The sales conversation is the one moment you have leverage. Once you sign, the dynamic shifts and the agency controls the information. So use the pitch meeting to ask questions that are uncomfortable to answer well. The answers, and the body language behind them, tell you most of what you need to know.
Questions About the People Doing the Work
Who actually executes my account day to day, and what is their experience? Plenty of agencies sell you a senior strategist and then hand the file to a junior coordinator. Ask for the name and title of the person writing your content and the person doing your technical SEO. Ask how many other accounts that person carries. A strategist juggling 25 clients is a strategist in name only.
What happens when my main contact leaves? Turnover is normal in this industry. You want to hear that work is documented and accounts have a backup, not that your knowledge lives in one person\'s https://caidencdql858.iamarrows.com/the-zero-click-reality-and-what-to-do-about-it head.
Questions About How They Measure Success
What metrics will you report, and which one do you consider the real scoreboard? If the answer leans on impressions and rankings rather than leads, calls, and revenue, you are buying activity. Follow up with: at what point in the engagement should I expect to see those business outcomes move, and what would make you tell me the strategy is not working?
That last part matters. An agency willing to define failure in advance is an agency that plans to be honest with you later.
Questions About Ownership and Access
Will my company own the website, the Google Business Profile, the analytics property, the ad accounts, and the content you produce? Ask for that in writing. Some agencies build your site on a proprietary platform you can never leave, or run ads through their own manager account so you lose all history if you walk. You want admin access to everything from day one, in your name, not theirs.
Questions About the Money
What is included in the retainer, and what triggers an extra charge? Get specifics. Does the SEO retainer include content production or just strategy? How many content pieces per month, at what length? Is link building separate? Are ad spend management fees a flat rate or a percentage that grows as you scale? Vague pricing now becomes invoice surprises later.
Questions About AI and the Current Search Reality
How are you adapting to AI Overviews and answer engines eating clicks? In 2026 a meaningful share of informational queries get resolved without a visit to any website. Ask how they protect and grow your visibility when the search engine answers the question itself. A current agency will talk about earning citations, building topical authority, and capturing demand that AI surfaces cannot fully satisfy.
The Question That Reveals the Most
The eleventh question is simple: what would you do in the first 90 days, specifically? Make them get concrete. A real plan names pages, fixes, and content. A non-answer hides behind process language. Atomic Design builds first-90-day plans for SEO, local search, web design, and AI-search optimization that name the exact pages and fixes a client should expect, because a plan you can hold the agency to is worth far more than a promise you cannot. Bring this list to your next pitch and notice which answers come fast and which ones stall.