You have three proposals on your desk. Each company says it can get your real estate website ranking, and each one sounds confident. The trouble is that the pitch rarely tells you how the work gets done, who does it, or what you will actually see each week. The right questions sort that out fast.
Our team at Personal SEO builds and optimizes websites for real estate agents, much of it on Sierra Interactive, and we answer these questions from agents all the time. Below are the questions to ask before you hire a real estate SEO company, what a good answer sounds like, and the replies that should make you keep looking.
What should you ask before you hire a real estate SEO company?
Ask to see real estate work you can check, how they follow Google’s rules, whether they can work inside your IDX platform, who writes the content, how they report progress, what results they expect and when, and what account access they need. Clear, specific answers matter more than a polished sales deck.
Google publishes its own list of interview questions in its guide Do you need an SEO?. It suggests asking for examples of previous work, whether the company follows Google Search Essentials, what results they expect and in what timeframe, their experience in your industry and city, how long they have been in business, and whether they will share every change they make. We agree with every item on that list. The questions below add the details that matter for agents.
- Can you show me real estate sites you work on today?
- Do you follow Google Search Essentials, and will you explain your methods?
- Can you work inside my IDX platform?
- Who writes the content, and how do you handle Fair Housing?
- How will you report the work, and how often will I hear from you?
- What results do you expect, and in what timeframe?
- What access do you need, and who owns the accounts?
Can they show real estate websites they work on right now?
A good real estate SEO company can point you to live agent websites it works on now and show you specific pages it built or improved. Look at those pages yourself. Check whether the community pages have real written content, whether blog posts are recent, and whether the site feels useful to a buyer.
Screenshots of traffic charts are easy to share and hard to verify. Live pages are better evidence. Open a few neighborhood pages and read them. Ask which pages the company wrote and what it changed. Google also suggests checking business references, so ask if you can talk with a current client about whether the service was useful and easy to work with.
Industry experience matters here too. Real estate sites have their own quirks: listing feeds, saved searches, thin area pages created by the platform, and duplicate listing descriptions shared across many sites. A company that works on agent sites every week will spot those problems during the first call.
Do they follow Google Search Essentials and explain their methods?
Yes is the only acceptable answer, and they should be able to explain what that means in plain language. Google Search Essentials covers technical requirements, spam policies and key best practices. A company that ignores it can put your site at risk of ranking lower or being removed.
Google is direct about the risk. Its hiring guide says that if an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content for you, your site could be removed from Google’s index, and that you are responsible for the actions of any company you hire. That is why you want a partner who explains every change and the reasoning behind it.
Ask how they handle links, too. Google warns against SEOs that talk about link popularity schemes or submitting your site to thousands of search engines, and it says you should never have to link to an SEO. If a proposal leans on bulk directory submissions or bought links, keep looking.
The same goes for AI search. More companies now sell answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO). Google’s guide suggests asking whether that advice lines up with Google’s official guidance on generative AI features and whether they cite official documentation for their recommendations. We cover how this works for agents in our post on SEO for AI.
Can they work inside your IDX platform, such as Sierra Interactive?
They should be comfortable working in the platform you already use, whether that is Sierra Interactive, WordPress or another IDX website builder. Ask what they can change themselves, what needs the platform’s support team, and how they handle community pages, saved searches, redirects and schema inside that system.
This is where many general SEO agencies struggle. IDX platforms often limit what you can edit, and the fixes look different on each one. On Sierra Interactive sites, our team builds out community pages, sets up saved searches so each area shows the right listings, adds internal links between city hubs and neighborhood pages, and places schema markup in the page. If you want to see how we think about the platform, read our comparison of Sierra Interactive SEO options.
Ask about page structure as well. A strong answer will mention city hubs, neighborhood pages that link back to them, and content that covers the areas you actually serve. Our post on what makes a real estate community page rank walks through what those pages need.
Who writes the content, and how do they handle Fair Housing?
Ask who writes your blog posts and area pages, whether a person reviews every piece, and how the writers check facts. Real estate content also has to follow Fair Housing rules, so the company should be able to explain how it avoids language that targets or excludes buyers based on protected characteristics.
Content is where most of the ongoing SEO work lives for an agent. Generic posts that could fit any city do little for you. Good content answers the questions buyers and sellers in your market actually ask, uses facts that can be checked, and sounds like your business.
Our writers follow a set process. Every post starts as a plain human draft, then gets light SEO structure, then a final edit. We do not invent statistics, reviews or local details, and we keep headings, FAQs and answers clear enough for both searchers and AI tools to quote. We explain why steady publishing matters in why consistent content helps rank in AEO and SEO.
How will they report the work, and how often will you hear from them?
You should know exactly what was done on your site and when. Ask how often they report, what the report includes, and who you contact with questions. Google’s hiring guide suggests asking whether the company will share every change it makes and explain the reasoning behind its recommendations.
Vague monthly reports full of charts can hide the fact that little work happened. A better report lists the pages written or updated, the technical fixes made and what comes next. At Personal SEO, every client hears from us every week with a list of the work we completed, including links to new posts and pages.
Communication also tells you whether the company is interested in your business. Google notes that a good SEO asks what makes your business unique, who your competitors are and how your customers find you. If nobody asks about your farm areas or your best lead sources during the sales call, that is useful information.
What results do they promise, and how fast?
A trustworthy company gives you realistic expectations and explains how it measures progress. Nobody can guarantee a first place ranking. Google states plainly that no one can guarantee a number one ranking and warns against SEOs that claim a special relationship with Google or offer priority submission.
Ask what they will measure. Useful answers include rankings for your city and neighborhood searches, organic traffic to area pages, leads from organic search and visibility in the local map results. Ask how long they expect each piece to take for a site like yours. We share our view on timing in what’s working in organic SEO and how long it takes.
What account access do they need, and who owns it?
You should own your domain, your website, your Google Business Profile and your Google Search Console property. The company should ask for user access, not ownership. For an audit, Google advises granting read access to Search Console only, and holding off on write access at that stage.
This protects you if the relationship ends. Agents sometimes discover that a former vendor registered their domain or created their business profile under the vendor’s own account. Settle ownership in writing before any work starts, and ask how access will be handed back if you part ways.
Which red flags should make you keep looking?
Walk away from guaranteed rankings, secret methods, link schemes, cold emails claiming your site is missing from search engines, and any company that will not explain the changes it makes. Each of these appears in Google’s own hiring guidance as a warning sign.
| What you hear | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| “We guarantee you a number one ranking.” | Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. |
| “We have a special relationship with Google.” | Google says it never accepts money to include or rank sites in organic results. |
| “We’ll submit you to thousands of search engines.” | Google calls this a typically useless exercise. |
| “Our process is proprietary, so we can’t share details.” | Google advises caution when a company is secretive or will not explain its plans. |
| An unsolicited email saying your site is not listed | Google recommends skepticism toward cold emails about search engines. |
| “Add a link to our site in your footer.” | Google says you should never have to link to an SEO. |
FAQ: Hiring a real estate SEO company
What questions should I ask a real estate SEO company before hiring?
Ask for live real estate sites they work on, whether they follow Google Search Essentials, how they work inside your IDX platform, who writes and reviews the content, how they report, what results they expect and when, and what account access they need.
Can a real estate SEO company guarantee first page rankings?
No. Google says no one can guarantee a number one ranking. Treat any guarantee as a reason to look elsewhere.
Should a real estate SEO company own my Google Business Profile or domain?
No. You should own your domain, website, Google Business Profile and Search Console property. Give the company user access so you keep control if you ever change providers.
Do I need an SEO company that knows Sierra Interactive?
If your site runs on Sierra Interactive, it helps a lot. The platform has its own way of handling community pages, saved searches, redirects and schema, and a team that works in it every week can make changes without trial and error.
How often should a real estate SEO company report on its work?
Often enough that you always know what was done. Our team sends every client a weekly email listing the completed work with links to new pages and posts.
Get a free SEO audit before you choose
Want to see how your current site stacks up before you talk with anyone? Our team at Personal SEO will review your community pages, content, technical setup and Google Business Profile and give you a clear list of what to fix first. Request your free SEO audit and we will take it from there.