15 questions to ask before you sign
You do not need to understand SEO to interview an SEO provider well. You need the right questions and a sense of what honest answers sound like. Both are below. Print it, bring it, and watch how the conversation changes.
1. What results have you achieved for businesses comparable to mine?
A good answer names concrete cases with numbers and offers references you can call. A bad answer hides everything behind confidentiality or talks only about big brand logos without specifics.
2. Can I speak to two current or former clients?
Reliable providers arrange this without hesitation. Refusal, or references that cannot be verified, ends the conversation.
3. How does your link building work, concretely?
You want to hear: manual outreach, relevant websites, quality over volume, every link reported. You do not want to hear: networks, packages, guaranteed numbers of links per month.
4. Who does the actual work, and where?
In-house, outsourced, or offshored matters for quality and accountability. There is nothing wrong with specialists using trusted partners, but you should know who touches your website.
5. What does a typical month of work look like for a client like me?
A concrete breakdown of hours and activities is the professional answer. "It depends" with no follow-up, or a list of tool names, is not.
6. Which of the three pillars (technical, content, authority) does my site need most?
Anyone worth hiring will want to look at your site before answering, and will then have a specific, explainable opinion.
7. What do you need from us to succeed?
Honest providers name real dependencies: access, content input, development capacity, decisions. "Nothing, we handle everything" usually means templated work.
8. How and when will we see reporting, and what will it contain?
Monthly, in plain language, tied to traffic, leads and revenue. Ask to see an anonymised example report before signing.
9. What happens if we cancel? Who owns the content, links and accounts?
Everything produced for you should be yours: content, analytics access, webmaster tools, documentation. Anything else is a hostage situation being set up.
10. How long until we should expect meaningful results?
Four to six months for a clear trend is the honest range for most markets. Thirty days is a lie; "at least a year before anything" can be a way to buy twelve months of fees.
11. Have you ever advised a client not to invest in SEO?
The best specialists say no regularly: wrong business model, wrong timing, better channels available. A provider for whom SEO is always the answer is a salesperson.
12. What would you do in the first month?
The right answer starts with research and an audit, not with activity. Anyone who starts building links in week one, before understanding the site, is running a production line.
13. How do you keep up with algorithm changes?
You are listening for engagement with the field: reading, testing, professional community. Not for panic-marketing about every Google update.
14. Can you work with our market being Dutch, English or both?
For the Dutch market you need native-level Dutch content; translation tools are not enough for competitive keywords. For international SEO from the Netherlands, ask for hreflang and multi-market experience.
15. Why should we pick you over a cheaper offer?
A professional explains the difference in the work, calmly, without trashing competitors, and is comfortable saying the cheaper offer might suit you if your needs are simple.