seoforsmallbiz.com

Here are some questions that I would ask any SEO during an interview:

1-What sites have you optimized?  Where were they ranking before, and where are they ranking now?  

The idea here is not really to make a calculation of  “he took a page from ranking at 90th to 10th place, there for an increase of 80″.  The idea is that you need to let him know that you will be measuring his success, and he is going to be paid on that success.

2-Can I check your references?

Anything less than a yes is not good enough.  You need to talk to the businesses that he claims he worked with.  Sure, take the name and number he gives you to call, but I suggest you go to this clients’ site and “contact” them and ask for the person in charge of the website to call you.  This way you are not only talking to the person in charge , but you are also verifying that the contact you were given is still with the company

3-Ask him how long it will take him to do the job.  If he really knows what he is doing, he will break down the job into sections.  Content, title, image tag optimizations are done usually once (unless your content changes often).  But link building is a lengthy process, and therefore he should suggest a longer duration to finish that part.  Caution:  If he suggests that he knows a “quick-and-easy” way to get a large number of links overnight, stop and run.  This is not the SEO you want to hire.  One “good” link is better than a thousand bad links!  You are paying him to get good, quality links, from reputable sites that are related to your industry.  Any other link will not do.

4-Tell him that you will pay for performance.   Tell him that your site is now ranking 73rd for a given term, and that you’ll pay him  if he can get you to top 3, and $y for top 10.  If he can not get you to top 10, he needs to have a very good reason why.  (The only good reason is that the term you are trying to rank for is very competitive, and that you do not have enough good content to compete with the sites that are in 10 at the moment.  If that is the case, you should try to find some new terms to rank for, and have your SEO optimize you site for those pages)

5-Google his name!  If he is not showing up in any page relating to search engine marketing (especially in a positive way), it means he is probably a newbie.  All reputable SEOs have written up some kind of online content to establish themselves.  I rather pay twice as much and get someone who has published a few articles, and has been recommended by others..