How to check a UK marketing agency is legitimate

Minute 0 to 5: the company behind the brand

Start at Companies House, which is free to search. Find the registered company behind the trading name. Several agencies in this directory trade under a brand that differs from the registered entity: Landscape Marketers is Intent Marketing Ltd, Websites for Tradespeople is JW Digital Services Ltd, Roofing SEO Services is SEO Consultancy Ltd. That is normal. What matters is that a registered company exists and that you can find it.

Check the incorporation date, the registered address, the filing history and the officers. A company incorporated three months ago is not disqualified, but it changes the questions you ask. A company with overdue accounts or a string of dissolved predecessors at the same address deserves more caution.

• Does the website name the registered company and company number? Lead Wave, for example, shows its company number on its site.
• Does the registered address match the location claimed on the website?
• Are accounts and confirmation statements up to date?
• Have the directors run other marketing companies that were dissolved?

Minute 5 to 8: the domain

Run a WHOIS lookup on the agency's domain. For .co.uk domains, Nominet's lookup shows the registration date. A domain registered last month behind a site claiming '12 years of experience' needs explaining. It may be a rebrand. Ask.

Look at the site in the Wayback Machine at archive.org. You can see what the agency said about itself a year ago and whether the trades it 'specialises in' have changed with the wind.

Minute 8 to 12: the people

Is anyone named? A founder, a team page, a LinkedIn profile that links back to the agency? Several agencies in this directory name their founder; many do not. An unnamed team is not a red flag on its own, but combined with no address and no company number it becomes one.

Where a founder is named, check that the person exists and that their stated background is consistent. A founder who claims a decade in search should have a trail of that work somewhere.

Minute 12 to 16: the proof

Case studies come in three grades. Named client with checkable figures and a live website you can visit. Anonymised results with figures. Testimonials with a first name and no detail. The first is worth something. The second shows what the agency considers typical. The third proves nothing.

For any named case study, visit the client's website. Does it exist? Does it credit the agency in its footer? Does it rank for the terms the case study claims? Five minutes on Google with the client's trade and town will tell you.

Third-party reviews need the same scrutiny. Look at the dates. Twenty five-star reviews in one week, then nothing, is a pattern. Reviews that describe a specific trade, a specific outcome and a specific timeframe are more credible than 'great service, highly recommend'. Note that some agencies, such as Rated Media, carry reviews under a different trading name (Premilead in that case), so search both.

Minute 16 to 20: who owns what

This is the check that matters most for a tradesperson, and the one most often skipped. Find out, from the agency's own terms, who owns the website, the domain, the Google Business Profile, the ad accounts and the phone number used for tracking.

A legitimate agency can still structure its offer so that you own none of it. Pay-monthly websites on the agency's platform, tracked phone numbers registered to the agency and ad accounts in the agency's name are all common. They are not fraud. They are a dependency, and one you should know about before you sign. Our guide to pay-monthly versus upfront website companies explains the trade-offs.

Asset	Ask	Better answer
Domain	Whose name is on the registration?	Yours
Website	Can I export it and host it elsewhere?	Yes, or the site is bought outright
Google Business Profile	Who is the primary owner?	You, with the agency as a manager
Ad accounts	Whose account is it?	Yours, with agency access
Tracking number	Can it be ported to me if I leave?	Yes

Eight warning signs

• Guaranteed first-page rankings or a guaranteed number of calls. Reputable agencies in this directory explicitly decline to guarantee either.
• Pressure to sign on the first call, often with a 'price goes up Friday' line.
• No company number, no address and no named person anywhere on the site.
• Case studies with no client names and no live sites to check.
• Payment requested to a personal account or by bank transfer only, with no invoice from the registered company.
• A long minimum term, 12 months or more, with no exit for non-performance.
• Vague ownership of your website, profile and ad accounts.
• Claims of exclusivity or territory that the agency will not put in writing, a point covered in our explainer on what area exclusivity really means.

Signs that do not mean much on their own

A new company. Everyone starts somewhere, and a founder with a track record elsewhere can run a good new agency.

A small team or a sole operator. Many of the most useful trades agencies are one or two people. The question is whether they do the work themselves or resell it.

No published prices. Common and often reasonable for scoped work. Only a problem if the agency will not give you a figure in writing after a conversation.

An address that is a serviced office or a home. Trades agencies rarely need a shopfront.

If something does not add up

Ask. A straight question about a company number, a domain date or a case study client gets a straight answer from a legitimate agency, usually within a minute. Evasion is the signal.

Then compare the answers across the agencies on your shortlist using our worksheet for comparing agency proposals side by side. Legitimacy is the floor, not the decision. Once an agency passes these checks, the real work of choosing starts.

Frequently asked questions