<p>9. Ask how they handle technical SEO. If they can't fix CLS, or have someone that can, then they probably aren't good. If they don't even know what technical SEO is and aren't able to explain it to you, then they are a scam.<br /></p>
<p>10. The more SEO knowledge you have, the more SEO-related questions you can ask - but some of those require you to know what the answers should be. If you don't have any SEO knowledge, you should hire an SEO consultant to evaluate their strategy. It is cheaper to pay an SEO consultant a few hundred than to pay the agency thousands.</p>
<p>11. They should be able to do a legitimate breakdown and audit of your site on the fly. The audit should be a this is where you are, this is what is good, this is what needs to be improved audit. If it is simply your h1 is bad, or you are missing alt tags, then they are just a salesman and not an SEO. Agencies train salespeople to point out very simple things like h1 and alt tags. In-depth audits take a long time and can be expensive, but any web professional can do a quick audit in a few minutes for free. SEO isn't that difficult, but if it were that simple, it wouldn't require professionals.</p>
<p>12. If they want to do anything dramatic get a third-party consult. This would be rebuilding your website, recommending an extreme budget, writing hundreds of pages, or anything that acts like x doesn't matter or only y matters. Sometimes these strategies can be sound - but most of the time, if they act like something doesn't matter, it is because they don't know how to do it. Someone with a specific specialty is good - but they should probably be white labeling for a holistic company rather than trying to convince you that only one aspect matters.</p>
<p>13. If it is anything along the lines of "if we write blogs you will rank" and that is it then they are a scam. The same is true if they say you only need this cheap backlink package. SEO requires an all-encompassing approach. Things that are too good to be true often are.</p>
<p>14. Check them for general honesty. Most people in the SEO game lie - if you feel like they are dishonest, they won't work for you and will collect a paycheck for as long as they can without getting results.</p>
<p>15. Understand your niche and your competition. SEOs can work in any niche - other than maybe vice industries - that is a specific specialty - but if they say you need an extremely high budget for something without competition, then they are just stealing. If they recommend a very low budget for something like roofing or law, then it won't help you. You can do low budgets to get new domains moving and out of the sandbox for a cost-benefit, but competitive niches will eventually need reasonable budgets to get good results. The larger the city the more competition.</p>
<p>16. You can get some search traffic from zero-volume keywords - but if their entire strategy is zero volume or if they are only aiming for longtail keywords, then they aren't good. You do need some legitimate volume keywords. It is extremely easy to rank for a longtail keyword with zero search volume and then send you a report claiming they got you to page one.</p>
<p>17. An understanding that strategy changes over time. If their month one strategy is the same as their month ten strategy and they aren't going to discuss and adapt over time they aren't good at what they do. This is also something you need to understand - you need to understand budgets and strategy will need to change over time for good results. If you ever think that them altering a strategy is bad, then you may be hindering campaign performance.</p>
<p>18. Understand their communication system. Can you call them? Email? How long until they respond? Will they have regular meetings? You know what will fit you best.</p>
<p>19. Understand that their company size doesn't matter. Many of the largest companies (or at least companies that seem the largest) are the largest scams in SEO. These are sales-based agencies, not performance-based agencies. Performance-based industries often stay smaller and more personal because they are more focused on growing the work and the brand than selling to lots of clients. Hiring a large business is perfectly fine, and we recommend agencies over freelancers, but being large doesn't mean they are good. Phone book companies sell more websites than anyone because they have tons of salesmen - but no phone book company makes good websites.</p>
<p>20. Good companies are transparent companies. Do they give honest, thoughtful answers or a sales pitch?</p>
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