An SEO advisor helps your concern amended hunt motor rankings. Through services similar keyword research, tract audits, and on-page SEO. Which tin thrust integrated postulation and make leads.

They person a bully knowing of however hunt motor algorithms work. And tin assistance some individuals and businesses with immoderate SEO-related issues they face, reply their questions, and supply guidance connected however to amended their hunt motor rankings.

You tin adjacent prosecute them to instrumentality a hands-on attack successful managing your SEO efforts.

Some SEO consultants enactment crossed aggregate industries. While others specialize successful circumstantial industries. Like hospitality, healthcare, oregon B2B SaaS.

SEO consultants travel successful antithetic forms—they mightiness beryllium freelancers, portion of a selling agency, oregon full-time professionals who connection consulting services connected the side.

Let’s research however SEO consultants tin assistance your concern thrive online.

What Does an SEO Consultant Do?

SEO Strategy

SEO consultants play a pivotal relation successful crafting and refining your SEO strategy.

They can:

• Review and analyse your existent strategy: An SEO advisor volition analyse your existing SEO efforts to place strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement
• Suggest actionable fixes: Consultants supply specific, applicable recommendations to heighten your SEO. Including method optimizations, on-page improvements, and contented enhancements.
• Build a broad SEO strategy from scratch: If you don’t already person one, a advisor tin make a customized SEO program tailored to your concern goals, people market, competition, and budget.
• Continuous monitoring: Consultants volition regularly way show and set your strategy arsenic needed to assistance you enactment up of algorithm changes. And support your competitory edge.

Keyword Research

An SEO advisor volition execute keyword research to place the astir promising and applicable keywords for your business.

This involves researching the words oregon phrases imaginable customers participate into hunt engines to find accusation related to your industry, products, and services.

Using SEO tools, consultants tin execute the pursuing tasks:

• Analyze keywords: SEO consultants volition measure keyword difficulty for applicable terms. Determining the ones that connection the champion opportunities for ranking highly successful hunt motor results.
• Assess search intent: They tin assistance you find keywords that align with your selling and concern goals. For instance, if generating leads is simply a priority, an SEO advisor tin probe keywords with precocious acquisition intent. Leading to much targeted and effectual content.
• Implement keyword strategy: Consultants tin assistance you incorporated keywords people into content. And different on-page elements similar meta descriptions, rubric tags, and H1 tags.
• Perform keyword spread analysis: An SEO advisor tin place gaps successful your SEO strategy. By researching keywords that your competitors are targeting but you aren’t.
• Avoid keyword overlap: Different pages competing for the aforesaid keywords tin negatively interaction your SEO efforts. SEO consultants volition guarantee your tract doesn’t look this problem.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO focuses connected improving your site’s wide show to marque it easier for hunt engines to find, crawl, and scale your webpages. And present a large idiosyncratic experience.

SEO consultants tin execute assorted method SEO tasks.

Including:

• Improving leafage speed
• Review leafage indexing
• Optimizing your tract for mobile devices

For example, if your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, it tin importantly interaction your hunt motor rankings. Because Google uses mobile-first indexing.

This means it prioritizes the mobile mentation of your website’s contented for indexing and ranking.

An SEO advisor volition usage assorted SEO tools to measure your site’s velocity and performance. Such arsenic Google Search Console, Core Web Vitals, and Semrush’s Site Audit.

And connection ongoing suggestions to guarantee your website is optimized for method SEO.

For instance, if you program to expand globally, they mightiness suggest implementing a contented transportation web (CDN) to alteration load times for visitors from assorted locations.

On-Page SEO

An SEO advisor tin assistance you place on-page SEO issues that whitethorn beryllium impacting your website’s hunt motor rankings. And supply actionable recommendations connected however to hole them.

This involves optimizing your webpages and contented for users and hunt engines.

Including:

• Title tags
• H1 tags
• URL slugs
• Meta descriptions
• Alt text
• Internal links

Analyzing your site’s internal linking structure is simply a important portion of an SEO consultant’s job. Effective interior linking tin assistance hunt engines amended recognize your site’s operation and the relevance of pages successful narration to 1 another.

This accomplishment tin effect successful improved hunt motor rankings.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO involves strategies implemented extracurricular of your website to amended its hunt motor rankings.

Backlink Building

Backlinks are links from 1 tract that constituent to another. Search engines similar Google see backlinks an important ranking signal.

An SEO advisor tin analyse your existing illustration to find its strength, place caller opportunities, and assistance you make contented that attracts much backlinks.

For instance, consultants tin pat into their web to assistance you onshore impermanent posting opportunities. Helping you physique high-quality backlinks for your website.

Brand Mentions and Citations

Increasing your brand’s mentions crossed antithetic media outlets, influential blogs, and quality sites tin assistance amended your authorization and online reputation.

SEO consultants tin find mentions of your marque online that don’t see a nexus and interaction the sites. This tin assistance you physique much backlinks.

They tin besides show the web for marque mentions to recognize marque cognition and capitalize connected linking opportunities. And physique relationships with journalists and media outlets to unafraid coverage.

Social Media Marketing

An SEO advisor volition guarantee your societal media profiles are optimized and see a nexus to your website. This tin assistance you physique a nonrecreational online presence. And pull much visitors to your website.

They tin measure your societal media strategy and suggest ways to optimize it for SEO. Like capitalizing connected trending topics. And utilizing keywords and hashtags successful captions and descriptions.

Local SEO

SEO consultants whitethorn connection local SEO services. Which is the process of improving your section business’s hunt motor visibility.

Google Business Profile

An SEO advisor tin assistance you acceptable up and optimize your Google Business Profile. Which tin assistance you pull much section customers.

Google pulls accusation straight from Google Business illustration for section hunt results. So, it’s important your illustration is professional, complete, and features a fig of affirmative reviews.

Local Keywords

An SEO advisor tin besides assistance you optimize your website for section keywords related to your business. For instance, if you service aggregate locations, they tin make location-specific pages for each location.

Like Thrive, a integer selling agency. Its website features aggregate determination pages.

Each leafage focuses connected section keywords. Like “Dallas integer selling agency.” And city-specific contented to assistance the bureau fertile successful these locations.

Including references similar “Our Dallas integer selling clients get results” to pull section customers.

Customer Review Sites

An SEO advisor tin make and negociate your company’s listings crossed lawsuit reappraisal sites. Like Tripadvisor, Yelp, Facebook, and more.

This ensures your accusation is close crossed the web. And helps you make a credible, nonrecreational online presence.

When to Hire an SEO Consultant

You Don’t Have the Budget for a Full-Time SEO Professional

Hiring a full-time worker is simply a commitment. Especially for small- and medium-sized businesses.

According to our SEO Jobs Report, the mean yearly wage for a full-time, U.S.-based SEO nonrecreational is $60,548.

If you don’t person the fund for a full-time salary, you tin prosecute an SEO advisor connected a freelance basis. For a fixed fig of hours per week oregon month.

This helps you:

• Stay wrong fund constraints
• Avoid expenses associated with full-time employment. Such arsenic wellness benefits, payroll taxes, and different employee-related costs.
• Work with SEO consultants from anyplace successful the world
• Avoid semipermanent commitment. Scale your efforts up oregon down based connected your needs and budget.
• Avoid grooming costs by partnering with professionals who already person the indispensable skills and knowledge

You’re Looking for Quick Guidance

Some SEO consultants connection project-based services. It’s perfect if you request short-term assistance and don’t privation to perpetrate to semipermanent support.

For example, a advisor tin supply guidance connected a circumstantial task. Like structuring your website for amended indexing.

Your In-House Team Lacks Specialized SEO Knowledge

SEO tin beryllium complex.

Certain tasks whitethorn necessitate much specialized cognition than your squad presently has. Like nexus building, method SEO audits, and contented optimization.

Or possibly your squad is overwhelmed with their existent workload. In specified cases, it mightiness marque consciousness to outsource SEO tasks to a consultant.

You Received a Google Penalty

If your website doesn’t adhere to Google Search Essentials guidelines, you tin get a penalty. Which tin effect successful a important driblet successful rankings and traffic.

It’s imaginable to retrieve from a punishment by identifying the basal cause, addressing it, and resubmitting your tract to Google.

An SEO advisor tin assistance you with this. They’ll probe what happened and suggest and instrumentality fixes to assistance get the punishment removed.

Your Organic Search Traffic Has Dropped Drastically

Search engines similar Google rotation retired regular updates to their algorithms. Which tin importantly interaction your website’s hunt motor rankings. And your business’s revenue.

An SEO advisor tin assistance you fig retired wherefore your rankings and postulation dropped. And travel up with a strategy to retrieve them.

Your Growth Has Plateaued

Even if your squad has already achieved outstanding SEO results, determination whitethorn travel a constituent wherever your maturation plateaus.

Hiring an SEO advisor tin assistance you place caller opportunities and areas wherever you tin outperform your competitors.

They tin besides supply guidance connected however to pat into caller markets. And research further lawsuit segments from an SEO standpoint.

Lastly, an SEO advisor tin supply recommendations oregon enactment side-by-side with your squad to instrumentality precocious SEO techniques like:

• Improving your existing content’s time-to-value (TTV): How overmuch clip it takes your visitors to get worth from your webpages. The little the TTV, the better.
• Content refreshes: Refresh existing contented tin assistance you amended your hunt motor rankings and summation conversions
• Remove dormant value pages: Dead value pages are webpages that connection nary existent worth to your readers. And/or comprise outdated, low-value content. Such pages tin wounded your hunt motor rankings. So, it’s champion to delete them.

What to Look for successful an SEO Consultant

Proven Track Record

Choose an SEO advisor who has achieved outstanding results for their past clients.

Their portfolio should see examples of websites they’ve improved, accompanied by circumstantial metrics. Such arsenic increases successful traffic, leads generated, oregon gross driven.

For example, Dan Taylor, an endeavor SEO and maturation consultant, features lawsuit studies connected his website. To amusement however he’s helped antithetic companies amended hunt rankings and conscionable concern goals.

When evaluating an SEO consultants’ work, look beyond basal vanity metrics. Like integrated hunt traffic, leafage views, impressions, oregon clicks.

Work with idiosyncratic who tin necktie their SEO results to gross metrics, specified arsenic the fig of leads generated.

They should besides beryllium capable to supply impervious that they person genuinely helped their clients execute these results. Like testimonials oregon references.

Another enactment is hiring a freelance SEO advisor connected a marketplace similar Upwork and Fiverr. The vantage of a marketplace is that you tin spot the results much transparently.

For example, Jon L. is simply a Top Rated Plus advisor and has earned implicit $1 cardinal connected Upwork.

This shows that Jon has a batch of experience.

You tin besides work his reviews to spot however he’s helped his clients get tangible concern results.

Experience

Leigh McKenzie, caput of SEO astatine Backlinko, says that portion aggregate years of acquisition is helpful, prime matters much than quantity:

Look astatine the consultants’ past clients and websites to measure quality. In summation to their years of experience.

Transparency and Communication

Choose an SEO advisor who is unfastened astir the tactics and strategies they mean to use. And who tin intelligibly explicate the “why” down them.

For instance, if an SEO advisor provides you with a database of dormant value pages to delete, they should besides intelligibly explicate wherefore removing these pages is beneficial for your SEO efforts.

Also, it’s important that they person a program to support you updated connected your site’s advancement and performance. Ask however often they’ll update you and how—whether it’s telephone calls, emails, oregon video meetings.

Niche Expertise

Look for an SEO advisor with nonstop acquisition moving successful your industry.

For example, Georgi Todorov, an SEO adept and laminitis of Create & Grow, specializes successful B2B, tech, and marketing.

Which helium intelligibly highlights connected his website for imaginable clients.

Georgi explains wherefore niche expertise is essential:

This specialized cognition tin marque a important difference.

An industry-specific SEO advisor volition person a deeper knowing of your market. Including lawsuit behaviour and the competitory landscape.

They mightiness besides person connections they tin scope retired to for collaborations. And link-building opportunities.

5 Red Flags to Avoid When Hiring an SEO Strategist

1. Guaranteed Results

Stay distant from SEO consultants who warrant results. Like apical hunt motor rankings oregon a important summation successful integrated hunt postulation wrong a abbreviated clip frame.

Many factors spell into a site’s ranking. Like hunt motor algorithms, manufacture competition, budget, your site’s authority, and more. Making it intolerable to warrant circumstantial results.

Google warns against this signifier arsenic well, stating that if idiosyncratic guarantees their enactment volition onshore you the archetypal spot connected Google, look elsewhere.

2. Unproven Results

Some SEO consultants stock screenshots of Google Search Console dashboards with melodramatic increases successful a website’s integrated hunt traffic.

Like this:

They whitethorn bash this without revealing the client’s sanction oregon URL due to the fact that of a non-disclosure statement (NDA).

While NDAs are communal successful the industry, consultants should ideally person immoderate projects they tin share.

Here’s however consultants tin verify their claims:

• Connect you with erstwhile clients (at slightest one) who tin verify their results
• Share elaborate lawsuit studies that research the circumstantial challenges faced by their clients, the strategies implemented, and the outcomes achieved, without disclosing the client’s identity
• Share video testimonials from immoderate of their past clients

3. Cheap Pricing

Steer wide of SEO consultants who connection services astatine suspiciously debased prices. Like $10 per hour. Or $50 per project.

Low-priced SEO services tin beryllium a reddish emblem for ineffective oregon unethical practices. It besides indicates that the advisor whitethorn deficiency the acquisition oregon expertise required to efficaciously code your problems.

SEO consultants typically complaint betwixt $50 and $150 an hour. Some complaint more. So, if you’re seeing rock-bottom pricing, it could beryllium owed to the prime and reliability of the consultant’s services.

4. Shady SEO Tactics

Some SEO consultants whitethorn connection unethical SEO tactics.

Like:

• Cloaking: Displaying webpages otherwise to users and hunt engines
• Private blog networks (PBN): Using a web of websites to make backlinks

Such tactics tin pb to penalties from hunt engines. Including being removed from hunt results entirely.

Here are a fewer signs that an SEO advisor mightiness beryllium utilizing shady tactics:

• Promises of speedy fixes oregon overnight success
• The usage of undisclosed oregon confusing strategies erstwhile explaining their approach
• Claims of having a peculiar narration with Google oregon different large hunt engines to power rankings directly

Look for consultants who are transparent astir their methods. And who basal their strategies connected dependable SEO principles. Like improving idiosyncratic experience, creating high-quality content, and gathering backlinks from authoritative websites.

Work with consultants who absorption connected long-term, sustainable maturation implicit overnight success.

5. Predefined Packages (Orange Flag)

SEO packages mightiness look similar a bully thought astatine archetypal glance. For example, a bundle that includes 5 backlinks, 4 blog station refreshes, and 20 keywords for a level fee.

But packages often neglect to present the desired results. Because SEO requires a customized approach.

A bully SEO advisor listens to your problems, identifies your challenges, and suggests a tailored strategy.

This isn’t to accidental that packages can’t beryllium helpful. SEO budgets tin stroke retired with a bespoke approach—creating ambiguity. Packages tin springiness you bid of mind.

They’re particularly utile if you cognize SEO. You tin bring connected a advisor connected a bundle to guarantee you get the deliverables you don’t person the clip to bash yourself.

So, this is much of a yellowish oregon orangish flag.

What to Ask SEO Consultants: Key Questions to Ask Before Hiring

• Pricing: How bash you operation your pricing? Is it hourly, a monthly retainer, oregon project-based? What is included successful your fee, and are determination immoderate further costs we should anticipate?
• Strategy: What is your wide SEO doctrine and approach? What circumstantial steps volition you instrumentality to amended our hunt motor rankings?
• Industry experience: Can you supply lawsuit studies oregon examples of past successes, peculiarly successful my industry?
• Compliance: What is your attack to ensuring compliance with hunt motor guidelines? Have you ever faced penalties oregon issues with hunt engines owed to your SEO practices?
• Results: Can you stock the results you’ve achieved for your past clients? Also, tin you verify these results with in-depth lawsuit studies oregon references?
• Industry updates: How bash you support up with changes successful SEO champion practices and hunt motor algorithms?
• Communication: How volition we communicate? How often tin we expect updates and meetings?
• Client collaboration: What volition you request from our extremity to execute success?
• Client references: Can you supply references oregon testimonials from past clients?
• Measurement: What metrics bash you way to measurement SEO success? And tin I spot a illustration SEO study for a past client?

Find the Right SEO Consultant for Your Business

Hiring a reliable SEO advisor tin assistance you fertile for the keywords that substance the astir to your business. And pull much integrated traffic, leads, and sales.

If you’re acceptable to prosecute a consultant, LinkedIn is simply a large spot to start. Conduct a hunt for SEO consultants successful your niche and presumption their past occupation past and recommendations. So, you tin vet their acquisition earlier reaching out.

To assistance you fund appropriately, larn much astir however overmuch SEO services outgo successful our SEO pricing guide.

The station SEO Consultants Guide: When to Hire and What to Expect appeared archetypal connected Backlinko.