The choosing answers

Ask seven things: who owns the Google Business Profile at the end, how position will be measured, what you will see monthly, what happens to the work if you leave, what the minimum term is, which named person does the work, and what they will not promise. The last is the most revealing.

A position, a date for reaching a position, or a revenue figure. Nobody controls Google's ranking. Anyone worth hiring refuses all three, and usually says so before being asked.

A guaranteed first position. A refusal to explain how something works, when the whole method is published by Google and by this network for free. And any requirement to own your domain, profile or analytics as a condition of the work.

One question decides it: do you have somebody who can execute? A consultant produces decisions and reviews and somebody else does the work. If you have that person, a consultant is usually better value. If you do not, an agency that includes execution buys more change.

A real Irish address, an Irish phone number a person answers, a company registration you can look up, and reviews that describe specific jobs rather than a star count. The registration check is the strongest and takes two minutes.

You. Always. A supplier can be added as a manager, which gives them everything they need to work and leaves ownership with the business. A company that holds your profile as owner holds your most valuable local asset, and how they react to being asked to change it is itself informative.

Position measured across your service area rather than at a single point, calls and enquiries, what was done in the month, and what is planned next. Rankings alone measure the thing least under a supplier's control.

Three is enough to see the spread and few enough to compare properly. Put the quotes side by side and write out what each includes under profile, listings, website and measurement, because most quotes that look far apart are quoting for different work.

Size tells you about capacity, not about quality, and it often tells you who will actually work on your account. The more useful question is which named person is accountable and whether you will speak to them after the sale.

Only as far as it says what it means. This network makes exactly that claim about its own publisher and attaches the frame to it every time: it is this reference's assessment, against six criteria it publishes. A superlative with no method behind it is a form of words.