What Should a Toronto Ecommerce Brand Ask Before Signing an SEO Contract?
Before you sign with an SEO, a specialist in search engine optimization, ask what results to expect, when, and how you’ll measure success. Google’s hiring guidance, updated in June 2026, lists those questions and adds red flags such as promised rankings and secrecy. Northbound Growth Advisory serves Scarborough and Toronto businesses with services for local SEO and SEO & AI Search Visibility.
The list applies to our proposals like any other, so ask for the answers in writing before you shortlist anyone. That guidance also says a small local business can probably do much of the work itself, so weigh that before you hire.
Ask How Results Will Be Measured, and by When
Measurement terms belong in the contract, in writing.
The interview list asks what results the SEO expects, in what timeframe, and how success will be measured. Writing the answers into the contract as defined metrics makes a missed target visible to both sides. You can also ask which numbers the agency will report in month one and request a sample report.
For an Ecommerce & DTC brand serving Scarborough and Toronto buyers, organic revenue by product category ties the work to the business. Our agency guide makes the same point. It says a good agency defines success numerically, up front, and puts it in the agreement.
Daniel Climans, our Founder and Principal, wrote that guide from the client side, where he hired and managed agencies and vendors. He holds that objectives and success metrics get set before any engagement starts. The hiring guidance also advises bringing in an SEO while a redesign is still being planned; the earlier, the better.
Ask Who Owns the Accounts and Who Gets Access
Decide account ownership and access before the invoice arrives.
If an agency offers an audit, give it read-only access to Google Search Console, Google’s reporting tool for site owners. The guidance recommends holding back write access at that stage. A fair audit gives you realistic estimates of the improvement and the work involved.
Our guide on how to choose a marketing agency says your ad accounts, analytics, and website must live in your name. Write that into the contract as a clause, and have a lawyer check the wording.
Request written confirmation of which logins the agency needs and why. If the audit relies on an outside tool, ask which recommendations come from Google’s own documentation. Google’s June 2026 guidance on outside SEO tools notes that they lack access to its internal ranking data and can’t promise performance.
Ask for Toronto Experience, Client Examples and Named People
The interview list includes questions that suit a Toronto ecommerce brand.
- Can you show examples of previous work and success stories?
- Do you follow Google’s published guidelines for site owners?
- What is your experience in my industry and in my city?
- How will we communicate, and will you share every change you make?
Past clients can tell you whether the work was useful and produced results, and Google advises calling them. Ask for examples from Scarborough, Toronto and the rest of Canada, and from ecommerce. A good SEO also asks about your competitors and how customers find you.
Our agency guide adds a question about seniority, namely who works on your account in month four. Put the named people and their roles into the contract.
If the proposal sells AI search work, check it against Google’s own guidance. Google’s December 2025 AI features guide says AI Overviews, its AI-written summaries, and AI Mode need no special optimization, markup, or AI text files. A proposal that can’t point to documentation for its main recommendations needs more questions.
Proposals deserve the same scrutiny as reports. Before the call, we review your current marketing, visibility, and website, so the questions you ask us get specific answers.
Ask What the Agency Will Do to Your Site
Responsibility for an SEO’s work stays with the site owner.
The SEO should share every change made to your site and the reasoning behind each recommendation. An SEO with file transfer protocol (FTP) access, the connection that lets someone edit your site’s files, should explain all changes. A written-notice clause covers this, and a record of every reported change lets you check it against what changed on the site.
Techniques that break Google’s spam policies can lower your site’s presence or remove it from Google’s index, its store of pages. Deceptive content created on your behalf can get a site removed entirely. Google says you should never have to link to an SEO, so treat link schemes as a warning.
You should also find out what link building, if any, the proposal includes. Hold its recommendations to Google’s standard for good advice, which either qualifies claims as opinion or cites official guidance.
Treat a Promised Ranking as a Warning
Nobody can promise a particular ranking.
Walk away from SEOs who promise rankings, claim a special relationship with Google, or advertise priority submission. Secrecy about methods is another warning sign, and unsolicited emails offering rankings deserve the same suspicion. The June 2026 outside-tools guidance adds that no tool can promise performance, and any prediction a tool makes is its own.
Ask the SEO to name which past results it led directly, and in what role. The proposal’s assumptions, including the traffic and revenue it expects the work to influence, should come in writing.
A better contract sets objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) the agency can influence, such as qualified organic visits and organic revenue by category. We agree objectives, KPIs, and timelines with clients before work starts. Performance-aligned models are possible for qualified businesses with clearly established metrics.
You’ll also want to know what happens to your accounts and content if the contract ends. Our guide treats long contracts with no performance definitions as a red flag. A lawyer should review the term, the cancellation rules, and who owns the work before you sign.
Bring Your Proposal to a Conversation With Daniel
If a proposal is on your desk, you speak directly with Daniel, our principal, when you book.
Book a Growth Consultation and bring the proposal with you. You’ll hear whether we see gaps in it and whether we’re the right fit, with no obligation.