Sooner or later most website owners ask the same question: should we hire someone for SEO, and if so, who? Google publishes a page on exactly this, titled Do you need an SEO? Tips for hiring an SEO. It is short, plainly written and worth reading before any conversation with a provider. This article sets out what it says, in our own words, and what we think follows for anyone choosing between an in-house hire, an agency and a consultant.
What Google says an SEO can legitimately do
The page describes hiring as a decision that can improve visibility and save time, and also one that carries risk to the site and its reputation if the provider is irresponsible. It lists the services that agencies and consultants commonly provide: reviewing content or structure, technical advice on hosting, redirects, error pages and JavaScript, content development, running campaigns, keyword research, training, expertise in particular markets and geographies, and optimising for generative AI features.
It is also clear about what money cannot do. Advertising with Google has no effect on a site’s presence in organic results, Google never accepts payment to include or rank sites, and appearing in organic results costs nothing. Anyone who suggests otherwise is describing something Google says does not exist.
Start with the starter guide
For a small local business, Google says you can probably do much of the work yourself, and recommends starting with its SEO starter guide. The reasoning is practical: the guide describes much of what an SEO would do for you, so reading it means you can tell when a provider proposes a technique that is not recommended, or one that is strongly discouraged.
That is a useful test for any size of organisation. If nobody on your side can read a recommendation against Google’s own documentation, you cannot judge it, however good the provider is.
When Google says hiring is most useful
The page names a particular moment: a site redesign, the earlier the better, or the planning of a new site. At that point a provider and the people building the site can make sure it is search-friendly from the foundations, instead of repairing it afterwards. It adds that a good SEO can also improve an existing site, so the advice is not limited to launches.
For teams planning a rebuild or replatform, that is the part to take seriously. Search requirements that arrive after the templates are built tend to be argued over; requirements written into the brief are just part of the work.
Questions Google suggests you ask
Google gives a list of questions for interviewing a potential SEO. In summary, ask for examples of previous work and success stories; whether they follow Google Search Essentials; what results they expect, in what timeframe and how they measure success; what experience they have in your industry, your country or city and with international sites; how long they have been in business; and how you can expect to communicate, including whether they will share every change they make with the reasoning behind it.
It also suggests checking whether the provider is genuinely interested in your business, asking about what makes it unique, who your competitors are and how customers find you, and asking past clients whether the work was useful and easy to work with.
Access, audits and tools
On audits, Google is specific. If a provider offers one, consider carefully what is involved, and grant read access to Search Console only at that stage, not write access. An audit should give you realistic estimates of improvement and of the work involved. If someone guarantees first place in search results, Google’s advice is to find someone else.
On tools, it says Google does not evaluate or endorse third-party SEO tools, that those tools have no access to Google’s internal ranking data, and that you should be wary of any tool described as acceptable or approved by Google Search. Before making significant changes based on a tool’s audit, check the recommendations against Google’s official guidance. Good questions follow from that: does the provider cite Google’s documentation as evidence, and is any advice on AI features consistent with Google’s published guidance on generative AI?
The warning signs Google lists
- Unsolicited emails claiming your site is missing from search engines. Google says it receives these too and advises the same scepticism you would apply to any too-good-to-be-true offer.
- Promised rankings, a claimed special relationship with Google, or a “priority submit”. Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking.
- Secrecy. If a company will not explain what it intends to do, ask. Google notes that you are ultimately responsible for what a hired company does, and that deceptive content created on your behalf could get a site removed from the index.
- Anything involving links to the provider, link popularity schemes or submission to thousands of search engines. Google says you should never have to link to an SEO.
Google adds a final caution: some techniques used by aggressive providers violate its spam policies and can lead to a negative adjustment or removal from the index. Our article on link building and the spam policies covers the link side in more detail.
What this means for hire, agency or consultant
Google’s page does not rank these options and we will not pretend it does. What it gives is a set of tests that apply to all three. Can they explain what they will change and why? Do they ground advice in Google’s documentation? Are their expectations realistic and their measurement stated? Do they avoid guarantees? Is access limited to what the stage needs? A permanent hire and an agency retainer can each pass or fail those tests, and so can a consultant. The structure matters less than whether the person doing the thinking can answer the questions.
Where this fits at Cultured Digital: the consultancy option
Cultured Digital is an independent technical SEO and digital consultancy, and the questions above are ones we expect to be asked. Our consultancy service is described on the site as senior technical SEO added alongside an internal team, as advisory, embedded or review work, and our page on in-house hire, agency or consultancy sets out how the three differ. On the specific points Google raises: we state that we do not promise rankings or traffic numbers, scope is agreed after a conversation, and a recommendation that nobody implements has achieved nothing, so we implement where required. An SEO audit is a common way to start.