How to hire an SEO agency: a step-by-step guide for companies

Hiring SEO is rarely one person’s decision. Marketing wants results, leadership wants to understand what it is paying for, development has to touch the site, and someone has to compare three proposals that look nothing alike. Finding agencies is easy. The hard part is getting to that conversation already knowing what you need.

This guide puts the decision in seven steps. Where we have a longer article on a step, we link it.

Do you need to hire SEO, or can you start on your own?

Google says in its guide to hiring an SEO that if you run a small local business you can probably do much of the work yourself, and it recommends starting with its SEO starter guide. That is honest advice, and if it describes you, start there.

The work stops being a loose task when the site is large, covers several markets or languages, or every change depends on a development team with its own queue. At that point someone has to prioritise and coordinate the work month after month. If you recognise yourself there, keep reading.

Google also points to a good moment to hire: when you are about to redesign your site or launch a new one, the earlier the better, so the site is built to be search-friendly from the start. And helping improve a site that is already live matters just as much.

Agency, consultant or in‑house team?

They are three ways to solve the same problem, and the difference is who does the work. A consultant tells you what to do. An agency can tell you and do it. An in‑house team does it with your knowledge of the business, but has to cover technical work and content with the same people.

You do not have to pick one route. At an SEO agency like ours, the work can be done with your team or with the agency’s. What changes is where the production team lives.

What if you have already worked with another agency?

Almost every company that works with SEOCOM has been through another agency first. In the first meetings, three complaints come up again and again: a lack of proactivity, loose actions with no plan to order them, and traffic drops nobody tackled.

If that is you, write down what went wrong before you hire again. It helps to tell three cases apart: there was no plan with priorities, there was a plan but nobody implemented it, or there was no way to know whether what was done worked. Each failure calls for a different question to the next provider.

Also ask the previous agency for the reports, audits and the list of changes it made to your site. Google recommends asking whoever you hire whether they will share all the changes they make, with the reasoning behind them. A new provider works better when they know what was touched before.

What should you prepare before asking for proposals?

This is the part almost nobody does, and the one that saves the most. Before calling anyone, have five things in writing:

1. The business result you need. “Move up in rankings” is a metric. “More quote requests for the industrial line” is a result.
2. The markets and languages where you want to appear.
3. Who implements changes on the site and how much time they can give it. A recommendation nobody can publish moves nothing.
4. Who has access to Search Console and Analytics. Google advises that, if you are offered an audit, you grant read access only to Search Console at that stage.
5. The budget you can approve and the date you need to decide by.

With those five answers, every provider can tailor a proposal to the same brief, and you will be able to compare them.

How much should you budget?

Price is the first thing people ask about and the hardest to compare. For real ranges by project type, and why one proposal costs far more than another, see how much an SEO agency costs in Spain.

How do you compare proposals?

Ask every provider to answer the same questions, and look at three things.

First, whether they ask about your business. Google says an SEO should ask questions about what makes your company unique, who your competitors are and how your customers find you.

Second, whether there are references you can check. Google advises asking past clients whether the service was useful, whether the provider was easy to work with and whether it produced results.

Third, what they promise. Nobody can guarantee you first place in Google’s results, and Google’s advice is to find someone else if they do. An audit should give you a realistic estimate of the improvements and the work involved.

The specific questions, with the answers that should reassure you and the ones that should not, are in how to choose an SEO agency: the questions to ask before you sign.

What should happen in the first months?

Whatever the provider’s method, the proposal has to tell you what you receive and when. At SEOCOM the work runs in four phases: diagnosis, strategy, execution and continuous measurement. Whoever you hire, ask for defined deliverables in every phase, review dates and a monthly report with business indicators (leads, sales) and rankings as support.

Measurement is where most projects fall short. If the sales team does not know which sales started with an organic search, SEO will look like it is not working even when it is. Why B2B SEO doesn’t work (and why it’s almost never the SEO) explains how to avoid it.

Frequently asked questions

Can an agency guarantee first place on Google?

No. Google says nobody can guarantee first place and advises you to find someone else if they do. Ask them to explain what work they propose, what they will measure and when you will review progress.

Do I hire SEO and GEO separately?

Google lists optimising for generative AI among the services SEOs provide. At SEOCOM they are worked in the same project. Ask any provider whether it is included in the scope or sold separately.

What do I need to ask for a proposal?

Five things: the business result you want, the markets and languages, who implements the changes on your site, who manages access, and the budget you can approve.

If you are weighing SEO and GEO for your company, tell us about your project. We will review the context and tell you whether it fits what we do.

Source: Google Search Central, “Do you need an SEO?”, consulted on 27/10/2026. The four phases: SEOCOM home page.