Hiring an SEO AgencyWhat to Ask, What to Watch For, and What Access to Give

The short version

If you are choosing an SEO agency for a manufacturing site:

• Put the same questions to every agency. Google publishes a list, and the sections below add questions about technical review, qualified inquiries and scope that suit a manufacturer.
• Treat a guarantee of first place as a reason to look elsewhere. Google says to find someone else. A claimed special relationship with Google, secrecy about the plan and bought links are reasons for caution.
• Begin the audit with read-only Search Console access. Grant more only as the work requires it, and set a date to review it.
• Ask for the scope in writing: what is included, who changes the site, and what happens to access and content when the engagement ends.

Google’s pages are written for websites in general. They describe what Google advises and how its tools work. They report no measured results for manufacturers or for any particular site, and they say nothing specific about industrial buyers. Advice that goes beyond Google’s is marked as a recommendation.

Questions to put to every agency

Google’s hiring page lists questions worth asking an SEO. Put these to every agency you speak to, in the same words, so the answers can be compared:

• Can you show examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
• Do you follow Google’s Search Essentials, formerly the Webmaster Guidelines?
• What results do you expect, in what timeframe, and how do you measure success?
• What is your experience in my industry, and in my country or city?
• Do you have experience developing international sites?
• How long have you been in business?
• How will we communicate? Will you share every change you make to my site, with the reasoning behind your recommendations?

Google adds three checks. See whether the agency is interested in your business: it should ask what makes you different, who your competitors are, how search results can help, and how your customers find you. If it is not interested, Google says to find someone who is. Check references by asking past clients whether the agency was useful, easy to work with, and produced positive results. And evaluate its recommendations and tools: before making significant changes based on a third-party tool’s audit, Google says to check the recommendations against official Google guidance and to think critically about any claims.

Questions that fit a manufacturer

Google’s list is general. These additions are recommendations for a manufacturer with long, quote-driven sales, not Google’s advice.

Who checks the technical content? An agency can write about your products, processes and materials, but it cannot verify them. Ask who at the agency writes technical copy, who on your side reviews it, and how that review fits the schedule. Ask what happens when your engineer corrects a draft, and who gives final approval. An agency that expects no engineering time from your team is worth questioning. So is one that proposes claims about certifications, tolerances or compliance without asking for your documentation.

What counts as a qualified inquiry, and what happens after the form? Weigh the answer to the results and measurement question most heavily, because it is the one you can hold the agency to later. A useful test is whether its answer connects to how your own team defines a qualified inquiry. An answer that stays in traffic and rankings is a reason to ask how those numbers will be tied to your pipeline. It is not proof of a mismatch, since the agency may track further down and simply not use your words for it. Ask how it will record where each inquiry came from, who reviews inquiries on your side, and how unqualified ones will be fed back so the work can change. Ask whether it can see what happens after the form, such as a quote or an order, or only the submission. Ask how it will handle phone and email inquiries, and sales that pass through a distributor. The manufacturing lead generation guide covers what to settle internally first: what counts as a qualified lead, who can reject one, and who owns follow-up.

What work does the engagement include? Ask for the scope in writing. It should say whether the agency will audit and advise or also make the changes, and who edits the site: the agency, your team or your web vendor. It should say what content the agency will produce and what your engineers must supply, how often you will get reports, and what is out of scope, such as development, CRM setup, paid search or photography. It should say how each change will be documented. Google suggests asking an SEO to share every change it makes, with the reasoning behind its recommendations. It should also say what happens when the engagement ends: who keeps the content, and when each person’s access is removed. The industrial SEO guide covers what an agency can reasonably be held accountable for.

What experience is relevant? Google lists industry experience as a question to ask and sets no standard for what counts. A useful follow-up for a manufacturer is whether the agency has written for engineers or procurement leads rather than consumers. If it has not, expect to supply more of the technical knowledge yourself and plan for your team’s time. When you speak to references, ask what the agency was engaged to do, over what period, and what the client counted as the result. A reference who cannot say what changed tells you less than one who can.

Quoting Google is not a test of competence. Asking where a recommendation comes from, including whether it matches Google’s guidance, is a fair way to check that recommendation. It does not show that the agency understands your buyers or your sales process. An agency can quote Google accurately and still miss both, and one that departs from the guidance may have reasons you can ask about.

Warning signs

Google names several signs to watch for. It words them differently, so each is stated here as Google states it.

A guaranteed first place. Google says to find someone else if an SEO guarantees that their changes will put you first in search results, and that no one can guarantee a number-one ranking.

A claimed special relationship with Google, or a “priority submit.” Google lists these with guarantees as claims to be wary of.

Secrecy about the plan. Google says to be careful if a company is secretive or will not clearly explain what it intends to do, and to ask for explanations when something is unclear. It warns that if an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, your site could be removed from Google’s index, and that you are ultimately responsible for the actions of companies you hire.

An audit without realistic estimates. Google says an audit should give you realistic estimates of improvement and of the work involved.

Link schemes. Google’s hiring page says you should never have to link to an SEO and advises avoiding anyone who talks about link popularity schemes or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. Its spam policies put buying or selling links for ranking purposes under link spam. They also say that buying and selling links is a normal part of the web’s economy for advertising and sponsorship, and that such links are not a policy violation as long as they are qualified with a rel=“nofollow” or rel=“sponsored” attribute. If a proposal includes paid placements, ask which treatment the links will get.

Unsolicited approaches. Google advises wariness of SEO firms, web consultants and agencies that email out of the blue. That is a caution, not a verdict on any firm that contacts you.

What access to give, and when

Giving an agency access is a separate decision from hiring it.

Start read-only. Google says that if an SEO offers an audit, you should consider carefully what is involved and grant only read access to Search Console at that stage, not write access. Google’s pages describe no later schedule, so anything after the audit stage is a recommendation.

Know the Search Console levels. An Owner has full control: owners can add and remove users, configure settings, view all data and use all tools. A Full user can view all data and take some actions, though the help page does not list every action. Confirm the exact set before relying on it. A Restricted user has simple view rights on most data. Only an owner can grant permissions to others, and a property needs at least one verified owner or no one has access to it.

Know how Analytics permissions inherit. An Analytics user can be added at the account or the property level, and that choice sets their initial access. A user added at the account level has access to every property in the account with the same permissions. You can give a user more permissions as you move down the hierarchy, but not fewer than you assigned above. Someone given the Editor role at the account level keeps it at the property level, and changing the property alone will not revoke it; the grant has to be changed where it was made. Adding or changing users takes the Administrator role at that level.

A cautious staging. Beyond Google’s read-only audit advice, one approach is the table below. It is a recommendation to limit risk, not something Google states, and how much access to grant at each step is your decision.

Taking access back

Removing an agency’s access matters as much as granting it.

Check what level someone holds. In Search Console, an owner can open Settings and then Users and permissions to see each user’s permission. A user listed as both Owner and Verified is a verified owner, and one listed as Owner without Verified is a delegated owner. The two are added and removed by different mechanisms.

Removing an owner is not always the end of their access. When you remove an owner, that person can no longer access the property, but their verification tokens are not deleted or revoked. While a token remains, a removed owner can re-verify ownership and regain access. If that happens, all current owners are notified. On the Users and permissions page, Unused ownership tokens lists the tokens that remain and the user each is tied to. Read it before an engagement starts and again when it ends.

Check before deleting a token. Google warns that the same verification token can be reused across services, such as Search Console, Merchant Center and Google Workspace, so deleting it can affect something else. Delete the tokens for the person who is leaving after that check.

Where to go next

To compare agencies on the fields buyers usually ask about, see the comparison of manufacturing marketing agencies and the directory. Inclusion in the directory is not an endorsement, as the methodology states.

Industrial Marketing Guide is owned and operated by Rise and Rank, which provides marketing services and is listed in the directory. That gives Rise and Rank a commercial interest in the subjects and the agency market covered here, which may influence which topics are covered, how they are framed and which calls to action appear. Weigh what is written here with that in mind.