How to choose a local SEO agency: 10 checks before you hire

• Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current: categories, services, hours, photos and posts.
• Make your name, address and phone number match on every directory that matters.
• Help you ask every customer for a review, and reply to reviews in your voice.
• Build a useful page for each service and each area you genuinely serve.
• Earn local links from associations, suppliers, sponsorships and local press.
• Report the calls, direction requests and form leads that search brings in.

1. 1Who will own your Google Business Profile? You should be the primary owner and the agency a manager. If an agency insists on owning it, the profile and its reviews leave with them.
2. 2How do they track map rankings? Map results change street by street. Ask for grid tracking across your service area, not a single ranking checked from the agency's own office.
3. 3How do they get reviews? The right answer is asking every customer. Review gating (asking only happy customers) and fake reviews break Google's rules and can get a profile suspended.
4. 4Which listings will they build? A few dozen accurate listings on the directories your customers use beat hundreds of low-quality submissions. Ask for the list.
5. 5What goes on each location page? Directions, parking, local team, opening hours and real photos. Pages that only swap the town name are thin content and rarely rank.
6. 6Will they suggest a virtual office or a keyword-stuffed business name? Both break Google's guidelines for business profiles, and both get listings removed.
7. 7What will the monthly report show? Calls, direction requests, website clicks and form leads from Search Console, GA4 and your profile's own data, not just rankings.
8. 8Where will local links come from? Expect named sources: trade associations, suppliers, local sponsorships and press. Bought links put the whole site at risk.
9. 9What are the contract terms? Month-to-month or a short notice period, with every account, page and listing staying yours if you leave.
10. 10Does the price match the scope? In Ahrefs' survey of 439 SEO providers, local SEO retainers averaged $1,557 a month. Far below that, ask what's been left out; far above it, ask what you're paying for.

• A guaranteed number-one spot in the map pack. Nobody controls Google's results.
• Hundreds of directory listings for a low one-off price.
• Any offer to write reviews or "manage" negative ones by having them removed.
• The agency, not you, owning your Google Business Profile or website.
• A 12-month contract before they've shown you any results.

No. Local SEO is done in Google Business Profile, on your website and on directories, so an agency doesn't need an office in your town. What it does need is a clear understanding of your market: the suburbs you serve, how your customers search and who you compete with. Judge that in the first conversation, wherever the agency is based.