Comparing Three SEO Proposals Side by Side: A Worksheet

The quickest way to tell a good SEO company from an expensive one is to make three proposals answer the same questions, in writing, on one sheet. Once the answers sit in columns next to each other, the gaps are hard to miss: the agency that never names what it will deliver, the contract that renews itself for a year, the report you'd have no way to check. Below is the worksheet, row by row, with the red flags built in as rows of their own.

Set up the sheet

A spreadsheet works, and so does a legal pad turned sideways. You need four columns: the question, then one column each for Agency A, B and C. Fill in only what each proposal says in writing. If a salesperson told you something on the phone that isn't in the document, write "verbal" in the cell and treat it as blank until it shows up in an email.

Two habits keep the comparison fair. Put the same question to every agency in the same words, so you aren't comparing a careful answer with a vague one. And write the date and the sender's name at the top of each column. Proposals get revised, and "the one from the guy who called in March" is hard to find six weeks later.

The worksheet

Row	What to write in each column	A	B	C
Monthly price	The amount billed each month after any intro discount ends
One-time costs	Setup, audit or website fixes, with amounts
Minimum term	Months you must pay before you can leave
Renewal	Whether it renews by itself, and for how long
Cancel notice	Days of notice, and any fee for leaving
Named deliverables	Things you can count each month: pages, posts, links, profile updates
Keywords	How many, which ones, and who picks them
Link reporting	Whether each report lists every link's live URL, the page it points to and the anchor text
Business Profile	What they'll change on your Google Business Profile, and under whose login
Ownership	Who holds the domain, the website, the profile, the analytics and the writing they produce
Who does the work	Staff or subcontractors, and who answers your emails
Competitors	Whether they work for businesses that compete with you, and how your data is kept apart
After you cancel	What stays live, what gets removed, and when your access comes back to you
First report	The date you'll see it and what it will contain

The "Named deliverables" row does the most work. "Ongoing optimization" is not a deliverable. "Two new service pages, one Business Profile post a week and ten links, each listed in the report" is. If one proposal costs less but names nothing, it isn't cheaper. You just can't see what you're paying for.

The "After you cancel" row is the one people skip. Ask it anyway. Some setups leave you holding everything. Others mean the website, a call-tracking number or the profile itself stays with the agency when you go. You want to know which kind you're signing before you sign it.

Look hard at the "Keywords" row too. Many Henrico and Chesterfield businesses have a mailing address that says "Richmond," so a plan built only on "Richmond" terms can look tidy on paper and still skip the places you actually drive to. If you work Midlothian, Short Pump or Mechanicsville, those names should appear somewhere in the plan, or the agency should explain why they don't.

Red flag rows

Add these rows below the main sheet. Here an empty cell is good news. Anything written in one of them earns a follow-up question, and a few earn a polite no.

Red flag row	What the cell might say	Why it matters
Ranking guarantee	"Page one in 30 days" or a promised top spot	No agency controls Google's results; rankings take months and depend on competition
Password request	Asks for your Google account password	Business Profile and Search Console both let you add a manager or user by email instead
Agency-held accounts	Domain or profile registered in the agency's name	You may lose them, or pay to get them back, when you leave
Unlisted links	"Proprietary link network," no list	You can't check work you're not allowed to see
Review shortcuts	Offers to post reviews for you, or to ask only your happy customers	Fake reviews are prohibited, and asking only happy customers breaks Google's review policies
Keyword-stuffed name	Suggests adding "Richmond Plumber" or similar to your profile name	Adding keywords to a Business Profile name breaks Google's guidelines and can get the profile suspended
Long lock-in	A 12-month term that renews automatically, with an exit fee	You pay for the year whether or not the work shows up
Vague pricing	Only "starting at" figures	You can't fill the price row, so you can't compare

Getting the gaps filled in writing

Expect a few blank cells on every sheet. That's normal, and it isn't a reason to toss a proposal out. What matters is how the agency answers when you ask. Send each one the same short email:

Thanks for the proposal. Before we decide, could you answer a few questions in writing? 1) What is the minimum term, and does it renew automatically? 2) What will you deliver each month that I can count? 3) Will the monthly report list every link with its live URL, the page it points to and the anchor text? 4) Whose name will the domain, website and Business Profile be under? 5) What happens to the work, and to my access, if I cancel?

Paste each reply into the matching cells. A clear "no" is useful. So is "it depends," as long as they say what it depends on. If the answer comes back as "let's hop on a call," take the call, then ask for a short email confirming what was said. Anything you care about, like the term or who owns what, should also appear in the agreement you sign, not only in a proposal or an email thread.

Response time counts as data. If an agency takes a week to answer five plain questions while it's still trying to win you, write that in the margin.

Reading the finished sheet

Cover the price row with your hand and read everything else first. Decide which column you'd trust if all three cost the same. Then uncover it.

Next, a rough test with your own numbers: divide each monthly price by the count of things in its "Named deliverables" cell. The result isn't a real unit price, since a new service page and a directory listing aren't worth the same, but it shows when a high price buys very little you can see, or when a low price buys a long list you'd have no way to verify. If the deliverables cell is empty, the math stops there, and so does that proposal.

Then read the term and cancel rows together. A plan you can leave after any month is cheaper to be wrong about. When two columns come out close, pick the one where changing your mind in month four costs you the least.

Where we'd land on the sheet

If you want a fourth column, here are our answers so you can test us the same way. Plans run month to month, from $65 to $575 a month, and you can cancel anytime. The monthly report lists every live link URL, the page it points to and the anchor text. Every plan includes Business Profile optimization, citation building and cleanup, and review-generation work. We may work with competing businesses in the same area, and one client's data and plans are never shared with another. We don't show sample reports, so that cell stays blank for us until your first month. The plans and the rest of the details are on how Richmond SEO Company works and what each plan includes.

When your sheet is filled in, ask for a free SEO snapshot of your own site and profile, so you know where you stand before you sign anything. It costs nothing and doesn't tie you to any column.