How to find true SEO experts?

Question

I posted this 85 days ago:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37261594and got this great reply from CharlieDigital:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37262584I learned about JSON-LD, RDF-A, Microdata formats and a few other things I didn't know. I've implemented them at my client's site. But still the SEO gods don't like my stuff.I want to hire someone that like used to work at google and knows all the tricks. But how can you find that diamond in the rough from all the other people in the pool of "seo experts"?

chiefalchemist · Accepted Answer

First, there are no "tricks". The history of SEO is littered with tricks that eventually became signals for ranking penalty. At this point tricks are for kids. (Reference to US kid's breakfast cereal intentional.)
Don't let the SEOs fool you, the concept of SEO is simple: At the end of the day the algorithm just wants to be human. And, Google doesn't care about any websites, Google cares about its customer. The customer is the person doing the search. That is it. That's the foundation.
Google et al are nothing more thathan matchmakers. A customer comes to them with a need (i.e., search term) and the algorithm wants to maximize that customer's satisfaction and give the best answer(s) possible. Otherwise the customer might not come back (as unhappy customers are known to do).
The algorithm - * at scale* (obviously) - attempts to answer that search query the way a real human would, if a real human could evaluate all the relevant websites and then rank those sites / pages for that query, for that user.
The moral of the story is...SEO is about putting the site in a position that increases Google's confidence that the site can make iits customers happy. Mainly that comes down to qualify content. For example, a fast loading page (a known SEO ranking signal) that delivers shite content is likely not to rank well. Why? Because in general, humans are concerned about content. Again, the algorithm wants to be human.
Yes, there are bunch of things that can be done to appeal to Google's customers, but in general it's quality content that makes real humans happy.
Finally, SEOs are fond of selling SEO as a panacea. It's not. In competitive markets for competitive keywords the SERP slots might be spoke for. Sure maybe after years you can work your way up the SERP list on to page 1, but at want cost? Can you wait that long? Maybe there are better more effective marketing choices? (Hint: Often there are.)

dazc · Answer

Why would an seo expert want to work for you instead of creating traffic/revenue for his own projects?
Much better to learn the basics yourself and concentrate on generating good content or some other compelling offer that will get people coming to you of their own free will.
This will take time and will not be easy, hence why not everyone is already doing it.