How to choose an SEO company in Israel: freelancer, agency or AI agent, and how to check it works

How do you choose an SEO company when everyone on Google calls themselves an "SEO expert"? Most of the guides on the first page hand you a generic list of tips, and some of them are lists of "recommended companies". This article takes a different route. First we decide which kind of supplier suits your site at all: a freelance SEO consultant, an SEO company or an AI agent. Then we look at how to verify results in Search Console instead of settling for a screenshot, what has to appear in the monthly report, and which clauses belong in the contract. Full disclosure: we offer SEO too, including an AI agent of our own.

A freelance SEO consultant, a company or an AI agent: who suits which site

The first question is not "who is best", but which type of supplier fits the size of the site and the volume of work. The broader agency-versus-freelancer question came up in our guide to choosing a digital marketing agency. Here we focus on what is specific to SEO.

Our decision rule, based on our experience:

• A site of a few dozen pages, a local business: a good freelancer or an AI agent will do the job.
• Hundreds of pages, a store, or a site that needs code changes: a company with technical capability. SEO on a large site stalls when there is nobody to implement.
• You mainly need steady content and technical maintenance: an AI agent is the cheap way to keep at it.

One point worth remembering: SEO is slow, so a two-week pause with a freelancer does less damage than it would in a paid campaign. What does do damage is a supplier with nobody to carry out technical fixes. What each route costs we set out in our SEO pricing guide, so we will not repeat the figures here.

What Google itself recommends you ask

Google has a page devoted to exactly this question: Do you need an SEO?. Here are some of the questions it recommends asking an SEO before you work with them:

1. Can you show examples of previous work and share some success stories?
2. Do you follow the Google Search Essentials?
3. What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?
4. What is your experience in my industry?
5. How will we communicate with each other?

On the same page Google warns: nobody can guarantee the number one spot in Google. Be suspicious of a company that tells you about a "special relationship" with Google or offers "priority submission". Google also recommends treating an unsolicited email warning you about your site's visibility in Google with suspicion. And one more point Google emphasises: a supplier who gets access to your site should detail every change they make to it.

A tip from that same page that most businesses miss: the best time to bring in an SEO is at the start of planning a new site or a redesign, not after launch.

How to verify the results they show you

Google's first question is the most important one, and also the easiest to fake. A screenshot of a rising graph proves nothing. Here is how you really check:

1. Ask for a live screen share of a client's Search Console, with the client's permission, not a screenshot. In the "Performance" report choose a long range, at least a year.
2. Filter out brand searches. Traffic on the business name comes from advertising and word of mouth, not from SEO. Search Console has a filter for branded and non-branded queries, but according to Google it is not available for sites with a low number of impressions, and some queries are classified incorrectly. In that case, filter out queries that do not contain the business name.
3. Look at clicks, not only impressions. By Google's definitions, an impression is an appearance in the results and a click is an entry to the site. An impressions graph that rises without clicks is not bringing in customers.
4. Ask which queries produced enquiries. First place on a phrase nobody searches for is a success on paper only.
5. Check the supplier's own site. Search Google for the phrases they sell, for example "SEO specialist" plus your city. A supplier who cannot rank themselves should at least be able to explain why.

What a monthly SEO report must contain

A report that holds nothing but a rankings table hides more than it shows. A good monthly report answers five questions:

• What changed in traffic? Clicks and impressions from non-branded searches, against the previous month and against the same period last year.
• What was actually done? A list of pages published or updated, with URLs. Technical fixes carried out. Links obtained, with the address of the source.
• Which pages bring enquiries? Not just traffic, but forms, calls and messages, from GA4.
• What broke? Pages that dropped out of the index, or new errors in Search Console.
• What is planned for next month, and why?

If a supplier promises "quality links", the report has to include their URLs. What counts as a good link and what puts your site at risk, we set out in our guide to link building.

Clauses that belong in the contract

We are not lawyers, so this is a list of topics to check rather than legal wording. In SEO the problems surface on the day you leave, which is why they are worth closing on the day you sign:

1. Ownership of the accounts. Search Console, GA4 and the Google Business Profile are registered in your name, with the highest level of management permission, and the supplier gets user access.
2. Ownership of the content. The articles, images and pages that were written belong to you, and stay on the site after the engagement ends.
3. Links that disappear. Ask whether some of the links sit on the supplier's own sites. If they do, they may vanish when you leave.
4. Defined deliverables instead of a ranking promise. A number of pages per month, technical fixes, hours. Ranking cannot be promised; work can.
5. An orderly exit. A notice period, with no penalty, and handover of all access, files and the work list within a defined time.
6. Who makes changes to the site. Whether the supplier has access to the code, who approves changes, and who is responsible if something breaks.

What Simple Web does about it

Simple Web is an AI-first marketing agency from Bnei Brak, certified Meta partners and Google advertising experts, working with 200+ businesses and holding 28 five-star Google reviews. In this article we are also an interested party, because we offer two of the routes in the table:

• Managed organic SEO: keyword research by purchase intent, technical fixes, content and clean link building, in Hebrew and in English, with a monthly report. The price comes in a quote based on scope, after a free diagnostic call.
• Simpi, our AI agent: it connects to the site (full automatic publishing on WordPress, with support for Wix and Shopify too), writes 8 articles a month, fixes technical issues, tracks rankings and reports in Hebrew over WhatsApp. ₪750 + VAT per month at the launch price, a three-month commitment and then month by month, with no exit penalty. The site, the content and the accounts stay yours.

How AI and people divide the work here, we explained in an AI agency versus a classic agency.

Summary

How do you choose an SEO company? You start with the type of supplier that suits the size of the site, not with a name. Then you ask Google's questions, and verify results in a live screen share of Search Console, with brand searches filtered out. A monthly report needs to show what was done and which pages bring enquiries, and the contract needs to keep the accounts and the content in your name. Would you like us to go over a proposal you have received, or your current supplier's report, together? Book a free diagnostic call.

Sources

• Google Search Central: Do you need an SEO?: the questions Google recommends asking, the warning against guaranteed first place, and the advice to hire at the start of planning the site
• Search Console Help: Dimensions and data groupings: the branded and non-branded query filter, and its limitations
• Search Console Help: Performance report: the definitions of clicks, impressions, CTR and average position