What Is SEO Consulting? (And Everything In Between)

Whether you’re looking to hire an SEO consultant or become one, you’ll find everything you need in our guide to SEO consulting, from skills and costs to top agencies and hiring tips. Explore our guide now!

What is an SEO consultant?

An SEO consultant provides one-time or ongoing SEO support to improve a website’s visibility in search engines like Google and Bing. SEO consultants provide broad or specialized SEO support, like full-service SEO or technical SEO services.

What does an SEO consultant do?

An SEO consultant advises companies on how to achieve their search engine optimization goals, like improving organic rankings, traffic, or conversions. Depending on the service agreement, SEO consultants will also implement these recommendations.

In their role, SEO consultants leverage several skills, including:

• Analysis
• Research
• Reporting
• Project management
• Communication

In their day-to-day, you can find search engine optimization consultants:

• Setting up analytics software, like Google Analytics 4 or Google Search Console
• Conducting keyword research
• Auditing existing site content
• Optimizing existing site content
• Improving site navigation and user experience (UX)
• Reviewing SEO performance
• Meeting with stakeholders
• And more

Outside consulting, SEO consultants must stay up-to-date on SEO trends.

How much do SEO consultants cost?

An SEO consultant’s rates depend on multiple factors, including experience, project scope, and duration. Most consultants charge an hourly rate that ranges from $100 to $3000 per hour.

What are the types of SEO consulting services?

The most common types of SEO consulting services include:

• SEO audit services: Through SEO audits, consultants can uncover website issues that may negatively impact your SEO performance and identify areas of opportunity and improvement.
• Technical SEO services: SEO consultants can look at the technical aspects of your website’s SEO performance, including page speed, HTTP status, sitemaps, and more.
• National SEO services: With nationwide SEO services, your consultant focuses on improving your visibility for non-localized terms, helping you reach potential customers across the U.S.
• Local SEO services: Get help improving your visibility in localized search results, like ‘house painter las vegas nv’, with an SEO consultant that specializes in local listings management and on-page SEO for localized terms.
• Competitor analysis: By looking at competitors’ SEO rankings, strategies, and more, SEO consultants can help clients identify opportunities to optimize their sites.
• SEO strategy: With experts by your side, search engine optimization consultants provide you with ongoing optimization assistance and actionable recommendations based on your unique SEO needs.

When should I use SEO consulting?

From our 25+ years of experience as an SEO service provider, we’ve learned when businesses benefit most from using SEO consulting, whether with a freelancer, contractor, or agency.

Here are our observations:

1. Your website isn’t ranking well

In our experience, the most common issue facing businesses hiring an SEO consultant is a lack of visibility in search engines for target keywords.

When businesses aren’t appearing on search engine results pages (SERPs) for important keywords related to their business, they’re not going to drive adequate organic traffic to their site or get enough online visibility. After all, what’s the point of a great website if no one sees it?

SEO companies can help businesses reverse that problem and start driving organic traffic to their site through technical, on- and off-page optimizations, and more.

2. Your organic traffic isn’t converting

Landing a top spot on the SERPs is one thing, but getting site visitors to stay on your site and turn into customers is another challenge. Another common reason for hiring an SEO consultant is that businesses have trouble converting organic traffic into customers.

Low conversion rates can occur for several reasons, such as:

• Poor site design
• Slow page speeds
• Misleading title tags and meta descriptions
• Confusing site navigation

Whatever the case, partnering with an SEO consultant helps businesses that find themselves uttering “my website doesn’t convert” and fix causes for low conversion rates.

3. Your market is competitive

Finally, many businesses turn to SEO consulting agencies because they lie within a highly competitive market, giving the need for an SEO strategy that outperforms competitors. SEO consulting agencies like SEO.com offer competitor analyses as a part of their consulting services precisely for this reason.

Even if you aren’t in a competitive industry, understanding how your competitors’ SEO strategies work can help you identify areas of opportunity for your website to surpass theirs in SERPs and attract more business.

4. Your time is booked

SEO consultants can provide critical, short-term support.

For example, if you or a team member is taking long-term leave (like maternity leave), an SEO consultant can provide essential support while you’re away.

In comparison, if you’re struggling to find the time to do SEO long-term, then it’s worth considering hiring an SEO agency to provide long-term, ongoing support.

5. Your budget is limited

For many businesses, SEO consulting provides an affordable option. SEO consultants offer a cost-effective alternative. You can hire a consultant for a few hours, for example, to tackle a project outside your skillset.

6. Your speciality isn’t SEO

Marketing is a broad area, from paid advertising to search engine optimization.

An SEO consultant can provide valuable insights for larger company initiatives. For example, if your business is completing a redesign, an SEO consultant can offer advice to ensure the redesign maintains your SEO efforts.

How to hire an SEO consultant

Choosing the right consultant agency for your business can take time and effort when faced with different options. To narrow your search and zero in on the right agency for your business, ask the following questions:

• What is my budget?
• How will I measure the consultant’s success?
• What is the duration of the partnership?
• What does the consultant’s services include?
• Does this SEO consulting firm have experience in my industry?
• Does this consulting firm come with tools (such as ecommerce SEO tools) that can help me with SEO?
• Does this agency have case studies available? What about reviews and testimonials?
• How does this SEO consulting agency measure success? What key performance indicators (KPIs) do they use?
• How often does this agency report SEO results?
• Where is this agency located? Do I want to work with a consultant in person or remotely?

Asking these questions about each SEO consulting option can help you dig deeper into what each organization offers and how they align with what you want to accomplish with your SEO. As you research more agencies, you’ll develop additional questions to ask SEO agencies to help guide your decision-making process.

Who are the best SEO consultants?

There are dozens of reputable SEO consultants. Based on our experience, we focused on finding the best SEO consulting agencies because these companies provide diverse solutions with the option of transitioning a full-time client.

The best SEO consultants include:

1. WebFX

Pricing: View pricing

Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Clutch rating: 4.9 with 336 reviews

WebFX is a full-service SEO consulting agency.

Their SEO consulting is backed by industry-leading marketing technology that helps clients make data-driven decisions about their SEO strategy. Not to mention, they’re home to over 500 SEO consultants with over 25+ years of experience.

2. Delante

Pricing: $50-$99/hour

Location: Düsseldorf, Germany

Clutch rating: 5.0 with 120 reviews

Along with SEO consulting, Delante offers ecommerce, technical, SEO for local service companies, and international SEO services. Whether your current SEO strategy needs a complete overhaul or you’re just looking for some guidance, the team behind Delante can help you improve your search engine performance.

3. Incrementors Web Solutions

Pricing: $50-$99/hour

Location: Delhi, India

Clutch rating: 5.0 with 114 reviews

Incrementors Web Solutions is an SEO consulting agency with services that extend beyond simple consulting. Complete with Amazon SEO, Shopify, voice search optimization, and more, Incrementors helps clients build SEO strategies that aren’t confined to one platform.

4. The SEO Works

Pricing: $100-$149/hour

Location: Sheffield, U.K.

Clutch rating: 4.8 with 36 reviews

Based in the U.K., The SEO Works is an SEO consulting firm with experience in various industries. From manufacturing to energy companies to healthcare, The SEO Works offers turnkey SEO solutions to help businesses reach their organic and technical SEO goals.

5. seoplus+

Pricing: $150-$199/hour

Location: Ottawa, Canada

Clutch rating: 4.9 with 51 reviews

A top SEO consulting agency in Canada, seoplus+ specializes in local, business-to-business (B2B), and ecommerce SEO services. With the help of technical audits and monthly reporting, the team at seoplus+ can help clients like you build an SEO strategy that drives results that matter.

Get started with SEO consulting

Help your business resolve its SEO issues with WebFX, the award-winning team behind SEO.com. Whether you’re looking for SEO consulting services to grow your organic revenue or an affordable SEO tool to troubleshoot your traffic, we can help!

• To get started with consulting, contact us online!
• To get started with troubleshooting, try our free tool!

FAQs

Get your questions answered with these FAQs:

What is SEO?

 

SEO is search engine optimization, or the process of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). This process includes several types of SEO and optimizations, like writing title tags, compressing images, and adding internal links.

Why is SEO important?

SEO is important because everyone uses search engines, from consumers to business buyers. If you’re not present in these search results, you’re not visible to users. This lack of visibility affects more than your site’s traffic but also your business’s growth.

What does an SEO consulting firm do?

SEO consulting firms help businesses improve their website’s performance on search engines through various optimization tactics. SEO consulting firms can offer different SEO services and expand to other digital marketing services, but at their core, SEO consultants serve as strategic advisors who help clients improve their search engine performance.