Safe to give login credentials for SEO?

Don't give anyone you don't know access to those details.

Any decent SEO firm should be able to create a report on what needs to change in your site to set it up correctly. Get that report first, let them do all the things which do not require access, then confirm with others (in this forum for example) that the remaining things do indeed need to be done and require access. If you're using a CMS then set up a new user account with only the access required and delete in once they're done.

Otherwise get someone you know/trust to do the stuff which requires that access.

Asking someone to do work on your site (SEO, or programming) and saying that you dont trust them with site access is like asking someone to change the brakes in your car but saying you dont trust them to test drive it afterwards.

Point is, if you dont trust the person with access to your site , than why in the world would you trust them with SEO, sure they can do negative things to your site if they had access (but you could always backup it first), and they could also get you banned from Google, blacklisted, or otherwise screw up your site with Black hat SEO.

Either you trust the guy or you dont.

If the individual doing SEO for your website is known as Andy said, then you should have a certain level of trust there. This is in most cases safe. If however you don't know the individual that will be providing the services, then there're some precautions you can take. In addition to what Andy said above, Is your website HTML based? If it's HTML based, then you don't need to provide access credentials and can just provide the static HTML files. The same applies with PHP based websites that don't have a database. If you are running a CMS, then you'll want to be extra careful. If at all possible, the most you should give them is your files and database, but even this can be risky. At least you'll know you have a working backup (Which you should have before you sent the files over). Other than that, try to get to know the SEO expert you hire. Don't be too quick to jump onto a good deal. If you can meet this SEO provider in-person, then there's more opportunity for recovery because that individual could be held accountable for their actions legally. Other options, - Make a temporary account and put your stuff on that. - Provide only the database and files if at all possible. - Give them a temporary password. - SEO experts don't need access to your account on your hosting provider, just your control panel and website. Hope this helps.

If you're actually wanting an SEO company to go in and make the changes to your website for you, they definitely would need at least some level of access to the backend - enough to damage if they wanted to. Alternatively, you could ask them to just send a report of what needs to be done and then you do it yourself.

Use some common sense.

Use a reputable firm, and use contracts and agreements where required.

That's something that troubles me too. Im in the process for a VA right now.
I believe the "limited access" Wordpress account is a great solution.

How much are you spending? Who are you hiring?

Don't hand out your login info. to just anyone that claims they know SEO.

Personally I would never in a million years trust anyone else with my money sites.

If you are using Wordpress then you can give editor access while administration access would be with you...