As SEOs, we sometimes come across situations that make us scratch our head and go "why is this ranking?" If we are lucky, it challenges our preconceived notions that force us to expand our SEO knowledge or to dive deeper and learn more about SEO. The curiosity about what is going on within the search engines' algorithm truly defines the difference between a mediocre SEO and an SEO that excels in what he does.

When it comes to hiring the right SEO expert, you will need questions to weed out those that see themselves as SEOs and find the ones that truly breathe in SEO. These are not designed for beginners with questions such as "What are the top factors in Google's algorithm", but rather open-ended questions that make the interviewee think what the multiple potential reasons are.

Below are just some of what I consider to be the top questions to ask from the many SEO situations I have come across:

1. If "Content is King", why does Adobe rank in position one for the phrase "click here" when the phrase appears nowhere on the page and other results have the exact phrase "click here" in the domain, title tag, and body copy?
2. Google claims it has minimized (some say defused) Google Bombs, so why does Nikolas R. Schiller still rank number one for "Redacted Name"?
3. Why does a page rank in position one on Google for a specific keyword when the page does not have the phrase anywhere on the page and there is no data to show a Google Bomb or link building campaign?
4. Why would a site that duplicates its Title Tags and Meta Descriptions across the entire site still rank number one for its top keywords on Google while having less backlinks (relevant and numerically) than the number two result?
5. Why does a commercial site that 302 redirects its entire domain to a single nondescript page (with no strong direct backlinks to it) still rank in position one for its top keywords on Google even after a week has passed?

An additional benefit is to find out whether this person is niche-specific answering questions relevant to the kind of person you will be hiring:

• Are they really just an SEO content writer?
• Are they really just an SEO link builder?
• Have they dealt with technical SEO issues?