Nine questions.
Four answers
that end it.
This page will cost us work occasionally, and it is still the right page to have. The questions below apply to us exactly as much as to anybody else.
The reason this market is hard to buy in is that the good and the bad versions look identical at the proposal stage. Both promise a panel. Only one is doing the work that produces one.
The nine questions, in order
Can I see three records with their reference numbers?
Search them yourself while you are on the call.
How many of those show on the plain name?
The honest answer is usually not all of them. An answer of all of them, every time, is worth probing.
Who claims the panel when it appears?
Correct answer: the client, personally. Anything else, stop.
What is the timeline, and what is the timeline for your part of it?
Those are two different numbers. Six to twelve months for the panel; a couple of months for the build.
What happens at twelve months if nothing is live?
There should be a defined consequence, not a conversation.
How many clients do you turn away, and why?
None is the wrong answer.
Will you create an encyclopedia entry for me?
Only if genuinely notable. Anyone eager to do it regardless is risking your name, not theirs.
What exactly will you produce in the first sixty days?
You want a list of artefacts, not a list of activities.
Is the price the same for everybody?
If not, ask what changes it. Difficulty is a reason to decline work, not to charge more.
Ask to see records, with reference numbers
Screenshots prove nothing. A screenshot can be a sitelinks block, a competitor's panel or a browser window with edited text.
A real record has a reference number, and the number can be searched by you, right now, in front of them. Ask for the numbers, not the pictures.
Then ask how many are showing on the plain name and how many only answer on the reference. Anyone who does not distinguish those two states either does not know, or is hoping you will not ask.
Ask who claims it
The correct answer is you, in your own account, with your own documents.
Any other answer means handing identity documents to a supplier so they can verify to Google that they are you. There is no version of that arrangement worth the convenience.
Ask what happens if it never appears
There should be an answer that costs them something. A refund line, a defined point where the engagement ends, a limit on how long you are asked to keep paying.
An open-ended monthly retainer with no defined finish is the arrangement that most reliably outlives the client's patience.
Ask how often they say no
A service that has never turned anybody away is a service that takes money from people it cannot help. Roughly a third of enquiries should not proceed, because for roughly a third the underlying material does not exist yet.
The answer to this question tells you more about a supplier than their portfolio does.
Questions
Are agencies better than individuals?
Not inherently. The work is the same. Agencies carry overhead, which shows up either in the price or in who actually does the work.
What if they will not share reference numbers?
Then they are asking you to take proof on trust, which is the one thing this entire field should never require.
Is a monthly retainer always wrong?
Not always, but it should have a defined end. An open retainer means the supplier is paid the same whether or not the record ever appears.
Do these questions apply to you too?
Yes, and our answers are published: eight records with numbers, four on the plain name, the client claims it, three thousand flat, refund at twelve months, about a third turned away.
If you would rather it was handled
Three thousand dollars flat, half at the start and half only when there is something live to show you. Six to twelve months is the honest window, and about a third of the people who ask are told not to proceed.