SEO and Google Ads Consulting: 26 Things to Check Before You Hire

SEO and Google Ads consulting starts with a contract, but what you really sign is an access and trust arrangement. I have worked in this field since 2012. In most partnerships that ended badly, strategy was not the problem. Instead, the problem was who opened the ad account, where the fee sat on the invoice and who kept the data on the last day. This checklist covers the 26 points I would verify before signing anything.

What should you check before hiring SEO and Google Ads consulting?

A pre-hire check for SEO and Google Ads consulting is a written review across six areas: account ownership, contract, reporting, budget, expectations and red flags. In short, its purpose is simple. Your ad account, your analytics data and your domain must stay with your company, whether the consultant succeeds or not.

There is a plain reason behind this. Even a great consultant moves on one day. Also, your team changes, budgets shrink and priorities shift. So the checklist is not a sign of distrust. Instead, it builds a floor that protects both sides. In my own SEO consulting and Google Ads management work, the first meeting always covers these points.

How should you use this checklist?

Fill it in during the proposal stage, ideally with at least two candidates side by side. Mark every item as "yes, in writing", "verbal only" or "no". Verbal answers feel fine in the first months. However, they mean nothing during a dispute. Next, the table below summarises the six areas and what each one protects.

Keep the table after the project starts, too. A quick review every six months catches access that quietly drifted or two invoice lines that merged into one.

Whose name should the Google Ads account be in?

1. Open the ad account with your company email

Create the Google Ads account yourself, with your own business email, and invite the consultant afterwards. If you do it the other way round, the account history, quality data and conversion learning stay tied to someone else's login. Then, when you part ways, you may have to start a new account. In other words, you rebuild years of data from zero.

For example, when a business owner tells me "the agency opened the account and won't hand it over", I have few options left. So never leave account creation to the consultant. It takes five minutes and prevents years of dependency.

2. Keep the payment profile under your company

Pay for ads with your own card or your own payment profile. That way you see every cent Google charges on its own invoice. When spend runs through the consultant's card and comes back to you as an "ad package", the real media cost becomes hard to separate. Also, the tax invoice from Google goes to the middleman, not to you.

In practice, some setups need a manager account for monthly invoicing. Even then, confirm that the company name on the payment profile is your legal entity.

Which access level should your consultant get?

3. You hold Admin, the consultant works with Standard

Google Ads offers five access levels: Email only, Billing, Read only, Standard and Admin. According to Google's access level documentation, Standard users can edit campaigns and run reports. However, they cannot manage user access or unlink accounts. Admins, on the other hand, can grant access, add or remove product links and unlink manager accounts.

Therefore Standard access covers daily campaign work. Keep the Admin role inside your company, ideally with two different people. Then a single resignation never locks you out.

4. Ask about ownership when you link a manager account

Agencies usually link your account to their own manager account (MCC). That is normal. One detail matters, though: a manager account with ownership enabled can edit user access, managers and product links in the client account. Who holds that right on your account? Ask in writing before you accept the link request, then add the answer to the contract.

In addition, open the user list in your account every quarter and read it line by line. After all, former staff, previous agencies and unknown addresses tend to pile up there. Question every line you do not recognise and remove it if nobody needs it. This small habit solves most access problems before they start.

Why must you own Search Console and GA4?

5. Keep Search Console ownership in house

In Search Console, the owner is the only role that can add or remove users and change settings. A full user sees all data but cannot manage users. Meanwhile, a restricted user mostly views data. Google's own guide to hiring an SEO also suggests giving an auditing SEO read access first, not write access.

So let your consultant start as a restricted or full user during the diagnosis phase. Verify ownership through a DNS record on your domain, because DNS verification survives a site redesign.

6. Keep the GA4 Administrator role in your company

GA4 offers five roles: Administrator, Editor, Marketer, Analyst and Viewer. The Analytics help page on roles states that only an Administrator can add or delete users and assign roles. A Marketer can create audiences, events and key events, and can edit attribution models.

GA4 also offers data restrictions called "No cost metrics" and "No revenue metrics". If you prefer not to share revenue with an SEO partner, apply that restriction. That way you shape access around real need.

Why are the domain and Tag Manager the forgotten assets?

7. Register the domain and DNS panel to your company

Your domain is the key to every digital asset you own. Search Console verification, email records and redirects all run through DNS. If a consultant or design agency registered the domain under their own account, you cannot move your site during a dispute.

So check that the registrant is your company. If the consultant needs DNS access, create a separate user for them instead of sharing the main password. Also keep two step verification switched on.

Add the renewal date to your calendar as well. Otherwise, an expired domain can wipe out the best SEO work overnight. Nobody tends to notice in time, because everyone assumes someone else handles the renewal.

8. Create the Tag Manager container in your own Google account

Google Tag Manager is the hub for conversion tags, ad pixels and analytics code. If the consultant created the container in their own account, your whole measurement setup leaves with them. Moreover, rebuilding it from scratch can take weeks.

Create the container in your account and give the consultant publish rights. Then ask for a short version note on every publish. In short, measurement outlives any single campaign, so it should stay with you.

What belongs in an SEO and Google Ads consulting contract?

9. Write down scope and deliverables one by one

"SEO work" or "ad management" is not a scope. Write down what arrives each month. For instance, list a technical audit, a content calendar, a campaign structure, a negative keyword review and a monthly report.

Also, what sits outside the scope matters just as much. Copywriting, development, design work and landing pages often stay vague in proposals. Then, in month one, you hear "that is not included". So ask for "included" or "billed separately" next to every line.

10. Keep the notice period and commitment reasonable

A long commitment is not bad by itself. SEO takes time, and consultants also need planning security. That said, the notice period, penalty clauses and a performance based exit right must appear in plain words. If you see a clause like "early termination means paying all remaining months", ask why.

My suggestion: a short trial period first, then a rolling monthly arrangement. Both sides get a fair chance to know each other.

How should the management fee appear next to your ad spend?

11. Put the fee model in writing

Consulting fees come in three main models: a flat monthly fee, a percentage of ad spend or a mix. Each model also creates its own incentives. For example, under a percentage model the fee grows with the budget. Consequently, you should read budget increase proposals more carefully.

Whatever you choose, put the formula in the contract. If there is a performance bonus, define which data source measures it. Otherwise the bonus ends up tied to a disputed number.

12. Show media cost and service fee on separate lines

This is not a preference; it is Google's rule. Google's transparency requirements for third parties say partners must report the exact amount Google charged, exclusive of their own fees. If a partner charges a separate management fee, they must inform new customers in writing before the first purchase and disclose it on every invoice.

So if you receive a single line invoice such as "ads package: 2,000 USD", ask for the split between Google spend and service fee. That request is not rude, because it is your right.

What should you agree on today for the day you part ways?

13. Prepare an exit and handover clause before signing

Every partnership ends. What matters, therefore, is how it ends. Add an exit plan to the contract with these points:

• The consultant gives up all user access within a set number of days after termination.
• You approve the manager account unlink, and the account history stays in place.
• The consultant hands over content, reports, keyword lists and campaign structures.
• You remove consultant users from Tag Manager, GA4 and Search Console.
• The consultant delivers a written list of open tasks and a final status note.

Search Console hides one more trap. Google's permissions page explains that removing an owner does not delete their verification tokens. If the HTML file, DNS record or meta tag stays on your site, that person can verify again. Therefore clean up those tokens on exit day as well.

Which raw numbers should your report show?

14. Ask for cost, clicks and impressions at account level

Google's transparency rules require partners to share cost, clicks and impressions at the Google advertising account level. That is the minimum, not a bonus. If a report only shows soft numbers like "reach" or "engagement", ask for the raw table underneath.

Apply the same discipline to SEO reports. You want clicks, impressions and average position from Search Console, plus which pages grew on which queries. A third party "visibility score" alone is not enough.

15. Keep the customer ID and direct account access

Google requires partners to give you the customer ID of your Google Ads account on request. Go one step further: log in with your own user. Then you can verify any number in the report at its source with a single click. I always ask clients the same question about my own reports: "Can you find this number in the account yourself?"

If you do not know your way around the interface, that is fine. Ask your consultant for a thirty minute tour in month one: the campaigns tab, the date range picker, the cost and conversion columns. After that, you will spot any gap between report and account on your own. The tour also shows you how well the consultant explains things.

Why should you define a conversion before the contract starts?

16. Tie conversions to revenue or qualified leads

Define in writing what counts as a conversion before any campaign goes live. Page views, clicks on a "contact" button or thirty seconds on site inflate easily. Your business, however, runs on sales, bookings or qualified quote requests. If the conversion definition is wrong, automated bidding optimises toward the wrong goal.

For instance, when you count form fills, mark in your CRM how many were real prospects. I check that match every month on my own projects, because form volume alone says nothing about quality. You can use the ROAS calculator to check return on ad spend and the UTM builder to separate traffic sources.

Test the setup too. Submit a test form, then confirm that the event shows up in both GA4 and Google Ads. The check takes ten minutes and saves months of work on bad data.

Change logs and reporting rhythm

17. Log every change with a reason

One of the questions in Google's hiring guide is exactly this: "Will you explain all the changes you make to my site?" Ask the same about Google Ads. A bid strategy switch, a budget shift, new keywords or a title tag update should enter a log with a date and a reason.

Google Ads keeps its own change history. Still, that history never records the "why". So ask the consultant for a short change note. Three months later, when you hunt for the cause of a drop, that note is worth a lot.

18. Agree on report frequency and meetings up front

A written monthly report plus a short call every two to four weeks suits most businesses. Content matters more than frequency. A good report answers four questions:

1. What did we do last month, and why?
2. Where do the numbers stand against the target?
3. What did not work, and what did we learn?
4. Which tasks come next, and in what order?

If a report just lines up charts without these answers, ask the four questions yourself in the meeting.

How should you plan the ad budget?

19. Agree on a test budget and a learning period

The first weeks of a new campaign are a learning period. Automated bidding makes better decisions as it collects data. As a result, killing a campaign or doubling its budget after month one is usually premature. Ask your consultant for a test plan: how long, how much and against which success metric?

I covered how to work backwards from lead targets in my guide on setting a Google Ads budget, so I will not repeat it here. One line sums it up, though: your budget is your expectation in numbers.

20. Balance ad budget and consulting fee

Paying a high management fee on a tiny ad budget means spending on management instead of media. Example calculation: with 500 USD monthly ad spend and a 1,000 USD fee, two thirds of total cost goes to management. At that ratio, the campaign struggles to pay for itself.

So for small budgets, ask about a lighter model such as setup plus a monthly check. I tell clients in that position quite openly: "you do not need full management right now".

Who pays for SEO implementation?

21. Budget consulting and implementation separately

The output of SEO consulting is usually a task list: technical fixes, new content, internal linking and speed improvements. If nobody decides who does the work and who pays for it, the audit ends up in a drawer. How many hours per month can your developer actually give?

Settle three questions at proposal stage:

• Will the consultant or your own developers handle technical fixes?
• Who writes content, who approves it and how fast does it go live?
• If a redesign comes up, does SEO support cost extra?

If a redesign is on the horizon, bring SEO to the table before design starts. Google's guide names a redesign or a new site launch as a good moment to hire an SEO. I listed the steps in my post on protecting SEO during a redesign.

Which expectations are realistic in SEO and Google Ads consulting?

22. Split the timeline by channel

Google Ads and SEO do not run on the same clock. Ads bring traffic the day the budget goes live, but reaching profitable efficiency takes testing. SEO depends on linked steps: publishing, crawling, indexing and building trust. Tying both channels to the same monthly target only creates disappointment.

Here is the starting range I see in the field; it is field experience, not a guarantee. Meaningful ad optimisation usually needs the first one to three months. SEO varies with competition and often takes longer than six months. If you are unsure which channel to lead with, my post on organic growth versus paid ads may help.

23. Ask for measurable targets, not guarantees

Google's hiring guide lists this question for candidates: "What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?" It exposes the gap between a target and a guarantee. A target is a measurable, reasoned estimate. A guarantee is a promise nobody can make in organic search.

So instead of "first place for this keyword in three months", ask for "progress in qualified leads within three months, tracked by these interim metrics". To see which terms actually sell, read my guide on keywords that drive sales.

Red flag: ranking guarantees and "special relationships" with Google

24. Drop any proposal that guarantees the top spot

Google puts it in one sentence: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." The same guide warns you to be wary of anyone who claims a special relationship with Google or offers priority submission. Paid ads follow the same logic. Cost per click comes from an auction, so nobody can lock in a fixed price or position forever.

When you hear a guarantee, shorten the meeting. If a guarantee made it into a contract, check how it defines the keyword, the position and the measurement tool. Quite often it covers a long phrase nobody searches for.

Why are secret methods and link packages dangerous?

25. Avoid consultants who will not explain their methods

Google's guide lists secretive SEOs who refuse to explain their techniques among the warning signs. The same list includes unsolicited SEO emails, promises to submit your site to thousands of search engines and link popularity schemes. Licensed tools are not the issue. The issue is a consultant who will not tell you what they do to your site.

Link packages carry their own risk. An offer like "100 links a month" can fall under link schemes in Google's spam policies. The possible result is a manual action and lost visibility. Therefore ask how link building works, on which sites and with which method, with concrete examples.

What does a Google Partner badge prove, and what does it not?

26. Verify the badge, references and industry experience

A Google Partner badge shows that a company meets certain thresholds. According to Google's Partner requirements, a company must keep an optimisation score of at least 70% across its manager account. It must maintain 10,000 USD in ad spend across managed accounts over 90 days, and at least half of its account strategists need certification. Premier Partner status goes to the top 3% of participating companies in a country.

However, the badge does not prove results in your industry for your goals. Verify the badge through Google's Partner search, then speak to at least one reference of similar size. I am a Google Partner myself and I know the effort behind it; still, never treat the badge as the only reason to choose. You can see some of my work on the references page. Yet the real proof is how specifically someone answers your questions.

Which questions should you ask in the first meeting?

Treat the first meeting as an exam, not a pitch. Start with the questions from Google's own guide, then move on to this checklist. If the person answers calmly and with concrete examples, that is a good sign. I suggest this order:

1. Can you show examples of past work and share success stories?
2. Do you follow Google Search Essentials?
3. What results do you expect, in what timeframe, and how do you measure them?
4. Do you have experience in my industry and my region?
5. Which access level do you need in Google Ads, Search Console and GA4?
6. Do your invoices show ad spend and service fee separately?
7. How do you hand over accounts and data if we part ways?

Think twice before working with someone who hesitates on the last two. Those answers show you what happens when things go wrong.

How does the checklist change at enterprise scale?

On a multilingual, multi location or very large site, the same 26 points apply. Their weight changes, though. Access management gets harder, because the in house team, a development agency and the consultant all touch the same accounts. At that point a change log stops being good practice and becomes a requirement.

Procurement also takes longer in large companies, and the legal team reviews the contract. In that case, draft the exit and data handover clauses together with legal. I explain when a company truly needs enterprise level help in my post on who needs enterprise SEO consulting.

SEO and Google Ads consulting: the final check

On the last day before signing, pull the list onto a single page. This summary covers the most critical part of the 26 points:

• The ad account, payment profile, domain and Tag Manager belong to your company.
• You hold the Admin role, and the consultant works with Standard or restricted access.
• The contract spells out scope, fee formula, notice period and exit plan.
• Invoices show Google spend and service fee on separate lines.
• Conversions reflect revenue or qualified leads, and you have tested them.
• Targets are measurable, timelines differ per channel and nobody promises a guarantee.

If you can mark all six lines "yes, in writing", only the work itself remains. If you would like to walk through the list for your own situation, reach me through the contact page. In the first call we talk about these points, not a sales pitch.