If you run a shop, clinic, or service business in Bangalore, you've probably had three or four agencies pitch you. Their decks all look similar. Their prices vary by 5x. How do you actually pick?
Six questions cut through the noise.
1. Ask: "Show me a site you've built that's ranking on Google today."
Then ask them to open Google Search Console for that site and show you impressions and clicks. If they refuse, they don't have proof. If they show impressions but no clicks, they're indexed but not ranking. You want a site with both.
2. Ask: "Where will my site be hosted?"
If the answer is "on our server," you're being locked in. Good agencies host on YOUR cloud account (your AWS, your Vercel) and hand you the keys. Hosting costs for a static SMB site should be a fraction of typical agency hosting — not ₹2,000.
3. Ask: "Will I own the code and the domain?"
The answer must be yes. Domain registered in your name. Code in a repo you can access. Cloud account in your name. If they say "we keep the code," walk away.
4. Ask: "What's the published price?"
If they refuse to put pricing on their website, they're optimising for negotiation. A serious agency lists "starting at" prices publicly. They can still scope custom work — but the floor is honest.
5. Ask: "What's the lead-capture flow on day one?"
Listen for: short form, WhatsApp click-to-chat, phone click-to-call, email link, AND a click-tracking system that emails them when any of these are tapped. Anything less is a brochure.
6. Ask: "What's the realistic ranking timeline?"
Acceptable answer: "Indexed in 7 days. Ranking for low-competition local queries in 6–12 weeks. Competitive queries 3–6 months. AI search citation for branded queries 30–60 days, non-branded 6–12 months." Anything faster is fiction.
Red flags
Walk if you hear:
- "We guarantee Google #1 ranking." (Nobody can.)
- "AI search citation in 30 days." (For non-branded queries — fiction.)
- "₹15,000 for a website." (You'll get a template that won't rank.)
- "₹3 lakh for a 5-page site." (You're being charged for someone's BMW.)
- "WordPress-only." (Slow, security-prone, hosting markup.)