Guide
How to Choose an SEO Specialist: 9 Criteria
The SEO market is full of promises and incompetent performers. Here are 9 criteria that genuinely help tell a professional from a charlatan β from personal experience and conversations with clients who have been burned before.
9 criteria for choosing an SEO specialist
- A real portfolio with numbers. Cases with concrete metrics: traffic before/after, rankings, conversions. Without numbers it's not a case study, it's fiction.
- Transparent monthly reporting. Regular reports: what was done, what results, what's planned. Silence is a bad sign.
- Understanding of your niche and business model. A good specialist asks questions about the business, not just about keywords.
- No guarantees of specific rankings. "I guarantee #1" is a red flag. Google gives no one such guarantees, and neither can a specialist.
- Works with Google Analytics and Search Console. This is the basic toolkit. If a specialist doesn't use them β something's off.
- Explains the complex in simple terms. A professional can convey the essence without jargon. An excess of terms often masks emptiness.
- A transparent link strategy. No "secret databases", no mass spam. Permanent links from real sites.
- Verifiable reviews and references. IT Rating, Upwork, LinkedIn, Google Maps. Not reviews on their own site.
- A clear contract and KPIs on paper. What is done, in what scope, which metrics are tracked.
Interview questions
- Can you show 2β3 cases from similar niches with real numbers?
- How do you run a technical audit? Which tools?
- How do you build the link profile and where do you get links?
- What does your monthly report look like?
- What do you do when traffic drops or Google penalizes the site?
- Do you work with competitors in my niche at the same time?
π© Red flags: a guarantee of #1 in Google, "secret technologies", refusal to show cases, payment for rankings only with no regard to traffic, no contract, a report once per quarter.
Where to find a specialist
- IT Rating β a ranking of SEO specialists with verified reviews
- Upwork β an international platform where rating and work history are public
- LinkedIn β a professional profile with recommendations
- Google β if a specialist is themselves at the top for "SEO specialist", that's already a result
Need a specialist? Get in touch β I'll tell you about my approach β