On a daily basis, an SEO consultant might be dealing with one client or multiple clients. Good interpersonal skills and communication are paramount to an SEO Consultant's success.
Summarising these are the list of services an SEO consultant is expected to perform:
- Conduct website audit
- Perform keyword research
- Come up with a content plan
- Create content calendar
- Suggest On-Page SEO improvements
- Dig in and fix Technical SEO issues
- Suggest and improve UI/UX
- Perform conversion optimization
- Present and generate performance reports
- Implement or suggest tracking on another form of campaign such as email or paid Ads
What makes a good SEO Consultant
SEO Consultant's job can be full-on. Challenging but rewarding. Nothing gives more satisfaction than seeing a client's website rank higher in SEO and helping them generate more leads and revenues.
Fantastic SEO Services is my second branded website. I have done extensive work as a WordPress Developer focusing on WordPress web design. I also worked as an SEO Specialist with my first brand WP Guru. I started to dedicate my time full-on as an SEO Consultant at the start of 2024.
What makes a good SEO Consultant? If I am to be honest, skills and expertise are the core of SEO consulting. In my case, I bring a unique set of skills.
I started as a front-end developer, then moved to WordPress Developer. Since I was always focused on optimization specifically around Google's best practices, I was quick to notice how well my websites did, without much effort on SEO.
I have always loved long-tail keywords for SEO. And this is my key and something I am good at. I also started outreach and link-building recently and have acquired some natural link profiles recently.
What I am trying to say here is the skill set is quite critical for being an SEO Consultant. For me, my main advantages over others are my development background and WordPress web design skills, which are quite a big part of SEO.
When to hire an SEO Consultant
There are clear signs when you need to hire an SEO consultant.
Here are times and situations when you need to hire an SEO Consultant.
If your current site is tanking
You might be in a situation where your consultant has promised you dreams but you haven't achieved anything. Yes, it is true good SEO strategy takes time. But saying so, you must be able to see progress month by month.
If you have been long enough with the same vendor without seeing any reasonable growth, it is time to move on.
If you are building or redesigning a website with SEO as a priority
A lot of SEO and even some well-known agencies fail to highlight the importance of website design when it comes to SEO.
So how does an SEO consultant contribute to web design? An SEO consultant can help you with content hierarchy and website architecture. And also come up with a template and design for reusability.
If your business is growing
It's advised to hire an SEO consultant when your business and your content is growing. Organizing content with good site architecture and SILO can increase traffic as well as organic visibility.
Steps to hire an SEO consultant
I have to admit that, the SEO industry can be daunting. And finding the right match with good ethics is even harder.
Here are steps that you can take to find a good match.
Have a budget in mind
It's good to have a budget in mind. With SEO, it's advised to find the right fit over cheap SEO.
Have a clear brief and scope
In my opinion, you will get what you write in brief - the more detailed the brief and scope of the project, the better the SEO result. So, make sure you have a good brief.
Do plenty of research
Finding the right SEO consultant can be daunting. The risky part is you might end up with some dodgy vendors too. In my personal opinion, if the consultant you are thinking of hiring has case studies on their website, you shouldn't hesitate to ask for a reference check with a few of their existing clients. If they are genuine, a happy client will always be happy to talk on their behalf.