How to Hire an SEO Expert + Top 6 Pros to Consider

When hiring an SEO professional, look for someone who understands content marketing and technical SEO, and is curious about how to continuously improve your website’s organic presence. Read on for the top SEO experts to consider adding to your team.

In organic search, higher rankings get you more clicks, which translates to more traffic – and more potential leads.

But you need more than just a working knowledge in search engine optimization (SEO) to thrive in this competitive landscape.

This is where hiring an SEO expert comes into play. Read on for what to look for, our top 6 picks, and more.

Top 6 SEO experts to consider:

1. HawkSEM
2. Ignite Visibility
3. Overthink Group
4. Wpromote
5. Tinuiti
6. Silverback Strategies

The internet is swarming with SEO agencies and freelancers who offer a wide array of services at drastically different price points. We did a little bit of digging around so you don’t have to.

For this list, we chose the best SEO experts based on:

• Agency specialties and niche
• SEO services offered
• Notable clients who can vouch for their performance

Let’s get to it.

1. HawkSEM

Since 2006, HawkSEM has worked closely with clients across multiple industries and generated positive results that contributed to their overall growth.

Over the years, we have built an impressive body of work – and the results speak for themselves:

• DILO increased their organic clicks by nearly 50% in just six months
• Career Group Companies enjoyed 71% more page views on their job listing pages
• MileIQ grew their year-over-year (YoY) organic site traffic by 125%

We pride ourselves in adding a personal touch to digital marketing.

After familiarizing ourselves with your business goals and needs, we then create sustainable growth and measurable results with help from our proprietary tech, ConversionIQ.

Best for: B2B/B2C, ecommerce, SaaS, finance, healthcare, education, professional services

SEO services:

• Technical SEO
• On-Page SEO
• Ecommerce SEO
• Local SEO
• Conversion rate optimization
• International SEO
• Content strategy

Clients:

• Microsoft
• Verizon Media
• DIRECTV
• Nike
• Honda

2. Ignite Visibility

Led by expert Digital Marketing Strategist John Lincoln, Ignite Visibility aims to provide the most effective digital marketing solutions through its own proprietary forecasting system.

The company prides itself on building long-term partnerships with clients and boasts expert level social media integration that drives comprehensive results.

Ignite Invisibility is able to deliver organic traffic by boosting on-page performance, fixing backend issues, and tailoring your content strategy to align with SEO – and taking it to another level by applying a multichannel digital marketing strategy,

Best for: SMBs, enterprises

SEO services:

• Ecommerce SEO
• Digital PR & link building
• International SEO
• SEO consulting
• Local and national SEO

Clients:

• Tony Robbins
• Army & Navy Academy
• Sharp Healthcare
• TKWW – The Knot Worldwide
• Experian

3. Overthink Group

Overthink Group is a B2B SEO company focused on increasing your rankings through high-quality content.

It mostly caters to startups and up-and-coming businesses, helping small business owners reach their growth goals through SEO.

With tagline Growth via Content, this content agency stands by its content strategy and is 100% dedicated to driving organic traffic by building up your content library.

Simple core service offerings in the form of comprehensive content packages  are tailored to your specific needs. So whether you’re building your content library from scratch or need continuous content production, this content agency has you covered.

Best for: Startups

SEO services:

• B2B SEO
• Content development
• Competitor insights
• Comprehensive SEO reports
• Content strategy

Clients: 

• Ellevest
• Pushpay
• Harper Collins Publishers

4. Wpromote

Wpromote is a full-service digital marketing agency that has an excellent reputation for producing results from their organic marketing efforts.

They’ve worked with some notable brands over the years, including Hibbett Creative, Intuit Quickbooks, and Coyote Logistics. Their winning strategy is to embed their teams within the structure of their client’s organizations to achieve desired results.

One thing that separates the company from the competition is its use of  proprietary tool Voice Search. This tool uses voice search data and analytics to develop and expand solid SEO strategies.

Wpromote gets into the nitty-gritty of the client’s day-to-day and builds an SEO marketing strategy from there, highlighting their commitment to generating the best results.

Best for: Small businesses, medium businesses, medium enterprises

SEO services:

• Wayfinder prioritization tools
• Content development
• Social media sEO
• Site migrations
• Local and international SEO
• Voice search

Clients:

• Adobe
• Samsung
• Spanx
• Transunion
• Instacart
• Marriott 

5. Tinuiti

Tinuiti’s claim to fame is that they are the largest independent performance marketing firm across streaming TV, Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

This full-service SEO and digital marketing agency aims to put businesses at the top of online rankings with thorough, white-hat SEO strategies.

All of these services are supported by their patented technology, Mobius, which collects and analyzes business data and converts it into meaningful insights that can be used to formulate effective marketing strategies.

Best for: Ecommerce brands, businesses looking to expand their streaming campaigns

SEO services:

• Content creation
• Blog and social media optimization
• Site migrations
• Rich snippets
• Technical SEO
• App store SEO
• Enterprise SEO

Clients:

• Revlon
• Advil
• The Honest Company
• Rite Aid
• Poppi
• Nautica

6. Silverback Strategies

A digital performance marketing agency specializing in data-driven paid search, SEO, and content marketing strategies, Silverback Strategies is also a formidable choice for your SEO needs.

Some of the most notable organizations they’ve worked with over 15 years of experience include Cornell University (eCornell), Long Roofing, Hyper Vigilance, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences.

The secret to their success? Developing an SEO and content marketing process that is rooted in a firm understanding of your business and customers. This gives them the tools they need to grow your organic search visibility.

Best for: Local and national clients looking for help with SEO

SEO services:

• Editorial SEO
• Technical SEO
• Local SEO
• ecommerce SEO
• SEO Audits

Clients:

• Ritz-Carlton Residences
• American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA)
• Cornell University (eCornell)

What does an SEO expert do?

An SEO expert is a skilled professional with a deep understanding of how search algorithms work.

Using this knowledge, they can optimize your website to help it rank higher on search engines like Google and Bing.

As part of an SEO expert’s job description, they may be required to:

• Develop strategies to help the website rank on search engine results pages (SERPs)
• Perform keyword research to look for opportunities to attract website traffic
• Implement white hat SEO tactics, such as content creation, link building, off-page and on-page SEO, technical SEO, backlinking, and other SEO services
• Perform an SEO audit on the website to provide a thorough analysis of the website’s performance
• Collaborate closely with developers to ensure SEO best practices throughout production
• Monitor search engine results, Google Analytics, and performance metrics to keep track of SEO campaign results and identify areas of improvement

Essentially, an SEO expert’s role is to analyze, strategize, and execute online marketing campaigns to help you rank high on SERPs and put your business on the map.

Why do businesses need to build an online presence?

Customers rely on the internet now more than ever in driving their purchasing decisions. Here are some stats that illustrate this point:

• Nearly half of shoppers say they use Google to discover or find a new item or product.
• 74% of in-store shoppers search online for business information before making a visit.
• 59% of shoppers surveyed say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make in-store or online.

With this in mind, it’s more important than ever to start building your business’s online presence if you want to increase online visibility, promote discoverability, and establish trust among your target customers.

You can accomplish all of this, and more, with the help of an SEO expert. HawkSEM Lead Strategist Yara Askar explains it best:

“In today’s modern digital landscape, an online presence is crucial for a business of any size. SEO ensures that your business website appears in search results for relevant search queries and keywords. SEO provides businesses with the opportunity to drive organic traffic to their website for free while building trust and credibility with their customers.”

When to hire an SEO expert

If your in-house team lacks the expertise or bandwidth to tackle complex SEO projects, don’t fret. An SEO expert can help take your site from the middle pages of Google search results to the top of the SERP.

In addition to obstacles like lack of SEO knowledge and poor or declining rankings, here are a few other instances that can indicate it’s time to bring in the pros.

Launching a new website (or redesigning an existing one)

Starting a new website from scratch is a big undertaking, and you’ll want to get those fundamentals on lock right from the get go.

An SEO expert can help conduct proper keyword research, ensure a solid site structure, and nail on-page optimizations like HTML structure and meta tags.

A website redesign can negatively affect SEO if not done correctly. Bringing in an expert can help ensure your site’s SEO elements are preserved and protected throughout the process.

Expanding into new markets

If you’re looking to target new demographics or are expanding your business into new markets, an SEO expert can help ensure that your local SEO game is on point.

This is especially true if you’re going international. Experts can help navigate the more complex pieces such as country-specific search engines and regional content.

Launching a new service or product

SEO is crucial for driving traffic and building awareness in the midst of a new product launch. Experts can help build a winning content strategy and optimize pages to match search intent and rank well for relevant searches.

Struggling with technical SEO

SEO comes with its fair share of potentially complex issues for which seasoned professionals can lend their expertise, such as:

• Crawl errors
• Mobile optimization and user experience snags
• Indexing problems
• Site speed

If you’re migrating to a new site or domain name, the pros can also help ensure the migration doesn’t impact your search engine rankings.

Recovering from an SEO penalty

Sometimes Google will throw a flag on the play. If you find yourself navigating a penalty due to algorithm updates or black-hat practices, an expert can help get you back on the right track.

Is it better to work with a freelancer vs. an agency?

If you’re planning to invest more into SEO to grow your business but lack the time or manpower, then hiring an SEO expert is your best course of action.

But this begs the question: should you work with an SEO freelancer or an SEO agency?

Here are some pros and cons for both.

Freelancer

Freelance SEO talent is relatively easy to find, if you know where to look. Today’s freelance market boasts a massive pool of talent that businesses can leverage to drive their business goals forward.

Agency

Partnering with a digital marketing agency for your SEO needs can be very beneficial. A good SEO agency will help you navigate through the complex world of search engine algorithms and take the guesswork out of the process.

Pro tip: Working with an agency gives you access to top-of-the-line SEO tools (think Semrush, Ahrefs, and thorough website audits) to help take your brand to the next level.

What to look for when hiring an SEO expert

Entrusting your entire website to someone outside of your organization is a big risk so choosing the right expert is crucial.

Ideally, you want to hire right the first time around so you don’t end up wasting valuable resources.

To increase your likelihood of success in hiring quality candidates, look for the following skill set:

Experience

We now live in a world where any regular Joe can just set up shop and brand themselves as experts. But just labeling themselves as SEO specialists doesn’t automatically make them so.

With extensive industry experience, a true SEO expert knows what it takes to help a website succeed.

Whereas someone with limited SEO know-how will try to implement the same tactics for different websites, an experienced SEO specialist understands that each website has its own specific needs.

A track record of success

It’s one thing to say you’re an SEO expert – and another to actually back it up.

When you hire an SEO expert, look for proof of their success when working with clients. These can be in the form of client testimonials, customer reviews, or case studies.

Consider it a plus when they have a fairly substantial amount of social proof available. This will give you a ton of insight into what it is like to work with the candidate you are considering.

Deep SEO knowledge

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway): the ideal candidate should know what they’re doing — and be confident about it.

If you’re looking to bring in the services of an SEO expert, then look for a candidate that epitomizes the very essence of the word “expert.”

“When looking to hire an SEO expert, look for someone who has been in the field for many years,” says Askar.

“[But more importantly, look for someone who] understands the importance of technical SEO, on-page and off-page SEO, and is curious about how to continuously improve your website’s organic presence.”

The takeaway

When growing your business organically, visibility matters. This means putting your business in the best position to attract your target audience.

In SEO terms, where you rank on a search query directly impacts your success, so achieving the best possible rank can only lead to positive results.

Vetting (and hiring) the right SEO expert puts you on the best path to success, you just need to know where to look to find the right partner for your organization. Use our list of recommendations above as a launchpad for your search.

And if you’re looking for a team of high-level digital marketing experts to strategize and execute a killer SEO plan, consider HawkSEM.

Not only do we focus on optimizing your website, we focus on your company’s overall digital growth. Get in touch with us today.

This post has been updated and was originally published in August 2023.