How to qualify leads for an SEO agency
A lead is worth your time when the business has a problem you can fix, can pay for the fix, and can be reached. This guide shows how to check all three before you pitch.
Start from what is broken
A business whose site already ranks and gets quoted has little reason to hire you. Look for sites that fail checks you know how to fix: no title or a title too long, no meta description, a homepage that is slow or not on HTTPS, no structured data. Each one is a concrete first month of work.
Score the gap, not the company
Two numbers make leads easy to compare: how much of what search engines read the site fails (its SEO score), and how much of what AI answer engines need it fails (its AEO score). Higher means more to fix. Sort by them and start at the top.
Check that the business is real and reachable
It should have its own website, a published way to contact it, and a business type and place you can serve.
Match the lead to your offer
- Web design: the sites that fail the basics, such as phones, HTTPS and speed.
- SEO: titles, descriptions, canonical links and sitemaps.
- AEO: the AI crawlers' access, structured data and answers on the page.
Pitch the fix, with the date
Name the three checks to fix first, say when they were measured, and offer to fix them. Then offer a monthly plan to keep the site in shape.
SEO leads for agencies and web designers · Websites with poor SEO / AEO · Worst SEO score first · Worst AEO score first