Every SEO pitch deck contains the same four slides: an audit teaser, a keyword table, a case study with a hockey stick graph, and a price. None of it tells you whether the people in the room can do the work. These questions do.
1. What would make you turn down this project?
An agency that has never declined work will say something vague. A good one will name specifics: a brand new product category nobody searches for yet, a site that needs a rebuild before optimisation is worth paying for, a budget too small for the competitiveness of the term.
2. Which of my current pages would you delete?
Anyone can suggest new content. Knowing what to remove, whether that is thin pages, cannibalising duplicates or ancient posts dragging the site quality signals down, takes a real look at your site rather than a template.
3. Who does the work, and can I talk to them now?
The senior strategist in the pitch is often not the person who will be on your account. Ask directly, and ask to speak to whoever it actually is before you sign.
4. How will we know in ninety days whether this is working?
Rankings move before revenue does, so the honest answer names leading indicators: indexation, impressions on target queries, click through on the pages that were changed, and a date when the commercial number should follow.
5. What does your reporting look like when a month goes badly?
Ask to see a real report from a bad month. If none exists, either every month has been perfect or the reports are not honest.
6. Who owns the content and the accounts?
You should. Analytics, Search Console, the CMS and everything written for you should live under your ownership from day one, not be transferred at the end of the relationship, assuming it ends well.
7. What happens to my traffic if I stop working with you?
Good SEO leaves an asset behind. If the honest answer is that traffic collapses without ongoing spend, you are buying a rental rather than an investment, and you should price it accordingly.
The pattern
Every one of these questions is uncomfortable for an agency selling a package and easy for one selling expertise. That is the whole point.