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One of the more challenging marketing roles to hire for is search engine optimization (SEO). The reason for this is two-fold:  1) The rules of SEO are constantly evolving and 2) It can take several months to results from an SEO expert’s work.

It’s hard to justify paying someone for performing work when there’s little to no guarantee of success. Of course, a similar observation could be made about other marketing tactics, but Search Engine Optimization, in particular, can be a murky area.

But if you want your website to appear on the first page of Google (or other search engines) search results pages, you probably are going to need a little help. That’s why we’ve put together this short guide to help you know how to hire a remote SEO specialist.

Check References

References can help you determine if the consultant is truly an effective expert or if they’re just blowing smoke. It’s good to check references to get a feel for how the SEO consultant works, that they performed the work they say they did. Granted, references can be fudged, and no one’s going to provide a reference where the work wasn’t as successful. For this reason, you may want to try to reach out to other clients that they may have listed on their website aside from that reference provided.

Ask for a Detailed Approach

A good SEO consultant should be able to clearly explain his/her approaches and methods they’d use specifically for your website. Search Engine Optimization is more than just plugging keywords into the content, and any proposal you receive from them should include an initial technical review of your site.

Avoid Empty Promises

If a remote SEO consultant promises to land your site on Google’s front page within a few weeks or a month, it’s likely they’re not being fully honest with you. The truth is that quality SEO results take several months to generate an impact. If whatever they’re offering sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Ask about Measurement

It’s a good idea to understand how they intend to measure their success. In terms of SEO, success is often measured using analytics programs, such as Google Analytics, which can track traffic sources and onsite user behaviors. Any SEO specialist you work with should be able to clearly articulate both what metrics they’ll be tracking, how they’ll be tracking them, and what they’ll need to do to set up tracking.

Ask about Reporting

How do you know your SEO specialist is doing their job? Well, they should be able to report their results on a fairly regular basis. If the Search Engine Optimization doesn’t provide at least a monthly report showing his/her progress, then they’re probably not going to be taking their work for your seriously.