The Framework Electrical Contractors Use to Hire an SEO Company Without Getting Burned

This page is for electrical contractors who are actively evaluating SEO companies and want to make an informed decision before committing to a retainer. If you've already been burned by a generic agency that produced reports but no calls, this guide will help you understand what went wrong and what to look for next time.

It's also useful if you're a first-time buyer of SEO services — maybe you've relied on word-of-mouth or truck signage and you're now exploring digital channels for the first time. The hiring criteria here apply regardless of your firm's size, whether you're a solo operator or run a team of twelve.

One thing to be clear about upfront: this guide is not a sales pitch dressed as advice. The criteria below will help you evaluate any SEO provider, including us. If a company can't pass these checks, that's useful information — whatever you decide to do with it.

Before evaluating agencies, it helps to understand what electrician SEO actually involves. Electrical contractors are local service businesses. That means the ranking levers are different from a national software company or a retailer — and an agency that doesn't recognize that distinction will apply the wrong playbook.

The three core components of SEO for an electrical business are:

• Google Business Profile optimization — Your GBP listing is often the first result a local searcher sees. It needs accurate service categories, consistent NAP data, active photo uploads, and a review generation process.
• Local organic rankings — The website pages that rank for queries like "licensed electrician in [city]" or "panel upgrade [city]." These require location-specific content, technical site health, and relevant backlinks from local directories and industry sources.
• Reputation signals — Review volume and recency directly influence map pack rankings. A credible SEO agency will have a strategy for this, not just suggestions.

When you're speaking with agencies, ask them to walk through how they approach each of these three areas specifically for service-area businesses. A generic answer — "we do on-page SEO and link building" — tells you they haven't thought carefully about your business model.

Electricians also operate under licensing and bonding requirements that vary by state. An agency that understands this will know that displaying license numbers and insurance on your website isn't just a trust signal — it affects how Google evaluates your site's credibility for contractor-related queries.

Here's how to structure your evaluation. These criteria apply whether you're talking to a boutique local agency or a national firm with a dedicated electrician vertical.

1. Demonstrated local service results

Ask specifically for examples of map pack rankings or organic traffic improvements for electricians, plumbers, HVAC companies, or similar service-area businesses. Not a tech company. Not a law firm. Service-area contractor results. If they can show you before-and-after screenshots, keyword ranking movement, or GBP insight data for a comparable client, that's a meaningful signal.

2. Process transparency

A credible agency can explain — in plain language, without jargon — exactly what they plan to do in months one through three. If you hear phrases like "our proprietary system" without any explanation of what that actually means, push back. Good SEO isn't a black box.

3. Honest timelines

SEO for electricians typically takes four to six months before you see meaningful movement in map pack or organic rankings. This varies by how competitive your market is and how much authority your domain already has. Any agency telling you they'll get you to page one in Any agency guaranteeing first-page rankings in [30 days](/resources/electrician/electrician-seo-timeline) is making a promise they cannot keep is either lying or planning to use tactics that will eventually harm your site.

4. Clear deliverables in writing

The contract or proposal should specify exactly what's included: how many pages of content, what technical work, which citation sources, how often you'll receive reports, and what metrics are tracked. Vague scope leads to disputes and disappointment.

5. Reporting that connects to business outcomes

Traffic numbers without call volume or lead context are mostly noise. Ask how they track phone calls and form submissions attributable to organic search. A good agency will have an answer — usually call tracking and Google Analytics conversion events.

These aren't theoretical concerns. Each of these patterns shows up regularly in the electrical contractor market.

• designed to rankings — No agency can guarantee specific positions. Google's algorithm is not controlled by your SEO vendor. Any guarantee is either meaningless marketing language or a sign they're planning to use shortcuts that will backfire.
• Purchased link packages — "500 backlinks for $199" is a shortcut to a manual penalty. Real backlinks come from local directories, trade associations, and content that earns mentions — not bulk submissions.
• No reporting or opaque dashboards — If you can't see what's actually happening in plain numbers — rankings, traffic, calls — you have no basis for evaluating whether the investment is working.
• Lock-in contracts with no performance benchmarks — A 12-month contract with no defined milestones and no exit clause is a red flag. You should know what success looks like at month three and month six.
• Cookie-cutter website content — If the agency's content strategy involves publishing identical service pages across dozens of contractor clients with only the city name swapped, those pages will underperform. Google's quality signals have gotten better at detecting thin, templated content.
• No questions about your business — An agency that sends a proposal after a 20-minute call without asking about your service area, target services, licensing status, or competitive landscape hasn't done the work to understand what you actually need.

Bring these to your next agency call. The quality of the answers will tell you most of what you need to know.

1. "Can you show me examples of map pack rankings you've achieved for electrical or similar contractor businesses?" — You're looking for specifics, not testimonials.
2. "What will you actually do in the first 90 days?" — Walk me through the work, not the outcomes. What gets built, written, fixed, or submitted?
3. "How do you handle Google Business Profile optimization specifically?" — Can they explain service categories, photo strategy, and review generation? Or do they just claim they "optimize" it?
4. "How will I see results, and how often do we review them together?" — Monthly reporting calls are standard for a serious engagement.
5. "What happens if I want to cancel after six months?" — Understand what you own at the end: your GBP access, your website, your content. These should all stay with you.
6. "Do you work with other electricians in my market?" — Some agencies have exclusivity policies. Know whether you're competing against another client in your own city.

You don't need to interrogate every agency like a deposition. But these questions move the conversation from sales pitch to substance fast. An agency that gets defensive or evasive on any of these should be noted.

Most electrical contractors aren't reviewing SEO contracts regularly, so here's what to look for before you sign.

Ownership of assets: Your website, Google Business Profile, and any content produced during the engagement should be yours. If an agency hosts your site on their own platform and retains access controls, you are at their mercy if you ever want to leave.

Initial term with month-to-month after: A three- or six-month initial commitment is reasonable — SEO takes time to show results, and no agency can demonstrate ROI in 30 days. After the initial term, month-to-month continuation is a sign the agency is confident enough in their results to earn your renewal rather than lock it in contractually.

Defined deliverables: Every engagement should have a written scope. If it's not in the contract, it doesn't exist. This includes content production, technical work, citation building, and reporting cadence.

Performance benchmarks: Some agencies will agree to milestone reviews — for example, a 90-day checkpoint where both sides assess progress and adjust scope if needed. This is a reasonable ask.

Transparency on subcontracting: Some agencies sell SEO services and subcontract the actual work to offshore teams. This isn't automatically a problem, but you should know who is doing the work and whether that team has experience with U.S. local search for contractors specifically.

If you're evaluating us alongside other agencies, we're comfortable being held to the same standard. See why electrical contractors choose our SEO services — and if the criteria above resonate, request a consultation for your electrician SEO needs to see how we'd approach your specific market.