What Are SEO Consultant Services?
SEO consulting is hiring an individual or a firm to do the search engine optimization of your website on your behalf. The best SEO consultant has the professional expertise with seo services to continually improve your websites rankings. Many top SEO agency consultants are all round tech-experts and offer genuine advice as to what needs to be done in order to improve your site’s rankings.
The Importance of SEO Consultant Services
We are living in an era where almost anything can be done via the internet. From clothing, hiring a cab, and so on – if one wants a service or product, the first stop is the internet. If your online presence is not felt or seen on the first page of Google’s search results, very few people will even know about your business.
If you want your online presence to have an impact, you need to work on your site’s ranking. How can you achieve this? If you’re not in a position to work on your website in person, then hiring the services of a SEO consultant to do the job for you is your best choice.
SEO consulting will help improve your company’s visibility on search engines, translating into a higher number of visitors visiting your page. The higher the number of clicks that your website gets, the higher the number of potential buyers who gain awareness of your company and are likely to buy, meaning more sales and profits for your business.
Go Deeper: More Resources on SEO services
- What is SEO
- What does SEO Stand For
- What is Social SEO?
- The Ultimate Guide To Organic SEO
- The Top Local Search Ranking Factors
- Technical SEO and How it Affects Your Website’s Rank
- How Does SEO Work for Your Business?
- SEM vs. SEO: Tapping Your Business Potential
- White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO: Are You Doing SEO Right?
- Easy Guide to Getting Local SEO to Work for Your Small Businesses
- The Importance of NLP and What It Means For SEO
- The On-page SEO Checklist
- Keyword Research Mastery: The Beginners Guide
- The Ultimate Google Algorithmic Penalty Recovery Guide
- Questions you SHOULD Ask Before Hiring an SEO Expert
- The 5 Step Beginner Guide to SEO Writing That Ranks
Services Offered By SEO Consultants
Research and Analysis of Key Words
Research and analysis can be a daunting task, but it’s one of the most important in SEO optimization. An SEO consultant does research of the keywords that are in line with your website or application. Studying the behavior and response of potential internet users is part of the process. After a comprehensive analysis, the SEO consultant will provide you with a well-sifted combination of the keywords that will rank your site #1 on Google.
Developing An SEO Consultant Strategy
Do you own a website and are unsure of what to do with it? SEO consultants will help you come up with a custom made strategy that will help you reap benefits off of your website. This is done by assessing both short term and long term goals of the site in question.
Advising Users on the Most Appropriate Software
The software market is flocked with thousands of different software solutions, all claiming to be the best at solving all your marketing needs. If you do not have the time to evaluate them or lack the technical know-how, it might be very hard to tell the difference and find the right software solution.
An SEO consultant helps you choose the right tool to suit your marketing strategy and one that is within your budget. The consultant also puts other issues, like your business goals and budget, into consideration.
Redesign Strategies and Guidance
For websites already up and ranking well, a redesign may be what your site needs. SEO consulting finds solutions that will help you remain at the top of the search results.
Together with your team, the SEO consultant works to come up with redesigned documents that bear all the strategic solutions to employ in order to remain relevant.
Offering Guidelines On Implementation
For those who already have a direction in mind but are not sure how to implement their ideas, SEO consulting is for you. The SEO consultant provides technical support and works closely with your team to implement your ideas without losing current rankings.
Competition Analysis
Do you feel that your competitors are becoming a threat, or are you concerned about what measures they are putting in place to remain relevant in Google or Yahoo? SEO consultancy provides competition analysis which will provide you with a breakdown of the tactics they are employing, how much it is costing them and so on.
Search Engine Optimization Consultant (SEO) Audits
An SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of the optimization of your website. The audit provides an in-depth assessment which helps point out the areas that need improvement. An SEO audit can either be general or specific. Either way, the consultant will help identify all the areas that require immediate action.
Review of Links and Backlinks
It is possible to have a link to your website used by a consultant or company that is doing you no good. You could also be new in this industry and require help on how to come up with natural links which lead readers to your website. SEO consultants through this service offer an opportunity to have your old links reviewed or established afresh for profitable outsourcing.
Local Search Engine Optimization Consulting
Local SEO involves making your business appear in top local searches. It is a technique that sees to it that your business appears on the search engines whenever customers (within your business location) search for keywords related to your business. By adding descriptions and tags relating to your business in the city where the business is located, an SEO consultant can help your business spread locally.
Topical Analysis
This is the analysis of the topics that internet users are interested in. After a topical analysis, the SEO consultant is able to advise you on trending searches relevant to your website. He can then offer advice on the most appropriate content to create that will fall in line with the search.
If a site has many topics that are related to online searches, it will have higher chances of getting many click-throughs and bringing in more business.
Hiring an SEO Consultant Company
If you’re looking for clients on the internet, then you have to make your business noticeable to internet users. There are no shortcuts to this. Doing serious business online requires serious website optimization on leading search engines.
As mentioned earlier, good Google rankings translate into good business. Many people have the potential to learn how to optimize their content so their websites rank well. If you do not have the time or require the other services as discussed above, consider doing some SEO consulting.
Apart from making sure that your website ranks well, an SEO consultant will also use his techniques to ensure that your content is adjusted on the page to match the ever-changing search engine rules. The SEO world is dynamic, and a technique that worked well last year might not be so relevant today – some might even go against the search engines’ rules and have you face search engine penalties for your website.
If you have a tight schedule, you might never find the time to keep tabs with such developments. To ensure that your ranking status remains relevant, hire the services of a private SEO consultant. This leads us to the next area of concern; how to get a good SEO consultant.
11 Things to Look Out For In a Professional SEO Consultant
A professional SEO consultant must have a thorough understanding of search engines, be conversant with the key sales in respect to your business, and to have technical skills that will help you realize good returns.
Here are 11 essentials to look out for:
Consulting Local SEO: Experience Improved Results
Having your website improved for local SEO will make it appear on local searches whenever anyone who is nearby is searching for something using keywords related to your business.
SEO consultants do this by adding the city where your business is situated and further tagging the business’ official website. The next step involves getting your business listed on all online directories like Yahoo, Bing, and Google’s local listings.
Getting a professional local SEO consultant who is good with local search engine optimization helps your website rank at the top on local search. This is good for businesses that are not only targeting online customers but also nearby customers.
The Ability to Comply With Search Engine Guidelines
As mentioned earlier, each search engine has its best practices. Contravening any of the rules can result in penalties and fines. For instance, Google prohibits spam content. It also prohibits sharing links that are deceptive or intrusive in nature. Some guidelines keep on changing – a good SEO consultant is one who keeps himself updated on the current regulations.
Note that the search engine reserves the right to relegate your site to a very low ranking or ban it altogether as a punishment. Ensure that the SEO consultant is not only familiar with the guidelines, but that he also follows them.
Updates You on All the Adjustments Made To Your Site
SEO actualization calls for some site changes during the process. These changes may affect a page, or many more. The SEO consultant should enquire from you whether you have any reservations against the possible changes. Even if you have no problem with possible alterations, the SEO consultant should let you know the exact number of web pages he has adjusted and the effect caused on the same.
Some of the possible SEO-related adjustments include web layout changes or providing your website with additional content that highlights the products or services you are dealing in.
Google Ranking Certainty
Ask the prospective SEO consultant on the certainty of improving your Google rankings after hiring their services. For instance, if you ask, “are you sure you will give me a number one ranking on all the three major search engines?” and the consultant says yes, they’re nothing but a bogus consultant presenting uncertifiable guarantees. Although it’s not impossible to attain such results, an SEO consultant putting it all upon himself and his strategies should serve as a warning sign. The only entity that has direct control over how high or low a ranking will be are the search engines themselves; Bing, Yahoo and Google.
Consultant SEO Campaigns Success Measurement
SEO analysis involves keeping track of the exact traffic that is getting to your website and where it is being channeled from. With the help of Google Analytics, the SEO consultant should be able to track the improvement realized by your site after employing the SEO techniques. A comprehensive analysis should provide a breakdown of the keywords being used by searchers to find your website, the amount of traffic sent from other websites that are using your site as a link and above all the ranking of your site on the search engine.
How Will The SEO Consultant Improve Rankings?
A good SEO consultant should not shy from freely discussing or providing details on his intended search engine optimization techniques in respect to your business. They will also disclose the strategies they intend to use and the expected timeframes to have your ranking goals met.
Some SEO consultants use off-page strategies. These are techniques aimed at raising awareness towards your website via other platforms like blogs, social media posts, other websites, or press releases.
While submitting the proposal to you, a reliable consultant should capture the details of how he intends to make a technical overhaul of your site and point out that which could be causing you lower rankings, like error pages and missing links.
Even as the consultant works on optimizing your pages for search engines, it’s important that he provides you with a better version of the website; one that is easy to navigate and user-friendly even to users who land there from the search engines.
What Will Be Your Mode Of Communication?
Like everyone else, SEO consultants prefer different modes of communication. While some are okay doing either phone or email, others prefer email correspondences while others are okay with phone or Skype communications.
Ask the consultant how often he will be posting on the progress of the optimization so that you don’t appear nagging or get impatient.
What Is The Cost?
You need to know the amount of money that you will be required to pay for the project. Some consultants charge tasks on an hourly basis while others charge per project. Either way, you need to know what if the charges are within your budget. Charges vary depending on the size and complexity of the SEO project.
According to a survey conducted by Moz in 2011, more than 600 SEO consulting firms charge amounts ranging between $1,000 -$8,000. Hourly rates range from $76-$200.
What Are The Payment Terms?
The terms of payment are as important as the cost of the project. It is therefore important to ask the SEO consultant what his payment terms are. For instance, after how long are his invoices due? Are there additional charges for not making timely payments? Also, see if there are any additional charges in the event that you terminate the SEO consulting services contract before its expiration date.
What Next After Expiration of Contract?
Before signing or agreeing to enter into a contract with a professional SEO consultant, make sure you read and understand all the details of the terms and conditions. Be keen to ensure that the agreement gives you ownership of the optimized content regardless of whether the contract expires or if you call it off before the due date.
If for any reason you part ways with the SEO consultant, he/she should not hold the rights to revert or remove the content they added to your website on your behalf. Make sure this is clearly stated in the contract.
Benefits of Hiring An SEO Consultant
ProfessionalismHiring an SEO consultant gives your website a professional touch. As already mentioned, many are all round technologists and have the potential to handle your business professionally. They are able to assess your website and determine what needs to be done in order to increase or attract traffic to your website.
Handle Optimization from the Start to the Finish
SEO consultants have a wide knowledge in all that relates to search engine optimization and what one needs to do to improve rankings. If your website needs a total makeover, they will be able to see to that and to take the necessary measures. If you already are in the SEO market, they are able to conduct an analysis which will tell where you are going wrong and suggest possible improvements.
As already discussed, they offer local SEO, backlinking, keyword analysis, SEO audits and all the other services that impact the ranking of a website.
Saves You Time
It is possible to learn SEO basics and complete some of the tasks by yourself. However, doing this would be time-consuming (especially for beginners), and it would end up consuming long hours which would otherwise be used for activities that are also productive.
When you hire a top SEO consultant, you are able to pay for the project in part or in full and to continue doing other income-generating activities. All that is required is that you maintain constant communication with the consultant so he/she can post you on the progress or any changes.
Helps Keep Your Site Updated
Search engines have their operational guidelines which either get updated or reviewed over time. As already mentioned, going against these rules can cause dire consequences. Many expert SEO consultants are aware of these changes and are able to effect the necessary changes to your website if need be.
Increases Organic Traffic to Your Site
This is the primary intent of any SEO consultation. A professional SEO consultant will do a professional analysis that will study the online trends of your competitors. If they are ranking better, he will help you understand which keywords are helping them achieve that success. You want success too, and search engine optimization with the professional help of a consultant will help you achieve new heights of online rankings which are very important to the success of your website.
Wrapping Up
Creating a website is useless if your target audience is not even aware of its existence. Hiring the services of an SEO consultant is the first step to ensuring that your site has a steadily increasing number of visitors. It’s time to increase the traffic towards your website. SEO consulting is the way to go.
