Why these questions, and why you can ask them
You do not need to know SEO to interview an SEO company well. You need questions whose answers you can judge without technical knowledge: is it specific, can I check it, does it avoid promising what nobody controls. The twelve below are built that way.
Most small business owners hire on a good phone call and a reasonable price. That is how people end up three months into a contract with a monthly report they cannot read and no clear idea what was done. Asking these in writing, and keeping the answers, changes the relationship before it starts. A company that is happy to put its answers in an email is usually a company that will also put its work in a report.
If you have not yet decided what kind of help you want, an agency, a consultant, software or a done-for-you service, read how to decide what kind of help to buy first, because the right questions shift a little by type.
How to use the list
Send the questions in an email to every company on your shortlist before any call. Ask for written answers. Then read the answers side by side.
You are looking for three things. First, whether they answered the question that was asked or a different one. Second, whether each answer contains something specific, such as a named step, a real example or an honest limit. Third, how they reacted to being asked. A company that answers briskly and plainly is a better sign than one that says "we will cover all that on the call".
None of the questions has a single right answer, so the notes below describe what to listen for rather than a script. Where a bad answer is a deal-breaker, we say so. The companion page, small business SEO red flags, collects the warning signs that show up in proposals and contracts.
Questions 1 to 4: who they are and what they will do
1. Who will actually work on my site?
Good: a name, a role and a rough share of the hours. A small team that says "I write the pages and a colleague handles technical changes" is fine.
Weak: "our team" with no names, or a sales contact who disappears after signing. Some companies resell the work to a third party. That is not automatically bad, but you should know about it.
2. What will you change on my site and listings in the first month?
Good: specifics from looking at your business. For example, "your Google Business Profile lists the wrong main category, and your services page is one paragraph". The answer should differ from what they would tell the next client.
Weak: a list of phases with names like Discovery, Strategy and Optimization and nothing that changes anything you could see.
3. What will you not do?
This is the most revealing question on the list. Every engagement has limits, and an honest provider can name them.
Good: "We do not manage your paid ads, we do not take photos for you, and we will not buy links."
Weak: "We handle everything." Nobody handles everything for a monthly fee a small business can afford.
4. Can I see two examples from clients like me that I can check myself?
Good: a live site or profile you can open, a similar kind of business, and a plain description of what was done. A named client who is happy to talk is better still.
Weak: screenshots with the name blurred, or a famous brand that was a client of a company they bought. A case study you cannot verify is a story.
Questions 5 to 8: results, timing and proof
5. Can you guarantee a ranking?
Good: a plain no, with the reason. Search systems are not controlled by any company, and rankings change for reasons outside anyone's hands. What they can promise is work, reporting and honesty.
Weak: a guarantee of page one, the top three or "first place", with or without a refund clause. This one is close to a deal-breaker. If the refund terms are real, read them, because they are usually written so the condition cannot be met.
6. How long before I should see something?
Good: a split answer. Changes to a Google Business Profile can show in weeks. New pages and content usually take a few months to move in search. Competitive terms take longer. They should tell you what you can expect to see first. Our page on how long SEO takes for a small business gives the general shape.
Weak: one precise timeline for everything, or "you will see results next month".
7. How will you measure whether it worked?
Good: the measures come from your own accounts. In Google Search Console, how many times your pages were shown and clicked. In your Google Business Profile, calls, direction requests and website visits. Then phone calls and inquiries you can count yourself.
Weak: a proprietary "visibility score", or a ranking report for a list of keywords chosen by them. Those can rise while your phone does not ring.
8. What will the monthly report show, and can I see a real one?
Good: a sample with your kind of numbers in it, in plain language, that says what was done and what happens next.
Weak: a dashboard with forty charts and no sentence explaining what any of it means. A report should read like a short note from a person, not a printout.
Questions 9 to 12: ownership, contracts and cost
9. Who owns the accounts, the content and the site changes?
Good: you do. Your Google Business Profile and Search Console stay in your name, the company is added as a manager or user, and the pages written for you are yours when you leave.
Weak: the company creates the accounts under its own login, or the content stays theirs unless you keep paying. You can lose access to your own map listing this way.
10. What is the contract length, and how do I leave?
Good: a month-to-month arrangement or a short first term with a clear notice period, in plain words you can read in one sitting.
Weak: a twelve-month term with an automatic renewal and a long notice window, or a termination clause that requires you to pay out the remainder. A company confident in its results does not need to lock you in.
11. What does the price include, and what costs extra?
Good: a written list of deliverables, with the extras named. For example, "content writing is included, photography and paid ads are not".
Weak: a package name with a vague bundle behind it. How to read a package line by line is covered in small business SEO packages.
12. What do you need from me, and how much time will it take?
Good: a specific list. Access to your accounts, a call to explain your services, a way to get photos, and a few minutes a month to read the report. They should also tell you what happens if you are slow to respond.
Weak: "nothing, we handle it", which is sometimes true and sometimes a sign they will not ask you the questions that make local pages accurate.
Three follow-ups that sort the field
After the twelve, three short follow-ups tend to separate the companies quickly.
"What would you do differently if my budget were half?" A good company can cut scope sensibly and tell you what drops. A weak one cuts the price and keeps the same promise.
"What is the most common reason clients like me do not get results from you?" It is an awkward question, and a good company has a real answer. Often it is slow replies, a profile the owner never connects, or reviews that never get requested. A company with no answer has not looked at its own failures.
"If I decide to do part of this myself, which part?" The best providers are willing to tell you what an owner can do alone. Our page on doing SEO yourself versus hiring help lists what usually fits in a few hours a month. A company that treats everything as theirs to bill is telling you something.
One question that is new: AI assistants
A small business owner today has a thirteenth question the old lists do not carry. Do you look at how ChatGPT and other assistants describe my business?
You are not asking them to guarantee a recommendation, which nobody can do. You are asking whether they know how people use these tools to find businesses, and whether they check what the assistants currently say about you. A good answer mentions that the same clear pages, honest reviews and consistent details help in both places, and that they would check by asking real buyer questions. You can run that check yourself for free with the free AI visibility check.
A weak answer is either a blank, as if assistants did not exist, or a service with a new name and a high price that nobody can define.
Scoring the answers
You do not need a spreadsheet, but a simple tally helps when two companies both sound fine. Give each answer one of three marks: specific and checkable, vague, or a red flag. Count the red flags first. One red flag on questions 5, 9 or 10 is worth more than several vague answers elsewhere, because those three decide whether you can leave, whether you own your assets and whether you were told something untrue.
Then count the specific answers. A company with eight or nine specific answers and no red flags has probably done this before and expects to be asked. A company with mostly vague answers may still be fine, but you will be doing more managing than you want.
Last, notice how the exchange felt. Did they answer in a way you understood? Did they ever say "I do not know" or "that depends on your situation"? Those are better signs than polish.
Questions to put to their past clients
If a company gives you a reference, use it. A ten-minute call with a former client tells you more than any proposal. Keep the questions short and about facts.
What did they change on your site or profile? A good client can name something specific.
How did you know it was working? The answer should mention something real, like more calls, more form inquiries or a number in Search Console, not "they said so in the report".
Was there anything you had to chase them for? It reveals how they handle slow replies and missed deadlines.
Did you own your accounts from the start? This confirms their answer to question 9.
Would you hire them again, and for what? Hesitation is useful information. "Yes, for the content, but I do the reviews myself" is a perfectly good answer.
If the company cannot provide a single reference, ask why. There are honest reasons, such as client confidentiality, but they should offer an alternative, like a live site you can inspect.
Putting the answers side by side
Copy the twelve questions into a simple grid with one column per company. After you receive the written answers, paste a short version of each into the grid. In a few minutes the differences become obvious. One company will have written three sentences on ownership and another will not have mentioned it. One will have named a first-month change and another will have listed phases.
Do not weight price until you have filled in the grid. A cheaper company that scores poorly on questions 5, 9 and 10 is not cheaper once you count the cost of leaving it.
How RunOctopus answers these
We expect to be asked these questions, so here are our plain answers to the biggest ones.
RunOctopus is a done-for-you service. Its AI, Ollie, researches your business, then writes and publishes pages directly on your own website. A team plans, writes, reviews and publishes alongside Ollie. It works with Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce and Wix, and you install, approve, upload and schedule nothing.
The first week brings 8 long-form articles, 6 pages and a custom interactive tool built for your niche. After that it is 175+ pieces of content a month, written, published and linked. You also get reports on where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business. The promise is more visibility on Google and in AI answers within 90 days, measured against the 90 days before you joined, or every dollar back.
For scale, an agency doing this work charges about $3,209 a month (2026 average, 439 providers) and publishes 4 to 12 pieces. Paste your address into the free site read. Ollie reads the site and shows the plan. No account, no call.