How to choose an SEO agency as an electrician: the seven questions
Seven questions that sort a real SEO retainer from the cold-call deal: who does the work, who owns the profile, what is done each month.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 30 August 2026 · 4 min read
Every electrician with a van and a phone number gets the call: a friendly voice, a monthly fee that sounds like nothing, a promise of page one. Some of those deals are a real service priced low. Most are a profile created in the agency's own account, a site on a rented platform, and a PDF of graphs once a month. The way to tell them apart is not the price. It is seven questions, asked in writing, before any money moves.
Seven questions, in the order that matters
- Who does the work, by name, and can I speak to that person before I sign? A rota of juniors and an account manager is a different product from one person who knows your trade.
- Whose account will my Google Business Profile be in, and what happens to it if I leave? The only acceptable answer is yours, with them added as a manager.
- Is the website mine, or on a platform I pay for monthly? If you cannot take the code and the domain to another host, you are renting.
- What exactly is done each month, and how will I see that it was done? A list you can check beats a promise you cannot.
- Which figures will the report use, and where do they come from? Search Console and the profile's own statistics, with a date range; anything else is decoration.
- What is the minimum term and the notice after it? Three months to see anything real is fair; twelve months tied in is a warning.
- Will you take my competitor down the road as a client too? An honest agency has a rule about it; a cheap one has a sales target.
An agency that answers all seven plainly is probably fine, whatever it costs. One that gets vague at question two or three is telling you what you would own after a year, which is nothing.
What the red flags look like in practice
| You hear | What it usually means | Ask instead |
|---|---|---|
| "We guarantee page one" | A page one for your own business name, or a search nobody makes | Which search, from where, and shown on whose phone? |
| "We will set up your Google profile for you" | Created in their account; suspended or lost when you leave | Will you claim it in my account and add yourself as a manager? |
| "Unlimited pages" | Templated town pages with the name swapped, which Google filters | Show me two pages you wrote for another electrician, in full |
| "Our reporting dashboard" | Graphs of impressions with no enquiries in them | Will the report show calls and form sends, with the source? |
| "No contract" | A rolling monthly fee with nothing you own accumulating | What do I keep if I stop after a year? |
What a real month contains
The same six things, every month, whether the retainer is small or large: the profile kept complete and current, reviews asked for and answered, a page or a guide written from a conversation with you, mentions placed on the registers and directories that matter for your trade, the technical health of the site checked, and the figures read and explained. If a proposal cannot be reduced to a list like that, there is no work behind it.
The report you should get
- Enquiries: calls from the profile, form sends, messages, with the search that caused them where it can be traced.
- The map: where you stand for your main searches from two or three points in your area, checked by hand.
- Search Console: impressions, clicks and position for the searches that matter, against the previous period.
- Reviews: how many, how recent, how many name the job and the area.
- What was done, and what happens next month, in plain English.
When the cheap deal is the right one
If you are booked weeks ahead with the work you want, a finished profile and a small site that closes the name search is all you need, and any agency selling you more is selling. Spend on SEO when you want to change the work: bigger jobs, a second area, fewer of the calls you dread. The retainer is a lever for choosing, and it earns most for the electrician who can afford to be choosy.
One test covers all seven questions: if you left after a year, what would you still own? A profile in your account, a site on your domain and a folder of readable reports is the right answer. Anything else is rent.
Questions on this topic
Is a local agency better than a national one?
Only if they know the trade. An agency that has done electricians before knows the registers, the emergency searches and the seasons; one that has done everyone does none of that. Local matters less than that.
Should I ask for references?
Yes, and ring them. Ask what the report looks like and what they own. An agency that cannot produce a client willing to take a call is telling you something.
What if I already signed a bad one?
Get the profile transferred to your account first, then the domain, then leave at the end of the term. Losing a few months of fees is cheaper than losing the profile.