Questions to Ask an SEO Agency Before You Sign
This article is by Australia's #1 Mortgage Broker SEO Agency, we've helped brokers generate over $500M in new leads through Google and AI-search. We can help you too, simply book a call here.
You're talking to an SEO agency and it all sounds good. They mention rankings, leads, local search. But every agency says the same things, and you're not sure what separates a genuine partner from someone who'll take your money and send you a monthly report full of numbers that don't mean anything.
Asking the right questions changes that. A confident, specific answer tells you a lot. So does a vague one.
At Copyburst, we work with mortgage and finance brokers across Australia on mortgage broker SEO, Google Business Profiles and AI search, and brokers ask us versions of these questions every week. Below, we'll cover what to ask, what a good answer sounds like, and where to walk away.
Key takeaways
- Any agency that guarantees a top ranking is repeating a promise Google says no one can keep.
- You should own your website, domain, analytics and Business Profile at all times.
- Good monthly reports tie work done to rankings, traffic and real enquiries, not vanity numbers.
What should you ask an SEO agency before signing?
The questions that matter most are about ownership, proof, reporting and what happens if you leave. A good agency answers them directly, with specifics. You're looking for an agency that can tell you what they'll actually do, who's done it for brokers before, and how you'll know it's working. If the answers are vague or the pitch skips straight to rankings, that's the thing to notice.
Do you work with mortgage brokers specifically?
SEO for a mortgage broker is different from SEO for a retailer or a tradie. Your clients are making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives, and they search in specific ways: "refinance broker near me", "mortgage broker for self employed", "first home buyer broker". An agency that hasn't done this before won't know those search patterns, the right page structure or how Google's local results work for financial services.
Ask them to name a broker they've worked with and describe what they did. A confident answer means they know the space. "We work across many industries" is a reason to keep looking.
The local side matters here too. Brokers win most of their clients from people searching nearby, and the Map Pack (the three businesses Google shows with the map) is often where those searches end. An agency that doesn't talk about Google Business Profiles and local search isn't doing the full job.
| Expert tip Search "mortgage broker" plus your suburb the way a first home buyer would, and see which agencies' clients appear in the Map Pack and the top results. If an agency can't get their own broker clients visible there, that tells you what you need to know before the first conversation. |
Who actually does the work, and will they know my brokerage?
Some agencies sell the work, then hand it to a junior team member or an overseas contractor who's never spoken to a mortgage broker. Ask who your account contact will be, what their background is and how much they'll know about your business specifically.
You want someone who understands your loan types, your clients and your area. A first home buyer strategy is different from a refinance or investor strategy, and a broker who writes construction finance deserves pages and content built around that, not a generic template.
“When I look at broker sites that aren't getting enquiries, the pattern I see most often is generic content that could belong to any brokerage in any suburb. No loan type depth, no local relevance, no reason for Google or a borrower to choose that site over the one sitting above it.”
Adam Maynard · Founder, Copyburst · Chat to Adam →
Ask the agency to show you a real example of a broker content page or location page they've built. Not a pitch deck. An actual live page you can read.
| Mortgage broker SEO Need help with choosing the right SEO partner? We help mortgage brokers get found first in Google, Google Maps and AI search.
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What will you actually do each month, and what does the report show?
This is the question most brokers don't ask clearly enough. "We'll improve your SEO" isn't an answer. You want to know what work gets done, what it's meant to achieve, and how you'll see it.
Good monthly reporting ties specific work (a new service page, an updated Business Profile, a batch of local content) to real outcomes: which searches you're appearing for, how many times people clicked through to your site, and whether any of that turned into a phone call or a form submission. Vanity numbers, sessions, impressions, domain authority scores, mean nothing on their own.
- Rankings: which searches is your site appearing for, and are those positions moving?
- Traffic and clicks: how many people clicked through from search to your pages?
- Enquiries: how many form submissions, calls or booking requests came from search?
- Work completed: what was done this month and why does it matter for your pipeline?
If an agency can't tell you how many enquiries your site generated last month, ask them how they'd set that up. It's not complicated. It's just a matter of whether they think about your business, or about their own metrics.
| Expert tip Ask to see a real monthly report from an existing client, with the client name removed. A good agency will have one ready. What you're looking for is whether it talks about the client's business and real outcomes, or just charts with numbers. That one page tells you more than an hour of sales conversation. |
Who owns the website, the content and my logins?
This is where some agencies create lock-in that's genuinely difficult to undo. Say you're a broker who's been with an agency for two years. You want to move on, but you find out they own the domain, built the site on a platform you can't access and hold the login to your Google Business Profile. You're starting from scratch, and you lose the history that was building your rankings.
Before signing, get a clear answer on each of these:
- Domain: is it registered in your name, with your email as the owner?
- Website: do you have full admin access, and can you export or move it?
- Analytics and Search Console: are they set up in your own Google account?
- Google Business Profile: are you the primary owner, with the agency as a manager only?
A good agency gives you full ownership and access from day one. They add themselves as a manager or collaborator, not the other way around.
What's the honest answer on timelines and what you'll guarantee?
Here's the simplest quality check of the whole conversation. Google's own guidance says no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google. If an agency does, they're either making a promise they can't keep, or planning to target searches so obscure that ranking there won't bring you a single client.
Google's Maile Ohye said in a 2017 Google Search Central video that SEOs generally need four months to a year to implement improvements and see potential benefit. That's an honest framing of how it works. Any agency worth working with will give you a similar answer, and then explain what they'll focus on in the meantime and how you'll see progress before the full results come through.
| What they say | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| We guarantee page one or a top-three ranking | Google says no one can promise this | Walk away |
| We have a special relationship with Google | Google warns against agencies that claim this | Walk away |
| Results depend on competition, your site history and the work done | Honest; this is how SEO works | Good sign; keep talking |
| Here's what we'd focus on first and why | They've looked at your specific situation | Strong sign; ask what comes next |
| We'll get you more leads | Vague; no plan behind it | Ask them to be specific |
“The first thing I tell any broker who's evaluating us is to check that they own their domain and their Google Business Profile before they sign anything with anyone. If they don't, sorting that out is often the first job, before we do anything else.”
Adam Maynard · Founder, Copyburst · Chat to Adam →
What happens if you stop, or want to leave?
This question reveals more about an agency's culture than almost anything else. A good agency makes leaving easy: you keep everything, they hand over cleanly, and any work already done stays in place on your site and profile. That's the standard worth holding them to.
On the topic of stopping: Google uses links as one signal of relevance, and the pages and content built during an SEO engagement stay live. Your rankings may soften over time without ongoing work, but you don't lose everything the day you stop paying. Any agency that implies you will is overstating it.
Ask specifically: what do I keep, what happens to my content, and how long does the handover take? A clear, confident answer is what you're looking for.
| Expert tip Before your first meeting with any agency, add "How did you find us?" to your enquiry form if you haven't already. It takes five minutes and it means you start tracking which channel is actually sending you clients, right now. That data makes the conversation with any agency far more useful because you're both working from real numbers, not guesses. Copyburst sets this up for brokers as part of our onboarding. |
| Mortgage broker SEO Need help with choosing the right SEO partner? We help mortgage brokers get found first in Google, Google Maps and AI search.
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What else do brokers ask when choosing an SEO agency?
What happens to my SEO if I change agencies?
Content and pages your old agency built stay live, so you keep that work. Rankings can dip briefly during a handover, particularly if there's any change to your site's structure. The priority is making sure you own all your logins and accounts before you move, so nothing has to be rebuilt from scratch.
What should I check before I sign an SEO contract?
Check who owns the domain, website and your Google Business Profile. Read the exit clauses: how much notice do you need to give, and what do you keep? Ask what's specifically included each month, and whether reporting ties back to enquiries. Be wary of any agency that can't answer those questions clearly.
How do I know if my current SEO is actually working?
Track three things: which searches your site appears for and whether positions are improving, how many people click through to your site from those searches, and how many of those visits turn into an enquiry. If your agency can't show you those three numbers, the reporting isn't built around your business.
How does Copyburst approach the first 90 days with a new broker?
We start with a full audit of your existing site, Business Profile, rankings and enquiry tracking. We identify the fastest gaps to close based on what your clients are searching for, and we build from there. You see what we're doing and why, in plain English, before we do it.
Can Copyburst rebuild my website as part of the SEO work?
Yes. We build broker websites as part of an SEO plan, not as a separate project. That means the structure, the pages, the content and the technical setup are all built to rank from day one. You own the site and domain throughout, and we map any old URLs so you don't lose your existing search history.
Your next steps
Write down your three non-negotiables before any agency conversation: who owns your logins, how reporting connects to real enquiries and what the exit looks like. Take those questions into every meeting and pay attention to how the answers come. Specific and confident is what you're looking for. If a claim sounds too good, it usually is. Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and any agency worth working with will tell you the same.
To see what this would look like for your brokerage, book a free strategy call.
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Sources and further reading
This article provides general information about SEO, AI search and digital marketing for mortgage and finance brokers. It is not credit assistance, financial, legal or tax advice, and does not take into account your business circumstances. Search, ranking and lead outcomes vary and are not guaranteed. Figures are sourced from the organisations named and were current at the time of writing.