SEO Agency FAQs: What You Should Ask First

If you are comparing SEO agencies, you are not really buying “SEO”. You are buying a system that turns search demand into predictable leads - and you are buying the people who will run that system with discipline.

The problem is that most agency conversations start in the wrong place. You get shown rankings for random keywords, screenshots of traffic spikes, or a bundle of tasks that sound busy but are hard to tie to revenue. The right questions cut through all of that.

Below are the seo agency frequently asked questions we hear from UK businesses - and the answers that actually help you choose an accountable partner.

What does an SEO agency actually do day to day?

A serious SEO agency does three things repeatedly: it diagnoses technical and content constraints, it makes improvements that remove those constraints, and it measures what those changes do to visibility, clicks, and enquiries.

In practice, that usually means technical audits and fixes (indexation, crawl efficiency, site speed, Core Web Vitals, structured data, internal linking), on-page optimisation (search intent alignment, titles, headings, content structure), content strategy and production (pages designed to win specific high-intent queries), and authority building (earning relevant links and mentions, improving topical authority, supporting digital PR where appropriate).

You should also expect ongoing analysis rather than set-and-forget work. Google changes, competitors move, and your market shifts. If the agency cannot describe how they decide what to do next month based on data from this month, you are not buying a growth system.

How long does SEO take to work?

“It depends” is the honest answer, but not a vague one. Timelines depend on your starting point, your competition, and how quickly improvements can be implemented.

For many local and regional UK businesses, you can often see early movement in 4-8 weeks once technical issues are removed and key pages are aligned to search intent. Meaningful lead growth commonly takes 3-6 months, because Google needs time to recrawl, re-evaluate, and reward stronger relevance and authority. In competitive national SERPs, 6-12 months can be realistic for first-page visibility on high-value terms.

A good agency will not promise “page one in 30 days”. What they can do is set sensible milestones: technical health improvements first, then category or service page gains, then longer-tail wins, then bigger head terms as authority compounds.

What should SEO cost in the UK?

Pricing varies because the work varies. A small local business targeting a handful of service areas is not the same job as an eCommerce brand competing nationally.

Most reputable agencies price as a monthly retainer, because SEO is iterative and requires continuous monitoring. The right way to judge value is not the cheapest quote. It is whether the agency can show a plan that links activity to outcomes, plus the reporting to prove progress.

Watch for two extremes. If the price is very low, it often means templated outputs, automated link building, or minimal senior oversight. If it is very high but the deliverables are vague, you may be paying for brand name rather than execution.

What deliverables should I expect each month?

You should expect deliverables that reflect your current bottleneck. Early months often lean technical and structural. Later months often lean content, authority, and conversion improvements.

At a minimum, you should receive clear reporting and a record of what was done, why it was prioritised, and what it changed. Deliverables might include updated landing pages, new content briefs and published pages, technical tickets completed, internal linking improvements, local SEO updates, and link acquisition activity.

If an agency only talks about “content” or only talks about “links”, be cautious. Rankings usually move when technical foundations, relevance, and authority improve together.

How do you measure SEO success beyond rankings?

Rankings matter, but they are not the finish line. The goal is qualified traffic and conversions.

A good measurement setup typically tracks impressions and clicks in Google Search Console, landing page engagement in analytics, and conversion events such as form submissions, calls, bookings, or purchases. For lead generation businesses, you also want attribution that connects leads to landing pages and queries, so you can double down on what brings enquiries rather than what looks good in a report.

Ask for clarity on reporting cadence and definitions. What counts as a conversion? Are calls tracked? Are you separating branded from non-branded performance? Without that, you can be “growing” while sales stay flat.

Will you need access to my website and analytics?

Yes, if you want outcomes.

To do SEO properly, an agency typically needs access to Google Search Console and analytics, plus the ability to implement changes on your CMS or work alongside your developer. If your site is locked down and changes take weeks, SEO becomes slow and expensive because every improvement waits in a queue.

You should also expect basic governance: documented changes, staging where needed, and the ability to roll back if something breaks. SEO is not just marketing. It touches your digital infrastructure.

What is the difference between local SEO and “normal” SEO?

Local SEO is about winning searches with local intent, often influenced by proximity and the map results. It usually prioritises your Google Business Profile, local citations, location pages, review strategy, and local link signals, alongside strong service pages.

Traditional organic SEO for national visibility leans harder on topical authority, content depth, digital PR, and site architecture at scale.

If you are a Manchester business serving the North West, you often need both: local visibility to capture nearby demand and strong organic pages to win non-map results for service keywords. The split should be strategic, not arbitrary.

Do you guarantee first-page rankings?

No agency can guarantee specific positions in Google, because you do not control the algorithm, competitors, or the SERP layout.

What an agency can guarantee is process quality: technical due diligence, ethical tactics, consistent delivery, transparent reporting, and a clear plan tied to measurable KPIs. If someone guarantees first place, ask what happens if Google changes the results page, adds more ads, or shifts intent. Guarantees tend to ignore the realities that affect actual enquiries.

Are backlinks still important, and how do you build them safely?

Backlinks still matter, but quality beats quantity. One relevant, earned link from a trusted site can outperform dozens of low-quality placements.

Safe link acquisition is about relevance, editorial context, and natural patterns. It can include digital PR, partnerships, thought leadership, resource mentions, and content that genuinely earns citations. If an agency sells link packages with fixed numbers, especially with vague site lists, you are right to be cautious.

There is a trade-off here. High-quality link earning takes more effort and often costs more. But it is also the difference between sustainable growth and a risky spike that disappears after an update.

Can you help with content, or do we need to write it?

Either can work, as long as the process is controlled.

Some businesses have internal expertise and want the agency to provide briefs, optimisation, and editorial guidance. Others want full content production. The key is that content should be designed to win a specific query set, match intent, and support conversion. “Blog more” is not a strategy.

A good agency will also improve existing pages. Updating and consolidating content can be faster and more effective than publishing endless new posts that never rank.

What happens if our website is slow or outdated?

Then SEO will be fighting with one hand tied behind its back.

Site speed, mobile usability, and technical stability affect crawl efficiency, user behaviour, and conversion rate. If visitors bounce because the site is slow or confusing, you can improve rankings and still lose money.

In those cases, the right move is often a phased approach: fix high-impact technical issues first, improve templates and core landing pages, then consider a rebuild if the platform is fundamentally limiting. An agency that can coordinate SEO with web improvements tends to create faster payback because traffic and conversion lift together.

How do we know the agency is being transparent?

Look for reporting that makes it hard to hide.

You want to see what changed on the site, what content went live, what technical issues were resolved, and how performance moved at a landing-page level. You should also get plain-English commentary: what worked, what did not, and what is being tested next.

Also ask about account management. Who is your day-to-day contact? How quickly do they respond? If communication is slow before you sign, it rarely improves afterwards.

Should we run PPC as well as SEO?

Often, yes - but with a plan.

PPC can generate leads quickly, while SEO compounds over time. Together, they can stabilise pipeline: PPC fills the short-term gap and provides fast keyword and conversion data, while SEO reduces long-term dependency on paid clicks.

The trade-off is budget and focus. If your tracking is weak, running both can create noise. If tracking is strong, the two channels can inform each other and improve ROI.

What should we ask on the first call with an SEO agency?

Ask questions that reveal how they think, not how they sell.

Start with how they diagnose your biggest growth constraint, what they need from you to move quickly, and what KPIs they will be accountable to. Ask what they would prioritise in the first 30 days and why. If the answers are generic, the strategy probably will be too.

If you want a partner that treats SEO as a measurable system and explains performance without hiding behind jargon, you can see how we approach it at Think SEO.

A good agency relationship is not built on promises. It is built on momentum - the kind you can see in your data, your enquiries, and your sales conversations.