No expectations make copying morally equivalent to theft. At the most they make it morally equivalent to breaking the law mandating any other monopoly: e.g. by using Skype in a country where the government has granted a single carrier a monopoly on international phone calls.
I have the same problem: I can see no way of telling how good an SEO is, and how effective they would be.
Even a track record of helping successful sites is not that good an indication, because you do not know how much of the success is attributable to the SEO.
I did use a well know SEO who runs a press release type service. As far as I can tell, the impact on the growth of my site was negative. Never again. I will do what I can do myself for SEO, and rely on high quality content to do the rest.
I have the same problem: I can see no way of telling how good an SEO is, and how effective they would be.
Even a track record of helping successful sites is not that good an indication, because you do not know how much of the success is attributable to the SEO.
I did use a well know SEO who runs a press release type service. As far as I can tell, the impact on the growth of my site was negative. Never again. I will do what I can do myself for SEO, and rely on high quality content to do the rest.