SEO & GEO
How to Hire an SEO Expert (and What to Expect in 90 Days)
SEO results take time — which makes hiring the right person even more important. Here is how to choose an SEO expert and what the first 90 days should look like.
To hire an SEO expert, look for proven technical SEO skills, content strategy aligned to search intent, ethical link building and clear reporting in Google Search Console and GA4. A strong SEO expert will audit before acting, prioritise by impact and show measurable progress within 90 days.
Skills that matter
- Technical SEO — crawlability, indexing, canonicals, redirects, site speed and Core Web Vitals.
- Keyword and intent research — mapping topics to buyer stages.
- On-page optimisation — titles, headings, internal links, content refreshes.
- Structured data — Organization, Service, Product, FAQ and Article schema.
- Link earning — digital PR and useful assets, never paid link schemes.
- Measurement — Search Console, GA4 and clear reporting.
- AI search awareness — optimising for AI Overviews and assistants.
Questions to ask
- Walk me through your first week on a new site.
- Show me a project where you grew organic traffic — what moved the needle?
- How do you decide between a new page and refreshing an existing one?
- How do you approach AI Overviews and generative search?
Red flags
- Guarantees of number-one rankings.
- Talks mainly about buying links.
- Cannot explain results with Search Console data.
- Ignores technical issues and conversion.
A realistic 90-day roadmap
| Period | Focus |
|---|---|
| Days 1–30 | Full audit, tracking fixes, quick technical wins, keyword map |
| Days 31–60 | On-page optimisation of priority pages, schema, internal linking |
| Days 61–90 | New content cluster, content refreshes, outreach, reporting |
Dedicated expert vs agency
An agency splits attention across many clients. A dedicated SEO expert works only on your site, inside your tools, and learns your products deeply. Pair them with a content writer for faster publishing and a GEO specialist for AI search visibility.
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