SEO expert – 8 big reasons why you need a good one
**Updated 15th October 2026**
Whether you want more organic traffic, more mentions in AI answers or more revenue from search, an SEO expert can help.
Your website looks awesome; you've nailed the premium content and added sizzling media. Yet you're still not getting enough visitors to convert into customers.
It's not that your website is failing at its job. It may need a touch of SEO love to boost its visibility in Google and in AI search tools such as ChatGPT, and ultimately increase its revenue.
SEO experts come in all shapes and sizes, whether as a hired employee, an individual consultant or an SEO agency.
What they all have in common is that an experienced SEO expert will review your website and ask about your business goals and your target visitors. Finally, they will identify strategies to improve your visibility in search results and AI answers, and turn that visibility into enquiries and sales.
Possible solutions an SEO expert might prescribe range from simple fixes like rewriting your HTML title tags to more complex issues that prevent search engine crawlers from indexing your content, or to earning quality links and mentions from relevant, trusted websites.
Yes, this makes sense I hear you say, however how do I find a good one?
How to find a good SEO expert
After more than 12 years in SEO, the three reasons I would weigh most heavily today are 2, 3 and 6. Understanding every level of SEO, including AI search, proving results and using the right tools now separate a good SEO expert from the rest.
1. Years of SEO experience
With Google placing strong emphasis on rankings, a new industry emerged and a proliferation of SEO experts appeared. That does not mean these "SEO experts" know what they are doing.
Google updates its ranking systems constantly, and what worked years ago may damage your website today. A top SEO expert knows what has changed, and they know this because of years of industry experience.
Plus every website needs its own SEO tactics. Simply put, what works for your business may not work for others. An SEO expert can examine any website and know this.
Furthermore, they will know what needs to be done to gain more search traffic, whilst someone new to SEO may apply the same tactics to every website. That approach will not only have no impact, it could damage your website's rankings.
Experience also means knowing when not to lean on AI. Many SEOs now let AI do their work for them, and it shows. AI speeds up research and first drafts, however it still needs a person to check the facts, add first-hand experience and decide what to publish. We explain how we split that work in our approach to human and AI content production.
2. Understanding of different SEO levels
Search engine optimisation involves several facets.
Technical (the website's structure, which determines how easy or difficult it is for search engines to crawl and index your content).
On-page optimisation (using keywords, headings and HTML tags in ways that help search engines and readers understand each page).
Off-page optimisation (for example link building, digital PR and brand mentions).
Boosting authority, whether through Google's E-E-A-T guidance on experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, or through your Google Business Profile.
AI search (making sure AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and other assistants can find, understand and cite your content).
A successful SEO strategy combines all of these. Granted, some will matter more than others for your business. A top SEO expert will know which, and should be advising you on how they work together. Our guide to crafting a strong SEO strategy shows how they fit into one plan.
An SEO expert should understand the technical limitations of your company's website and be able to explain them to your web developers so that the team can fix them. Otherwise, if a search engine cannot access all the content on your website, your SEO efforts will be in vain. This matters most during a redesign, and the SEO risks of a website migration show what goes wrong when nobody checks.
AI search is the newest level, and the one where clients most often get misled. Google's own guide to optimising for generative AI search says this is still SEO, and its mythbusting section says you do not need llms.txt files, content chopped into tiny pieces or special markup. A good SEO expert will tell you that. A bad one will sell them to you. Our guides to answer engine optimisation for content teams and ChatGPT's own search index explain what actually earns citations.
3. A portfolio of SEO success
There is a plethora of online content about how to implement SEO tactics and which ones your business should use.
Newer so-called SEO experts will read this content and apply it to your business. That is not wrong in itself, as this is how SEO experts learn about the changing world of search.
However, before you hire an SEO expert, ask to contact their references.
You can then judge whether that expert had a positive impact on a business and whether the client was happy with their work. Even better, ask them to show you a live result during your first call, such as a page they ranked or an AI answer that cites a client, and to walk you through how they did it. Our two-year content programme for field service software is the kind of evidence to look for.
Be wary of the fancy presentation deck. I have seen clients come to us after an SEO provider convinced them with a polished deck that rankings were the goal. They didn't understand what an SEO expert can realistically deliver, and nobody told them.
4. Savvy about marketing
Technical issues aside, SEO is similar to traditional marketing.
The content on your website needs to show visitors the value of the product or service you are promoting, and hopefully lead to a sale.
Understanding marketing psychology and user intent is as important as fixing the technical issues on your website. Search marketing means setting up your website to answer a visitor's question at the moment they search for it.
If your site lacks the right content or visitors cannot find their way around, they'll leave quickly, which tells search engines your page is less relevant. A good SEO expert works with your content writers and web designers, and knows when paid search or social media will reach buyers faster than organic search.
5. Understands your business aims
Does your SEO expert understand what your goals are?
The two questions clients ask me most are "Can you get us to number one?" and "Can you get us mentioned by ChatGPT?" Both are fair questions. Neither is the real goal.
Ultimately, SEO should help increase your revenue, not just your rankings or clicks. AI Overviews now answer many questions on the results page, so people click fewer links, and clicks have become harder to win. That makes visibility, AI citations and enquiries the better measures of success. Our article on AI citation tracking explains why visibility and traffic are no longer the same metric.
SEO should be part of your overall digital marketing strategy. An SEO expert will understand your aims and measure success against them. If you need to show the board a return, our guides to content marketing ROI and enterprise SEO ROI cover the numbers that matter.
6. What SEO toolset will they use?
An SEO expert uses tools to track your rankings, check your backlinks, research keywords and monitor competitors. Today they also need to track how often AI tools mention and cite your brand.
At Blu Mint, we use Ahrefs for most SEO work, including Brand Radar to track brand mentions in AI answers.
We also use paid subscriptions to AI models such as Claude and ChatGPT, because their most capable models often give a more useful picture of citations than standalone AI citation software, which in our experience is not always accurate.
All of these tools cost money, so ask your SEO expert whether your contract covers the cost or whether you have to buy the software yourself. Our clients do not pay for our tools. We do.
7. Excellent communication skills
An SEO expert must be able to explain clearly and sensitively why your website needs changes, in a way everyone understands.
Remember that the current state of your website reflects decisions other people have already made (and the reason the SEO expert is there in the first place!).
Simply saying everything is wrong will irritate the people who have already worked on it and could create a toxic atmosphere within your team.
A top SEO expert knows how to work with all kinds of people, whether CEOs, web developers or marketers. They do, after all, want your business to succeed. Good communication also means honest reporting. Each month we show clients their AI citations and impressions alongside rankings, and we explain plainly why clicks may be flat even when visibility grows.
A good SEO expert also checks Search Console before reacting to a sudden drop, because rank trackers can now report poisoned SERPs that never reflected what real searchers saw.
8. Passionate about SEO
Whilst knowledge is important, curiosity is essential too.
Search engine optimisation keeps evolving, and even while an SEO expert works with you they should advise you on newer trends, even if this contradicts what they originally advised.
For example, "I read yesterday that this crawler now works differently, so we should discuss amending our strategy". Great SEO experts find ways around challenges and roadblocks. The arrival of AI search is the biggest example in years, and a passionate expert will already be talking to you about it.
A passion for learning new techniques and the curiosity to apply them shows a clear understanding of your business, and that the SEO expert has your interests at heart.
| Good SEO expert | Bad SEO expert | |
|---|---|---|
| Promises | A realistic plan and honest expectations | "Top three in a few months" or guaranteed rankings |
| Measures success by | Revenue, enquiries, visibility and AI citations | Rankings and clicks alone |
| Proof | Live results and client references | A polished deck and screenshots without context |
| AI search | Builds on SEO fundamentals and tracks citations carefully | Sells llms.txt files, content chunking or citation software as a fix |
| Use of AI | Speeds up research and drafts, with people checking every page | Lets AI produce the work with no human review |
| Links | Earns coverage through digital PR and useful content | Sells link packages and spammy guest posts |
| Tools | Pays for professional tools and explains what they show | Relies on free tools or charges you for software on top |
| Communication | Explains changes plainly and reports every month | Hides behind jargon and goes quiet between invoices |
Red flags to watch for
Guaranteed rankings. Google's own advice on hiring an SEO says no one can guarantee a number one ranking on Google.
"Top three in a few months". SEO takes time, and anyone who promises fast results without seeing your data is guessing.
AI citation software sold as the answer. Some tools help, many are not accurate, and none of them replace good content.
A deck instead of evidence. Ask to see live results and speak to past clients.
Everything written by AI. Ask who checks the work and where the first-hand experience comes from.
Hire for the long term
Whether you are starting a website from scratch or improving your current one, make sure the SEO expert you hire is a good one. Hire them for the long term, because SEO is not a short-term strategy. It does produce long-term results, and today those results include being visible in AI answers as well as in Google. If you are weighing up your options, our comparison of in-house vs agency marketing can help.
Need advice about SEO or AI search? Talk to our SEO team and we'd be happy to help.
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An SEO expert makes your website easier for search engines and AI tools to find, understand and recommend. They fix technical problems, improve your content, earn links and mentions from trusted sites and measure how that visibility turns into enquiries and sales.
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Allow at least three months before you judge the results, and longer in competitive markets. SEO builds over time, so the best results usually come from a long-term partnership, not a short project.
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No. Google itself says no one can guarantee a number one ranking, so treat any promise like that as a red flag. A good SEO expert will set realistic goals based on your market, your website and your budget.
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IteNobody can guarantee an AI citation either. AI search relies on the same foundations as SEO, so a good expert improves your chances with useful, original content, a sound technical setup and genuine mentions on trusted sites. They should also track how often AI tools mention you, as we explain in our article on AI citation tracking.m description
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It depends on your budget, your goals and how many skills you need. A freelancer suits a focused project, an in-house hire suits a large site with constant work, and an agency gives you SEO, content, PPC and design under one roof. Our comparison of in-house vs agency marketing sets out the trade-offs.
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Ask to see a live result and speak to a past client. Then ask which tools they use and who pays for them, how they report each month, how they handle AI search and who checks any work that AI helps produce.
