Here’s more about each of those steps.

Step One: The Interview

When interviewing an SEO to work on your site, Google recommends listening to make sure they’re focused on the right things.

For example, they should be focused on helping a business overall by improving how they appear in search results. Being focused too much on rankings and where a site appears in search results is a red flag, Google says.

It’s a good sign if they ask you questions like:

Consider it a red flag if you’re interviewing an SEO and they’re not interesting in your business from a holistic standpoint. If that’s the case, then Google recommends finding someone else for the job.