Home/Guides/Choosing an SEO company
SEO companies are harder
to choose than SEO is to do.
You can judge a website at a glance. SEO is different: results take months, and until then a diligent provider and one doing nothing look identical from where you sit. So the method of choosing matters more than the pitch.
Why SEO is harder to buy than a website
You can see whether a website is any good by opening it. SEO is not like that: results take months, and until then serious work and no work at all look exactly the same to you.
That time lag is the whole problem. It makes sounding good extremely profitable — send a professional-looking report every month and six months go by. By the time you notice rankings have not moved, six months of fees are gone.
So choosing an SEO company is not about listening to the pitch. It is about finding the things you can verify within weeks. The four tests below exist for that.
Four tests that need no technical knowledge
Ask "what counts as this working"
The single most revealing question. If the answer is "rankings improve", press further: which terms, from what position to what position, searched from where. If the answer is "enquiries and phone calls", they are watching what you actually care about. Be wary of anyone talking only about traffic — traffic up with no calls is worth nothing to you.
Ask for client names and search them yourself
Do not settle for their screenshots. Take a client business name and its main service to Google and see where it lands. Five minutes of this beats an hour of listening to a proposal. If nothing comes up, ask when that client was worked on and whether they are still a client.
Ask whose name the accounts are in
Google Business Profile, Search Console, ad accounts, site admin — yours or theirs? Nothing to do with SEO itself, but it decides whether you can ever switch. Anyone vague or evasive here devalues every promise that follows.
Ask what happens in the first three months
A real answer is specific: what gets audited, what gets fixed first, which content comes first, when the first changes should show. A vague answer usually sounds like "we do comprehensive optimisation", which says nothing at all.
The second test is the one people skip and the one that works best. It needs no technical knowledge, only five minutes and a search box, and it cannot be faked — either the client’s name comes up or it does not.
Shops in New York doing Chinese-language SEO
The same list as our web design companies piece, because in this corner of New York the same firms usually do both. One company per entry, stating only what each publishes on Google Maps.
As before: no ranking order, no links, and no prices, client counts, ratings or review numbers. The first entry is us, which needs saying up front.
Star Web Media
Ourselves, so being first proves nothing. We handle Google rankings, map rankings and AI-search visibility for local businesses, and it is the same team that builds the site — you are not hiring one company for the site and another for rankings. On measurement, what we watch is enquiries rather than raw traffic. Office in Flushing.
金牌传媒 (Golden Basin Inc.)
Main Street, Flushing, listed as an advertising agency. The services they list include Google Ads, Facebook Ads, telemarketing, web design and campaign planning — weighted towards paid media. Worth asking about if you want ads and organic handled together.
金钥匙广告 (Golden Key)
An advertising agency in Flushing; they describe themselves as doing web design, Google SEO and search ads, positioned on value. One warning: the map carries two near-identical Golden Key listings with different phone numbers, so confirm which one you are calling.
北美科技
By their own account over twenty years, the longest run on this list, serving the Chinese-speaking market in New York and North America. Beyond SEO they do data marketing, influencer promotion, media buying and social management. With a spread that wide, ask who specifically handles your project.
金杰营销
Also over twenty years, working across Queens, Flushing and Manhattan. The industries they list include medical clinics, skincare, law firms, supplements, education, restaurants and home renovation. If you are in one of those, they have likely seen work like yours.
70NYC
Queens, with "web design company" written straight into the map category. A category that direct usually means websites are the main trade; if you want SEO alone, ask how much of their work that is.
未来互联
Flushing, map category "website designer". Public information does not state years in business or list services, so you would have to ask. Thin information is not poor work, but it does mean running the second test — searching their clients — a few more times.
Milli Media
An advertising agency in Flushing, over five years per the map, with online marketing in the name. Firms like this usually fold SEO into a wider marketing programme rather than selling it alone. If you only want ranking work, confirm they take it standalone.
纽约餐馆网站设计广告公司
Brooklyn, the only one here outside Queens and the only one naming its customer: restaurants. Local ranking for food businesses has its own playbook — menus, delivery platforms, photos, review pace — and a shop that repeats the trade will not need it explained.
This is what the map showed us on one particular day. Listings change, and any company that never built a map listing will not appear at all, which does not mean it does not exist. Run the search yourself before you commit.
Claims worth pressing on
None of these is automatically a problem. Press, and the answer to the follow-up tells you something.
"Guaranteed first page"
Nobody can guarantee it, because Google decides rankings, not the provider. Guarantees usually mean one of two things: the guaranteed term is one nobody searches (ranking for it brings no customers), or risky methods are involved (effective briefly, and your site pays when they are caught). Ask which term, over what period, and what happens if it is missed.
"We have inside connections"
There are no inside connections to Google rankings. This is a sales line.
Traffic reports with no enquiry data
Traffic up with no extra calls is worth nothing to you. A serious report covers traffic, enquiries, and the conversion between them.
A contract that does not state account ownership
Said above, but worth repeating: it matters more than price. Ask before signing, not when you want to leave.
Questions this article gets
How long does SEO take to work?
It depends on your starting point and how crowded the field is. Business-profile gaps and obvious technical problems often show movement within two or three weeks; the parts driven by content and outside mentions are measured in months.
Be wary of promises of results in a month. The genuinely fast part is "doing the things that should already have been done", and that part runs out. Everything after it is slow.
For a local business, SEO or map ranking first?
Most local businesses should start with the map. On a phone the three map slots take up the most screen, and the business profile is free and yours to fill in. See how to rank on Google Maps.
Is a Chinese-speaking firm the better choice for SEO?
If you need Chinese content and your customers are mostly Chinese-speaking, easy communication genuinely helps. But speaking the language and knowing how to rank a site are two different skills — run the four tests either way.
Will you introduce me to anyone on the list?
No. This piece hands you the list and a way to judge; who you hire is your call.
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