SEO Proposal Red Flags: The Checklist to Run Before You Sign

Most SEO proposals are written to be signed, not questioned. That isn’t necessarily dishonest, agencies want to win the work, but it means the job of spotting gaps, vague wording and unfavourable terms sits with you, the buyer.

None of the items below mean an agency is acting in bad faith on their own. A proposal that misses one or two is worth a follow-up question. A proposal that misses several at once is worth a longer conversation, or a second pair of eyes, before you sign anything.

Work through this checklist against whatever proposal is currently on your desk. Think of it as a companion to our wider guide on how to choose an SEO agency – this page is deliberately narrower, focused only on what to check in the document in front of you.

Pricing and Value

Price on its own tells you very little about value. What matters is whether the fee is explained and whether it is tied to anything you can actually check.

Red flags to watch for

• A single monthly figure with no breakdown of what it actually buys.
• Case studies or “typical results” used to justify the price, without reference to your specific situation.
• The cheapest of several quotes, with no explanation for why it is so much lower than the others.
• A set-up or “onboarding” fee with no description of what that work involves.
• Pricing that scales with performance, without defining exactly what triggers a change.

Quick tip: if two proposals differ significantly in price, ask both agencies to explain the gap in plain terms. Our guide to how much SEO should cost sets out the typical pricing models, so you can judge whether an explanation holds up. For a closer look at why that gap exists in the first place, see our piece on why SEO pricing varies so much.

Strategy and Transparency

A proposal should tell you something about your business specifically, not read as a template with your company name dropped in. This is where it is easiest for vague language to hide a lack of real planning. We cover the specific gaps that recur across proposals, beyond just vague strategy, in our piece on what’s missing from most SEO proposals.

Red flags to watch for

• Deliverables described only as “ongoing optimisation” or “technical SEO”, with no further detail.
• The same strategy would appear to fit almost any client, regardless of industry or starting point.
• Specific rankings or positions are promised, particularly within a guaranteed timeframe.
• No mention of your current website, competitors, or starting position.
• AI visibility or “GEO” work is included as a line item with no explanation of what it actually involves.

What the proposal says	What to ask instead
“We will optimise your site for search engines.”	Which pages, and what specifically will change on each one?
“Ongoing content strategy.”	How many pieces, on what topics, and who approves them before they go live?
“We will build high-quality backlinks.”	From what kind of sites, roughly how many per month, and how are they sourced?

Contract and Commitment

The commercial terms matter as much as the strategy, especially if the relationship does not work out. This is the section that gets the least attention before signing and causes the most frustration afterwards.

Red flags to watch for

• No minimum notice period, or a notice period longer than one month.
• An exit fee that costs more than a single month of the retainer.
• No clarity on who owns the website content, account access and reporting data if you leave.
• Automatic renewal clauses with no reminder before the contract rolls over.
• A long minimum term of twelve months or more, with no review point built in before then.

A reasonable benchmark: 30 days’ notice to terminate, an exit fee capped at one month’s fee, and written confirmation that you keep ownership of your website, content and accounts regardless of who is providing the SEO afterwards. If a proposal sits well outside that, it is worth asking why before you sign, not after. Our list of questions to ask before signing covers how to raise this without it feeling adversarial.

Reporting and Communication

How an agency plans to report back tells you a lot about how they think about accountability. Vague reporting usually leads to vague conversations about progress six months in. If you want to know what good reporting actually looks like against the money you’re spending, our guide on how to measure ROI from SEO investment sets out how to hold it to account.

Red flags to watch for

• Reports are heavy on activity, such as blogs published or links built, and light on business outcomes.
• No agreed cadence for calls or check-ins beyond a monthly report landing in your inbox.
• Rankings are the only metric mentioned anywhere in the proposal.
• No named point of contact, or the proposal implies the contact may change without notice.

A proposal you cannot ask questions about is a proposal you should not sign.

The Checklist at a Glance

Red flag	What it usually means
No breakdown of what the fee buys	Value is hard to judge or challenge later
Generic strategy, no reference to your business	Limited research went into the proposal
Rankings guaranteed or promised by a date	Unrealistic expectations, or a sign of inexperience
No notice period, or a long one	Difficult and costly to leave if it is not working
Unclear ownership of content and data	Risk of losing your website assets on exit
Reporting focused on activity, not outcomes	Harder to judge real progress against your goals

Before You Sign

Not every item on this list is a dealbreaker by itself. Context matters: a smaller agency may not publish detailed case studies, and a longer minimum term can be reasonable if the fee and exit terms are fair. What matters is whether you get clear, specific answers when you ask. If you are weighing this checklist against more than one proposal at once, our guide on how to compare SEO agency proposals side-by-side sets out a simple framework for putting them next to each other fairly.

If several items on this list are still unclear once you have asked, or you would simply rather have someone independent check the detail before you commit, that is exactly the situation our SEO Proposal Review is built for. For the full picture on evaluating an agency beyond the proposal itself, see our guide on how to choose an SEO agency.

Councils are legally required to publish exactly what they pay for SEO and digital marketing. Our report digging through that data turned up real spending, real agencies, and a few of the same red flags covered above. Read what UK councils actually spend on SEO and digital marketing.