What business result should the work support?
Start with the qualified action the business needs. Rankings, traffic and AI mentions may support that path. They are not the final result.
| Industry | Action to define | Qualification question |
|---|---|---|
| Home Services | Valid calls, estimates and booked work | Does the request fit the service, area and capacity? |
| Healthcare | Appropriate appointment requests | Does the page route the right person without making a clinical promise? |
| Legal | Qualified prospective-client enquiries | Does the enquiry fit the practice and jurisdiction? |
| B2B SaaS | Qualified demos, trials and pipeline | Does the buyer fit the use case and sales rule? |
| eCommerce | Valid orders and contribution-aware sales | Did accurate product, price and policy facts support the order? |
Ask which business record defines success and which visibility signals will be reported separately. “More leads” is not enough until the agency defines a useful call, appointment, enquiry, opportunity or order.
What will change first, and why?
Ask the agency to explain the first three priorities in plain language.
| Question | Strong answer | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| What will change? | Names the page, profile, technical control or measurement rule | Lists broad services without an object |
| Why this first? | Connects evidence, impact, dependency and effort | Says every issue is urgent |
| What depends on us? | Names approvals, access and implementation owners | Assumes no work from the client |
| How will it be checked? | Defines before, change, after and rollback evidence | Treats publication as completion |
An audit should put work in order. A list of 100 issues can be accurate and still fail to tell you what matters.
Google recommends asking an SEO to support recommendations with a trusted source and explain how each change helps the business in Do you need an SEO?.
Who sells, decides, executes and handles escalation?
Titles do not reveal where responsibility sits. Ask for a roles map.
| Role | What to identify | Question to settle |
|---|---|---|
| Sales contact | Person presenting the offer | Which scope commitments can this person make? |
| Decision owner | Person setting or approving priorities | Who resolves tradeoffs when evidence changes? |
| Executor | Employee, contractor, partner or client team | Who makes each change, and who checks it? |
| Account contact | Person coordinating work | What can this person decide without asking someone else? |
| Escalation owner | Senior person responsible for unresolved issues | What triggers escalation and how is it acknowledged? |
Outside specialists are not automatically a problem. Hidden handoffs are. “Founder-led” and “senior team” should describe a real role, not a photo on the proposal.
Being nearby matters when the work genuinely requires on-site observation, local fieldwork or meetings you want to hold in person. A city address does not tell you who sets the priorities, who performs the work or where that team is based. Ask which tasks require local presence, who will attend and who will do the work. Then ask the agency to explain one real constraint in your market and what page, profile or conversion decision it changes. Remote delivery is not a weakness by itself, and an address is not proof of local knowledge.
How will visibility and business outcomes stay separate?
Ask the agency to show a measurement ladder:
- Eligibility: can the page or profile participate?
- Visibility: did a search, Maps or AI surface show it?
- Behavior: did a person visit or start an action?
- Qualified action: did the call, request, demo or order meet the business rule?
- Commercial outcome: did it become booked work, an appointment, an accepted matter, pipeline or a completed transaction?
Each layer needs a source and definition. Movement in one does not prove movement in the next.
Ask for the baseline, source system and known limits. A responsible answer names missing data instead of filling the gap with a score.
What proof can the agency support?
Ask for evidence that matches the claim.
- What was measured, and in which system?
- Which period and baseline were used?
- Which work was inside the agency’s scope?
- Which client actions or outside factors mattered?
- Does the agency have written permission to publish it?
- Is the claim about observation, attribution or causation?
The FTC’s Advertising FAQ explains that objective advertising claims need a reasonable basis. The same principle applies to agency case studies, comparisons and testimonials.
Named proof needs permission. Anonymous proof still needs source evidence and a fair description of limits.
Who owns the accounts, data and work product?
Your business should control the domain, website, Search Console, analytics, Business Profile, advertising accounts and recovery routes.
- Keep an owner-level account controlled by the business.
- Give agencies named, least-privilege access.
- Avoid shared passwords.
- State who creates accounts and stores recovery details.
- Keep data exportable.
- Define ownership and permitted reuse of content, code and research.
- Document handover and access removal before the relationship ends.
Google says a preliminary SEO review can use read-only Search Console access in its hiring guidance. An agency may need access later, but the business should not surrender control.
Are the price, term, exit and conflict rules clear?
Read the commercial terms before discussing a start date.
Ask about the initial term, renewal, notice, cancellation, handover, retained records and competitor conflicts. If exclusivity is offered, define the category, geography, term and exceptions in writing.
There is no universal best contract length. The standard is clarity before signing and a workable exit that matches the service.
Review Mindflow’s pricing for its current terms, but do not assume a published price answers every contract question.
Which answers should make you pause?
Pause when an agency guarantees first place, claims a special Google relationship, refuses to explain changes, hides who performs the work or asks for unnecessary control before the scope is agreed.
Google states that no one can guarantee a number-one ranking. The FTC has also taken action over deceptive claims of special Google affiliation and promised placement, described in its Point Break Media notice.
Other warning answers include:
- “Our method cannot be explained.”
- “Every audit issue is critical.”
- “We will publish at scale before page purpose and evidence are approved.”
- “Schema guarantees AI citations.”
- “Traffic growth proves revenue.”
- “You will get the files when you leave,” without written handover terms.
AI use is not itself a warning. Ask where automation is used, who checks facts and originality, who approves publication and how mass-produced errors are prevented.
How can you compare the shortlist fairly?
Use the same scorecard for every agency.
| Area | 0 — unclear | 1 — partly answered | 2 — specific and supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business goal | Generic “leads” | Outcome named, definition missing | Outcome, qualification and source system defined |
| Priorities | Service list | Changes named, order unclear | Evidence, order, dependency and validation clear |
| Roles | Sales contact only | Delivery roles named | Decision, execution and escalation owners clear |
| Measurement | Blended dashboard | Some layers separated | Signals, qualified actions and outcomes separated |
| Proof | Claim without context | Context incomplete | Scope, period, source, permission and limits visible |
| Ownership | Assumed | Some accounts covered | Accounts, access, work product and exit documented |
| Terms | Hard to find | Basic term disclosed | Renewal, exit, handover and conflicts explicit |
Do not give bonus points for charisma, jargon or a longer tool list. Write down unanswered questions and compare the actual proposal.
Apply the same standard to Mindflow.
Read How Mindflow works, About, the founder page and Pricing. Use the SEO proposal evaluation guide when you have written scopes to compare. If the shortlist includes AI-visibility specialists, use the disclosed provider-fit guide to choose the right delivery model before choosing a name.
Mindflow delivers the engagement. I review the evidence, set or approve priorities and remain responsible for the recommendation. Specialists may perform development, certain writing and technical implementation. That boundary should remain visible in the scope.
If a required answer is missing, contact Mindflow and ask. For a limited public review before comparing proposals, request the Free Visibility Check.