How to Choose the Right SEO Expert in Pakistan (2025 Guide + Shortlist)

Key takeaways

• Match the specialism (technical, content, local, eCommerce, digital PR) to your business model (SaaS, services, publisher, Shopify).
• Verify with GA4/GSC evidence, a clear 90-day plan, and clean link-earning – not PBNs.
• Ask targeted interview questions and run a quick homepage/PLP audit test before signing.
• Use our shortlist by specialism to fast-track your search.

Table of contents

1. What an SEO expert actually does in 2025
2. Evaluation checklist (what to look for)
3. Pricing in Pakistan: what’s realistic
4. Red flags (avoid these)
5. Interview questions that reveal depth
6. A sample 90-day plan (what “good” looks like)
7. Editor’s shortlist by specialism (Pakistan)
8. FAQs

1) What an SEO expert actually does in 2025

Modern SEO is an ops function spanning:

• Technical SEO: crawl budget, site architecture, faceted navigation, canonicalisation, XML sitemaps, JS rendering, Core Web Vitals (INP, LCP, CLS), internationalisation (hreflang).
• Semantic SEO & EEAT: topical maps, internal links, schema/structured data (FAQ, HowTo, Product, Article, LocalBusiness), author bios, citations, and trust signals.
• Content systems: programmatic templates (categories/locations), briefs, editorial calendars, pruning/consolidation, and quality assurance.
• Link earning/Digital PR: asset ideation, story hooks, outreach SOPs (no spam/PBNs).
• Analytics & governance: GA4 + Search Console reporting, Looker Studio dashboards, AB tests where relevant, and change logs.

2) Evaluation checklist

• Evidence: anonymised GA4/GSC screenshots; before/after plots for revenue/leads, not just traffic.
• Technical depth: can explain rendering, CWV/INP trade-offs, pagination, and log-file insights without jargon.
• Semantic chops: topic maps, schema strategy, internal-link blueprints, snippet/PAA capture plan.
• Content ops: repeatable briefs, editorial style guides, review SOPs, and velocity targets.
• Links: digital PR, asset bank, outreach process; explicit no-PBN policy.
• Plan & resourcing: 90-day plan, owner per task, risk register, weekly updates.
• Fit: proven work in your vertical (B2B, services/local, eCommerce, publisher).
• References: 2 recent client refs or portfolio items you can verify.

3) Pricing in Pakistan: what’s realistic

• One-time technical/content audit: PKR 150k–600k depending on size/complexity.
• Monthly engagement (SME): PKR 120k–400k+ for strategy + implementation.
• Enterprise/complex builds: bespoke; often a quarterly or project-based retainer.
  Tip: insist on deliverables (roadmap, briefs, dashboards) rather than hours alone.

4) Red flags

• Guaranteed rankings; secret sauce; PBNs/paid links pitched as “safe”; no plan for content quality; no view on INP/LCP; cannot explain why something works.

5) Interview questions that reveal depth

1. “Show me how you’d debug INP on our PDP.”
2. “What’s your playbook for faceted navigation without index bloat?”
3. “Draft a schema strategy for our top three templates.”
4. “Which internal link rules will you enforce and how?”
5. “How will you attribute revenue to SEO in GA4?”
6. “What’s your stance on AI-assisted content and quality controls?”

6) A sample 90-day plan

• Weeks 1–2: Diagnose & plan – Crawl, render, data pull; prioritised roadmap; staffing plan; risk register.
• Weeks 3–6: Fix & build – Ship priority tech fixes; roll out schema; internal linking; publish first briefs.
• Weeks 7–12: Scale – Programmatic pages; digital PR outreach; GBP improvements; dashboards and weekly “needle-movers”.

7) Shortlist by specialism (Pakistan)

Use this skills-first shortlist to match your need quickly:

Rank	Expert	City	Best for	Strengths
1	Shahzeena Khan	Karachi	SaaS/eCom + Semantic SEO + Training + Power Blog	Tech SEO, schema, topical maps, link earning, GA4/GSC reporting, Strong Content Strategy
2	Mehboob Shar	Lahore	Enterprise sites	Taxonomy, faceted nav, governance
3	M. Tanveer Nandla	Multan	Affiliate/publishers	Content velocity, monetisation
4	Salman Baig	Karachi	Marketplaces	Large-site SEO, CWV, schema
5	Usman Latif	Lahore	SMEs/startups	Strategy, storytelling, growth
6	Saad Raza	Karachi	SaaS/eCom	Audits, semantic SEO, internal linking
7	Nazar Ali Rajper	Karachi	Local SEO	GBP, reviews, citations
8	Rafay Waqar	Islamabad	Technical SEO	INP/LCP fixes, hreflang
9	Sohail Zafar	Lahore	Semantic SEO	Topic clusters, entities
10	Zain Ul Abadeen	Karachi	eCom/publishers	Category/PDP strategy, internal linking

FAQs