How to choose an SEO agency: questions to ask and red flags

Questions to ask any agency

• What exactly will you do each month?
• How will I know it's working, in leads and revenue, not just rankings?
• Who owns my website, domain and Google Business Profile?
• What happens if I cancel?
• What's included, and what costs extra?

Red flags

• Guaranteed #1 rankings. Google controls rankings and says no one can guarantee them.
• Secret methods they won't explain at all
• Buying links, fake reviews or keyword-stuffed business names
• Owning your accounts, or charging to hand them back
• Reports full of numbers with no connection to leads or revenue
• Long lock-in contracts with no clear deliverables

What good reporting looks like

• Where you show up in search, Maps and AI assistants, and how it's changing
• How many leads came in, and from where
• Which leads became customers, and what they were worth
• What was done this month, and what's next

Check the fit

Ask whether they work with businesses like yours and how they'd approach your market. They should understand how your customers search and what a lead is worth to you.

How we approach it

MET Signal publishes its prices, keeps Signal and Pro month-to-month, keeps your accounts in your name, and reports on leads and revenue by source, including how you show up in AI assistants like ChatGPT. See where you stand first with a free audit.