SEO packages explained: what you're actually buying

Google's own guide to hiring an SEO lists the kinds of useful services that SEOs, agencies and consultants provide. The list includes review of your site content or structure, technical advice on website development (hosting, redirects, error pages and use of JavaScript), content development, management of online business development campaigns, keyword research, SEO training, expertise in specific markets and geographies, and optimizing for generative AI.

That list is a useful yardstick. When you read a package description, map each line item to one of those services. Anything that doesn't fit, or that you still can't explain after reading it twice, deserves a question.

AI search is the newest line item. If a package includes advice on optimizing for AI experiences, often sold as AEO or GEO, Google suggests checking whether that advice is aligned with Google Search's official guidance on optimizing for generative AI features.

Before you compare SEO pricing, it helps to know which work you might not need to buy. Google says that if you run a small local business, you can probably do much of the work yourself, and it recommends starting with its SEO Starter Guide, which describes much of what an SEO would do for you.

Even if you hire help in the end, Google notes that knowing the basics lets you spot when someone wants to use a technique that isn't recommended. Reading the starter guide is an afternoon well spent, and it makes you a much sharper buyer.

Google's hiring guide is unusually blunt about warning signs. Watch for packages or sales pitches that:

• Guarantee rankings. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
• Claim a special relationship with Google or a priority submission to Google. Google tells you to be wary of both.
• Require you to link to the SEO. Google says you should never have to.
• Promise link popularity schemes or submissions to thousands of search engines. Google calls these typically useless exercises.

Paid links deserve special caution. Google's spam policies list buying or selling links for ranking purposes as an example of link spam. A package that sells a fixed number of links per month should prompt a direct question about where those links come from.

Google suggests interviewing any SEO you're considering, and it offers its own list of useful questions. Among them:

• Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
• Do you follow the Google Search Essentials?
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?
• How do you measure your success?
• What's your experience in my industry, and in my city or country?
• Will you share all the changes you make to my site, with the reasoning behind them?

Google also suggests checking business references by asking past clients whether the SEO provided useful service, was easy to work with and produced positive results.

If a package starts with an audit, Google's advice is to look carefully at what's involved, and to grant only read access to Search Console at that stage, not write access. It says an audit should give you realistic estimates of improvement and an estimate of the work involved.

Be careful with audits built entirely on third-party tools. Google says it doesn't evaluate or endorse third-party SEO tools, and that these tools don't have access to its internal ranking data. A good audit cites official Google documentation for its recommendations.

A report full of charts can still leave you wondering what was actually done. Ask for the numbers Google itself provides. Google Search Console's Performance report shows how often your site appeared in search results, how many people clicked, your click-through rate and your average position, along with the search queries that bring people to your site and the pages they land on.

A useful monthly report starts there, explains what changed and why, and connects the work done to those numbers. If a report is full of metrics you can't find in your own Search Console account, ask where they come from.

Any honest package should set expectations about time. Google says some changes take effect within hours and others could take several months, and it suggests waiting a few weeks to judge whether a change helped. A package priced for one month of work and a promise of page-one results by week two doesn't match how Google says search works.

When you line up several SEO packages, ignore the tier names and compare four things:

1. The work. Which of Google's listed services does each package actually include?
2. The method. Does the provider explain how they'll do it, in words you understand?
3. The reporting. Will you see every change made to your site and the reason for it?
4. The risk. Does anything in the offer match one of Google's red flags?

The best package isn't the one with the longest list. It's the one where you understand every line and can see how each one helps your customers find you.