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The top 5 questions for the SEO specialist you want to hire



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The top 5 questions for the SEO specialist you want to hire

Normally a business that isn't in the SEO and marketing field will think of outsourcing the work to a credible SEO specialist.  This means you have to go out and find the right person, for the right price, in order to get your rankings boosted without breaking the bank or wasting money.  Finding the right SEO specialist for your company or personal website is actually a difficult thing to do since you're essentially building your own team and not hiring a company to do it for you.  If you were to hire a company to come in and do all of your SEO, you would not have to vet anyone in order to figure out what they can do, but that means you're going to be paying a premium for the services needed.

Bringing on a great SEO specialist will decrease the amount you have to spend on your employees to teach them how everything goes.  You won't have to train this person, which means they can get right to work as soon as they are employed.  The beauty of an SEO specialist, that you don't have to train, they can start right away and help build up your rankings the day they're hired The top 5 questions for the SEO specialist you want to hire

In this discussion, I'll be going over the top 5 questions you should be asking an SEO specialist if you plan on hiring them, and those questions are:


How long have you been doing SEO?
An SEO specialist should have been doing search engine optimization for at least a few years before they can consider themselves a "specialist".  There's no way to know if they have been actually doing the work for years, but honest people will let you know exactly how long they have been working at boosting rankings for themselves as well as clients.  A person doing SEO for 1 to 2 years isn't a deal breaker, just read how they're responding and what they actually know about the operations they'll be doing, and judge them based on that.  Passing on a new SEO person because they haven't been working on it for 10+ years means you're limiting yourself to only a few people who would be willing to work for you and you might be passing up some amazing people during your search.

I consider myself an SEO specialist because I've been in the field since 2003 and I've had literally 1,000s of clients.  Now, you wouldn't be able to hire me for the same price you could hire someone that has 3 to 5 years of experience.  So, you'll need to understand that your budget might not get you the most experienced person in the world, but you can usually get someone that knows a great deal of how the search engines work The top 5 questions for the SEO specialist you want to hire

How long will it take to rank on page 1 for my keywords?
When it comes to getting to page 1 rankings for your website and targeting a specific keyword, there's no set timeline that will say "Hey, you'll rank on page 1 on this day!".  If an SEO specialist says they can get you page 1 rankings in XX days, you should avoid using them, mainly because they're just trying to get you to hire them and that's never a good thing.  They're just trying to take your money and boost your hopes to get you to sign up.  If the SEO specialist you have in mind says something along the lines of "It could take 3 to 6 months to get page 1 rankings, but we don't work for the search engines so it's hard to give an exact date" you should trust them a bit more because they're being honest with you.

You can weed out a lot of bad SEO specialists by asking this question, because the bad ones will tell you everything you want to hear, and now you know how to weed them out The top 5 questions for the SEO specialist you want to hire 

Do you guarantee top rankings?
No SEO specialist will guarantee top rankings because we don't work for Google, which means we can't place you at the top and we don't hold all the puzzle pieces to the search ranking algorithm.  If we did know all of this, we wouldn't be selling our services for anything less than $500,000,000 a year lol The top 5 questions for the SEO specialist you want to hire

Any SEO specialist that guarantees top rankings should be avoided because they're just trying to get you to sign up with them or they're trying to use a common loophole used by less than credible means.  They could say "Yes!  we can get you top rankings for your keywords!" you need to ask them about specific keywords because they could get your ranked for something like "the super duper amazing keyword for your website" and it won't take long to get to #1 since no one is ranking for it.  They will also target your own business name, and get you to #1 since you're the only one likely targeting it.  If you give them a specific set of keywords, medium to difficult ones, they will back out of their guarantee and that means they should be avoided.  They should be avoided because they intended on using a loophole to get you to keep paying them, and it would hold up in court if you were to sue them.  So, relieve yourself of headaches early on and don't work with these types of "specialists".

What sort of process will you take to increase my rankings?
Most SEO specialists will go over what they plan on doing to boost your rankings because they know a basic process that will already work.  Of course, they will have to adjust everything for your own website as well as what you've already done in the past to boot your rankings.  If they tell you some plain explanation of what they will do, without telling you where they're going to post backlinks, that's pretty normal. 

You can't tell them where you want to get your links because a lot of times it isn't possible since you don't know what you're doing and how difficult it is to get amazing backlinks in a short amount of time.

If the SEO specialist shows you an exact plan, that was already designed before you contact them, you need to avoid these types of people.  Avoid them because they have likely done this same plan dozen, or even hundreds, of times for previous clients.  This means there are a lot of footprints out there, and exact duplicate campaigns for other websites, which the search engines will notice and your overall campaign won't be as strong as it could have been.

Do you write any content on my website?
Good SEO specialists might not write content for you for the agreed upon price, but great SEO specialists will have added that to the total already and had planned on doing it from the start.  Now, if you don't want them to write up content for you, you can just tell them and they will remove it from the total you would be paying.  If a specialist says they don't plan on writing up your content, there are likely a couple reasons that could bring them to that decision, such as:

  1. They don't speak your native language and it's difficult for them to produce massive amounts of content for you.
  2. They just don't want to, which shows their true passion for their work.
  3. They aren't good at it, meaning you wouldn't want them to do it anyway.

Great SEO specialists will be able to write in your native language, or they will be able to get someone to do it, and that's what you want when you're looking for a specialist.


In conclusion
When you're looking for the best SEO specialist, you need to ask a bunch of questions prior to having them work on what you need to be done.  They should already know what to do when to do it, how they should do it, and they shouldn't ask for direction to get you top rankings.  They will likely write up their own content for your own website as well as 3rd party websites, which will set them apart from the average SEO specialists.  You need to understand that you won't be able to get a 15+ year experienced SEO specialist for the same price as someone that has been doing it for 3 to 5 years.  Be sure to ask all the right questions when looking for the perfect SEO specialist,


Remember to follow me!
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/TommyCarey


Thanks!

Tommy Carey

Comments

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Youngshark
Great article @tommy. I have not been in a position we
here I need such services but in future I could be in the need. I have an offline business which I have to conduct some vigorous marketing using the advanced seo tactics. I cannot manage to do it on my own and I have to get seo specialists.



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Kakashi2020
Nice. Precisely how I would answer the same questions haha. Hiring someone who couldn't answer such questions correctly would be a waste of time and money. That's why it's always good to ask such questions first before considering to hire a SEO expert.



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Barida
That's right as engaging them on some form of discussion is one of the ways that you can be able to discover how real that they are. One thing that I have come to realize is that to ranking higher, it takes patience and always working better to make things work at the end of the day.



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vinaya
While hiring one of the major things that you need to consider is where does the SEO client's business website stands in terms of search engine ranking. The person who does appear on the first page of google cannot uprank your website to the first page. You should also check his portfolio.



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Corzhens
I guess that’s a good means of checking on the capability of the SEO specialist. If his website is on top of the heap then that is a good indication that he knows what he is talking about. But I wonder if a specialist couldn’t get his site on the top of the search list, would he still let you know about it? He can just simply say that he has no website and he can point to the his clients’ website for the track record.



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Martinsx1
There is a wise saying in my culture that says that "one who ask questions would never get lost ". So, looking at how SEO works, it requires getting all the viable information needed before jumping into it and when it comes to hiring a specialist in SEO to help get your website up and running with ranking, it's very important to have all these questions answered before getting to business in order to have an expectation.



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amelia88
@Martinsx1 I love that saying! So often I think many of us fear asking questions but it's so important in developing an understanding of who you're hiring, or even the way you're doing business. Without the right questions, you can often be doomed to fail as a business.



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Barida
Being a specialist in the world of SEO entails being there for a longer period of time to be able to get things happening and learning from the lessons of the past. I have come to realize that it is always nice for people to discover that you can't always make things work for you within days or even weeks when we are talking of rankings on search engines. All that is required is to keep doing the right things and hope that it is going to pay out at the end of the day.



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vinaya
Some people just fake on what they can do in order to get the job. They will promise big things and when you don't get the results they will blame you. I have never hired a SEO specialist, however, I done SEO for clients. Some clients also have high expectations, yet they do not want to pay you. We can see clients willing to pay $5-$10 for #1 ranking on Google. This is insane.



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Martinsx1
From the fee charged by the specialist being hired would first show you that such SEO specialist is one with long years of experience on the job. They don't get worried about billing you expensively because they are very sure of delivering when they say they would. But newbie who are yet to get strong foundation on the job would look at cutting price in order to get jobs. It's not that some of them can't deliver but it's better to go with one with more possibilities of success, so the experienced specialist matters more.



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amelia88
"Any SEO specialist that guarantees top rankings should be avoided because they're just trying to get you to sign up with them or they're trying to use a common loophole used by less than credible means."

Such an important reminder! It's so easy for people to make promises they can't keep - I'd always rather someone be honest about what they can and can't deliver. Definitely a useful question to ask!



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superlicca
Very well said! I really agree with you that hiring SEO specialists that guarantee top ranking is not an assurance that they can make it. You also need to ask them for their impressive example of references. So, you will see if they promise is reliable. I would also prefer to hire someone who will give me an honest review of their abilities. And setting my expectations is also essential.



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amelia88
Yes, I think references are important...although I have heard of people even faking references (such as using friends as their "references" and claiming they were professional business contacts). I think it's important to really ask a lot of questions to get a feel for whether someone is being legit or not.



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Chinet23
Asking the right questions will really help you to get your desired result or to get the job done. Thanks for sharing this as you enlightened us what to ask specifically. If the SEO specialist gives us too good to be true promises, they're the ones who are not likely to deliver. And in this age where everyone seems to want instant results, they can fall into this trap.



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amelia88
The society we live in these days definitely gravitates towards that culture of instant gratification, instant results, and instant success. When people don't think they're getting that, they often look for a quick fix, and try and find someone who can deliver that - even when it's not practical or even possible! It's an important reminder that some things simply can't be done at the snap of your fingers.



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ajahcuizon
I agree with you. We should not get blinded by those too good to be true promises. They could lead us to disappointments. We should ask questions and see if they are really telling the truth. We should not be rush on hiring a specialist. We should take it slowly and surely so that we won't have regrets on the end.



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vinaya
These are very important questions. However, as a contractor, you also need to be clear on what can be done and what cannot. For example, recently I worked for a client. he wanted me to increase domain authority. I said I will build quality backlinks that will help his website to get higher domain authority. He mistook my statement. A week later he said he as not satisfied with my work because there was no improvement in his site. he was expecting DA to increase in overnight, which is just not possible.



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amelia88
It's tough when people expect miracles or expect instant changes overnight - when what they don't realize is that these things take time. I think that sounds like a case of just not being able to please everyone...if they expect immediate results with something like that they're always going to be disappointed.



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jpyy
Well, if I were to get an SEO, I'd do the same strategy as I would do if I was doing my own SEO. That would be simply looking at what the winners are doing and copy it. Well, you don't have to copy it character by character and certainly you want to be ethical. However, to me, a lot of copycatting is the most obvious solution!

OK, well, just look up some SEO companies and see if they have real winners as clients. In other words, ask yourself, "Do they have websites that have ranked well and for a large amount of time?".



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overcast
I think understanding SEO and writing about it in articles are two different thing. I know many copywriters who understand keywords and some of them also don't pay attention to the keyword stuffing. This is a good thing considering that google often see keyword stuffing as a parameter to ban the page or low rank it. I guess people should hire external writer and don't tell them much about keywords then they will write naturally.



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ajahcuizon
It is definitely true that you should ask rightful questions first before hiring a SEO specialist. Also, doing a research before closing the deal is what I also consider as a preventive measure. Not all people will be able to help your business, we don't know, they might become a reason for your business' failure. That's why giving attention to this kind of matter of hiring is quite important because it might have a big effect to your business.



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rlpzbeermoney
Hiring the right SEO specialist is like hiring the right person for your company. Your business has a specific set of needs for SEO and it takes the right kind of SEO specialist to accomplish that task. Otherwise, you're just spending money on the wrong part of SEO and it won't boom as much.



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Martinsx1
The truth is that there are so many bad eggs out there who claim to be SEO specialists but they are just scams in disguise. They would promise hell and heaven but on both short long and long long they will still end up giving you any progress in your business. Some will end up using black hat tricks to boost your ranking and your business will end up in wrong site of Google punishment.



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rlpzbeermoney
I do agree that there are a lot of "SEO specialists" out there. That's maybe more on the buyer's discretion more than the specialist itself. That's why there are sites like SEOClerks where we can source legitimate services to boost our optimizations.
I didn't know that Google punishes people who do illegal stuff. I always thought it wasn't as "policed" due to it being in the internet. Good to know.



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Chinet23
We have to make sure that our money is well spent by making sure we are dealing with the right people who can provide us the SEO service we need. It's not on the amount spent but on whether we receive the expected result or not. We should know what we are diving into for us to set realistic expectations and discern those which are not.



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stbrians
This question has haunted me for a long time. If somebody promises to rank my website number 1 in XX days, I wonder who will be number 2? Are all websites at position 1? What I want in my website is ti rank high and nit number 1.



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Martinsx1
The truth is that there are some promises that aren't realistic no matter how good the maker tries to put it in order to look very convincing. When it comes to website ranking in Google, the site niche goes a very long way in determining how long its going to take to rank with the amount of work invested on the site. So, when you are being promised to get ranked number 1 in a short period of time, it's better not to believe that because it's never going to happen if you site niche is a hot prospect.



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Martinsx1
Before getting into SEO, one needs to know the answers at least 90% of all the questions needed to help and guide the webmaster to get the best out out of his or her online business. So, I'm totally in agreement with making sure to get all these answers from the SEO specialist to be hired for one's business. If the answers given doesn't satisfy you, it's better to go for another specialist but be careful for one's that gives you answers that are too good.



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NesMarcos
I would have to agree with you. Not all good at answering questions are the best pick when it comes to working. Moreover, I definitely agree that satisfaction is a must. There is no harm in finding for another specialist if he/she did not meet your expectations.



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Martinsx1
Exactly, it's not a must that you will have to deal with the first SEO specialist you have reached out to for business deal if his or her offers aren't near to your expectations. There are so many other alternatives available in the open online market that you can easily choose from till you are satisfied with what the specialist would bring to your business.



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Chinet23
Asking the right questions is just the initial phase. We can't really know if they will be able to deliver. Longevity in the work, for example, is not a guarantee of quality service. And I agree that they may sound great and able to give you the answers you are looking for but you're always free to find another specialist if they do not meet your expectations.



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NesMarcos
This is a great article and a well shared one. I strongly agree that getting someone that knows a great deal of how the search engines work is good but it is indeed incomparable with someone who has worked for more than 10 years. Needless to say, getting the right and perfect SEO specialist for the job post is not that easy but can be possibly weigh the way he/ she answers the questions.



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Martinsx1
Seriously, experience matters a lot in SEO. It's definitely going to do one so much good to look at the possibility of getting SEO specialist who has been on the job for a very long time to work for you. Such person can well give you guarantee from all his experiences on the job unlike when you deal with a newbie who is yet to master the reigns of the job.



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centurion
White hat SEO- on page and off page optimization based work for 90 days continuously will give you guarantee for the top 10 position on Google search engine result page. Link wheel is an important factor to rank the website on a speedy way. Every day website update minimum some descriptions and image SEO also an important matter. The another most important matter is to identify the competitive website and also to find out the competitive website keywords and implement those keywords to personal website meta keywords section and those keyword based article will provide you high rankings for the search engine result page. Minimum 5 years + experience should be necessary to make a website top page rank.

Thanks
Centurion



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superlicca
These tips are really helpful when hiring an SEO specialist. It will give you an idea of what a specialist can do for your business. The other option that you can do is to hire someone who is recommended by a trusted friend or person. In this case, you know that you won't waste your money and you are hiring a real expert.



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romyter013
Its really best if you asked questions to every expert here if an individual really want to learn more. By following and reading their experienced comments can help too. But theres always someone who's only trying to be good but cannot be trusted on the hand, still we need to be alert and be careful all times



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Corzhens
The length of experience with SEO work is not material to me because I had worked with employees who have been in the job for long but the performance was not desirable. With the time that it will take for the ranking to increase is also not very important. What is paramount to me is the guarantee that the SEO specialist can give me. The best contract is paying him by commission on the amount that my site will benefit from the SEO work



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ahmed11
yes i agree with you on all these 5 major question great informative thread man



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superlicca
These tips are great when hiring an SEO specialist. It is important to ask questions that will determine the ability of the specialist and to see if he is the best fit for the role. And I think the best source is a reliable character reference that he can provide and also the websites that he ranked on the search engine.



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superlicca
Hiring a specialist in SEO can be very expensive that is why you need to ensure that they are qualified. Everyone would say that they can do the job and you cannot hire people at their word. Your detailed questions are valuable to make sure that you are hiring a perfect fit for your company.



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HappyLady
This is so useful. Hiring an SEO specialist can cost a lot of money. I have done so in the past and not seen great results. This is probably because I had no idea what was involved. One question I do have. How do I know what qualifications an SEO specialist should have? Most of the world has no idea that this is not a computer programmer's job and think one hat covers all. They have an idea that there is some mysterious computer qualification that makes every person who has it a wizard at everything.



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jetselle
Indeed. Bringing on a fantastic search engine marketing specialist will decrease the amount you need to spend on your personnel to teach them how everything is going. You won't need to train this person, which means that they can get proper to work as soon as they may be hired. The beauty of an Search engine optimization professional which you do not need to teach they are able to start proper away and help building up your ratings the day they're employed.



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anyone01
Get some information about the strategies they will utilize. You should thoroughly understand the master and the diverse strategies that he or she employments. Get some information about their plans on various things, such as expanding on the web movement, expanding the quantity of online purchasers, content administration, and so on. The master must have the capacity to deal with the every one of these areas productively. A slip-up in any of them may wind up as an extensive issue.



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theresajane
This thread is helpful not only to the target clients, but also to the ones who plan to put their names on the SEO world. Each point that you have shared is well articulated that even an aspiring writer would also question himself before diving into the business. I guess proper and thorough "screening" is the key to hiring a perfect SEO specialist.



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