What problem is the business trying to solve?
Start by naming the problem: low discoverability, too few relevant enquiries, weak category visibility or lost organic traffic. These are different situations and need different plans. If the goal is more sales, an assessment cannot stop at rankings.
Prepare a short context: what you sell, to whom, in which market and with what delivery capacity. Separate what is known from assumptions. When enquiries decline, we would also check measurement, the offer and seasonality before focusing all work on SEO.
What should an SEO agency be able to explain?
Ask the agency to explain its priorities. Why does a technical fix come before new content? Which pages support comparison and which support a decision? What needs to change for a visit to become a meaningful action?
A useful proposal states scope, dependencies, responsibilities and reporting. It also says what is excluded. Developer access, product knowledge and approval speed can constrain delivery even when the strategy is sound.
Which evidence matters?
Look for verifiable context behind every result: market, period, starting point, work performed and measurement method. A case with a comparable business model may be more useful than an impressive unexplained chart. Ask what else changed during that period.
A public client logo represents presented experience, not proof of a current engagement or results. An advertising-platform certification does not automatically establish SEO expertise. Team profiles help assess expertise but do not imply that every person will work on your project.
How should you assess promises?
Separate commitments to work from forecasts of outcomes. An agency can commit to specific checks, a plan and delivery within an agreed scope. It does not control algorithms, competitors or how AI systems select sources.
Guaranteed rankings, certain AI citations and percentages without a source are reasons to investigate further. Ask how a forecast was produced and which assumptions constrain it. “It depends” is useful only when followed by a clear explanation of what it depends on.
SEO, BEO and business context
SEO remains a core discipline within BEO. At Z-Consult, we place organic visibility in the context of the offer, market, resources and measurement. Search Intelligence helps us examine the questions and sources behind content decisions.
Assess a partner by how they connect search with the real path to a decision. If the product or service is unclear, more visits may not resolve the underlying problem.
Questions we would ask before starting
Which products or services are priorities, and why? What has already been measured reliably? Who implements technical changes? Which existing content covers the relevant questions? How will we decide whether the first stage succeeded? Record the answers before comparing proposals.
Compare price alongside the scope and reasoning of the proposal. A partner should be able to explain what they know, what they still need to check and how the plan will change if initial assumptions prove wrong.
Sources
We read official public guidance alongside our work in SEO, BEO and AI Search. The sources explain the technical framework; the team’s experience helps us apply it to a business context.
- Google Search Central — AI features and your website
- Google Search Central — Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
- OpenAI — Overview of OpenAI crawlers
Corrections and updates
We keep Research resources up to date and correct factual errors when we find them. A material change to the sources, methodology or our interpretation receives a new update date.
For corrections or feedback: office@z-consult.bg
