What is an SEO Consultant?

In this modern age of technological growth and social media, there is an increased need for experts in the field of search engine optimization. This refers to an expert who consults a business, company, organization, or social media promoter on how to increase traffic and engagement to their site, through important and intriguing keywords.

A successful SEO consultant will result in higher rankings for your website and increased profits for the client. This is executed by possessing thinking skills which are strategic, analytical, integrative, tactical, and critical, in order to synthesize search engine algorithm updates and implications with social media, user behavior, user intent, content quality scoring, long-form content, and competitive content.

The goal is to achieve a higher ranking on the Google search engine algorithm, so that client content can be discovered through keyword search leads and long-lasting results. This is beneficial because customers can easily connect with their desired source, and the client ultimately has a step up in the competitive market on the internet.

In order to successfully execute the marketing strategies, the consultants evaluate both the business and its online presence using an SEO audit to understand where to begin. These individuals generally have experience with online marketing and improvement strategies, in observing what potential problems exist. These consultants may either lead, work alongside, or suggest strategies to an individual or a team and can also execute the work themselves.

What does an SEO Consultant do?

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to optimizing your website and an SEO consultant has to have a large knowledge base to ensure they maximize your rankings. This knowledge base includes but is not limited to the technical, on-page, and off-page aspects of your website.

SEO consultants have to have a strong technical understanding of website technologies at a code level (PHP, Javascript, etc) and also what CMS your website exists on.

For example, they have to understand how WordPress, Drupal, Squarespace, Shopify, and WIX work so they can go in and optimize your digital presence.

SEO consultants are required to have knowledge on how to optimize metadata such as title tags so that your website ranks for the right keywords and also attract the desired audience or market to the site through engaging and colorful vocabulary.

In other words, they also have to at the very least understand copywriting techniques and some of them are excellent copywriters in their own right.

Description and meta tags are also important in terms of searching for keywords and demonstrating clarity in the content that is being promoted. While the title and description are important, the general content quality and keyword density of the overall material on the website is as well.

For this reason, SEO consultants ensure that they produce professionally written content that has enough keywords to attract traffic, but not too many keywords that the writing appears choppy and unprofessional, which can lead to over-optimization.

Aside from these important features, SEO consultants also focus on latent semantic indexing, in order to match common words and synonyms to the content of the website, as well as the general bells and whistles, which are, site structure, headers, site speed, mobile-friendliness, data structure, and the schema markup.

As these factors are important within the website, it is also important that SEO consultants have knowledge of link building, social media, videos, and general content marketing.

SEO consultants have skills in marketing channels, which are essentially the optimization of websites, blogs, videos, display advertisements, emails, social media, and even paid advertisements. The skillset is not limited to this, as it is important to publish useful and relevant content, which stands out, in order to maximize the optimization of the channels. Internal linking to direct traffic flows, and the ability to publish and promote articles, which can circulate around the web to gain more recognition, is also a key practice across channels.

They are also consistently growing within their skills, as the market and algorithm style of the internet is constantly changing. This is a position that holds a high level of demand for many businesses, companies, organizations, and individual clients.

How do I find an SEO Consultant?

Before discussing the best means to find an SEO consultant, it is important to understand what should not be done or what is not advisable in the search for a consultants The best consultants who also have high ratings, tend to pull in more clients through referrals from past clients, and often do not promote through optimization.

Therefore, when conducting research through a search engine, the best SEO consultants often do not appear at the top. The options that do rank at the top of a search engine are usually in need of clients and therefore aren’t very popular.

In terms of web articles that promote SEO consultants, there are many instances where new consultancies pay to have their name on the list of the top consultants in an area, and that list is not always reliable because they are paid promotions. Websites that claim to know how algorithms work on Google and other search engines are not always reliable, and unfortunately there are SEO consultancies that do rely on some of this information, so it is important to find ones that don’t use informational tools that make it appear as if the practice of search engine optimization is an easy code to understand.

A poor reason to use an SEO consultant and the result that one might get by using the above options, will simply lead to boosting rankings without a goal, increased traffic to the website without a focus on a specific audience, and the beating out of a competitor based on specific keywords that do not relate to the goals of the business, company, organization, or individual.

It is important to target the desired audience in order to gain traffic from the desired consumers that would be interested in the specific product or content. This in combination with boosting revenue, trials to a specific product, and interest in the product to which people spread the word is most important, and these are the results that professional SEO consultants will make a reality.

The best sources to find an SEO consultant is through friends, a personal network, a professional network, non-competitive companies which are similar to your own, and industry insiders. Through this, it is important to ask these connections and the consultants that you become in touch with about the processes and actions that they carry out based on your goals, so that the communication skills can be evaluated.

It is also important to know what resources are going to have to be used in the process of increasing your traffic, revenue, and target audience activity. There will be instances where the consultant is not always available, and for this reason, it is important to get a lesson on from them on how they believe the algorithm works with regards to your specific type of product or website, as well as information on how to handle a situation where something may go wrong.

What skills do you need to become an SEO consultant?

Every type of profession requires a specific type of skill set or expertise.  Critical thinking is necessary in order to understand why there might be certain obstacles that are being faced and the ways in which to fix them. Skills in speaking and writing are necessary in that the proper searches can be carried out to attract a certain audience, but also so that content can be read and understood by those who are not familiar with SEO techniques.

Technical skills are needed in order to understand the implications in writing code, not necessarily that the consultant knows how to do so, but so that the consultant is familiar with the implications behind the coding and the algorithm of various search engines. Having knowledge of Adobe or Google analytics is important in a quality SEO consultant. Excel skills are important in understanding and in measuring changes within an algorithm, but also in targeting keywords towards the brand, the product, or the type of search being conducted.

Lastly, social skills, motivation, adaptability, and an easy-going personality is key in bringing in a consultant or a group of consultants, as they may come on as a leader or a team member, so, having adequate social skills is necessary for bringing in a new personality to a work environment.

How can an SEO consultant help your business grow?

The goal is to appear on the first page of a search engine. SEO consultants and practices have reputational benefits in that, organic searching is usually the primary source of website traffic.

SEO makes an online market source to appear more trustworthy and credible while also providing a better user experience. Local SEO often leads to more engagement, traffic, and conversations on the product or content and creates positive changes within the buying cycle and best practices are always being updated as algorithms, technology, and the demand of certain products are always changing. Through these practices, sales will increase because of the increase of engagement and traffic to the website. 

Lastly, the business can achieve higher rankings on searches from local SEO services, as these services better understand the audience and the needs of a particular community.

How much does an SEO consultant charge?

Every service is different, based on the experience level of the consultant and the needs of the client. However, in 2019, it is estimated that most SEO projects go for $750 to $2000 per month, with hourly rates on individual consultants ranging from $80 to $200 per hour. This estimate pertains to an average-sized organization.

There are often opportunities to have trial sessions with SEO specialists to best see how to fit the needs of the client. There are also online courses on how to train staff on SEO techniques, focusing on content development, keyword analysis, and design.

As another cheaper option that can have long term benefits, there are instances where a professional is hired to lecture a business group for a day on SEO techniques so that the group can carry out what they have learned in the session.

Ready to Grow your Business? 

If you need an SEO consultant or have any questions about how search engine optimization works please feel free to reach out at any time.