This article is part of our Real Estate & Property Management Marketing Guide: how buyers, sellers, owners and tenants find you online, what the housing ad rules allow, and how to choose the right help. Want to know where your site stands? Get a free 20–30 page website audit within 24 hours.
The best questions to ask a real estate or property management SEO agency are about proof, process and ownership. Ask what they have done for firms like yours, exactly what they will change, how they report and what you keep if you leave. The answers tell you more than any sales deck.
This list works for agents, teams, brokerages and property management companies. It is part of our Real Estate and Property Management Marketing Guide. Each question includes what a good answer and a bad answer sound like.
Google publishes its own advice on this. Its page on whether you need an SEO suggests asking for examples of past work and how long the firm has been in business. It also suggests asking whether they will share every change they make. We built on that list for real estate.
Key Takeaways
- Ask for live examples from real estate or property management, not general case studies.
- A good agency explains its plan for Google Maps, neighborhood or city pages and reviews in plain English.
- Compliance questions matter: Fair Housing, license disclosures and housing ad rules all touch SEO work.
- You should own your website, Google Business Profile, analytics and content, in writing.
- Walk away from any agency that promises rankings, hides its methods or locks you into a long contract you can't exit.
Experience and proof
1. What real estate or property management sites have you worked on?
Good answer: they name live sites you can visit and explain what they did on each. Bad answer: "We work with all industries" and no examples.
2. What did you change on those sites, and why?
Good answer: specific work, such as new neighborhood pages, fixed redirects or a cleaned-up Business Profile. Bad answer: "Our proprietary system handles that."
3. How do you measure success?
Good answer: calls, form leads, owner inquiries, showings or rental applications, tracked back to the source. Bad answer: only "traffic" or "keyword positions."
4. Can you guarantee first-page rankings?
Good answer: no. Google says plainly that "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google". Bad answer: any promise of a position or a lead count.
Local search and Google Maps
5. How will you handle our Google Business Profile?
Good answer: they know the rules. Google's guidelines for representing your business say "There should only be one profile per business" and that the name should reflect your real-world name. Bad answer: "We'll add keywords to your business name."
6. Should individual agents have their own profiles?
Good answer: it depends on how your agents work with the public. Google lists real estate agents as an example of individual practitioners, and it says support staff should not create their own profiles. Our guide to Google Business Profile for agents and brokerages explains the options.
7. Can we create profiles for our rental listings or vacant units?
This one is for property managers. Good answer: no. Google's eligibility guidelines list "vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments" as ineligible. It also says sales or leasing offices are eligible for verification.
8. How will you set our service area?
Good answer: Google allows up to 20 service areas by city or postal code, not a radius, per its service area help page. Bad answer: "We'll list every city in the state."
9. How will you build city or neighborhood pages without creating thin pages?
Good answer: each page has real local detail, such as housing types, HOA notes, commute facts or rental demand, written for people. Bad answer: one template with the city name swapped. Our guide to neighborhood and community pages shows the difference.
Compliance and content
10. Who reviews your content for Fair Housing issues?
Good answer: a named step in their process, plus review by you or your broker. The federal rule at 24 CFR § 100.75 bars ads that indicate a preference based on a protected class, such as race, religion, sex, familial status or national origin. It covers words, photos and the choice of media or locations.
11. Do you know our state's advertising disclosure rules?
Good answer: they ask where you are licensed and adjust. For example, California's 10 CCR § 2773 lists websites among materials that must show the license number and responsible broker's name. Bad answer: "Disclosures are your problem."
12. Who writes the content, and who checks the facts?
Good answer: a writer who knows real estate, with you approving anything about your record, fees or market. Bad answer: unreviewed AI text published in bulk.
13. If you run ads, how do you handle housing ad rules?
Good answer: they know Google's housing personalized advertising policy. In the US and Canada, housing ads can't target by gender, age, parental status, marital status or ZIP code. Our guide to housing ad rules on Google and Meta covers both platforms.
14. Will any lender, title company or other partner pay for part of this work?
Good answer: they flag it for review. RESPA's rule at 12 CFR § 1024.14 bars giving or accepting a fee or "thing of value" for referring settlement service business on federally related mortgage loans. Co-marketing deals need a compliance check before they start.
Reporting and ownership
15. What will your monthly report show?
Good answer: leads by source, calls, form fills, Business Profile actions and the work done that month. Bad answer: a 40-page export nobody can read.
16. Will you tell us every change you make to the site?
Good answer: yes, with a change log. Google's hiring page lists this exact question. Bad answer: "Our methods are confidential."
17. Who owns the website, content, analytics and Business Profile?
Good answer: you do, and they work through access you grant. Bad answer: they register accounts in their own name.
18. What happens if we cancel?
Good answer: you keep everything, and they hand over logins and files. Bad answer: content or pages come down when you stop paying.
Contract and pricing
19. What exactly is included at this price?
Good answer: a written scope with deliverables per month. Compare it with our guides to real estate SEO cost and property management SEO cost to see what usually drives price.
20. How long is the contract, and how do we exit?
Good answer: a clear term and a fair notice period. Bad answer: a long lock-in with no exit for poor performance.
Scoring the answers
| Area | Green flag | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Proof | Live real estate or PM examples | Only generic case studies |
| Local | Knows Business Profile rules | Keyword-stuffed names, fake listings |
| Compliance | Fair Housing and disclosure review | "Compliance is your job" |
| Reporting | Leads by source | Rankings only |
| Ownership | You own all accounts | Agency owns domain or profile |
| Contract | Clear scope and exit | Long lock-in, vague deliverables |
Score each agency on these six areas. If an agency fails ownership or promises rankings, stop there.
Questions agents and property managers should add
Agents and brokerages often add:
- How do our IDX listing pages fit into your plan?
- How will you handle agent bio pages for a team or brokerage?
Property managers often add:
- How will you separate owner-facing pages from tenant pages?
- How will you track owner inquiries apart from tenant maintenance calls?
Those last two questions matter. A property manager's phone rings for many reasons, and only some are new business.
Next step
Take these 20 questions into your next two or three agency calls and score the answers. Want to put us through the same test? See our real estate website services or property management website services, or schedule a discovery call.
Frequently asked questions
How many SEO agencies should I talk to?
Two or three is usually enough to compare. Ask all of them the same questions so you can score the answers side by side. Pay attention to who asks you good questions back.
Is a real estate specialist agency better than a general SEO agency?
A specialist already knows IDX, MLS rules, Fair Housing wording and Business Profile limits for rentals. A general agency may need time to learn them. Ask either type for live real estate examples.
What should a property management SEO agency do differently?
It should market to property owners, not just renters, and track owner leads separately. It should also know that vacant units can't get their own Business Profiles. Listing syndication and tenant portals also affect the site plan.
How long before SEO shows results for a real estate business?
It varies with your market, your site's history and how much work is done. A good agency gives you a timeline with early milestones, such as fixed technical issues and new pages, before lead goals. Be wary of fast promises.
Should I sign a long SEO contract?
Only if the scope is clear and you can exit for poor performance. Many firms prefer a shorter first term to test the relationship. Read the cancellation and ownership clauses before you sign.
