About 13 years ago, my first business was an insurance agency, and I hired an SEO company to get it onto page one of Google.
Back then, SEO was the holy grail of digital marketing, and agencies sold it like hot cakes. Hardly anyone understood how it worked. It was a kind of weird magic. But everyone knew that if you were at the top of Google, you got the clients. So I signed. The contract ran for 12 months, and ending it early meant paying for all 12 anyway. I took out a loan to pay for it.
It went badly enough that I'd call it a scam. It was also the most expensive SEO course I've ever paid for, and the one I learned the most from, mainly because I ended up teaching it to myself.
That accidental education is a big part of why I do this work now. It's also why most advice on how to choose an SEO company makes me a little uneasy. Search for it and nearly every result is written by an SEO company, and most of them reach the same conclusion: choose an SEO company like them.
I don't sell SEO packages anymore, so I have no particular horse in this race. This is what I'd look for if I were hiring one today, based on what went wrong the first time.
What went wrong: they asked me what I wanted to rank for
Their method was simple. They asked me what I wanted to rank for. Then they tried to rank me for whatever I said.
At the time, that felt like being listened to. It was actually the whole problem. I didn't know which searches mattered, which is presumably why I'd hired them. So I asked for the big, obvious ones, like car third-party liability insurance in Warsaw. It sounded exactly like what I sold. In practice, page one for searches like that belonged to insurance groups and large agencies, and a small agency had no realistic chance of pushing them aside. Nobody told me that. They just started working on my list.
The contract also included a few social media posts every month. When I asked why nothing was being posted, they told me I needed to send them things to post. I'd assumed that was what I was paying them for. Copying, pasting and clicking "Post" is something I could have done myself. Coming up with ideas what to post and writing was the actual bottleneck they were supposed to solve for me.
Eventually they did post something. It linked to a competitor's blog.
That was the end. I told them not to touch anything else, kept paying because the contract said I had to, and started learning SEO myself.
What worked instead: a search I could actually win
I stopped chasing the broad searches I'd originally asked for and went after very specific ones in my favorite niche: third-party liability insurance for yachts and skippers. Far fewer people search for that than for car insurance in Warsaw. But the people who do are exactly the clients that niche serves, and it was a search a small agency could realistically compete in.
Within two or three months, I was in the top three for those searches.
The difference wasn't a secret technique. It was choosing searches I could win, and creating very specific, useful and highly informational content around it. Looking back, the SEO company never asked any of the questions that decide whether SEO works at all:
Does anyone search for this, in these words?
What does the person searching actually want?
Who already owns page one?
Can a business like mine realistically win it?
Those questions are the job. Titles, pages and links come afterwards, and they only help if they're pointed at the right search.
Why “what do you want to rank for?” is the wrong first question
Business owners describe what they sell from the inside. Buyers search from the outside, with their own words and their own worries. Those two vocabularies overlap less than you'd think.
But that doesn't mean the broad search is always the wrong one. It depends entirely on the market.
Say you own a wedding venue in the Hudson Valley and you want to rank for "Hudson Valley wedding venues". That's a perfectly sensible target. When I checked it in November 2026, The Knot, PartySlate and a few roundups by photographers and planners took a good share of page one, but a venue's own website was in there too. Local competition for wedding venues usually isn't fierce, and a venue with a good website has a real chance at a search like that. A good SEO company would tell you so, and then help you earn the spot.
Vacation rentals are a different market. A popular destination can have hundreds of rentals, and the broad searches usually belong to Airbnb, Vrbo and similar booking sites. The only independent businesses that can really compete with them there are companies managing many properties. If you own one cabin, your realistic wins are narrower: searches built around what makes your place the right choice for a particular kind of guest.
My insurance agency was a third case. The broad searches belonged to insurance groups and big agencies, and the niche was where I could win.
Every market is different. That's exactly why "what do you want to rank for?" doesn't work as a method. Whether a search is winnable depends on who's already on page one in your market, and someone has to actually look.
You know your business. The SEO company is supposed to know search. If they simply do what you tell them, you're paying for a guide and getting a very expensive typist.
How to choose an SEO company: what a good one does before quoting
The best test of an SEO company happens before you sign anything. Watch what they do in the first conversation and the proposal.
1. They ask about your business before your keywords
Who books you, what they book, which inquiries you'd love more of. A venue that wants more winter weekday weddings needs different searches from one that's fully booked in June and wants larger guest counts. If the first question is "Which keywords do you want?", you already know how the rest will go.
2. They show you who you’re actually up against
Your competitors in business aren't always your competitors in search. A good SEO company looks at page one for the searches you care about and tells you what's there: directories, marketplaces, publishers, Reddit, other venues or rentals. That list decides more than any setting will.
3. They tell you what’s winnable, and what isn’t
This is the one I'd weigh most. An honest SEO company will sometimes tell you that the search you want isn't realistic, or isn't worth it, and suggest something better. A company that never says no to a keyword isn't being accommodating. It just hasn't looked.
4. They measure what you actually care about
Rankings are a means. For a venue, what matters is inquiries from couples you want to host. For a rental, it's direct bookings. A monthly report full of rankings for phrases that bring no inquiries can look like progress for a long time. Ask how they'll connect their work to the inquiries in your inbox, and start with Google Search Console, which shows the searches you actually appear for and how often people click.
5. You own everything
Your website, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Business Profile should all be in your name. The SEO company gets access as a user. If you part ways, they lose access and you keep everything.
6. You can leave
Read the cancellation terms before you sign, not after. A reasonable contract tells you how to end it and what happens to the work. Mine ran for 12 months, and leaving early meant paying for all 12 anyway. That's how a bad hire became a very long one.
Questions to ask an SEO company before you sign
You don't need to understand SEO to ask these. You only need to listen to how they answer.
"Which searches would you target for us, and why those?"
A good answer names specific searches, shows you who ranks for them now and explains why you can compete. A worrying answer is "What would you like to rank for?"
"Who are we competing against in the search results?"
A good answer names what's actually on page one, including directories and marketplaces. A worrying answer only lists your business competitors, or doesn't know yet but quotes a price anyway.
"What happens if the search I want isn't realistic?"
You want to hear that they'll tell you, and that they'll suggest alternatives.
"What exactly will you do each month?"
Look for concrete work: specific pages, specific fixes, specific content. "Ongoing optimization" with no detail isn't a plan.
"How will we know it's working?"
Good: clicks and impressions for the target searches in Search Console, and then inquiries or bookings. Worrying: a ranking report for keywords they chose themselves.
"Whose name will the accounts be in?"
Yours. Every time.
"How do I end the contract?"
A straight answer, a clear notice period, and no long silence.
"Can I speak to a past client in a business like mine?"
Not everyone can arrange this, but someone who's done good work usually knows a client who will say so.
SEO red flags: when to walk away
Not every disappointing SEO company is a scam. Some are honest and simply doing the wrong work, very efficiently. But these are worth walking away from:
Guaranteed rankings or "page one in 30 days". Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
They'll rank you for anything you ask. That's the method that cost me.
You end up doing the work you're paying for. If they expect you to supply every post, page and idea, ask what the monthly fee actually covers.
Unsolicited emails telling you your site “isn't on page one”. Google warns about these too. A company that has to find clients by cold-emailing about rankings isn't usually the one you want ranking you.
Secret methods. If they can't explain what they'll do in plain words, either they don't know or you wouldn't like it.
Reports full of numbers that never reach your inbox. Lots of rankings and no inquiries means the work is aimed at the wrong searches.
Accounts in their name. Your Search Console, your Analytics and your Business Profile should never be held hostage.
A contract with no exit. Long minimum terms with no performance clause or notice period protect them, not you.
If you’re already stuck with one
I've been there, so here's what I'd do. None of this is legal advice.
Get your own access to Google Search Console and Analytics if you don't already have it. You'll want the data whatever happens next.
Ask which searches they're targeting, then search each one in a private browser window and look at page one yourself. You'll know quite quickly whether those searches are winnable.
Read the cancellation clause properly. If it's unclear, a lawyer can tell you what it actually allows.
Tell them, in writing, not to touch anything if their work is doing harm. That's what I did once they'd linked my business to a competitor's blog.
Use the time. I didn't plan to learn SEO, but I was paying for it either way. Understanding what they were doing (and not doing) was the only part of the contract that turned out to be worth anything.
Do you need an SEO company at all?
Sometimes SEO isn't the problem. A venue can be found perfectly well and still not get inquiries, because the website doesn't answer the questions couples have before they reach out: price, capacity, what's included. More traffic won't fix that. It just means more people leave without asking.
That's also why I stopped selling standalone SEO packages. I noticed they weren't working, and I no longer believe they move the needle. You can't sprinkle a handful of keywords over a website and call it a day. SEO that brings in inquiries needs a strategy, clear positioning and a site built to turn visitors into inquiries. Very often that means a website rebuild, and sometimes a rebrand, because the site's architecture is a mess and no keyword can tidy it up. More than once, a client has come to me asking for SEO when there was no point applying it to their existing website. What they actually needed was a total strategy and website makeover.
Before you hire anyone, it's worth knowing where the real bottleneck is. That's what my Rabbit Hole Investigation is for. I look at your Search Console data, the search results you're actually competing in and your website, and tell you whether SEO is worth paying for, which searches are winnable, and what to fix first. I don't sell monthly SEO afterwards, so there's no package waiting at the end of the report.
If your website itself is the bottleneck, SEO belongs in the rebuild rather than on top of it. Every Squarespace website redesign (from $4,500) and custom website (from $4,000) I build starts with the same questions above, so the page structure is planned around searches you can actually win.
And if you'd rather do it yourself, my Squarespace SEO guide walks through every setting in order. Its final section covers how to tell whether a search is worth chasing before you spend anything on it, including your time.
Keep reading:
SEO for Wedding Venues: Get Found and Turn Visits Into Inquiries
Why Your Website Isn’t Getting You Clients — And Why It Might Not Be a Website Problem
How I Ranked A Squarespace Blog Post #1 on Google in Less Than 24 Hours (Real SEO Case Study)
Keywords for Vacation Rentals: How to Find and Use Them to Boost Airbnb SEO
FAQs
Can an SEO company guarantee first-page rankings?
No. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and rankings shift with every update and every competitor who improves their site. An SEO company can explain what it will do and why it expects that to work. A guarantee usually means they plan to rank you for a search nobody makes.
Is SEO worth it for a small business?
It depends on two things: whether people search for what you sell, in words you can rank for, and whether page one for those searches shows businesses like yours. Every market is different. Many wedding venues can realistically rank for their main local search. A single vacation rental usually can't beat Airbnb and Vrbo for broad destination searches, so its wins are narrower. Check the search results before you pay for anything.
