What Should I Expect from an SEO Consultant?
Article by Colette Nichol, Story Strategist and Organic SEO Consultant
Q: “What should I expect from my SEO consultant?
A: What you expect from your SEO consultant will depend entirely on the agreement you’ve made with them in terms of deliverables and ongoing consulting. Your SEO consultant will always be working to help you move toward your business goals. However, the exact nature of the engagement depends on your business needs and budget.
When you hire an SEO consultant, it’s important to know what they’ll be doing for you and what they won’t be doing.
If you’re wondering what to expect from your SEO consultant, you should first take a look at your contract and proposal to see what is covered. But if you haven’t hired anyone yet, then this post will help you better understand what an SEO consultant may or may not do for your business.
The Role of an SEO Consultant
Helping You Achieve Your Goals
First and foremost, an SEO consultant should find out what your top business goals are and how quickly you want to get there.
You can’t do everything all at once, so it’s important that your consultant find out which products and services you want to sell more of in the near future and work on a strategy that moves towards those goals.
If you don’t set the right goals, you won’t get the right strategy. It’s important that you’re clear on your key business goals before you seek help from a consultant.
Identifying and Targeting the Right Keywords
An SEO consultant can identify the most relevant and effective keywords for your business.
This involves researching to understand what potential customers are searching for and how these search terms align with your products or services.
An SEO Consultant can also do competitor analysis to see what other businesses in your niche are doing and what’s working right now. Your SEO plan will be based on what’s currently surfacing on the first page of Google for your top keywords.
Optimizing Website Content
Once the right keywords are identified, an SEO consultant may focus on optimizing your website content or helping you to create new content.
Depending on the contract and plan you’ve selected, they may do the work for you, or they may give you a plan that your team can implement. In addition, depending on your site content, it may be best to dive in right away with new content.
Or it might make sense to start re-working the existing content.
I know this might sound surprising, but a lot of websites are FULL of content that will not actually help move the needle towards business growth. It’s often the case that articles are too far off the real customer journey to be helpful.
Most websites get almost no traffic from Google. If that’s where your site is right now, it’s likely you need a lot of fresh content to move the needle.
Optimizing Your On-Page Content
Your SEO consultant may do the optimizations for you, or give you a workflow for your team to follow.
Many website owners don’t realize how important the following things are to getting a page found on Google:
- The H1 Title i.e. page title
- The Site Title i.e. the title that Google puts on the SERPs and that searchers see
- The URL
- The meta description
- The H2 Titles
If most of your pages lack optimization in these five areas, then you’re not going to be rising to the top of Google any time soon!
Technical SEO
Beyond content, an SEO consultant may address technical aspects of your website to improve its performance in search engines.
This includes improving site speed, mobile-friendliness, and ensuring your website is easily crawlable by search engines.
However, most small sites won’t see big gains simply from improving site speed or other small technical concerns.
Usually the biggest problem with small sites is that there is not enough relevant content and too much irrelevant content. If you have a massive website, then technical SEO becomes more important.
Common Questions
What can I expect from an SEO expert?
Expect a comprehensive analysis of your current SEO performance and a strategic plan tailored to your business goals. The exact services you receive will depend on the specific engagement you have with your SEO consultant.
What can I expect from SEO services?
SEO services should help to provide increased visibility in search engines, improved website traffic, and ideally, help to increase leads and sales.
What questions should I ask an SEO consultant?
Inquire about their experience, approach to keyword research, strategies for on-page and off-page SEO, how they measure success, and their familiarity with what’s working right now in SEO. As of this writing, there has been a lot of change in the SEO world, however, my clients’ have all seen their traffic go up. Having a quality strategy and quality content makes a difference.
What does an SEO consultant do?
An SEO consultant analyzes websites within the context of a business owner’s goals to see how relevant traffic can be improved. There are many ways an SEO consultant may approach their work as it depends on what type of website they are assessing. Some consultants are more technical while others are more focused on content.
Final Thoughts
Your SEO consultant is a key partner in navigating the complex world of online search and digital marketing.
Effective SEO is a long-term play. It’s not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. But it does typically provide dramatic results over time.
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About the Author
Hi! I’m Colette Nichol. I’m a solo filmmaker, SEO, story strategist, and digital marketer based out of rainy Vancouver, Canada. I’ve been helping small local businesses and global brands since 2014.
In 2017, I started applying SEO to my work with clients and in my own business. The results were extraordinary, and I got obsessed!
If you’re interested in working together, please reach out. I’d love to hear about your business goals to see if we can help.
We currently take on a maximum of one new client per month and are typically booked 3-months in advance, so please reach out early.
