Ever hired someone who promised the moon but delivered… well, not much? It’s a frustrating situation, especially in the world of SEO. I’ve seen it countless times: strategists who can talk a big game, tossing around fancy words like “optimization” and “rankings,” but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, they’re completely lost on the basic technical stuff.
Here’s the honest truth – technical SEO isn’t just a bonus anymore. It’s the absolute bedrock your entire website’s success rests on. And with Google’s algorithms getting smarter by the minute, you simply can’t afford to partner with someone who’s just pretending to know their stuff.
So, how do you sort out the genuine experts from the folks who are just winging it? You ask the right questions, plain and simple. I’m talking about super specific, technical questions that’ll make a wannabe strategist squirm, but get a true pro genuinely excited to show off what they know.
Why Technical SEO Expertise Matters More Than Ever
Let’s talk about where we are right now, heading into 2025. Google’s AI-powered algorithms are seriously smart, and they’re not just glancing at your content anymore. Nope, they’re digging into every single detail of how your website actually works.
Think about this: industry data shows that over half of mobile users (53%, to be exact!) will bail on a site if it takes more than three seconds to load. That’s not just annoying for users; it’s a huge technical SEO headache that directly hits your wallet.
And honestly, things are only getting more intense. With Core Web Vitals now a confirmed ranking factor and Google’s Search Generative Experience shaking up how people find information, your site’s technical setup absolutely needs to be incredibly strong.
Crawlability and Indexing: The Foundation Questions
Alright, let’s kick things off with the absolute basics – and I’m talking about the stuff every SEO strategist should know so well it’s practically second nature.
Question 1: “Walk me through how you’d diagnose a ‘Crawled but not indexed’ issue in Google Search Console.”
This question is a fantastic way to immediately tell who really knows their stuff. A truly capable strategist should be able to clearly explain the difference between crawling and indexing, and then lay out a step-by-step plan for figuring out what’s going wrong.
They should definitely bring up checking for:
- Those pesky noindex tags or meta robots directives
- Canonical tag mix-ups pointing to the wrong places
- Any content quality or uniqueness issues (Google doesn’t like thin content!)
- Server response codes and lengthy redirect chains
- Whether the page is in your XML sitemap and if the sitemap itself is structured well
If they just shrug and mumble something about “fixing the robots.txt file,” well, you’ve pretty much got your answer right there about how deep their knowledge goes.
Question 2: “How do you handle pagination and infinite scroll from an SEO perspective?”
This question often catches people off guard because it needs a good grasp of both how users interact with a site and how search engines crawl it. A really sharp strategist will talk about:
- When to use
rel="next"andrel="prev"(and why knowing about them still matters, even if Google doesn’t actively use them for indexing anymore) - The right way to set up “View All” pages
- The good, the bad, and the ugly of infinite scroll versus classic pagination
- How they’d make sure all that paginated content actually gets crawled and indexed
Site Architecture and Internal Linking Intelligence
Okay, this is where you can truly gauge someone’s strategic brainpower, beyond just their technical know-how.
Question 3: “Describe your approach to internal linking strategy for a site with 10,000+ pages.”
Anyone can toss around buzzwords like “link juice” and “PageRank flow,” but a real expert will get into the specifics:
- How they’d create topic clusters and pillar pages
- Using tools to hunt down those pesky orphaned pages
- Finding the sweet spot between contextual links and your site’s navigation
- How varying anchor text can impact your internal linking efforts
- The connection between your site’s overall structure and its crawl budget
At Casey’s SEO Tools, we’ve personally seen how smart internal linking can dramatically boost a site’s performance. Our interlinking generator tool helps pinpoint these chances, but you still need genuine expertise to put them into action strategically.
Question 4: “How would you handle duplicate content across multiple product variations?”
E-commerce sites battle this issue all the time. A truly knowledgeable strategist should be able to chat about:
- Knowing when to use canonical tags versus a noindex tag
- Smart ways to structure URLs for different product variations
- How structured data helps Google understand the differences between similar products
- Best practices for faceted navigation (those filters you see on product pages)
Core Web Vitals and Performance Optimization
Alright, this is where things get really real. Google’s Core Web Vitals are here to stay, and honestly, they’re only becoming more and more important as time goes on.
Question 5: “What’s your process for improving Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) scores?”
A really strong answer here should hit on both how they’d figure out the problem and how they’d fix it:
- Using tools like PageSpeed Insights, Chrome DevTools, and real user monitoring (RUM)
- Smart image optimization tricks (think WebP format, right sizing, and lazy loading)
- Speeding up server response times
- Tweaking the critical rendering path
- Prioritizing resources and smart preloading strategies
And hey, if they happen to mention our image optimizer tool, you know they’re really clued into the latest and greatest solutions out there!
Question 6: “How do you approach Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) issues?”
CLS problems can be super annoying to nail down because they often don’t even appear when you’re building the site. So, listen for answers that include:
- Always setting dimensions for images and video elements
- Making sure to reserve space for ads and other dynamic content
- Clever font loading strategies to stop text from jumping around
- Testing across all sorts of devices and connection speeds
Mobile-First and User Experience Considerations
Since mobile-first indexing is basically the rule now, you absolutely cannot skip over this area. It’s a big deal!
Question 7: “What’s your approach to ensuring mobile-desktop content parity?”
This question really checks if they get that Google mostly looks at your site’s mobile version for indexing. They should definitely talk about:
- Auditing content across both mobile and desktop
- Keeping structured data consistent
- Their methods for mobile usability testing
- How they’d deal with features that behave differently on mobile
Advanced Technical Concepts
Okay, now let’s dive into the really juicy stuff – the things that truly separate the seasoned pros from the folks who are still learning the ropes.
Question 8: “How do you handle JavaScript SEO challenges?”
Since so many sites are built with JavaScript frameworks these days, this is becoming super important. A truly knowledgeable strategist should totally grasp:
- The ins and outs of server-side rendering versus client-side rendering
- How to test JavaScript rendering using Google’s own tools
- Strategies for progressive enhancement
- When and how to properly use prerendering
Question 9: “Describe your approach to log file analysis.”
This is some pretty advanced detective work that a lot of SEOs tend to skip, but it’s unbelievably valuable. They should know:
- How to spot crawl budget hiccups
- Picking up on bot behavior patterns
- Finding those hidden pages that aren’t getting crawled at all
- Connecting log data with what you see in Google Search Console
Schema and Structured Data Expertise
Structured data is seriously picking up steam as search results get fancier and AI systems need to understand content better and better.
Question 10: “How do you determine which schema markup to implement for a local business?”
They should definitely talk about:
- The basics of
LocalBusinessschema - Review and rating markup
- Event and service markup, if it makes sense for the business
- How they’d validate and test that structured data to make sure it’s working
Tools like our schema builder tool are super helpful for actually putting schema into place, but really understanding the strategy behind it is the main thing.
Security and HTTPS Implementation
Security isn’t just about slapping on HTTPS anymore – it’s all about building solid trust with both your users and those all-important search engines.
Question 11: “Beyond basic HTTPS, what security measures do you recommend for SEO?”
Listen for them to bring up things like:
- Security headers (like HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options)
- Doing regular security audits and keeping everything updated
- Managing and monitoring SSL certificates
- How security screw-ups can actually mess with crawling and indexing
International and Multilingual SEO
If you’re playing in multiple markets or speaking different languages online, this kind of expertise is super important.
Question 12: “How do you implement hreflang tags correctly?”
This area is a bit of a technical minefield, where even tiny slip-ups can lead to huge problems. They should really get:
- The right
hreflangsyntax and all the different ways to implement it - How to manage regional language variations
- The most common
hreflangmistakes and how to steer clear of them - Their testing and validation processes
Red Flags to Watch Out For
As you’re firing off these questions, definitely keep your radar up for these warning signs:
- Vague answers: If they can’t get specific about their steps or the tools they use, chances are they’re just guessing.
- Outdated information: SEO moves at lightning speed! If they’re still going on about keyword density or PageRank sculpting like it’s 2015, seriously, run the other way.
- One-size-fits-all solutions: Every website is unique. If their answer to every problem sounds exactly the same, they probably don’t have the depth you need.
- Avoiding technical details: A true expert actually enjoys diving into the nitty-gritty. If they try to dodge technical questions, that’s a big red flag.
Industry Standards and Benchmarks
A really good SEO strategist should be up to speed on industry benchmarks and know how to make sense of them for your specific situation. For 2025, they should definitely understand that Core Web Vitals standards are getting tougher, and Google’s AI is getting way better at figuring out what users want and how good your content really is.
They should also be well aware that, on average, websites lose about 7% of their conversions for every extra second a page takes to load. That makes performance optimization not just an SEO thing, but a major business priority.
Making the Right Choice
Look, finding a truly skilled SEO strategist is definitely not a walk in the park. The industry is packed with folks who’ve learned just enough to sound impressive but not enough to actually get results. But when you do find that special someone – someone who can answer these questions with genuine confidence and real depth – you’ll know you’ve hit the jackpot.
The very best strategists don’t just rattle off answers; they can explain why these technical details matter and how they tie into your broader business goals. They should be stoked to talk about technical challenges, not shrink away from them.
Here at Casey’s SEO Tools, we’ve poured years into building SEO tools that empower both newbies and pros to conquer these technical hurdles. But remember, tools are only as effective as the person wielding them – and that’s exactly why finding the right strategist is so incredibly important.
Keep this in mind: you’re not just hiring someone to tick boxes on an audit checklist. You’re bringing on a partner who’s going to help your business truly thrive online. So, take your time, ask the right questions, and don’t settle for anything less than expertise you can genuinely trust.
If you ever need a hand figuring out your current technical SEO setup or just want to chat more about any of these concepts, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email at casey@caseysseotools.com. We’re always happy to help businesses, whether you’re in Colorado Springs or way beyond, make sense of the technical side of SEO.
