If they don’t mention Matt Cutts, Aaron Wall, or Rand Fishkin it’s an obvious sign they are likely bogus.
Request specific web sites that they can prove to own, either via a whois lookup or have them modify the page in some specific way to prove it is theirs when possible. Make sure that the term they are ranking for is actually fairly competitive and they were the ones responsible for achieving that rank. It’s understandable that they’d need to keep their client’s identities under wraps in most cases, but they should be able to provide you with something if not their own web site.
Check the Google PageRank, the Alexa Rank, and the Compete Rank of the supposed SEO Expert’s web site. A good way to do this is using the FireFox plugin-in SearchStatus. They’re likely not much of an expert if they don’t have a Google PageRank or an Alexa Rank or a Compete Rank. I mean if they can’t optimize their own site, what’s to say they could optimize yours?
If they don’t have a very common name and they’re not in the top 10 results, it’s an obvious sign they either don’t really know their stuff, or they’re not serious about being an SEO expert.
If they say yes they’re a phony. Obviously it is easy to be #1 for “the most ridiculously specific and completely worthless longtail keyword in the universe” – hell my blog is probably #1 for that now and it’s just in the body text of my blog post. You get the point.
If they try to tell you of a spurious magical ratio it’s time to consult a real expert/firm.
If they try to tell you you actually need to submit your site to search engines you’ve caught them in a lie. That or they just have no idea what they’re talking about.
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