Our top picks:
- Experience
- Customer Validation
- Proof of ranking in highly competitive niches
- SERPS
- Traffic Growth
- Niche experience if necessary (e.g. Cybersecurity)
- Ability to articulate and demonstrate strategic SEO
- Ability to track, measure and demonstrate at a tactical level
Red flags typically include:
- Claims a relationship with Google/inside track (common among PPC/SEM+SEO agencies)
- Provides Technical/on-site SEO
Terms an SEO Expert should understand and what they really mean:
| SERP | Search Engine Rank Position |
| Position 0 | The top organic spot above position 1 and any video, knowledge panel etc – typically an enlarged snippet with or without accompanying images |
| SEM | Search Engine Marketing – often conflated with just PPC – meaning both SEO, PPC, Content and Video Marketing |
| Snippet | A title and excerpt of a web page with a URL to the page displayed in a Google search results page |
| Google Dance | The up-down oscillation for new content/domains/videos that drive webmasters crazy |
| Google Penalty | A manual penalty applied to a site for violating the Google Terms of Service (TOS) and/or Webmaster Guidelines – almost always for egregious spammy links or buying links. Almost always requires a Disavow request and reconsideration request. |
| Disavow | A list of URLs that a webmaster sends to Google to exclude from its link list that the user doens’t want to receive authority from as they are spammy or bought links. |
| CTR | Click-Through-Rate – the ratio of clicks to impressions. CTR applies to organic search, PPC and most other organic and paid platforms like YouTube, Facebook etc. |
