Search has changed faster in the last two years than in most of the decade before. Google has rolled out broad core updates throughout 2026, AI Overviews and Google’s AI Mode now answer a large share of informational queries directly, and a meaningful portion of searches end without a click to any website. An SEO company that still works from a 2022 playbook can quietly cost you visibility. The good news is that you do not need to be a technical expert to tell whether a company keeps up. You mostly need to know what to listen for.
Listen to how they talk about recent changes
Ask the company to describe what has changed in search over the past year and how it affected their clients. A current company will speak specifically. They will mention recent core updates, the growth of AI-generated answers in search results, and the shift toward being cited inside an answer rather than only ranking in a list of blue links. They will explain what that means for your site in plain terms.
Be cautious if the answer is vague or evergreen, such as “Google always wants good content” or “we focus on the fundamentals.” Fundamentals matter, but a company that cannot point to anything concrete from the last twelve months is probably not following the field closely. You can also notice whether they talk about AI search at all. By 2026 this is a core part of the conversation, not an optional add-on, and a company that does not raise it on its own is behind.
Look for ongoing testing and learning
Search is not a problem you solve once. Updates arrive several times a year, and tactics that worked last quarter can lose value. A company that stays current treats its own work as something to test and adjust.
Reasonable signs of this include: a regular internal process for reviewing client performance after major updates, time set aside for the team to read primary sources such as Google’s own documentation and announcements, and a willingness to revise a strategy when results or guidance change. Ask how they learn. Conferences, industry publications, hands-on experiments on their own or test sites, and following Google’s official channels are all good answers. A company that learns only from recycled blog posts or a course someone took years ago is a weaker bet.
Check whether they have abandoned outdated tactics
Some tactics that once produced rankings now do little or can cause harm. Watch for a company that still leans on keyword stuffing, thin pages built around small keyword variations, low-quality bulk link buying, exact-match anchor text at scale, or mass-produced articles with no real expertise behind them. These approaches are increasingly filtered out or penalized, and they signal a company that has not updated its methods.
A current company will instead talk about depth, accuracy, and demonstrated experience. Recent Google updates have put more weight on content from credible sources with real expertise, and on detecting low-value AI-generated material that adds nothing new. A company that understands this will focus on genuine subject knowledge, clear authorship, and content built to be useful rather than just to fill a page.
Questions that reveal current knowledge
A few direct questions tend to expose how current a company really is:
- What changed in search in the past year, and how did you adjust client strategies because of it?
- How is AI in search results affecting traffic for businesses like mine, and what are you doing about it?
- Which tactics have you stopped using in the last two years, and why?
- How does your team stay informed, and how often do you revisit a client’s strategy?
- After a major Google update, what is your process for reviewing client sites?
Look for specific, recent, and honest answers. A current company will admit there is uncertainty in some areas, because search is genuinely unpredictable right now, and will explain how they manage that rather than promising guaranteed outcomes.
The bottom line
You can judge whether an SEO company stays current without auditing their technical work. Pay attention to whether they discuss recent changes specifically, whether they describe a real habit of testing and learning, and whether they have dropped tactics that no longer work. A company that does all three is far more likely to protect and grow your visibility as search keeps shifting.