After putting in years as an in-house SEO, last month I took a leap to the agency-side of the business. In-house, I had the opportunity to solicit and retain SEO services from some of the search industry’s best and brightest. I’ve also been tasked to manage consulting gigs that were already in place. For every excellent experience I have had in seeking, retaining, or managing an SEO consultant relationship, I have had five others that were downright bizarre.

The first SEO consultant I hired was Dixon Jones back in 2002 for a small international e-commerce project. I later learned that this was his first SEO gig, but that's another story. In 2006 I worked with SEOmoz, which eventually landed me this job. Both of these experiences were fabulous.

Of all the consultants I’ve considered hiring or have worked with (voluntarily or otherwise), these are the ones that intrigue me most...

Closet Genius
Brilliant and eccentric, you are ‘internet famous’ and greatly respected in the search community. Your reputation is enveloped in an air of mystery. Nobody has met you in person… this includes the pizza guy and your largest paying client.

Livin’ Lazy
Your response to a recent big money consulting inquiry was, “Nah” [your disinterest emphasized by a shrug of the shoulders]. You have The Lazy SEO Manifesto printed and stuck to your bathroom mirror with gum (the scotch tape was in the other room).

Retired Rock Star
Your reputation is amazing. The passive revenue from your old side project still pays all the bills. People come from all over to hear you speak. You are still in SEO because the people are a lot of fun and you get heaps of respect in the space. You often entertain the idea of consulting, but don’t follow through.

Hung-Over
You attend conferences to drum up consulting business, well, at least that’s what you tell your spouse. More than once, you have lost out on a big opportunity because you were hung-over after a search party and missed the lunch meeting.

Throwing Darts in the Dark
Flipping burgers sucks! You decided last week that SEO is the career for you. Admittedly, you have a lot to learn. For now you will ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ with uninformed mom and pop sites.

Devs Gone Wild
You have been a developer for your entire career. Back in ‘99, you put a block of white text on a white background and it worked really well. You recently learned that SEOs make pretty good coin and have decided to dust off your tried and true skills.

One Foot out the Door
You are getting ready to make the jump from full time employee to full time independent but are scared to death. You aren’t really ready to take on independent contracts but plan to be in one month. Okay, maybe two.

Own Worst Enemy
You have developed a set of detailed criteria to help you filter through consulting requests. At some point along the way you decided that you would only work with clients whose domain names start with the letter “G”. You can’t remember why. You haven’t worked in a while.

Tin-Foil Hat
You’ve done some pretty shady stuff. You’re sure the search quality team is on to you, so you wear a tin-foil hat to be safe. This didn’t go over so well at your last client meeting.

What type of SEO consultant are you?