Ask any prospective local SEO agency: how they measure (a single rank number is a red flag, geo-grid scanning is not), whether they guarantee rankings (they should not), whether they work with your competitors, what they will need from you, what they will not do, and what happens if visibility improves but calls do not. Verify their own local visibility, read their reviews on a platform they do not control, and ask for a case study that includes something that went wrong. Agencies that cannot produce one have either never had a campaign underperform, which is impossible, or do not report honestly.
The twelve questions
- How will you measure progress? If the answer is a monthly ranking report showing positions, ask where those positions were measured from. A single rank number is close to meaningless in local search because proximity dominates. Geo-grid or heat map scanning across the service area is the honest instrument.
- Will you show me my baseline before you start? Without a dated baseline, no later claim can be checked. Any agency reluctant to establish one is reserving the right to claim credit for whatever happens.
- Do you guarantee rankings? If yes, end the conversation. Google's own documentation warns businesses about SEOs who guarantee rankings, and Google Search Advocate John Mueller has said publicly that promises about ranking or traffic are usually a red flag because most of what happens in SEO cannot be promised in advance. In Canada there is a further problem: the Competition Act prohibits performance claims about a product or service that are not based on adequate and proper testing, and the burden of proof sits with the business making the claim.
- Do you work with my competitors? An agency serving two roofers in one city is charging both to compete with each other. Ask directly and get it in writing.
- What do you need from me? Any honest answer includes reviews, photos, responsiveness and access. An agency that says “nothing, we handle everything” is either doing less than it claims or planning to generate reviews in ways that will hurt you.
- What will you refuse to do? The most revealing question on the list. An agency with no stated limits has not thought about the ones that matter.
- Show me a campaign that underperformed. Every agency has them. Only some will tell you about them.
- What happens if rankings improve but my phone doesn't ring? The correct answer names the downstream causes: demand, offer, pricing, review sentiment, website conversion, call handling, and treats diagnosing them as part of the job rather than as an upsell.
- Are you geotagging photos? If yes, they are billing for a tactic that controlled testing across 27 locations found had no ranking effect, because Google strips the metadata on upload. It is a fast, reliable competence test.
- Who actually does the work? Ask whether the person on the sales call will be the person on the account in month three.
- What does it cost, and what is the term? Vagueness at this stage rarely improves later.
- What happens to my assets if I leave? Profile ownership, website access, content, and tracking data should all be yours. Proprietary CMS lock-in has a documented cost at exit.
Red flags
- Guaranteed rankings or money-back ranking promises. The guarantee usually survives on fine print, low-competition keywords, or measurement taken from a flattering location.
- Claims of a special relationship with Google or priority submission. There is no priority submission.
- Review generation as a service. Buying, incentivising or gating reviews breaches Google's policies and, in Canada, engages the Competition Act's misleading-representation provisions.
- Reporting that never mentions calls, leads or revenue. Keyword counts are not outcomes.
- Pressure and scarcity. Legitimate exclusivity is a stated policy you can check. A countdown timer is not.
How to verify claims yourself, in ten minutes
- Search the agency's own core service term in their city. If they cannot rank themselves, ask why. There are legitimate answers, and you should hear one.
- Read their Google reviews, not the testimonials on their site. They cannot delete the former.
- Check their own citations. Search their business name and see whether their address and phone agree across the first page.
- Ask an AI assistant to recommend an agency in your city and see whether they appear. It is a reasonable proxy for the AI visibility work they are selling.
- Look for published method. Agencies that hide their process behind a form are usually hiding that there isn't much of one.
Where this leaves us
Applied to Digital Handshake Media: we do not guarantee rankings, we take one client per industry per area, our method and checklist are published in full, our reviews are on a public Google profile we cannot edit, and our case study includes a mid-campaign dip we did not predict. What we do not yet have is a large library of published case studies, which is a fair thing to weigh against us. Ask on the call and we will walk a live dashboard with you instead.
Sources
- Google Search Central, guidance on hiring an SEO, including the warning about SEOs who guarantee rankings or claim a special relationship with Google.
- John Mueller, Google, Search Off The Record podcast, on ranking and traffic promises as a red flag.
- Competition Act (Canada), s. 74.01(1)(b), performance representations not based on an adequate and proper test.
- Sterling Sky, geotagging photo ranking tests.
- Whitespark, Local Search Ranking Factors 2026.
Figures are quoted from the published sources above. Where a source reports a range rather than a single value, the range is shown.