US companies have spent over $80 billion over the years. The figure is forecasted to surge even more in the future.
Businesses willingly invest in search engine optimization because it drives traffic to their website and helps them boost brand image.
However, implementing effective SEO strategies and attracting a targeted audience to the website is no walk in the park. A lot of creativity, skill, and planning goes into appropriate execution. Here’s where SEO consultants come into play.
They understand the complicated search engine algorithm and figure out ways to turn things in your favor. An insight into their key capabilities and skills will help you know how they can contribute to your business’s success.
What is an SEO Consultant?
An SEO consultant is a digital marketing professional who helps companies boost their search visibility through professional advice.
Search engine optimization refers to the strategy used to optimize pages. It may include keyword research, linking, content marketing, and more. Put simply; it executes strategies that drive organic traffic to your business website.
Note that a few companies also generate traffic through marketing tactics like paid-per-click (PPC) ads. However, they require a massive budget; whereas SEO doesn’t.
This explains why the latter practice is more enticing for small and large companies.
But because companies lack the skill to implement a comprehensive SEO strategy — that generates results — they turn to SEO consultants. In fact, everyone from budding entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 industries hire consultants for advice.
In addition to advice and strategy, consultants may offer freelance services or complete additional work on a contractual basis.
Top SEO Consultants
Choosing the top SEO consultants from various experts online can be daunting. Therefore, we curated a list of the top-ranking SEO professionals from different platforms to help you.
1.) Meelad
Meelad Mashaw from SearchCyrus has been living and breathing SEO for the last decade.
Having served hundreds of clients globally, including Adobe, Meelad has gained a reputation in the SEO industry as a highly knowledgeable master of SEO.
With years of experience in the field, Meelad will be sure to guide you in the right direction regarding keywords, rankings, indexing, optimization, and a lot more.
Meelad also has dozens of five-star reviews which speak volumes about his top-notch SEO services.
2.) Bruce J.
Bruce Jones knows the ropes of search engine optimization and helps brands think like customers.
With 7 Google certifications and 17 years of experience in SEO consulting, Bruce can help you level up your business with the right SEO strategy.
He has held various workshops and seminars to teach clueless businesses tactics to grow and rank.
3.) Bruce C.
Bruce Clay is the founder and owner of the leading search marketing company, Bruce Clay Inc.
He provides top-notch SEO consultation services and guides businesses in implementing the best SEO practices.
Bruce Clay’s company history sheds light on several industry milestones. For instance, the 749-page book “Search Engine Optimization All-In-One for Dummies” has promoted quality SEO practices for 3 decades.
4.) Craig
Craig Campbell has been an SEO expert for 20 years.
He runs his own SEO company and shares tips and tricks for the best SEO strategies that help rank on search engines.
Craig claims to grow your organic reach and outpace your competitors through his expert advice.
5.) Mehboob
An international SEO consultant, Mehboob Shar of iCreativez can help you get your share of the $65 billion SEO industry.
This consultant has surged one of their client’s site traffic to 49479% by sharing his optimization and ranking tips.
Mehboob believes earning a spot in the brutally competitive SEO industry is an uphill battle. However, he can make it less challenging for you with his competence and knowledge.
6.) Andrew
Andrew Shorland is the founder and owner of LocalSEOGuide. He has provided SEO consultation services to budding and experienced entrepreneurs for 15 years.
Andrew specializes in SEO, SEM, Search Engine Advertising, Landing Page Optimization, and more.
He also works with some popular companies, including Home Depot, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Rotten Tomatoes.
7.) Michael
Michael from RankHarvest is a competent Google SEO consultant with more than 10 years of experience.
He has worked with several popular brands, including AIG, Sony, and NFL.
So, whether you’re a beginner or an SEO expert seeking advice, Mike the SEO consultant can help you.
8.) Liviu
Liviu from Crexeo offers SEO consultancy in every niche thinkable, from gaming and health to media and technology.
He has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs understand how Google works and can do the same for you. Besides, his 12 years of experience back his competence and skill in SEO.
9.) Alastair
Alastair from Gettclicks can help you access your strategy and website with his professional knowledge.
He is a Fiverr Pro Seller and has been running his own firm for 8 years.
Gettclicks uses his extensive experience and expertise to boost your site drops and rank your website on SERPs.
10.) Robin
Robin from Upwork specializes in completing an SEO audit report for your website’s health and recommends the best SEO strategy for your brand.
He helps tackle your business challenges by offering appropriate consultation advice at an affordable rate.
Robin H has worked with startups and growing companies to enlighten himself about the best and worst practices of SEO. He has completed 100+ projects and earnt 100% positive feedback from his clients.
11.) Mahdi
If you struggle to tailor your content for the right keywords, Mahdi from Upwork can provide a detailed analysis of your site’s SEO performance.
Having completed dozens of jobs on Upwork, this SEO professional shares the right keyword research approach and informs you about your competitors for a deeper SEO search.
12.) Vitaliy
Get your SEO marketing-related questions answered by Vitaily from Upwork. He specializes in WordPress, Google Ads, link building, and more.
This competent SEO consultant has earned several positive reviews on Upwork and charges a very affordable hourly fee.
13.) Ayyaz
Ayyaz guides businesses regarding backlinks, site performance, traffic, competitors, keywords ranking, conversions, and more.
With over 7 years of experience in the field and having completed dozens of jobs, this SEO professional guarantees business growth with his helpful recommendations.
14.) Nishant
If you’ve recently created a website and aren’t sure how to implement SEO, Nishat can help you.
He provides an extra edge to promote your business by sharing his extensive SEO insights.
What does an SEO Consultant do?
No sane person invests in anything without measuring its pros and cons. The same goes for an SEO strategy. As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate.
Managing budget and finances can be stressful. Therefore, you’d want to know how SEO consultants can contribute to your business growth and whether they are worth paying.
A look into typical consultant’s responsibilities will help understand if they’re worth taking a punt on.
Understand your business needs
A professional SEO consultant goes above and beyond to understand your business niche, needs, and goals.
Therefore, they work closely with primary stakeholders to gain an in-depth insight into your existing business. This helps them devise a strategy that yields positive results.
Consultants typically define the best objectives right off the bat and lay out the framework for business success.
Assist you with keyword research
Keyword research is a critical part of search engine optimization. Keyword refers to the terms and phrases people use to search for queries in search engines.
For instance, if your business niche is beauty and your top product is a hand cream, people wanting to buy a skin cream will use varying terms to search it. They may search for “sweet-smelling hand cream” or “moisturizing hand cream” instead of “hand cream.”
It is the responsibility of SEO consultants to help you find relevant keywords and rank your website on the search engine results page (SERP). Various keyword research metrics include:
- Keyword difficulty level. The difficulty level based on a scale of 0–100 shows the chance of a specific keyword ranking on a search engine. It also gives an insight into the quality of published content and the reputation of existing websites — in your niche.
- Search volume. It refers to the number of people searching for a particular keyword. There’s no point in picking a keyword if only a few people search for it. The key is to discover one with a high search volume.
- Domain rating. While this doesn’t stand in the category of official keyword metrics, it helps demonstrate a website’s potential to rank for difficult keywords.
Help form a content strategy
Once an SEO consultant shares the list of helpful keywords, they take steps to build a comprehensive content strategy. This may provide expert advice to:
- Share creative and intriguing blog ideas for your website
- Create a schedule to ensure the consistent content creation
- Choose resources to guest post content
A consultant ensures that the website content is not only keyword optimized but also created based on the search intent.
Shares effective link building tactics
Link building means adding high-quality links to the content. It includes the links from other websites to yours.
While quality content and proper keyword research add to your website, not creating backlinks keeps you from reaching a wider audience. Even more, if your niche is competitive, it would be incredibly challenging to rank without backlinks.
Search engines value high-quality backlinks because they are critical to ranking. Some link building strategies SEO consultants typically share include:
- Citations
- Guest posts
- Infographics
- Broken link building
- Content repurposing
Note that the list isn’t exhaustive, and different consultants share different strategies.
Help keep your business relevant online
We aren’t new to the phrase, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Regardless of your content’s quality, your customers won’t see it if it doesn’t rank for targeted keywords.
Unfortunately, they might not even know you exist. Think of a search engine like a magazine. The celebrity on the cover photo catches your attention more than someone on page 77.
So, if you rank on Google’s 4th or 5th page, your target audience may never visit your website.
SEO consultants ensure to keep your content niche relevant by sharing their extensive knowledge. They may guide you about content optimization. Ultimately, you’ll see your website ranking on Google’s first page.
Helps take actionable steps for your company
Did you know Google uses over 200 factors to rank a website? This implies appearing on top search pages is no piece of cake.
Therefore, SEO consultants give insight into effective and ineffective strategies for your site. In other words, they spot what’s working and figure out what’s failing. This helps them share strategies to tweak your SEO for the better.
So, hiring one for your company is a win-win situation for you. They quickly identify what isn’t working, keeping you from investing your money and time on good-for-nothing practices.
Analyze performance
SEO consultants also gauge the performance of your search engine optimization practices and report it to you.
As a client, you’d be intrigued to learn about keyword ranking, conversion rate (organic), organic search traffic, keyword positions, bounce rate, click-through rate, and more.
What Skills Do Consultants Need?
More clients seek SEO consultant services in a highly competitive digital world like today. As such, they naturally question the skills that make a consultant a right fit for hire.
At the most basic level, an SEO consultant must have the key skills needed for the job. Some critical skills include the following:
Understanding of Three SEO Types
A skilled consultant must have extensive knowledge about different SEO levels, including:
- On-page SEO. This refers to optimizing your website content to help search engines understand your content and consider it a valuable online resource.
- Off-page SEO. It refers to creating strong relationships between your and other websites through link building.
- Technical. This SEO level entails all non-content elements. In addition, it includes tactics to enhance your website’s foundation.
An Ability to Think Out of the Box
While every consultant understands the standard SEO practices, not all can think of the bigger picture. A good consultant must communicate their work value and share campaign recommendations.
They bring innovative ideas to the table when approaching each strategy and intertwine them with other marketing strategies.
Help Create Custom Strategies
SEO isn’t one-size-fits-all. Yes, a few businesses have similar needs; not all work the same way.
Your unique business calls for a custom SEO strategy. A professional designs a custom template, keeping your business requirements in mind.
Excellent Communication and Collaborative Skills
Explaining the website changes to improve SEO is challenging and almost impossible without excellent communication skills.
Therefore, SEO consultants must communicate efficiently and collaborate willingly to bring the best for your business.
Advantages of Hiring a Consultant
The one who is good at everything is skilled at none. So, while you may be an excellent entrepreneur with incredible leadership skills, you’d need a skilled SEO advisor to tackle SEO-related tasks. Here are a few benefits of hiring experts:
- SEO consultants have experience in the industry that vouches for their quality services
- They are more affordable than hiring agencies or in-house SEO experts
- An SEO agency has an extensive list of clients, while consultants may work with as few as 2–3 clients at a given time. This means they can provide uninterrupted attention and address your queries with great attention to detail.
Final words
Your website is your brand image. Leaving it unoptimized will get you little to no attention among 1.88 million websites. You could invest millions in designing a quality product, but if you fail to reach your target audience, your business won’t thrive.
Therefore, appropriate SEO implementation is crucial to rank on search engines, reach a wider customer base, and beat competitors. However, like other crucial business projects, SEO is best left to professionals.