SEO is the easiest function to hire badly, because activity looks identical to progress for about six months. Here is how to test for the difference before you sign.
Decide which SEO role you actually need
'SEO' covers four fairly separate jobs. Hiring the wrong one is the root cause of most disappointing engagements.
- Technical SEO — crawling, indexation, site speed, structured data
- Content SEO — briefs, editing, topical coverage, internal linking
- Local SEO — Google Business Profile, citations, service-area pages
- Digital PR / links — outreach and earned coverage
Test with a live audit, not a portfolio
Give a candidate your real site and 60 paid minutes. Ask for the three highest-impact fixes and a one-line justification for each. Strong candidates point at indexation, internal linking or intent mismatch. Weak ones return a generic checklist about meta descriptions and keyword density.
Trap one: reporting rankings instead of outcomes
Insist on impressions, clicks and conversions from Search Console and analytics. Rank trackers are a diagnostic, not a result — a hire who reports only positions is optimising the report.
Trap two: content volume as the plan
Publishing forty thin posts a quarter is measurable, easy to justify and usually worthless. Ask any candidate how they would decide what not to publish. A good answer mentions existing coverage, intent and site authority.
Trap three: no access, no accountability
Remote SEO hires need Search Console, analytics, the CMS and ideally a staging environment on day one. Without access they produce recommendations nobody implements, and six months later nobody can tell whether the strategy failed or was never shipped.
Brief them properly
Name the business outcome (qualified enquiries, not traffic), the pages that already convert, the constraints on the site, and who approves publishing. Then set a 90-day review against impressions and enquiries, not position counts.
Key takeaways
- Name the SEO discipline before you write the brief.
- Use a paid live audit as the interview.
- Report clicks and conversions, not rankings.
- Grant tool access on day one or expect no accountability.
Need this role filled rather than researched?
Tell us the role and we'll send a shortlist of pre-vetted candidates within 48 hours.