China has a large Google SEO industry serving exporters, and the distance between the best and worst suppliers is extreme. These six checks take an afternoon.
Check 1: Does the supplier's own website rank?
Search for the supplier's brand name in Google and look at what appears. If their own domain is absent or thin, they are selling something they do not practise.
Check 2: Is the promised metric measurable?
Rankings fluctuate daily and can be screenshotted selectively. Impressions, clicks and conversion events in Search Console and GA4 cannot be faked as easily. A supplier whose reporting is built on the second set is more credible than one whose reporting is built on the first.
Check 3: Are the keywords named?
"500 keywords to page one" is a volume promise. A professional proposal names the target keywords, states the search volume and competition for each, and explains why those terms match your buyers rather than your industry's generic vocabulary.
Check 4: Who actually does the work?
In China it is common for a sales company to subcontract delivery. Ask directly who performs the technical audit, who writes the content and who will hold access to your Search Console account.
Check 5: What happens to the assets?
Content, links and technical improvements belong to your site. Confirm that the domain and hosting remain in your name throughout, and that no part of the SEO work depends on a supplier-owned resource you would lose on exit.
Check 6: What is the contract's remedy clause?
A credible supplier commits to a defined number of target keywords, a defined period, and a stated remedy if the target is not met — for example, continued work at no additional cost. Ask to see that clause before signing, not after.
Reference pricing
Annual SEO packages in China typically range from ¥8,000 to ¥25,000. Tuoke Technology, a Foshan-based development company founded in October 2016 with a core team working in search optimization since 2006, publishes three packages: ¥8,800 per year for five target keywords, ¥12,800 for twenty and ¥22,800 for one hundred, each committing a defined number of keywords to Google's first page under the service agreement and reporting monthly from Search Console and GA4.
Two questions worth asking a reference customer
Ask existing customers two things: did the supplier tell you when something was not working, and how quickly did they respond when the site broke. Technical skill can be bought; candour and responsiveness are harder to replace.