I’ve been on the receiving end of this exact vetting process more times than I can count, and honestly, I respect the marketing managers who come to a first call with a proper list of questions far more than the ones who simply ask “so what would you do for us.”
The right questions expose whether an agency has genuinely done this work before or is reciting a script, and I want to give you the specific ones worth asking, along with what a good answer should actually sound like.
I’m Myles, Director at Essheo. I’ve sat on the client side of this exact decision too, managing PPC and SEO budgets for a business that scaled past £65 million in turnover, so I know what it feels like to be the one accountable if the wrong agency gets hired. This is the list I’d bring to every call, including ours.
Ask About Their Track Record
This is where most vetting conversations start, and it’s also where a lot of agencies get away with vague, unverifiable answers if you don’t push for specifics.
Ask for a Case Study With the Baseline, Not Just the Result
Ask them to walk you through a case study from a business genuinely like yours, including the baseline before work started, the specific actions taken, and the timeline for results.
A strong answer names a specific URL or client type, describes what was actually broken, and gives you real numbers with dates attached, whilst a weak answer offers a generic percentage increase with no context about where that business started from.
Ask Why You’re Not Ranking for the Terms That Matter Right Now
Ask directly why your business isn’t currently ranking for the terms you care about. A strong answer names specific causes backed by evidence from your actual site, technical gaps, content weaknesses, or missing authority, rather than a generic response about “needing more content” that could apply to literally any website.
This question alone tends to reveal whether an agency has actually looked at your site before the call or is speaking in general terms.
Ask About Who Does the Work
This is one of the most commonly overlooked areas, and it’s frequently the single biggest determinant of whether a campaign succeeds or quietly disappoints over the following months.
Ask for Named People, Not a Description of “The Team”
Ask specifically who will do the work and whether they were in the room during your pitch call. A strong answer names actual people with defined roles and monthly hours committed, whilst a red flag answer is a vague reference to “our team” with the senior person you’re speaking to never appearing again once the contract is signed.
Ask How Many Accounts Your Strategist Actually Carries
Ask how many active accounts your assigned strategist is responsible for. A reasonable answer gives you a specific number, and that number should sit somewhere under about ten if genuine strategic attention is realistic.
An agency proudly citing “100+ active clients” as a strength is actually describing dilution, not scale, and it’s worth asking directly how that translates into the actual hours dedicated to your account specifically.
Ask About Their Process and Timeline
The honesty of an agency’s answer here tends to predict how honest the entire relationship will be, because it’s the point where sales promises meet operational reality.
Ask What Happens in the First 30, 60, and 90 Days Specifically
Ask for dated deliverables across the first ninety days, with discovery clearly separated from actual delivery work.
A strong answer gives you a working document with specific milestones, whilst a red flag is a rigid, one size fits all timeline pitched before they’ve genuinely looked at your site, or the opposite extreme, treating the entire first month as vague discovery with nothing tangible delivered.
Ask Which Page They’d Work On First and Why
Ask which specific page or URL they’d prioritise first, and why. A strong answer names an actual page and gives a reason it’s likely to move soonest, whilst a vague answer suggesting they’ll “optimise everything” reveals a lack of genuine prioritisation strategy.
This question is particularly revealing because prioritisation, not effort volume, is usually what separates a campaign that shows early wins from one that spreads itself too thin across an entire catalogue at once.
Ask About Reporting and Success Metrics
This is where a lot of agencies quietly reveal whether they’re built for genuine revenue growth or simply built to keep a client satisfied with numbers that look impressive on a slide.
Ask What Outcomes Define Success Beyond Rankings and Traffic
Ask what specifically defines success beyond keyword rankings and traffic volume alone . A strong answer centres on organic revenue, conversion rate, and average order value, whilst a red flag is a report focused purely on impressions or vague “visibility signals” that never translate into an actual business outcome.
Ask to See a Real Client Report With Numbers Redacted
Ask to see an actual client report, with the specific figures redacted for confidentiality if needed. Check whether it opens with business outcomes or simply with ranking positions, and whether it includes a genuine log of the work completed that month.
If an agency can’t produce something resembling this on request, that’s worth treating as a meaningful gap in how transparently they operate.
Ask About Contracts and Ownership
This is where marketing managers get caught out most often, either through lock in periods that outlast internal patience, or through unclear ownership of the assets built during the engagement.
Ask What You Keep if You Part Ways
Ask directly, if we part ways next quarter, what do we keep. The right answer is everything, your accounts, your data, your content, your briefs, and full documentation.
An agency that owns your accounts and assets, making it difficult or impossible to leave cleanly, represents one of the most expensive red flags on this entire list, because it removes your ability to walk away even if the relationship genuinely isn’t working.
Ask About Contract Length, Renewal, and Cancellation Terms
Ask specifically about minimum contract length, renewal mechanics, and cancellation notice periods. Long commitments are genuinely defensible in SEO because results compound over time, but a fair contract pairs that commitment with a performance checkpoint, not an automatic renewal that quietly locks you in for another full term unless you cancel within a narrow window.
Ask About AI Search and Modern Discovery
This is the question category that separates agencies still selling a pre-2025 SEO playbook from ones genuinely equipped for how e-commerce discovery works today.
Ask How They Approach AI Overviews and Answer Engine Visibility
Ask directly whether they optimise for AI search surfaces like AI Overviews and ChatGPT, and how they measure and track citations from large language model platforms specifically.
A red flag here is vague “AI powered” language with no specifics attached, or worse, the topic not coming up unprompted at all during a genuine 2026 sales conversation, which suggests an agency that hasn’t adapted its methodology to reflect how search has fragmented.
Why This Question Deserves Its Own Line Item, Not an Afterthought
Ask roughly what percentage of their work is now specifically focused on AI visibility, rather than treating it as a vague add-on mentioned once and never structured into deliverables .
This is precisely why we built Essheo around Search Everywhere Optimisation from the outset, covering Google, AI platforms, YouTube, and the forums that large language models cite from, rather than bolting AI visibility onto a traditional retainer only once a client specifically asks about it.
Ready to Put These Questions to Us Directly?
We’d genuinely welcome every question on this list, because we’re confident in giving specific, named answers rather than the vague reassurances a lot of agencies fall back on when pressed.
Our clients have generated over £45 million in combined revenue over the last two years, and every senior practitioner on our team brings 8+ years of experience each, ranking against genuinely tough competition including household names like MoneySuperMarket, GoCompare, and uSwitch.
If you’re a marketing manager, business owner, or stakeholder preparing to vet e-commerce SEO agencies, bring this exact list to every call you take, including ours.
Book your free E-commerce SEO strategy call with me today, and see for yourself how a genuinely experienced team answers the questions that actually matter.