The uncomfortable thing about hiring for marketing work is that you are being asked to judge something you were never meant to be an expert in. That is the whole reason you are hiring somebody.
You do not need to close that gap. You need questions where a good supplier answers plainly and a bad one changes the subject. These are the nine we would ask, and we are including the ones that are awkward for us.
1. Who will actually do the work?
Not who is in the meeting. Who writes the pages, builds the site, does the search work. In a lot of agencies the person who won you is not the person who serves you, and you will not meet the second one for a month.
A good answer names people and says what each one does. A bad answer is "our team".
2. Whose name is the domain in?
The single most important question on this list, and the cheapest to ask. The same goes for hosting, analytics, ad accounts and your Google Business Profile.
A good answer is "yours, from the start". A bad answer is any version of "we manage that for you" that does not resolve into a name on a registration.
We have seen what happens to businesses whose agency owns their domain, and it is the one situation in this industry where an ordinary disagreement becomes an existential problem.
3. What happens if I want to leave?
Ask for the notice period and ask what you take with you. Then ask what happens to the site if you stop paying.
A good answer is a month's notice, you keep everything, nothing switches off. A bad answer involves a twelve-month term for work that is delivered monthly.
4. Can you guarantee me position one?
This one is a trap, and it is meant to be. The correct answer is no.
A good answer explains that rankings are Google's to give, commits to the work and the order it happens in, and promises to tell you early when something is not moving. A bad answer is yes. A guarantee of position one usually means bidding on your own business name and calling it SEO.
5. What will you not do?
A supplier worth hiring has opinions about what is a waste of your money. For a lot of trades, that is social media. For others it is blogging, or paid ads, or a rebrand.
Anybody who agrees that everything you suggested is a great idea is selling, not advising.
A good answer names something specific and says why. A bad answer is a menu.
6. What does the reporting look like, and who writes it?
Ask to see a real one, with the client details removed. Most agency reporting is a dashboard export with a logo on it, and it exists to look like value rather than to tell you anything.
A good answer is a short document written by a person, in English, including the months where not much moved and why. A bad answer is forty pages of charts and no sentences.
7. Can I speak to a client you no longer work with?
Everybody has happy current clients to introduce you to. The more useful conversation is with somebody whose engagement ended.
A good answer is yes, or an honest explanation of why not. A bad answer is a testimonial page.
If the supplier is new, as we are, this question has a different honest answer: they cannot, and they should say so plainly and show you the work they can show you instead. A new business is not a red flag. A new business pretending to be an old one is.
8. What do you need from me, and how often?
Almost every stalled project stalled on the client side, and almost every one of those was set up to. If nobody tells you that you owe them photographs, sign-off and an hour a fortnight, you will not schedule it.
A good answer is specific: what, when, how long it takes you. A bad answer is "very little, we handle everything", which is either untrue or means decisions are being made without you.
9. What would you do first, and why that?
Ask before you sign anything. You are not trying to extract free consultancy; you are testing whether they have looked at your business at all.
A good answer names one thing, gives a reason specific to you, and is willing to be wrong about it. A bad answer is the same first step they would give anybody, which usually means nobody has looked yet.
The pattern underneath all nine
Every question here is really the same question: does this supplier tell you things that are not in their immediate interest to tell you? A supplier who will say "you do not need branding, you need the website" before they have your money will also say "this month was flat and here is why" after they have it.
That is not a personality trait. It is the only reliable predictor of what the next twelve months are going to be like.