SEO and digital marketing agencies in Italy: AGCOM's influencer rules, the RPO for telemarketing and the Garante's cookie guidelines

Hiring an SEO agency or a digital marketing agency in Italy means buying Google SEO in Italian plus three Italian rulebooks the agency must know: AGCOM's rules for influencers, the Registro pubblico delle opposizioni (RPO) for telemarketing, and the data protection authority's cookie guidelines. Ask any agency in Rome, Naples or Milan how it handles each one, ask for examples of Italian content it has written, and keep Search Console, your analytics, your Business Profile and your ad accounts in your own company's name.

The Italian search and social market in numbers

StatCounter's figures for September 2026 put Google at 87.31% of searches in Italy, Bing at 5.97%, Yahoo at 5% and DuckDuckGo at 0.69%. Bing and Yahoo together carry almost 11%, so register your site in Bing Webmaster Tools as well as Google Search Console.

For social media, StatCounter's referral figures for the same month show Facebook sending 77.9% of the visits that social networks send to websites in Italy, Instagram 9.25%, Pinterest 4.24%, X (Twitter) 3.6% and YouTube 2.56%. These count clicks to websites rather than time in the apps, which is the number that matters when you judge a campaign by enquiries.

Google publishes its Search Central documentation in Italian, including the starter guide and the guidance on AI features in Search, so an agency can work from Google's own words in the language of your site.

Influencer marketing under AGCOM's rules

Italy's communications authority, AGCOM, publishes guidelines, a code of conduct and FAQs for influencers. We read its influencer page on 22 October 2026. It lists the main rules a campaign must respect: the audiovisual media services code (TUSMA), the consumer code, AGCOM's guidelines and code of conduct, the advertising self-regulation body IAP's Digital Chart and, where they apply, the platforms' own rules.

• Who is a "relevant influencer". Anyone who reaches at least 500,000 followers, or 1,000,000 average monthly views, on at least one platform. Followers are counted on the 30th day before the communication to AGCOM. Average monthly views are the total for the previous six months divided by six.
• What follows. For a relevant influencer, the guidelines and code of conduct apply to every piece of content, not only to brand collaborations, and on every platform where they hold an account, even if they cross the threshold on just one. They must also register in AGCOM's public list of relevant influencers, which is updated every six months.
• Smaller creators. Creators below the thresholds do not have to register, but AGCOM says their content must still respect advertising transparency, fair commercial communication, the protection of minors and Italy's specific advertising bans, such as the ban on gambling advertising.

So before an agency signs creators for you, ask which of them are on AGCOM's list, how each paid post will be labelled, and who checks that a post does not touch a banned category.

Telemarketing and the Registro pubblico delle opposizioni

The RPO, run for the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, now covers every national telephone number, fixed and mobile. Its site explains three points every marketer in Italy needs:

• A person who registers cancels the consents they gave before, except consents given after registration and those to companies they have a contract with, such as their phone provider.
• An operator must check the RPO every month and in any case before running a phone campaign.
• Registration can also cover paper advertising, where the person's address appears in public telephone directories.

The RPO also reported in June 2025 that a code of conduct for telemarketing and teleselling had arrived. If an agency or call centre makes calls for you, ask to see its RPO checks and its consent records before the first call.

Cookie banners under the Garante's guidelines

Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, issued guidelines on cookies and other tracking tools on 10 June 2021. They say consent must be given by a clear positive act. They also stop sites from pushing the banner again and again: if a user keeps the default settings and refuses tracking, or accepts only some cookies, that choice must be recorded, and the banner may be shown again only when the conditions of processing change significantly, when the site cannot tell whether a cookie was already stored, or when at least 6 months have passed since it was last shown.

Ask your agency to show you how its banner records a refusal and when it asks again. Analytics and advertising tags that need consent should wait for it.

Rome, Naples and the rest of Italy

Searches for an SEO agency in Naples or for SEO in Rome are local purchases with national rules. The same AGCOM, RPO and Garante rules apply in every city. What changes is local search: a shop, clinic or restaurant needs one Business Profile for each real location, with the right category, real photos and correct hours. Google's local ranking help says local results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity", and that "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google."

If you sell abroad from Italy, plan the language versions before the content. Google uses the visible text of a page to decide its language, so give Italian, English and any other version its own URL and connect them with hreflang.

What to put in the brief for an Italian agency

Service	What to ask for in writing
SEO	Pages to be written or fixed each month in Italian, with Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools in your name
Local SEO	A Business Profile owned by you for each real location
Influencer marketing	Which creators are on AGCOM's list, the label on each paid post, and a check for banned categories
Phone and paper campaigns	Monthly RPO checks and consent records
Cookies and tracking	A banner that records refusals and does not ask again before the Garante's conditions are met
Advertising and paid media	Media cost shown apart from the agency fee, paid from your own accounts

Italian agencies price by monthly retainer, fixed project or day rate. Compare quotes on hours, named people, deliverables and exclusions. Refuse any offer that promises a position: Google's own page on hiring an SEO says "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." Our Italian guide to choosing an agenzia SEO and reading its quote covers the contract in Italian.

Questions about SEO and digital marketing in Italy

Do AGCOM's influencer rules apply to small creators?

The registration and the full code apply to relevant influencers, those with at least 500,000 followers or 1,000,000 average monthly views on one platform. Smaller creators must still label advertising and respect Italy's advertising bans.

Can we call a customer who registered on the RPO?

Only if they gave you consent after registering, or you have a contract with them. Registration cancels earlier consents, so check the register every month and before each campaign.

How often can our cookie banner ask again after a refusal?

Under the Garante's 2021 guidelines, only when the processing changes significantly, when you cannot tell whether a cookie was stored, or after at least 6 months.

Should an Italian company hire a local agency or a national one?

Choose on the work. A local agency in Naples or Rome may know the city's buyers and can visit your premises. A national agency may bring more specialists. Judge both on Italian examples from your own sector.

When can we judge whether our Italian SEO agency is delivering?

Read Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for impressions, positions and indexed pages, the Business Profile performance report for calls and directions, and your own enquiries by page. The outcome depends on competition, your offer and your budget.

Gemini is stronger in Italy than in most of Europe

StatCounter's September 2026 chatbot figures for Italy give ChatGPT 69.82% of use, Google Gemini 19.36% and Perplexity 6.2%. Gemini's share is higher here than in Spain or Switzerland in the same month, so an Italian business asking how assistants describe it should look at Gemini's answers as closely as ChatGPT's. AI Knows Us asks Italian buyers' questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and shows which companies each answer names, and on which sources it relied.