25 Questions To Ask An SEO Expert In Indore Before Hiring — With What Good And Bad Answers Sound Like

Why The Right Questions Reveal The Right Expert

Most business owners hire an SEO expert after a single meeting in which the expert does most of the talking. That's backwards. The fastest way to separate genuine expertise from confident selling is to ask specific questions and listen carefully to the answers. You don't need to understand SEO deeply yourself; you need to notice whether answers are specific to your business, clear, honest and consistent with what Google itself says.

This guide gives you 25 questions grouped by topic, with examples of strong and weak answers. It's written by Nextgen Search Engine, a founder-led SEO company in Indore. Use it with any expert you're considering, including us.

Before The Interview

Prepare three things. First, a list of your most important services and the areas you serve. Second, access to share: either Search Console and Business Profile viewing access, or screenshots of their key reports. Third, two or three competitors you think are doing well online. Send these in advance and ask the expert to look at your website and profile before the meeting. An expert who arrives having looked will give far more useful answers — and their willingness to prepare tells you something too.

Strategy Questions (1–5)

1. "What do you see on our website and Business Profile today?"

Strong answer: specific observations — "Your physiotherapy page isn't indexed, your profile's primary category is 'Medical clinic' rather than 'Physiotherapist', and your phone number differs on JustDial." Weak answer: "You need more backlinks and content."

2. "Which searches would you prioritise for us, and why?"

Strong: a short list of commercially valuable searches with reasoning about intent, competition and your strengths. Weak: a long list of keywords with no prioritisation, or only broad terms like "best clinic in Indore".

3. "Should we focus on local SEO, organic SEO or both?"

Strong: an answer based on where your customers are and how they choose, as explained in our comparison of local vs organic SEO. Weak: "Both, always" without reasoning.

4. "What would you do in the first 30 days?"

Strong: access, audit, tracking, urgent fixes and a prioritised plan. Weak: "We'll start building links and writing blogs."

5. "What results are realistic in three, six and twelve months?"

Strong: ranges with caveats, distinguishing local and organic, less and more competitive searches. Weak: precise promises or guaranteed positions.

Technical Questions (6–10)

6. "How would you check which of our pages Google has indexed, and why some aren't?"

Strong: Search Console's Page indexing report, URL Inspection, and explanations of common statuses. Our guide to indexing problems covers them. Weak: "We'll submit your site to Google."

7. "Our site is slow on phones — what would you check?"

Strong: Core Web Vitals field data in PageSpeed Insights and Search Console, image sizes, scripts, plugins, hosting. Weak: "We'll get you a 100 score."

8. "How do you handle redirects if we redesign our website?"

Strong: a full URL map with 301 redirects, testing on staging, monitoring after launch. Weak: uncertainty or "the developer will handle it".

9. "Would you add schema markup to our site? Which types?"

Strong: appropriate types such as LocalBusiness or a relevant subtype, Service, FAQPage where genuine, matching visible content. Weak: adding fake review stars or markup for content that isn't on the page.

10. "What would you need from our developer?"

Strong: clear, specific technical requests and willingness to coordinate. Weak: no awareness that developer input may be needed.

Content Questions (11–14)

11. "What's missing from our most important service page?"

Strong: specific gaps such as prices, process, number of visits, credentials, FAQs from real customer questions, clearer calls to action. Weak: "It needs more keywords" or "make it 2,000 words".

12. "Who will write our content, and how will they learn about our business?"

Strong: a named writer who will interview you or your staff and send drafts for review. Weak: "Our team will handle it" with no process for capturing your expertise.

13. "Do you use AI to write content?"

Strong: an honest answer explaining how AI might assist and how people review, add expertise and fact-check before publishing. Google's guidance focuses on whether content is helpful, not how it's produced, while its spam policies prohibit scaled low-value content. Weak: evasion, or plans to publish large volumes of unreviewed AI text.

14. "Would you create pages for every area of Indore we serve?"

Strong: only where each page can offer genuinely unique, useful information; otherwise a single strong page listing areas. Weak: "Yes, we'll create 100 location pages."

Local SEO Questions (15–18)

15. "What would you change on our Business Profile first?"

Strong: specific improvements to categories, services, photos, hours, description and reviews strategy. Weak: "We'll add keywords to your business name" — which violates Google's guidelines.

16. "How would you help us get more reviews?"

Strong: a routine for asking every customer, short links or QR codes, personal replies, no incentives and no fake reviews. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 80% of consumers prefer businesses that reply to all reviews. Weak: buying reviews or asking only happy customers.

17. "Can you get us into the map pack across all of Indore?"

Strong: an honest explanation that distance limits map visibility, with strategies to strengthen prominence and use organic pages for wider reach. Weak: "Yes, we'll create extra listings in other areas."

18. "What would you never do to our profile?"

Strong: a clear list — fake addresses, duplicate profiles, keyword-stuffed names, fake reviews. Weak: no clear boundaries.

Links And Measurement Questions (19–22)

19. "How do you build links?"

Strong: PR, partnerships, associations, local media, useful resources, with a list shared monthly. Weak: "We'll build 200 high-authority backlinks per month."

20. "How will we know if SEO is bringing customers?"

Strong: Search Console non-branded clicks, Business Profile calls and directions, GA4 key events for calls and WhatsApp, and an enquiry log. Our guide to SEO KPIs explains these. Weak: "You'll see your rankings improve."

21. "What will your monthly report include?"

Strong: Google data, work completed, issues found, explanation and next steps. Weak: a ranking chart from a third-party tool.

22. "Who will own our Search Console, GA4 and Business Profile?"

Strong: "You will; we'll be added as users or managers." Weak: "We'll set everything up in our account for convenience."

AI Search And Ethics Questions (23–25)

23. "How would you help us appear in AI answers like Google AI Mode or ChatGPT?"

Strong: consistent business information, schema, answer-first content and FAQs, crawler access checks, and monitoring by asking the questions customers ask. Google said in its Q2 2026 results that AI Mode passed one billion monthly users. Weak: "We guarantee you'll appear in ChatGPT."

24. "Can you guarantee a first-page ranking?"

Strong: "No. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking; we commit to work, methods and transparency." Weak: any guarantee. Our guide on guaranteed rankings explains why.

25. "What would you do if a Google update hurt our rankings?"

Strong: wait for the rollout to finish, diagnose by page and query, rule out technical and seasonal causes, then improve genuine quality. Our guide to Google core updates covers this. Weak: panic changes or blaming Google entirely.

Indore-Specific Follow-Up Questions

Beyond the core 25, a few local questions reveal whether an expert understands your market. Ask how customers in your category search in Indore — in English, Hindi or Hinglish — and how that would shape your pages. Ask how your busy and quiet seasons would affect the plan: admission season for coaching, wedding season for venues and salons, summer for AC services, monsoon for waterproofing, Navratri and Diwali for retail. Ask which local directories, associations and media matter in your industry. Ask how they'd reach customers from Ujjain, Dewas, Dhar or Mhow who travel to Indore for your service. An expert with local experience will answer quickly with examples; one without it will speak in generalities.

Local knowledge isn't everything — technical skill matters too — but for businesses competing for Indore customers, it often makes the difference between content that sounds generic and content that sounds like it was written by someone who knows the city. Our guide to Hindi and Hinglish SEO shows why language matters.

How To Score The Answers

During the interview, note each answer as strong, acceptable or weak. Afterwards, look at patterns rather than individual answers. An expert who gives strong answers on your site diagnosis, priorities, measurement and ethics is usually a good choice even if one or two technical answers were only acceptable. An expert who gives polished answers on everything but couldn't identify a single specific issue on your website probably didn't look. An expert who gave any guarantee, recommended fake listings or bulk links, or resisted your owning the accounts should be ruled out regardless of other answers.

If you interview two or three experts with the same questions, the differences usually become obvious. Write your scores down before discussing price, so a lower quote doesn't distract you from weaker answers.

Questions About Pricing And Terms

Finish the interview with practical questions. What exactly is included in the price, and is GST extra? Is it a one-time project or a monthly arrangement, and what's the minimum term? What happens if we want to stop? Will all content and changes remain ours? How quickly do you respond to messages, and who do we contact? These answers should match what appears in the written proposal. Our SEO agreement checklist lists twenty points to confirm before signing.

An Illustrative Comparison Of Two Interviews

Imagine an Indore interior design studio interviewing two SEO experts. Expert A arrives with a presentation about their agency, speaks for forty minutes about "advanced SEO strategies", recommends a monthly package with "300 backlinks and 8 blogs", and answers the question about guarantees with "we've never failed to get clients on page one". Expert B asks questions for the first fifteen minutes, then shows three screenshots: the studio's project pages aren't indexed because of a noindex setting, its Business Profile has no project photos, and its homepage title doesn't mention interior design or Indore. Expert B recommends fixing those first, then building project pages with budgets, materials and timelines, and explains how calls and enquiries will be tracked. Expert B also says plainly that rankings can't be guaranteed.

The details are illustrative, but the contrast is typical. The second expert has already delivered value in the interview. That's the person to hire, even if their presentation was far less polished or glamorous.

Interview Mistakes Owners Make

• Letting the expert talk for the whole meeting without asking questions.
• Not sharing the website or profile beforehand.
• Judging on presentation polish rather than specific diagnosis.
• Choosing the lowest price without comparing deliverables.
• Forgetting to ask who will actually do the work.
• Not asking for references or verifiable examples.
• Signing during the meeting under time pressure.

Avoiding these mistakes takes no technical knowledge, only a little preparation and the discipline to compare candidates on the same questions before deciding.

After The Interview

Ask the expert to send a short written summary of what they found and what they propose, with price and scope. Compare it with your notes: does it reflect what they said in the meeting? Check references and any examples they mentioned. Then decide. Our guide to verifying SEO company claims explains the checks to run before signing, and our SEO expert skills checklist helps you judge depth across all ten core skills.

Interviewing A Consultant Versus An Agency

The same questions work for independent consultants and agencies, but the emphasis shifts. With a consultant, focus on breadth: can one person handle strategy, technical issues, content guidance, local SEO and measurement, and how do they cover gaps such as development or writing? Ask about availability, how many clients they handle, and what happens if they're unavailable for a period. With an agency, focus on people: who will actually work on your account, how experienced they are, and how often you'll speak to senior staff. Ask to meet the account manager and the specialist who'll do the work, not only the founder or salesperson.

Founder-led firms often sit in between: senior attention from the founder, supported by a small team. Ask how the founder's time is divided and which tasks they handle personally. Our guide to SEO company team roles explains who typically does what, and our page on founder-led SEO agencies discusses the model in more detail.

Phrases That Should Worry You

Certain phrases come up again and again in weak interviews: "We have a secret method", "We know people at Google", "Guaranteed page one in 30 days", "We'll submit your site to 500 search engines", "Domain authority is the most important metric", "You don't need to see the details", and "We'll set up everything in our account". Each one either misrepresents how search works or reduces your control. Hearing one isn't always disqualifying, but hearing several in the same meeting almost certainly is.

Questions A Good Expert Will Ask You

Pay attention to the expert's questions too. A good SEO expert will ask which services are most profitable, who your best customers are, how enquiries arrive and who answers them, what an enquiry is worth, which competitors worry you, what's been tried before, and what success would look like in a year. If an expert asks none of these and moves straight to selling a package, they're unlikely to tailor the work to your business. The quality of their questions often predicts the quality of their work, because SEO that ignores how your business actually makes money rarely produces the results you need.

Nextgen Search Engine Pricing

We publish our prices because Indore business owners deserve to know what they are paying for before the first call. Every package starts with a free audit so we can confirm the right fit for your website and goals.

Final scope and billing terms are confirmed in writing after your free audit. Paid advertising budgets, if you choose to run ads, are separate and paid directly to Google or Meta. Request your free 40-point audit to find out which package fits your business.

Sources

• Google — Do you need an SEO?
• Google — Spam policies
• Google — Business Profile guidelines
• Google — Core Web Vitals
• Google — AI features and your website
• BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (PinMeTo)

Key Takeaways

• Ask specific questions and listen for specific answers about your business.
• Strong answers are concrete, prioritised, honest and clear.
• Weak answers are generic, jargon-heavy or promise guarantees.
• Prepare by sharing your site, profile and competitors in advance.
• Interview two or three experts and compare.

The Bottom Line

Bring these questions to every conversation with an SEO expert in Indore. A good SEO expert welcomes hard questions because good answers are their best sales pitch. Ask all 25 and you'll know who understands your business. Request a free audit from Nextgen Search Engine and put us to the test.