April 2025
10 essential questions the best SEO companies ask (+ how they shape your small business strategy)
If you’re thinking about working with any SEO provider, take a minute to consider how you would answer these questions.
You know those surveys that ask people, “How did you hear about us?”
There’s always a “Google” or “Internet search” option on those things.
But if you stop and think about your own small business for a minute, how many people do you think would select that option for you?
If you’re not sure of the answer, or the answer is, “Absolutely no one would choose that,” you’ve got some search engine optimization (SEO) work to do.
Now, I don’t want to leave you with the impression that SEO is only about ranking on Google.
It’s ultimately about increasing your visibility, attracting the right audience, and, of course, driving more conversions for your business.
That’s why we take a strategic approach with every client, starting with 10 essential questions we believe all the best SEO companies need to ask small business owners.
Because your answers give us a clear understanding of your business and your goals, we can craft an SEO strategy that will give you results that actually feel worth the effort.
If you’re thinking about working with any SEO provider, take a minute to consider how you would answer these questions.
SEO success isn’t a one size fits all situation, so we need to know how you define it.
1. What are your overall goals for your website?
SEO success isn’t a one size fits all situation, so we need to know how you define it.
Do you want to generate more leads? Increase online sales? Establish yourself as an industry authority?
Understanding your specific goals helps us figure out the best place to start for your customized strategy – whether that’s focusing on local SEO, content marketing, technical optimizations, or something else entirely.
2. What do you currently do to increase your online visibility?
There are so many ways to increase your visibility online, including:
- Running paid ads
- Optimizing your website content
- Posting regularly on social media
- Running email marketing campaigns
- Optimizing your Google Business Profile
- Guest posting on industry-related websites
- Encouraging online reviews from satisfied customers
- Creating video content on YouTube and other platforms
You might be doing a mix of them right now. Or maybe you’re starting from scratch.
Knowing what you’ve tried before helps us build on what’s working. And fix what’s not.
3. Which 10 keywords do you think people might be using to find services or products similar to yours?
We know you aren’t the expert here and we don’t expect you to be, but your insights are invaluable.
While we conduct thorough keyword research, hearing directly from you gives us a great starting point.
After all, no one knows your audience as intimately as you do. Plus, you may know industry-specific terms your customers use that data tools won’t immediately pick up.
You can’t create an effective SEO strategy without knowing what your competition is up to.
4. What are your specific service areas?
If you serve customers locally, we need to optimize your site for local search.
This means incorporating relevant location-based keywords, optimizing your Google Business Profile, and making sure you show up in “near me” searches, which is (obviously) a very different strategy than if we’re optimizing you for global search results.
5. Who would you list as your top 3-5 competitors?
No one wants to go down the rabbit hole of comparing themselves to their competition.
But you can’t create an effective SEO strategy without knowing what your competition is up to. I mean, these are the businesses that your audience considers as alternatives to your services or products when they go to search for you!
Competitive research helps us understand what’s working in your industry and where the opportunities lie.
So we use this list to analyze your competitors’ SEO strategy, content, backlinks, and search rankings to help you find your edge.
6. And what sets you apart from your competitors?
Since we already mentioned that SEO isn’t just about traffic (it’s about attracting the right audience and converting them into customers) we don’t stop at simply identifying what your competitors are up to.
The special sauce that makes you better or different from others who sell similar products or services should be incorporated into your SEO strategy.
This means we’re making sure we clearly communicate your unique value prop in your content, meta descriptions, and website messaging.
7. What services or products are currently driving the most sales for you?
Smart SEO strategies prioritize high-revenue products or services so our efforts stay focused on what will have the biggest impact for you.
It doesn’t matter what you sell, the point is that we’ll work to maximize its visibility before we move onto other parts of the strategy.
Identifying gaps helps us refine your keyword strategy and content to attract your ideal customers.
8. Who is your current audience (and who is your desired audience)?
I wish the two were always the same audience, but this isn’t the case for most of our clients when they come to us for SEO help.
Maybe you’re attracting DIYers when you really want high-end clients.
Or you’re getting traffic from outside your service area.
Identifying these gaps helps us refine your keyword strategy and content to attract your ideal customers.
9. How do you respond to the question of what you do?
Imagine you’re at a dinner party and a fellow guest asks you, “What do you do?”
How do you respond to that question?
Because your SEO strategy should clearly communicate this. Both to search engines and potential customers.
A simple, clear description of your business helps us create more compelling page titles, meta descriptions, and on-site content your desired audience actually wants to engage with.
10. Do you have Google Analytics, Search Console, and a Google Business Profile set up?
Sometimes we ask this question and get a bit of a sheepish look in return.
It’s okay if you don’t have these set up yet, but they’re all essential tools for tracking your website’s performance and identifying areas for improvement.
So if you don’t use them or you’re unfamiliar with how they work, we’ll make sure they’re in place (and that you get familiar quickly) so you can measure the success of your SEO efforts.
We work with you to create a strategic, data-driven approach that aligns with your business goals.
SEO Success Starts with Strategy
Once upon a time, SEO was synonymous with “stuffing keywords on the page.”
As most of us now realize, that was a pretty cringey way to go about it. Luckily, Google no longer rewards that kind of behaviour, and the best SEO companies know that small businesses need content to be tailored to readers first.
That’s why we work with you to create a strategic, data-driven approach that aligns with your business goals.
Knowing the answers to the 10 questions I’ve laid out here, will help you communicate what we need to know to help you build a strong foundation for your SEO strategy so that the optimizations we make drive meaningful results.
We can help a lot more new clients check “Found you on Google” on your next survey 😉