SEO company hiring guide
Give every SEO proposal the same job.
Start with the result your business needs.
Three providers can quote for “SEO” and offer three different jobs. One proposes an audit, another writes content and a third expects your developer to make the changes. The prices mean little until those differences are clear.
Write a short brief before asking for proposals. Describe the customer you want to reach, the action you want them to take and the part of the current website that is getting in the way. Give each shortlisted provider the same starting point.
A useful brief is specific enough to challenge.
Include the website, audience, service area, important products or services, known problems and available help from your team. State any timing or budget constraint that the proposal must fit.
The example alongside is fictional. It gives a provider something to investigate without pretending that the buyer already knows the SEO solution.
Example: a commercial cleaning company
Wanted: suitable enquiries for recurring office-cleaning contracts within the areas we actually serve.
Current problem: the same website receives enquiries for one-off home cleaning, which we do not provide.
Available: existing service pages, enquiry records and a member of staff who can verify service details and approve copy.
Needed from the proposal: an explanation of what you would investigate first, what you would change and what help you need from us.
Use one real page to test the explanation.
Ask a candidate to discuss a page relevant to the brief. Listen for the connection between the customer’s question, the page and the proposed work. Useful questions from the provider matter as much as confident answers.
A detailed assessment may be paid work. If so, agree its scope and what you receive. You are testing judgment and communication, not asking each candidate to solve the whole project for free.
- Observation: what can they establish from the page, and what would they need to verify?
- Priority: which issue would they address first, and why does it matter to the brief?
- Delivery: who would make the change, and how would they check it?
Google’s SEO hiring guidance recommends asking about relevant experience, past work and how changes will be explained. For an initial audit, it recommends read-only Search Console access.
Compare what the fee actually includes.
These two illustrative offers could both be useful. They leave different work with your team. Make that difference explicit before comparing the fees.
Offer A: assessment and priorities
You receive: findings, supporting examples and a prioritized list of recommended changes.
Your team does: content approval, development and publication unless separately agreed.
Clarify: whether the provider will review the completed changes and answer implementation questions.
Offer B: assessment and agreed changes
You receive: an assessment plus implementation of a defined set of changes and a record of what was checked.
Your team does: factual approval and any work explicitly excluded from that set.
Clarify: which changes are included and how new findings affect the proposed work.
Compare the full effort: provider fees, work left for your team and any separately required specialist. A lower fee may reflect a smaller job; a higher fee does not establish better judgment. Choose the arrangement you can actually carry through.
Read a work sample as evidence.
Find the provider’s contribution
Ask what problem existed, what this provider did and which parts belonged to the client or another partner. A website screenshot alone does not explain the work.
With an appropriate reference, ask whether recommendations were clear, work was delivered and problems were handled. A provider can explain its approach without revealing another client’s private information.
Check whether it fits your situation
Experience is useful when it bears on the job: a local service business, a large catalogue and a multilingual site can need different work.
If a case includes growth figures, ask what was measured, over what period and what else changed. Treat a previous result as evidence to examine, not a forecast for your site.
Define a first stage you can evaluate.
Where uncertainty is high, begin with a bounded assessment or a defined set of improvements. The stage should produce something you can inspect even if search visibility has not changed yet.
A first stage should answer a real question. If the required work is already clear, agree that work directly and decide how you will check it.
- Deliverables: named findings, pages, changes or other outputs.
- Responsibilities: who investigates, writes, approves, implements and checks them.
- Dependencies: access, information and decisions your team must supply.
- Review: when you inspect delivery and decide what follows.
- Limits: what is excluded and how additional work is agreed.
Record the starting condition. Separate checking a delivered fix from observing its later effect on relevant visits, enquiries or sales.
Confirm how you will work together.
Before the work starts, know who your contact is, how you will see progress and where questions about a changed page go. Keep business accounts under your control and agree the permissions required for the work.
Put deliverables, fees, responsibilities, timing, ownership of completed work and handover arrangements in writing. Resolve unclear terms before accepting the offer. For questionable sales claims, use the five SEO warning checks as a separate review.
Select the provider whose explanation survives the comparison: it addresses the same brief, identifies the work left to your team and gives you a useful way to judge the first stage.