As a long time student of SEO, aka Search Engine Optimization, I’ve read a lot of blogs, read a lot of books, listened to various recordings, attended events etc. I have noticed that there are certain traits that all of the good and successful SEO practitioners seem to share.

By “good and successful” I mean that they pay their bills by performing SEO work full time, with legitimate clients and that you can see have a high profile within the community. Admittedly, by my own definition, I am not a good SEOer. If I had to peg my level, I would say that I am adequate to perhaps an advanced student of the art.

What are the traits?

• They never miss an opportunity for a keyword rich backlink I’ve noticed on certain pages for the upcoming SEO conferences that some experts have keyword rich backlinks, and others don’t. At first, I thought it was something to do with the organizer not allowing the links, but why allow some people to get a back link and not others? See the speakers page for the Search Exchange conference for a sample.
• They always link to themselves “above the fold”. The term “above the fold” is an old newspaper reference. Basically, if you picture a newspaper of yore, for sale in those boxes on the street, the good news would go “above the fold” where people would see it and want to buy the paper to get the rest of the story. On a web page, it refers to top part of the page, before you have to scroll down to see the rest of it.
• They always use the same keywords. They’re not listed as a “marketing consultant” at one site, as an “online marketer” on another site and as an “online specialist” on yet another. Even though all of those terms are related, they’re not the same keyword. The good practitioners always use the same keywords to link to themselves.
• They tend to be public speakers. I’m not saying that they have to always keynote at Blogworld, or something like that. What I am saying, is that good SEOers tend to speak publicly about their craft. Either in local, regional or national conferences you should be able to find an instance of your SEOer teaching or speaking at an event.
• They don’t promise page 1 rankings. It’s one of the biggest flags when you’re dealing with someone that isn’t good. A good SEOer will tell you that they can improve you rankings or they can optimize your rankings but they won’t promise or guarantee a page 1 ranking, or any kind of a page ranking for that matter.
• They own at least 1 domain. I’m sure after this post goes live I’ll get several emails from “SEO experts” promising me a page 1 ranking “in the Google.” All of those emails will come from a gmail or yahoo email account. It’s my belief that good SEO practitioners own at least 1 domain for their business and know how to use it for their business related emails.

That’s my little list of things that could help you figure out if your SEO consultant sucks or not. I’m not saying that if someone passes all the above criteria they don’t suck. They may still suck and do things that will get your site banned from the search engines or worse, these are just some quick guidelines to help you sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak. There are exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, these guidelines should treat you right.

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