--- title: "How to Choose an SEO Agency: 7 Checks Before You Sign" description: "Choose an SEO agency by the work it commits to in writing: named pages, read-only data access, every account in your name and no ranking guarantee at all." url: https://proofofpixel.agency/blog/how-to-choose-an-seo-agency author: "Yannis Spanenburg" published: 2026-11-09T09:11:23Z modified: 2026-11-09T09:12:30Z --- # How to Choose an SEO Agency: 7 Checks Before You Sign *Choose an SEO agency by the work it commits to in writing: named pages, read-only data access, every account in your name and no ranking guarantee at all.* By Yannis Spanenburg · 2026-11-09 · 6 min read Most owners pick an SEO agency on a sales call and learn six months later what they bought. The checks below take one afternoon. ## What Is an SEO Agency? An SEO agency is a team that improves how often your website appears and gets clicked in Google and in AI answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. The work covers technical fixes, page content, structured data, local listings and reporting, done every month against the searches your buyers type. - Choose an SEO agency by the first 90 days of work it commits to in writing, with named pages and named queries. - Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, so a ranking guarantee in a proposal is a reason to walk away. - Keep Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Business Profile in your own name and add the agency as a user. - In 2026 an SEO agency also has to report on visibility in AI answers, because fewer searchers click through when an AI Overview appears. ## What Does an SEO Agency Do Each Month? A working SEO agency spends each month on four jobs: fixing technical problems that stop pages being crawled, writing or rewriting pages for searches with buyer intent, building local and brand signals, and reporting what moved. Each job should map to a query or a page you can check in Google Search Console yourself. A new site with 20 pages needs content first. An older site with 600 pages needs pruning, redirects and internal links first. Our [schema markup guide](https://proofofpixel.agency/blog/schema-markup-guide) covers the structured data both need. ## How Much Does an SEO Agency Cost? Most SEO agencies bill a monthly retainer. According to [SE Ranking's SEO pricing survey](https://seranking.com/blog/seo-pricing/) for 2025, 64 percent of agencies charge below 1,000 dollars a month and 2 percent charge more than 5,000 dollars. The scope attached to the price tells you what the money buys, so compare scopes line by line. A low retainer usually buys a report and a few blog posts, so ask first who makes the technical fixes. In our client work across dental practices and Shopify stores we keep seeing the same pattern: an agency produced content every month while a broken canonical tag or a slow template held every page back. ## What Has Changed for SEO Agencies With AI Search? AI answers now take part of the click that a top ranking used to earn, so an SEO agency has to work on being cited as well as being ranked. [Pew Research Center (2025) found](https://www.seroundtable.com/pew-google-ai-overviews-39808.html) that Google users clicked a result in 8 percent of visits when an AI Overview appeared, against 15 percent without one. Agencies sell this as AI SEO, or GEO (generative engine optimisation). A serious agency names the queries it tracks in ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews and the page changes that earn citations. Our guide on [how to optimise a website for ChatGPT and Perplexity](https://proofofpixel.agency/blog/ai-search-optimisation) lists those changes. ## How to Choose an SEO Agency in 7 Steps Run the same seven checks on every agency you shortlist, in this order, and drop an agency at the first step it fails. The order puts the cheapest checks first, so you spend your time on the two or three firms that clear them and can compare their written plans side by side. 1. Export the last 16 months of queries and pages from Google Search Console before the first call. 2. Give each agency read-only access to Search Console and ask what it would change first. 3. Ask for the first 90 days in writing, with the pages, queries and technical fixes named. 4. Check who does the technical work and whether that person can edit your site's code or CMS. 5. Request two client references in your industry and call both. 6. Read a sample report and confirm it shows clicks and enquiries next to rankings. 7. Confirm in the contract that every account stays in your name and that you can leave on 30 days notice. ## What Are the Red Flags in an SEO Proposal? The clearest red flag is a guarantee. [Google Search Central states](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/do-i-need-seo): "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." The same page warns against SEOs who claim a special relationship with Google. A proposal with those claims fails before you read the price. - Reports that count rankings and backlinks with no clicks, leads or sales next to them. - A fixed number of blog posts a month with no named queries behind them. - Link packages bought from networks the agency will not name. - A contract that puts Search Console, GA4 or the domain in the agency's account. - A twelve month lock-in with no exit clause tied to delivered work. ## Which Accounts Should You Keep in Your Own Name? Keep every account that holds your search history in your own name: the domain, Google Search Console, GA4, Google Business Profile, Google Tag Manager (GTM) and the website code. Add the agency as a user. When the relationship ends, you remove one user and keep 16 months of data and every improvement the agency made. A site move tests ownership hardest, because redirects and analytics must survive it. Our [Annandale Dental case study](https://proofofpixel.agency/work/annandale-dental) covers a dental website moved off WordPress, the kind of project where owning the accounts protects the search history. ## How Proof of Pixel Works on SEO Proof of Pixel is a marketing and consulting agency that gives business owners the expertise of the five professionals their marketing needs, in one team, building the website, the tracking and the follow-up as one system, with offices in Dubai, New York, London, Antwerp and Kuala Lumpur. SEO runs inside that system. We start with read-only access to Search Console and GA4, give a price range, and set one fixed monthly price once we have seen the data. The same team owns the technical fixes, the pages and the tracking that shows which searches turn into enquiries. The full scope is on our [SEO service page](https://proofofpixel.agency/services/seo). > Proof of Pixel's position: an SEO agency earns a retainer once it has read your Search Console data and named, in writing, the first pages it will change. ## Pull Your Search Console Export Before the First Call Export the Queries and Pages reports from Google Search Console for the last 16 months and send the same file to every agency on your shortlist. The replies will sort the firms that read data from the firms that sell packages. If you want our read on the same file, [book a call with our team](https://proofofpixel.agency/contact) and we will tell you what we would fix first. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do I choose an SEO agency? Choose an SEO agency by asking each shortlisted firm to review your Search Console data and put its first 90 days of work in writing. Compare the named pages, queries and technical fixes across the proposals. Weight the specificity of the plan above the monthly price. ### How much should I pay for an SEO agency? Most SEO agencies charge under 1,000 dollars a month, according to SE Ranking's 2025 pricing survey, and a small share charge above 5,000 dollars. The right figure depends on how much technical and content work your site needs. Ask for a range first and a fixed price once the agency has seen your data. ### Can an SEO agency guarantee first page rankings? No reputable SEO agency can guarantee first page rankings. Google Search Central states that no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google. Rankings depend on competitors, location and Google's own systems, and an agency controls none of those. ### Is it better to hire an SEO agency or a freelancer? A freelancer suits a small site that needs content or one technical project, and an agency suits a site that needs content, development and reporting every month. The deciding question is who will make the technical changes. If the freelancer cannot edit your site, you will need a developer as well. ### How long does it take for an SEO agency to show results? Expect technical fixes to show in Search Console within weeks and content work to take three to six months to move clicks. Google has to recrawl and reassess pages before rankings change. Ask the agency which early measures, such as impressions on target queries, it will report in the first 90 days. ## Keep reading - [How to Optimize Your Website for ChatGPT and Perplexity](https://proofofpixel.agency/blog/ai-search-optimisation) - [Should You Block AI Crawlers Like GPTBot and ClaudeBot From Your Site?](https://proofofpixel.agency/blog/block-ai-crawlers-gptbot-claudebot-2026) - [How to Migrate a Shopify Store Without Losing Google Rankings](https://proofofpixel.agency/blog/shopify-migration-seo-checklist-2026) ## Where this fits - [SEO and AI search](https://proofofpixel.agency/services/seo): how POP does this work - [Pristine Smile](https://proofofpixel.agency/work/pristinesmile): case study - [Hertebos](https://proofofpixel.agency/work/hertebos): case study - [Get named by AI search](https://proofofpixel.agency/guides/ai-search): free field guide Proof of Pixel: marketing and consulting agency. Dubai, New York, London, Antwerp, Kuala Lumpur. 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