How to identify a smart SEO specialist?

Question

Search Engine Optimization

I risk getting banned or some other sanctions from TM, but I still can't find an answer to my question on the net. I have been studying the topic for several days, but I can not figure out how to find a good freelancer to promote the project.
Copywriters can be asked for examples of articles, designers can be asked for examples of work, even context specialists can be asked for examples of campaigns they have done. But what to do with SEO specialists? How to distinguish a good specialist from a so-so one?
ps. if possible without advertising, self-promotion and links.

Answer 1

Read his answers on Toaster. :)
View work experience, online presence on the subject of SEO. View reviews, if any, contact the contacts of the customers who left the review.
There are no 100% methods. But a long presence in the SEO topic (profiles on a freelancer website with a long and high-quality history, profiles on SEO forums, your own website / blog / publications on Habré) and reviews with customer contacts, in my opinion, can quite adequately reflect the professionalism of a specialist.
Another option, if you yourself understand or there is a trusted person who understands, then ask the freelancer to send client sites and audit his work with these sites.
In general, you can write a whole article on this topic. About what parameters to check, hearing which methods immediately refuse to cooperate and how to figure it out even without being well-versed in the issue of optimization.
For example, working with usability and commercial factors under Yandex is a very good sign. But the use of leased or simply cheap perpetual links in large volumes is already bad (if we talk about Yandex).
Using Sape under Google (meaning foreign promotion) and not using it under Yandex will indicate that the specialist understands his business.
You can contact the specialist by voice and ask him questions (which the specialist should understand). For example: "What is last modified, how and why is it used?". “Do I need to fill in the meta keywords, are there any differences between search engines?”.
Of course, you will have to prepare yourself or order questions and answers to them somewhere. By the way, I met a lot of such questions here on the toaster.

Answer 2

usually there are portfolios,
the problem is that there is a primary package , bringing tags, eliminating blunders, after which traffic changes dramatically, and there is aerobatics - know-how that allows you to increase even
in higher education I have never seen people working not for myself, and I know for myself / I know in absentia well if the other three
do the primary one, and then the site lives on its own (well, unless the SEO specialist drives him into a pencil case for stupidity), and the SEO specialist - a subscription
to the primary almost prog is already enough

Answer 3

No one will give you a 100% guarantee that you will find a competent specialist.
At my work, the bosses are sure that there are such super SEOs in the department that they indulge them in everything. In fact - lazy mediocrity. True, the tongues are suspended, God forbid, so they comb the leadership for years.
My opinion is that you need to understand at least the main issues yourself, be in the know and monitor trends. As in any project, if you sign a contractor for work, then a clear terms of reference, time and control. If possible, recommendations from former customers.

Answer 4

I also encountered pseudo specialists, who, thanks, at least were not driven under the filters.
After a couple of years of wandering, I found a specialist who has his own team of SEO specialists from the best SEO companies (Livepage, Seoprofy, etc.), but who work with my projects privately.
They managed to bring my main project (quite complex) to the TOP 10 for the main queries.
Now they have allocated a separate specialist to me, so I feel free to share their contacts (0676373271).
Really good and relatively inexpensive SEO specialists.