1. They won't say who's actually working on your account
If the person pitching you can't or won't name who does the actual work, assume it isn't them. Undisclosed subcontracting, where a project is quietly outsourced while you're billed as if it's in-house, is one of the most common sources of quality and accountability problems.
2. "No refund" is the answer before you've even asked
A confident, upfront refusal to discuss what happens if the work doesn't get delivered is a signal worth taking seriously. A business that stands behind its work usually says so without being asked twice.
3. They can't show you a real dashboard, only a monthly PDF
A PDF once a month is a summary someone else controls. Live, self-serve access to your own numbers is a much stronger signal that there's nothing to hide between reports.
4. Calls and emails go quiet once you've paid
Responsiveness before the sale tells you almost nothing. Responsiveness after payment, especially when something's gone wrong, tells you everything.
The single most-repeated complaint pattern isn't bad results. It's silence — no reply, no explanation, no accountability once the money has already moved.
5. They're still selling tactics platforms have already deprecated
Bulk link building, outdated Google Business Profile tricks, keyword-stuffed pages built for 2015-era search — these get sold as "SEO" long after the platforms stopped rewarding them. If a strategy sounds unchanged from five years ago, it probably is.
6. Every review reads suspiciously similar
A wall of five-star reviews using near-identical phrasing, posted in tight clusters, is a pattern worth a second look before you treat a rating as proof of quality.
7. They talk about traffic and impressions, never revenue or lead quality
Traffic and impressions are the easiest numbers to make look good and the hardest to spend. If revenue, qualified leads, or confirmed sales never come up, the measurement isn't built around what actually matters to your business.
What to ask instead
- "Who specifically will work on this, and can I speak to them directly?"
- "What happens, concretely, if this doesn't work in month one?"
- "Can I get real-time access to my own data, not just your reports?"
- "How will you show me this drove revenue, not just clicks?"