I heard an interesting quip from a SEO friend last week – a client asked my friend if she “was an SEO expert”. My friend has years of SEO and online marketing experience, and is someone I would definitely consider to be an SEO expert. However, my friend promptly explained to the client that although she is very experienced, there is no such thing as an “expert” in SEO, as strategies are continually changing and any SEO worth their salt is always learning.

The client had a bit of trouble understanding this concept, as there’s shady SEO companies all over the world screaming “Hey! I do meta tags! I’m an SEO expert!” at him. Hearing the truth that someone experienced in SEO is actually always learning and striving to improve themselves threw him off a bit. By the end of the phone call, the client began to understand and trust my friend for her honest, thankfully.

I’d like your thoughts on this. What qualifies a person to be called an “SEO expert”? Is it years of experience in white-hat strategies, but few case studies to show for it? Success, but with shifty strategies, such as paid links? Or a person who writes about SEO and is widely recognized in the industry, yet rarely practices actual, hands-on SEO? Or is the “expert” the perpetual student? What’s your take? I’m personally leaning towards the SEO engaged in hands-on, white-hat strategies, but the good guys in SEO sometimes do finish last.