How to choose an SEO company (and what affordable SEO should include)
Choose an SEO company that explains exactly what it will do, shows you the measurements, keeps you as owner of your accounts and content, and never promises a ranking position. Affordable SEO should still cover your Google Business Profile, key pages, technical fixes and monthly reporting.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What exactly will you do in the first 90 days?
- How will you measure progress, and can I see the raw data (Search Console, Business Profile insights)?
- Who owns the website changes, content and accounts if we stop working together?
- How do you get links and reviews? (The answer should never involve buying them.)
- Can I talk to two current clients in a business like mine?
Red flags
- Promises of #1 rankings or a guaranteed position by a date. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking.
- Secret methods they won't explain.
- Bought links, fake reviews or hundreds of near-identical pages.
- Owning your Google Business Profile or domain in their name.
- Long contracts with no reporting.
What affordable SEO should still include
- A complete, accurate Google Business Profile, kept up to date.
- Pages for your main services and areas, written for customers.
- Fixes for indexing, speed and structured data problems.
- A simple monthly report: searches, positions, calls and direction requests.
- Increasingly: checking whether AI assistants recommend you.