TL;DR: How Can I Identify a Great Recruiter?
- Great recruiters vet deeply with scorecards, skills tests, and achievement narratives.
- Weak recruiters just forward CVs.
- The best partners specialize in your industry (SEO/marketing) instead of spreading thin.
- SEO for Hire: SEO-only focus, 9-area scorecard vetting, and shortlists of 2–3 proven candidates.
How Do Recruiters Vet Candidates Before Presenting Them?
The vetting stage is where quality is won or lost.
- Bad recruiters:
Check LinkedIn keywords, forward CVs, hope it sticks. - Good recruiters:
Translate your commercial goals → role outcomes → skills mapping. - Great recruiters (like SEO for Hire):
Run every candidate through a structured scorecard covering technical, content, analytics, leadership, and cultural fit.
✅ Best Practice: Always ask recruiters for their vetting process in writing.
❌ Mistake to Avoid: Accepting “we have a big network” as proof of quality.
Do They Just Forward CVs or Run Structured Interviews and Scorecards?
Forwarding CVs = volume, not quality.
Why structured vetting matters:
- Filters out confident talkers who can’t execute.
- Creates apples-to-apples comparisons across candidates.
- Surfaces candidates aligned to your 90-day role outcomes.
SEO for Hire’s Approach:
- Every candidate is interviewed, tested, and scored against real deliverables, not just soft impressions.
How Do I Know If the Candidates Are Really Good, Not Just Available?
The best candidates aren’t always job-hunting. They’re often passive talent approached by recruiters.
Signs a candidate is really good:
- Achievement-based narratives (specific campaigns, migrations, revenue impacts).
- Evidence of outcomes (traffic growth %, client retention, technical audits).
- References from industry peers.
SEO for Hire’s Approach:
- Our pipeline is 80% passive talent we actively headhunt, not just job seekers sending CVs.
Do Recruitment Agencies Specialize in SEO/Marketing or Are They Generalists?
Specialization matters.
- Generalist recruiters: Can fill generic roles but lack SEO depth.
- Specialist recruiters (SEO for Hire): Understand the difference between technical SEOs, content strategists, and digital PRs, and can align hires to agency roadmaps.
✅ Best Practice: Choose recruiters who live inside your industry.
❌ Mistake to Avoid: Assuming any recruiter can evaluate SEO talent accurately.
Common Mistakes Agencies Make About Recruiter Quality
- Believing “big database = quality.”
- Not asking recruiters to explain their vetting process.
- Assuming all recruiters can spot technical vs content SEOs.
- Settling for a stack of CVs instead of structured, scored profiles.
Bonus Takeaways
- Ask to see a sample scorecard recruiters use.
- Demand achievement narratives in candidate profiles.
- Check if recruiters publish salary benchmarks or case studies — proof of market immersion.
FAQs
How many resumes will I get from a recruiter?
Generalists may dump 10–20 CVs. SEO for Hire sends 2–3 pre-vetted, scored candidates.
How do I know the recruiter isn’t just keyword-matching?
Ask for their vetting framework. Ours = scorecard + practical deliverables.
Can generalist recruiters handle SEO roles?
They can, but quality drops. SEO requires specialist evaluation and benchmarking.
About SEO for Hire
At SEO for Hire, we help agencies hire the right SEO talent faster and with less risk. Our placements are powered by scorecards, proprietary salary data, and backed with a 1-year satisfaction guarantee.
We’ve helped agencies like Rankings.io, Single Grain, and Sokratic build teams that deliver measurable ROI.
