Search engine optimization (SEO) is a very important part of any online business strategy. It helps search engines find your website and rank it higher in search results. This means more traffic to your site and potentially more sales.
But many SMEs just don’t have the resources to hire someone full-time to do it for them.That’s where I come in. As an SEO consultant I can help you get started.
I’m going to tell you exactly why you should hire an SEO specialist, and how to select the right person for your needs. In this post, I’ll cover:
- Why hiring an SEO expert makes sense?
- How to choose the right person for your project?
- Learn the key questions to ask before hiring an SEO consultant.
- And once you’ve hired someone, how do you make sure they’re doing everything correctly?
What is an SEO Consultant?
So what exactly is an SEO Consultant, and how do they differ from Digital Marketing Agencies?
An SEO Consultant is someone who provides a specialised, dedicated, one-to-one service over an agency service which often bundles additional services into their fee.
As a search engine optimisation specialist, I provide a full range of SEO consulting services that compliment your business plan or other high level content strategy.
Yes see, you can’t jump straight into ‘SEO’ without having a full grasp of the business. The main goal of SEO is to save money over the longer term and also to generate more revenue.
Reduced costs, grow revenue. It’s a compelling argument.
But, you won’t achieve that if your website and your content aren’t fulfilling the requirements of your business goals and objectives. You should only create content that’s relevant for both your target audience and in the context of your core business activities.
SEO Consultancy Services: What services would a typical SEO consultant provide?
SEO Consultancy is the process of providing professional advice to clients who want to improve their websites’ visibility through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The main goal of SEO consulting services is to increase traffic and revenue from organic search results.
However, there are many different ways to do this. But the most important aspect of this consultancy is to ensure that the business is in a better place. These are the main areas I focus on for client work:
Content Strategy
A good content strategy leads the creation, distribution, governance, evaluation and measurement of any content produced in a business context.
If a business creates content, any type of content, there’s a cost associated with producing it. As long as the benefit outweighs the cost, then the business will see a positive return on investment. However, what happens when a business produces content without purpose? The cost will inevitably outweigh the benefit. This approach is not sustainable.
Before I undertake any SEO work, I need to understand the client’s goals and objective for the project. The good news is that your content strategy will have those. However, if there isn’t a content strategy, we’ll need to create one. This is not the end of the world. But this is an important step to ensuring the long term success of any SEO or content marketing work.
SEO Content Strategy
You may be wondering what the difference is between a content strategy and an SEO content strategy. The simple answer: SEO content strategy focuses on your website content.
But, good SEO consultants will take into account your business goals and objectives when developing this strategy. In other words, they operate within the clearly defined objectives of the wider business. social media strategyusiness has a marketing strategy, a sales strategy, a social media strategy, or a communications strategy – then the SEO consultant needs to understand how their work is going to compliment those other channels.
What should an SEO content strategy contain?
This is the guidance and direction of planning your website’s content creation. The most important part of any SEO campaign is to produce quality content. The content should be unique, informative, engaging, and useful. It must provide value to the reader. If it doesn’t, it can’t rank.
At a minimum your SEO content strategy should include the following:
Expectations:
Achievable objectives that are meaningful to your business. For example, aim to become the topical authority in the local area within 12 months. But, do you assume becoming a topical authority (and thus ranking high) will lead to revenue growth?
Do you have specific objectives for each page or section of your website? How will you evaluate your web pages?
Audience Research:
Who are you creating content for? What are their pain points? What solutions are they looking for?
You cannot start creating any content before you have a clear understanding of your target customers.
Competitor Research:
Who are they? What are they doing that you aren’t? What do you like about their website? What can you do differently? Essentially, you need to know how difficult it’s going to be to outrank your direct competitors.
Keyword Research:
You can find out a lot of information from keyword research. This should go beyond providing a list of long-tail keywords to include in blog posts. Keyword research can tell you a lot about your audience. It can give you an insight into their search queries. You can deduce the search intent behind them. But, you can also use this step to help with your audience research and your competitor research. It’s a vital piece of the SEO puzzle. Understand what keyword research is and how it’s done, and why you should outsource SEO consulting.
Content Plan: what will you write about and why?
A content plan is a blueprint for creating great content. It outlines how you intend to create content for your site and when you intend to do it.This includes topics, dates when you expect them to be published, and any other information that helps you keep track of what you’ve written.
A content plan helps you focus on the most important aspects of your business. If you have a clear vision of where you’d like to go, it’ll help you stay focused and avoid wasting time on content that won’t help. In essence, it provides you with a roadmap for achieving your goals.
The best way to develop a content plan is to ask yourself questions about your business goals and your customers’ needs, such as:
- What kind of content would help my customers solve problems?
- What kinds of content would make them feel more confident?
- What types of content would encourage them to buy?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you can begin creating a schedule for your content creation.
You may find that you need to do more than one type of content. For example, you might decide to publish blog posts, articles, and videos. Each of these types of content requires a different approach.
For each piece of content, you’ll need to consider the following:
• What topic will you cover?
• When will you post it?
• Who will read it?
• Where will you share it?
• Will there be multiple versions of the same article?
Content plans are useful because they give you a clear vision of your future content operations. They also help you avoid making costly mistakes.
Content Schedule
You may decide to build this into your content plan, but either way you need to understand when content is going to be created and when it’s going to be published. Don’t forget, your website content is going to feed into your other content marketing activities.
One of the most important aspects of SEO is to become consistent. Therefore, you must commit to creating and publishing content on a regular basis.
SEO Tasks: What activities do you need to maintain on a regular basis?
SEO is an ongoing task. There are many aspects that require constant monitoring, maintenance and improvement. Tasks such as:
- Monitoring Google Analytics or Google Search Console;
- Reviewing content and testing;
- Researching keywords
Discover 13 quick SEO fixes to improve your site today and why you should outsource SEO consulting.
SEO & Website Auditing
A website audit is an analysis of a site’s technical structure, including its design, usability, accessibility, performance, security and functionality. This includes conducting an initial audit of your existing content to determine the state of your current organic performance as well as which search marketing tactics would be used to improve organic rankings.
The goal of a website audit is to identify any issues that may hinder user experience and/or cause problems for the business.
Once this has taken place and the requirements have been assessed, a comprehensive SEO strategy can be developed to give you an overview of the scope of work required.
Remember, a successful SEO campaign requires constant monitoring and adjustment.
Why outsource your SEO?
In today’s competitive market, it’s no longer enough to simply rank high in search engines. If you want to win over customers, you must do much more than just attract traffic to your site. To truly engage consumers, you need to establish yourself as an authority—and that requires expert help.
But how can you find someone qualified to make sure your brand stands out online? How can you ensure that your digital presence is optimised for success? And what are some of the most important things to consider when hiring an SEO expert?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most misunderstood areas of digital marketing. Many businesses think that because it involves technology, it must be complicated. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, SEO is actually quite straightforward – once you know how it works.
But even once you’ve mastered the basics, things still aren’t easy. Search engines like Google change their algorithm every now and again, meaning that your success could suddenly disappear overnight. It’s vital to keep up with the latest news, otherwise you risk missing out on opportunities.
And finally, you need to monitor your progress regularly. Because SEO is a constantly evolving field, it’s impossible to predict exactly what changes might happen next. So you need to measure your performance on a regular basis, analyse the data carefully, and take action accordingly.
The benefits of outsourcing SEO for your business
Organic search is one of the most important parts of a successful digital marketing strategy. However, many businesses don’t realise how much money they’re losing because of poor SEO practices. In fact, according to Searchmetrics, less than 10% of companies are seeing true success in terms of revenue growth. These numbers are even worse for local businesses where less than 5% of searches lead to conversions.
If you want to start growing your business, you must optimise your site for search engines. Here’s why:
1. It’s time-saving.
If you want to rank high in Google, it takes some effort. But there are ways to make things easier. For example, you don’t have to spend hours researching keywords, creating content, optimising images, etc. An SEO professional will take care of all of those things for you. They’ll know what works well and what doesn’t. And they’ll provide recommendations based on your goals.
2. Save money and resources.
SEO consultants don’t tend to lock clients into fixed term contracts. We believe that it is better to give you the freedom to choose how best to serve your customers and grow your business.
While we would recommend working on your SEO for a minimum of 6 months, you may want to start off slowly and take it month by month. Find an affordable SEO package to suit your needs.
Long term results. In order to get long-term results, you need to invest in your business. Investing in your business means investing in your website. This means improving its design, content, and functionality. It also means investing in marketing strategies that generate leads and drive traffic to your site.
3. Better results: not just more website traffic
The number one reason why people hire an SEO consultant is because they want to see improved rankings. They know how important it is to rank well in search engines. In fact, the majority of businesses use SEO consultants to improve their visibility online. This is especially true for small businesses, where there isn’t enough money to spend on marketing. And that’s why an investment in your SEO can provide long term results.
But, of course you should expect a higher search ranking for your target keywords. Plus, having a top-ranked site means more visibility for your business. Visibility is important because it attracts more qualified prospects.And this exposure should translate to more conversions.
Improved conversion rates: Optimising your site for search engines helps improve your conversion rate. Conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors who convert into paying customers after visiting your site. This includes things like making purchases, signing up for newsletters, or downloading ebooks.
More leads: Getting found by search engines is only half the battle. To turn those visitors into leads, you need to create compelling offers that appeal to your target audience. This means creating content that resonates with your audience and provides value.
Increased brand awareness: Better content and higher search rankings will ultimately improve your brand awareness. This creates trust which will persuade more customers to purchase from you. Learn about SEO for startups and why you should outsource SEO consulting.
4. Professional advice.
As mentioned above, there are many different ways to optimise your site. Each method comes with pros and cons. Fortunately, there are experts out there who specialise in each type of strategy. These experts can give you advice on which method works best for your business. They can also provide recommendations on what you should avoid.
5. Website maintenance
While you don’t necessarily need a full-time employee dedicated to managing your site, you’ll want to keep tabs on it periodically. Doing so will ensure that everything runs smoothly and that no one else messes with your site.
A good SEO service will include website maintenance within their fee structure.Maintaining your site involves updating your content regularly, checking for broken links, and monitoring your analytics. All of these tasks require technical knowledge and skills. Without proper training, you might end up wasting valuable resources. And of course, these are tasks that your SEO consultant is trained and qualified to undertake.
Are you looking for ways to grow your business?
Outsourcing your SEO is a great way to improve your website’s ranking in search engines, which can lead to more traffic and more customers. At Highly.Digital we can improve your website by developing better content, in addition to improving your SEO.
When you outsource your SEO, you can focus on other aspects of your business, such as product development or customer service. You’ll also save money by not having to hire an in-house SEO team. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you grow your business!
Different types of SEO consultancy
It’s quite easy to find a company offering SEO services. They’ll almost certainly promise to help you rank higher in search, get more traffic, and make more sales. But how do you tell who’s legit and who’s not?
There are many types of SEO consulting companies, each with its own unique approach. Some specialise in certain areas such as strategy, content creation, web development or even just link building. Others focus on specific industries such as ecommerce, finance, healthcare, retail, or travel. And others offer a combination of services.
But regardless of who you choose to work with, you should always hire someone who understands your unique business situation. Otherwise, you risk wasting your time and money.
Here are a few tips to help you decide the correct course of action for your business.
Understand your SEO objectives
Before hiring an SEO specialist, it’s important to understand your business objectives first. This will help you determine whether or not you should hire an SEO specialist at all.
It’s important to remember how an SEO consultant could help your business:
- Develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that will increase your brand awareness, visibility, and online presence.
- They will work alongside you to develop your brand identity and establish your online reputation.
- Increase and improve the quality of traffic to your website, without using advertising.
- Provide detailed reports that show where you stand today and where you’d like to be in the future.
- Identify any gaps between where you are now and where you’d like your site to be in the future, and plan accordingly.
- A well-designed SEO strategy will also boost your conversion rate.
- By combining your SEO strategy with other digital marketing strategies, such as social media marketing or paid ads, you’ll be able to achieve greater results.
- Hiring an SEO consultant will give you the opportunity to focus on growing your business instead of worrying about whether or not your website is optimised properly.
You’ll also want to discuss the scope, timescale, resources and pricing during the initial consultation. These four aspects will help you decide if you should continue working with the SEO specialist after the initial project is completed.
SEO Audits
An SEO audit is a thorough review of your website’s current SEO performance. It highlights the areas that work well and provides recommendations on how to improve upon those strong points.
A successful SEO audit should include keyword research, competitor analysis, link profile, site speed optimization, and technical audits. These are all key components of any effective SEO campaign.
You may not realise it, but there are several aspects of your website that affect its search engine ranking. A professional SEO consultant can identify these issues and provide solutions to boost your rankings.
Marketplace and Competitor Analysis
What do you know about the industry you operate in? What do you really know about your competitors? What marketing tactics are they using? Are there any external factors you need to be aware of e.g. regulation or new legislation?
This form of competitor research or market analysis can help to determine if there are any gaps in your marketing.
Having this complete understanding of your target market will allow you to make smart business decisions. Outsourcing your SEO is one of those big decisions. But, a good consultant will be honest with you from the start. They will be able to tell you how realistic and competitive your niche is. But, as the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. Let’s get you some answers.
As part of my SEO consulting service, I’ll perform a detailed competitor analysis to identify opportunities for your business. By analysing your competitors’ websites, keywords, content, and performance, we can develop a strategy for improving your site’s organic search rankings.
This will enable you to target any new opportunities and create more conversions.
Keyword & Content Recommendations
As part of our SEO consulting services, we recommend specific keyword phrases and content ideas that will help you achieve your goals. Our recommendations include topics related to your industry, location, products/services, and more. These suggestions are meant to give you a jumpstart on creating great content that will attract organic traffic to your website.
We work closely with you to determine the right keywords to focus on and the most effective content ideas to drive traffic to your site. Once we have a solid understanding of your business, we can provide you with a comprehensive list of keyword phrases and content ideas to help you reach your online objectives.
How can SEO help target local customers?
There are two main reasons why you should hire an SEO specialist to optimise your website for local search. First, there are millions of local searches every day. Second, most people searching for local businesses are actually interested in buying products and services right away.
Local search is powerful for any business. If your business isn’t already optimised for local search terms, then you could miss out on thousands of potential customers ready to buy in your area.
Hiring an SEO specialist is a great way to boost your online presence and attract local customers.
Related: Learn about the importance of local SEO audits and why you should outsource SEO consulting.
On Page SEO
On page SEO refers to the technical aspects of a web page that affect its search engine ranking. These include elements such as meta tags, title tags, URL structure, keyword density, internal linking and site speed.
An on page SEO audit involves reviewing a website’s current state and making recommendations for improvement. A qualified SEO specialist will review your existing content, identify any issues and provide recommendations for improvements.
These types of changes will not only improve your website’s overall performance, but they will also help to boost your search engine rankings.
Engagement Optimisation
As part of our SEO consulting services, we offer full engagement optimization. We work with businesses to reduce their bounce rates and increase their dwell times. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of users who leave your website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate could indicate that your site isn’t meeting customer expectations. Dwell time refers to the average length of time spent on your site. Longer dwell times indicate that your site is interesting and relevant to your audience.
Our engagement optimisation service includes several key components:
- we analyse your current performance metrics, identify any issues, and implement changes accordingly.
- we monitor your progress and adjust your strategies if necessary.
- we measure your results to determine whether you’re achieving your goals.
Conversion Rate Optimisation
You should hire an SEO specialist if you want to boost your conversion rate. A powerful conversion rate optimiser will help you convert more traffic into sales.
They will also help you achieve higher conversions by improving the user experience and increasing engagement. By doing so, you’ll attract more qualified prospects and ultimately close more deals.
An effective conversion rate optimiser will work closely with you to identify opportunities for improvement and implement changes that drive results.
Hiring an SEO specialist will give you the competitive advantage you need to succeed online.
Core Web Vital Optimisation
You should hire an SEO specialist if you want to focus on improving your website’s core web vitals. These include its speed performance, security, accessibility, and usability. By focusing on these aspects, you’ll be able to boost your site’s ranking in search engines.
A great SEO consultant will not only optimise your website’s core web vitals, but they will also help you build a solid foundation for future growth.
Penalty Recovery
Google algorithms change frequently. Sometimes Google makes changes without warning, and sometimes they make changes without explanation. Either way, if you find yourself suffering from a penalty, it’s important to hire an expert to help you recover.
You may not realise it, but there are several types of penalties that can affect your site. Some of them are caused by human error, while others are caused by Google’s automated systems. Regardless of the cause, hiring an experienced SEO specialist can help you recover from any penalty.
Off Page SEO
Off page SEO involves doing things outside of your site that impact its rankings. These include links, social media shares, citations, etc.
Links are one of the most important aspects of off page SEO. They are used to measure the importance of a website, and they are also used to determine whether or not a website should rank well for certain keywords.
Social media shares are another great way to boost off page SEO. By sharing articles on sites like Facebook and Twitter, you’re helping to build brand awareness.
Citations are another form of off page SEO. A citation is any reference found in a business directory or other type of listing site. They can be helpful in boosting your search engine rankings.
There are many other forms of off page SEO, including reviews, press releases, guest blogging, etc.
How can a content strategy boost your business?
A content strategy is the blueprint for creating great content. It focuses on providing value to customers through clear, concise, and useful information.
It helps you create content that meets the needs of users and helps them solve their problems. A quality content strategy can boost your business by increasing traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Frequently Asked Questions
When can I expect to see results from SEO?
The internet cannot answer this question. Honestly! SEO takes time to work its magic. It’s designed to affect user behaviour over the long term, so there’s no quick fix.
But, if you really want an answer you need to contact us. Or for a more general answer, between 3-12 months depending on your needs and expectations.
However, I understand not everyone can commit to that level of investment. That’s why we offer free initial consultations and then base our fees around the actual work you need. We tend to find that clients want to work with us over longer periods because the results speak for themselves.
Local SEO: why it matters
Smaller businesses and local businesses can benefit greatly from SEO. Smaller businesses may not have the resources to hire an SEO specialist, but they still have the ability to use SEO to boost their visibility online.
Local businesses should definitely consider using SEO to attract new customers. Many people prefer a local service, so if your business isn’t listed on Google Maps, Yelp or Bing Places, you’ll lose out on a lot of potential customers.
Search engines are constantly changing, so it’s important to stay current with the latest trends. By hiring me to manage your SEO campaign, you’ll receive ongoing support and advice throughout the process. I’ll keep you informed of changes to the algorithm and provide regular reports showing where your website stands against your competitors.
Can SEO generate new customers?
Yes, if you hire an SEO consultant, they can drive new business. A lot of businesses think that SEO only involves writing articles and posting links online. While those tactics are part of SEO, there is a whole world of optimization that goes beyond that.
An SEO specialist knows how to optimise your site for users and search engines alike. They’ll look at every aspect of your site, including its structure, navigation, content, keywords, social media presence, etc., to find ways to improve your rankings.
In addition, we can help with UX optimization; improving conversion rates; better content marketing; and engaging Social Media content. Explore the 5 benefits of SEO for your business and why you should outsource SEO consulting.
A professional SEO consultant will not only drive new business, but they’ll also help you grow your existing client base. By optimising your site for search engines, you’ll attract more qualified prospects and convert them into paying customers.
What should you expect to pay for SEO services?
An SEO consultant can charge anywhere from £50 per hour to £500 per day. However, if you hire an expert SEO consultant, you could expect to pay between £1000 and £5000 per month.
So, if you’re thinking about hiring an SEO consultant, here are some questions you should ask yourself:
- How many months do you plan on investing in your site?
- What kind of results do you hope to achieve?
- Do you have any specific goals in mind?
- Are you willing to commit to a fixed price monthly fee?
- Is your budget flexible enough to cover additional fees?
My previous SEO consultants didn’t help improve my ranking. What do you do differently?
There are plenty of SEO consultants out there who promise rankings without actually doing anything. Some of those consultants may even try to convince you that they can get your site ranked for free. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. Ranking a website takes hard work, dedication, patience and persistence.
You should never hire an SEO consultant unless they’ve proven themselves to be able to deliver results. Instead, find a reputable SEO specialist who understands what it takes to rank websites. They’ll show you exactly what needs to be changed on your site to improve its search engine optimization. And that’s before they’ve even started working for you!
Is SEO a dying industry?
You’ve probably seen articles online saying that SEO is dead. However, those articles are wrong. There is still plenty of room for growth in the world of SEO.
There are two main reasons why SEO is still growing. First, there has been a huge shift in consumer buying habits since the pandemic. As a result, there is a surge in the demand and value of SEO services.
Second, Google is always making changes to its search engine algorithms that affect rankings. These changes mean that SEO is becoming increasingly important for businesses. So, no, SEO is not dying. Instead, it is thriving and getting stronger every day.
Are you looking for a freelance SEO consultant?
We provide a wide range of services that can help your business regardless of its location. We offer a variety of packages that are designed to help businesses of all sizes, and our team of experts would be happy to work with you to find the perfect solution for your needs.
Our services are designed to help you increase your traffic, improve your conversion rate, and rank higher in search engine results.
Contact us today to set up a consultation. We would be happy to answer any questions you have about working with a freelance SEO consultant.
