29 New Questions To Ask Your SEO Agency During the RFP Process in 2026

Hiring an SEO agency is one of the most consequential marketing decisions a business can make, and one of the easiest to get wrong. The surface-level questions most businesses ask during the selection process, things like “how long until we rank?” and “what does it cost?”, barely reveal anything about whether an agency can actually deliver. In 2026, the SEO field has grown more complex than ever. AI-powered search results, entity-based ranking signals, and stricter content quality standards mean the agency you choose needs to be operating at a genuinely high level. These 29 questions are designed to help you cut through polished sales pitches and find a partner who can deliver real, lasting results in organic search.

Why the Standard SEO RFP Process Falls Short

Most SEO RFP conversations focus on deliverables and price rather than strategy and outcomes. Agencies know how to answer generic questions, and generic questions produce generic answers that do not distinguish great agencies from average ones. The questions below dig into how an agency actually thinks, what they do when things do not go as planned, and whether they are building for long-term search performance or short-term rankings that collapse after the next algorithm update.

“We consistently find that the businesses who ask the sharpest questions during the proposal process end up with the best agency relationships. The right SEO partner should be able to answer these questions with specifics, not talking points.”
— Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing

Section 1: Vetting the Agency’s Track Record

An agency’s past work is the strongest signal you have before the engagement begins. Ask for proof, not promises.

Questions to Evaluate Agency Results and Experience

• 1. Can you show us organic traffic and ranking data from a client in a similar industry or competitive situation? A portfolio of case studies with real traffic numbers tells you far more than a list of client logos. Look for agencies that can speak to starting conditions, what they did, and what changed as a result.
• 2. Have you worked with businesses at our stage of growth and with our level of existing search authority? The approach that works for a brand-new site is very different from what works for an established domain trying to defend or grow its rankings. Industry alignment matters, but so does situational fit.
• 3. What happened to your clients’ organic traffic during recent Google core updates? An agency that cannot answer this question has either not been paying attention or has been using tactics that tend to fall apart when Google adjusts its algorithms. Google algorithm updates are a recurring reality, and your agency should be prepared for them.
• 4. Can you provide two or three client references we can contact directly? A reference call gives you information a case study never will. Ask references specifically about how the agency handled problems, communicated during slow periods, and adapted strategy when the original plan needed adjusting.
• 5. What types of SEO work do you not do, and what projects do you typically turn down? Agencies with a clearly defined scope tend to deliver better results than those who take on everything. Knowing where an agency draws the line tells you as much about their expertise as what they claim to do well.

Section 2: Strategy and Research Process Questions

SEO without strategy is guesswork. The research and planning phase determines whether the work that follows targets the right audiences, addresses real search demand, and connects to your broader business goals.

Questions to Understand How Strategy Gets Built

• 6. How do you approach keyword research, and how do you prioritize which terms to target first? Effective keyword research in 2026 goes well beyond search volume. Ask whether the agency accounts for search intent, buyer journey stage, competition level, and the commercial value of each keyword cluster.
• 7. How do you analyze search intent before recommending page types or content formats? The same keyword can call for a how-to guide, a product page, or a comparison article depending on what users actually want. An agency that cannot walk you through how they determine this is likely relying on outdated approaches.
• 8. How does your competitor analysis inform the initial strategy? Understanding which pages drive the most organic traffic for your competitors, what topics they cover, and where their coverage gaps are is a foundational part of building a plan that can actually win ground. Ask specifically what tools and methods they use.
• 9. How do you structure content to support a topic cluster and pillar page strategy? Search engines reward sites that build comprehensive, well-organized coverage of a topic. Ask how the agency approaches topic clusters and whether their content recommendations reflect this kind of structured planning.
• 10. How do you decide between optimizing existing content and creating new pages? Both approaches have value, and the right balance depends on the specific site. An agency that defaults to always creating new content may be leaving significant ranking potential in existing pages. Ask how they make this call.

Key Differences Between Strong and Weak SEO Strategy Approaches
How leading agencies approach strategy differently from average ones

Strategy Element	Average Agency Approach	Strong Agency Approach
Keyword research	Targets high search volume terms	Prioritizes by intent, competition, and conversion potential
Content planning	Produces blog posts based on keyword lists	Maps content to buyer journey stages with structured topic clusters
Competitor analysis	Notes which keywords competitors rank for	Identifies gap opportunities, content depth, and backlink patterns
Site architecture	Makes changes as needed during build	Designs information architecture as an SEO asset from the start
Reporting	Reports on rankings and traffic volume	Ties organic performance to leads, conversions, and revenue

Section 3: Technical SEO Questions

Technical SEO creates the foundation everything else depends on. Content and links mean little if search engines cannot properly crawl, index, and understand your site.

“Technical SEO problems are often silent. A site can look perfectly functional to a visitor while quietly losing ranking potential because of crawl errors, duplicate content issues, or missing structured data. The agencies who prioritize a thorough audit before any other work are the ones worth taking seriously.”
— Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing

Technical Questions to Ask Every SEO Agency

• 11. What does your technical SEO audit cover, and what tools do you use? A real technical audit goes beyond a surface-level report from a single tool. It should include an assessment of crawlability, indexation status, site architecture, internal linking, page speed, Core Web Vitals, structured data, and mobile performance.
• 12. How do you approach Core Web Vitals, and do you work directly with developers to resolve issues? Many SEO agencies identify technical problems but lack the ability to fix them. Ask specifically how they handle the gap between diagnosis and implementation, and whether your development team will need to be involved.
• 13. What is your approach to structured data and schema markup? Structured data helps Google and AI-powered search platforms understand your content more precisely. Ask whether schema implementation is a standard part of their work or an optional add-on.
• 14. How do you handle a site migration or redesign to protect existing rankings? Organic rankings represent real business value. Any agency worth hiring should have a clear, tested protocol for protecting that value during a site migration, including redirect mapping, pre-launch testing, and post-launch monitoring. Learn more about why SEO migrations fail and what a careful agency does to prevent it.

Section 4: Content and On-Page SEO Questions

Content is the engine that drives organic growth over the long term. How an agency approaches content, from planning through execution and optimization, is a clear indicator of whether they are building something durable or chasing short-term rankings.

Questions to Assess Content Strategy and Execution

• 15. How do you handle content creation? Do you write it in-house, use the client’s team, or contract it out? Content quality directly affects rankings. If the agency outsources writing, ask how they vet writers and maintain quality standards. Ask to see writing samples before you commit.
• 16. How do you ensure content demonstrates genuine expertise, experience, and authority? Google’s E-E-A-T standards reward content that reflects real knowledge and first-hand experience. Ask specifically how the agency incorporates subject matter expertise into content they produce, especially for regulated or technical industries.
• 17. How do you approach on-page optimization beyond title tags and meta descriptions? Strong on-page SEO includes heading structure, content depth, semantic term usage, internal linking, and entity associations. If the agency’s answer stops at meta tags, that is a signal their approach is outdated.
• 18. How do you handle content at scale without losing quality? For businesses with large content needs, volume and quality need to coexist. Ask how the agency builds processes for quality control when producing content across dozens or hundreds of pages.

Section 5: Link Building and Off-Page Authority

Link building remains one of the strongest signals in organic search, but it is also one of the most frequently misused. The difference between a healthy backlink strategy and a risky one can determine whether your site grows in authority or faces a penalty.

Questions to Evaluate Link Building Practices

• 19. How do you build backlinks, and what types of links do you target? A trustworthy agency should be able to describe their link-building approach clearly, including the types of sites they pursue, how they earn links rather than buy or trade them, and what they avoid entirely.
• 20. Do you use digital PR as part of your off-page strategy? Earning coverage and links from authoritative publications through digital public relations is one of the most durable link-building methods available. Ask whether this is part of their standard offering or something they do not do at all.
• 21. How do you audit and address a weak or toxic backlink profile? Inherited link problems can suppress rankings even when the current content is strong. Ask whether they conduct a backlink audit early in the engagement and how they handle links that may be working against you.
• 22. How do you measure the impact of link-building efforts on ranking performance? Links are an input, not an output. Ask what metrics they use to confirm whether link-building activity is actually moving the right things, specifically organic traffic and ranking improvements in target keyword clusters.

Section 6: AI Search Readiness and Entity SEO

The search results page in 2026 looks different than it did even two years ago. Google AI Overviews now appear at the top of results for many queries, and conversational search platforms are changing how users find information. An SEO agency that has not adapted its approach to this shift is building for a search landscape that no longer fully exists.

“We talk to a lot of businesses who hired an SEO agency in the last two years and are now finding that their rankings are holding but their traffic is declining because AI Overviews are absorbing clicks at the top of the page. The agencies who understand how to earn featured placements in those summaries are the ones helping clients grow in this environment.”
— Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing

Questions About AI Search and Future-Proofing Your SEO Investment

• 23. How are you helping clients get their content included in Google AI Overviews? Earning placement in AI-generated search summaries requires a different kind of content optimization than traditional blue-link rankings. Ask specifically what approaches the agency uses to position clients for these placements.
• 24. What is your approach to entity SEO and helping search engines understand our brand and its relationships? Entity-based SEO is how modern search engines categorize and relate concepts, brands, and topics. Agencies who work at this level produce results that are more durable across algorithm updates because they are aligned with how search engines fundamentally process information.
• 25. How do you optimize content for AI-powered search platforms beyond Google, including ChatGPT search and Perplexity? A growing share of search activity is happening outside of traditional Google results. Ask how the agency approaches content optimization for AI search platforms and whether they are actively tracking performance in these channels.

Section 7: Reporting, Transparency, and Accountability

The reporting relationship with your SEO agency is where expectations either get confirmed or quietly abandoned. Agencies who report clearly, explain what is working and what is not, and tie organic performance to business outcomes are worth far more than those who send monthly PDF reports full of green arrows.

Questions to Evaluate How the Agency Reports and Communicates

• 26. What does your reporting look like, and how do you connect organic search performance to business results? Traffic and ranking reports are useful, but they are not the same as business results. Ask how the agency ties organic performance to leads, revenue, and conversions so you can evaluate whether the investment is paying off.
• 27. How often do you meet with clients, and who attends those meetings? Regular communication with someone who understands your account and can explain performance clearly is not a luxury. It is how you catch problems early and keep the strategy aligned with your goals as they evolve.
• 28. How do you communicate when performance is declining or a strategy is not working? Every SEO program hits periods of flat or declining performance. Ask how the agency handles these conversations and what their process is for diagnosing and responding when things are not going well.
• 29. What does success look like at three months, six months, and twelve months into the engagement? SEO takes time, and realistic milestones should be defined upfront. Be cautious of agencies who promise specific ranking positions on a fixed timeline. Ask instead what leading indicators they track early on and what improvements should be visible at each stage.

SEO Reporting Metrics: Vanity vs. Value
The difference between metrics that look good in a report and metrics that measure actual business impact

Metric Type	Vanity Metric Example	Value Metric Example
Rankings	We rank #1 for 47 keywords	We rank #1–3 for 12 keywords with confirmed buyer intent
Traffic	Organic sessions increased 40%	Organic sessions from target buyer personas increased 25%
Links	We built 30 new backlinks this month	We earned 6 links from domain authority 50+ sites in your industry
Content	We published 8 blog posts	4 new pages are ranking in the top 10 for target keyword clusters
Conversions	Bounce rate decreased	Organic-sourced form completions and calls increased 18%

How to Use These Questions in Your RFP

You do not need to run through all 29 in a single meeting. Use the category structure to build a scoring system weighted toward what matters most to your business. A local service company will weight local SEO and reporting questions heavily. A B2B company with a long sales cycle will care more about content strategy and conversion attribution. An enterprise brand will focus on technical SEO, scalability, and governance.

Pay attention not just to the answers but to how the agency responds to questions they cannot fully answer. Honest acknowledgment of limitations is a stronger signal than a confident-sounding non-answer. The best agencies will push back on a few of these questions, offer context you had not considered, and ask smart questions of their own. That kind of exchange is exactly what you want to see before you commit to a multi-month engagement.

If an agency is evasive about past performance, unable to explain their link-building approach, or vague about how they are adapting to AI-powered search, those are clear reasons to keep looking. There are excellent SEO investments available at every budget level. The key is knowing how to find the partner who can actually deliver one.

Conclusion: Finding an SEO Partner Built for How Search Works Now

Search has changed more in the past two years than in the five before it. The agencies delivering the strongest results right now are the ones who have kept pace with those changes, who understand entity SEO, who are helping clients earn visibility in AI-generated results, and who are building content programs grounded in genuine expertise. These questions help you find those agencies and screen out the ones coasting on yesterday’s playbook.

If your business is preparing to evaluate SEO agencies and you want a second opinion on proposals you have received or guidance on what a strong SEO strategy should look like for your situation, the Emulent team is ready to help. Reach out to us to talk through your goals and get an honest assessment of what an SEO investment could deliver for your business.