidance asks whether the SEO is interested in your business, your competitors and how your customers find you. A consultant who has studied your site and your search results will say something specific. One who reads from a script will repeat your own words back. Next, ask what they would look at first and why. You are looking for a reasoned starting point, for example checking whether key pages are indexed before writing new content. The reason matters more than the answer, because it shows how they prioritise. #### What to listen for in the first ten minutes Notice whether the consultant asks about your customers, your margins, your sales process and how enquiries are handled. SEO that ignores the sales side of a business often produces traffic that never converts. Questions about conversion and lead quality are a good sign. ### Which follow-up questions test depth? Once the basics are covered, ask the consultant to walk through a recent problem they diagnosed. Ask what they first suspected, what evidence changed their mind and what they would do differently. Real experience contains dead ends and corrections. An account with no mistakes in it is usually a polished story rather than a memory. Then ask a question designed to see whether they will disagree with you. For example, mention a tactic you have heard about and ask for their view. A good consultant will explain when it works, when it does not and what the risks are. A consultant who agrees with everything is selling, not advising. #### How to handle a question they cannot answer Everyone meets questions they cannot answer on the spot. The right response is to say so and offer to check. Treat an honest "I would need to look at your data" as a positive sign, and treat a confident answer to a question that cannot be answered without data as a warning. ### What should you ask at the end of the call? Finish by asking what they would need from you to start, what could go wrong and what they would do about it. Ask who will actually do the work, whether any of it is outsourced, and how quickly they respond to questions. These practical points often cause more friction than the strategy itself. Finally, ask them to put the proposed scope, deliverables, fees and timeline in writing. A written proposal gives you a document to compare, and the effort the consultant puts into it tells you how they are likely to treat the rest of the engagement. #### What to do in the 24 hours after the call Score the call while it is fresh, using the table in the previous section. Check one claim the consultant made, such as a case study or a tool they mentioned. Then compare the written proposal with what was said on the call, because differences between the two are worth raising before you commit. ## Which hiring mistakes do buyers repeat most often? Most poor SEO hires come from a small set of repeated mistakes, and almost all of them are about process rather than about the consultant. Knowing them in advance is the cheapest protection you can buy. ### Why does choosing on price alone backfire? The lowest quote often reflects the least thinking. Cheap packages tend to rely on templated deliverables, bulk link purchases or automated reports that look busy but change little. Google's guidance warns about offers to build links or submit a site to thousands of search engines, and these are typically sold at low monthly fees. Equally, the highest quote is no guarantee of quality. Compare the scope, not the number. Two proposals at different prices may describe very different amounts of senior time, and a smaller fee with a clear scope can be better value than a larger one with a vague promise. ### Why is skipping the audit risky? Some buyers sign a retainer before anyone has looked at the site properly. Without a diagnosis the work plan is a guess. Google notes that a realistic audit should include honest estimates of improvement and the work involved, which is a good test of whether a proposal is grounded in your actual situation. A paid audit also gives you a document you can use even if you decide not to continue, including with an in-house team or another provider. That makes it a low-regret first step. #### How to spot a template proposal If a proposal could be sent to any business without changing a word, it probably has been. Look for references to your pages, your competitors and your search results. Specific details prove that someone has actually looked. ### What happens when nobody on your side owns the work? SEO fails quietly when recommendations sit in an inbox because no developer or content writer has time to act on them. Before hiring, decide who will approve changes, who will implement them and how fast. A consultant cannot deliver results that depend on changes you never make. Name an internal owner, agree a regular review and make sure the consultant knows who can make decisions. A good consultant will ask about this, and a missing question here is worth noting. #### How to keep momentum after the kick-off Hold a short monthly review focused on three things: what shipped, what is blocked and what moves next. Keep a visible list of open recommendations with owners and dates. Progress is easier to maintain when it is visible. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the single most important question to ask an SEO consultant? Ask how they will measure success and over what timeframe. A credible answer names specific metrics such as qualified enquiries, indexed pages or conversions, admits uncertainty, and explains which changes should move first. Anyone who simply promises rankings has not understood your business or how Google works. ### How many SEO consultants should I speak to before choosing? Speak to at least three, using the same questions and the same brief. Comparing like with like shows who explains their reasoning clearly, who asks about your customers, and who quotes realistically. A shortlist of three is enough to spot patterns without wasting weeks. ### Should an SEO consultant sign a contract before seeing my site? You can agree a short paid discovery or audit first, with a clear scope and fixed fee. That limits risk on both sides. Longer retainers should follow only after the audit shows what needs doing, who owns each task, and how progress will be reported. ### Can I check an SEO consultant's claims about Google? Yes. Google publishes its Search Essentials, spam policies and Search Console documentation, and a good consultant should be able to point to the relevant page for each recommendation. If advice contradicts official documentation, ask for the evidence behind it before you act. ### Is it fine to hire an SEO consultant outside London? Often yes, because most SEO work is done remotely. Location matters most for local search work, where knowledge of the market and local competitors helps. Ask about experience in your sector and city or region, not just about where the consultant lives.