How to Hire an SEO Consultant- A No-nonsense Guide

Did you know that most people’s online experiences begin with a search. If you’re not considering SEO, you could be missing out on potential customers. 

Many small businesses and solo entrepreneurs can do well with basic SEO. But as you get bigger, you might reach a point where you can’t do more to improve your SEO by yourself. When you need to rank on the first page of Google, it’s a good idea to consider hiring an SEO consultant or agency.

Surprisingly, if you just search for “SEO Expert” on Google, it will probably make you feel even more confused and not help you find the right person. Instead, use our simple method in this post to hire an SEO expert and make the best choice for your business.

How to Find Out if My Business Needs an SEO Expert?

Search Engine Visibility

Check how well your website shows up in search engines and where it ranks. If your website is not showing up on the first page or not doing well in search results for important words related to your business, then there is a chance to make it better with SEO.

An SEO expert can check everything about a website to find issues, things missing, and ways to make it better. By using special techniques like choosing the right words, making changes to your website, and creating links, they can make more people see your site.

This helps get more people to visit your website, makes more people know about your brand, and makes it more likely that you’ll get customers who are interested in what you’re selling.

Competitor Analysis

Studying your competition is really important to decide if your business should hire an SEO consultant. If your competitors are always listed higher than you in search engine results for the same keywords, it means they are doing a good job at making their website show up in searches.

An SEO expert can check out what the competition is doing online and find out what they are good at and what they are not so good at. This analysis helps find ways to make things better and create a plan to improve your search engine rankings and visibility.

By using information from studying competitors, an SEO expert can use specific methods to do better than competitors, get more natural traffic, and get a better position in search results. This can help your business grow and compete better in your industry.

Conversion Rates and Traffic Sources

Check where the people who visit your website are coming from and see how many of them take action and become customers. If you depend a lot on paid ads or other non-organic ways to get people to visit your website, spending money on SEO can help you get visitors from different sources and save money in the long run.

SEO experts work on getting the right people to visit a website by using specific keywords, making the content better, and improving how people use the site. Visitors who come to your website through relevant searches are more likely to buy something, so organic traffic is more effective.

By making sure more people who visit your website end up buying something or taking an action, an SEO expert can help you make more money from your online marketing and help your business grow steadily.

Content Optimization

Check the quality and make sure your website’s content is optimized. Good, relevant content is needed to interest visitors, show you are an expert in your industry, and get better results on search engines. An SEO specialist can search for the best keywords to help make better content.

They make existing content better by using specific keywords, making it easier to read and more interesting for users. They also make sure the content matches what people are searching for and meets their expectations.

By creating helpful content that talks about what people care about, you can bring more people to your website and gain their trust. Improving your website’s content also helps with SEO by getting more backlinks and people sharing it on social media. This makes your site more visible and credible.

Business Growth Goals

Think about your main business goals and how using SEO can help you reach them. If you want to sell more things online, reach more people, or get more people to know about your brand, SEO can help you do that.

An SEO expert can create a plan that fits your goals and the people you want to reach. They use local SEO to be found in specific locations, make sure your website works well on mobile devices, and create valuable content to become a trusted source in your industry.

By improving your website’s visibility in search engines to attract more potential customers and make more money, you can help your business keep growing and stay ahead of your competitors.

Also Read: How To Do Competitor Backlinks Analysis To Rank #1 on Google 

10 Steps to Hire the Best SEO Expert

Step 1: Before you hire an SEO consultant, figure out what you want to achieve with SEO.

Your SEO goal is not just to be on the first page of Google. Your goal is not just to get more people to visit your website. Although these are results of SEO, they are not the main objectives.

Want to get more people to sign up for your newsletter and go through an email sequence that leads to your course? Want to attract more coaching clients who are a good fit for you? Want to book more free discovery calls to find out if leads are a good fit for your services?

All of those are good answers to start with, but we encourage you to be more specific. Do you want to speak to tech companies and get more leads for health coaching clients? Would you like to grow your email list and get more people to sign up for your flagship course?

If you tell an SEO agency what you want to achieve, a good professional will tell you if it’s possible and what you need to do to make it happen. Another reason this is important is because it is specific to people who provide expensive services.

Many times, high end service providers only need to sign up one or two new clients each month to meet their targets. This means that your SEO consultant can focus on really specific keywords to bring a small but interested group of people to your website.

Step 2: Know the difference between technical and content SEO

A lot of our clients find out about SEO and come to us after getting a cold email from a random SEO agency. The agency tells them that their website has technical problems after doing an audit without being asked. A regular SEO audit usually includes these things:

• Broken links
• Site speed
• Meta title and description length
• Sitemap errors
• Structured data issues
• Redirection issues
• Image problems
• Duplicate content

Ahrefs has a helpful guide for doing a thorough check of a website’s technical aspects. If you want to learn more about this topic, you should check it out. Remember, different SEO professionals have different things they focus on.

Your consultant may emphasize one technical issue, but that doesn’t mean another consultant is wrong for not doing the same. Also, if your SEO consultant is an expert in a platform like Squarespace, they may focus on specific technical problems that are not as important on WordPress.

Content SEO is like an art, and different agencies have very different ideas about it. You might also hear this referred to as “on-page” SEO, but we find that confuses a lot of our clients. “Content” is a simpler way to talk about this topic.

Content SEO means focusing on the people who visit a client’s website and using specific keywords to help those people find the site in search engines. Basically, in our SEO consulting projects, we answer these three questions:

• What is this page or post about?
• What keywords do people use when searching that relate to this page or post?
• How can we change this page or post to attract the right people?

Each SEO expert has their own ways of doing things, so your consultant might ask you different questions. What you should remember from this explanation is that you need to pay attention to both technical and content aspects of SEO.

It’s not a good idea to focus too much on the technical side only. Actually, our customers often have problems with their platform, but we use a clever strategy to make their content show up higher in online searches.

Lastly, the third part of SEO is “off-page” SEO. This includes backlinks, online reviews, social profiles, and more. If you own a small business in your area, include local SEO in your overall SEO plan.

Step 3: Know the limitations and opportunities for SEO on your website platform

Some experts think you need to use certain website platforms to be high in Google results. However, they are mistaken about this. WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for website creation.

Many SEO resources online focus on WordPress. However, many of our clients have done very well using Squarespace when they have the right plan.  Squarespace is easy to use and doesn’t need much maintenance.

So, we use Squarespace SEO in a smart way to help them appear higher in search results for specific, high-quality keywords. Different companies may have different methods and preferences for specific platforms.

It doesn’t mean it’s “wrong”, but if you like certain things about your website platform, let the SEO experts know. Basically, if an SEO expert tells you to move your website in order to rank better, ask them a lot of questions to make sure it’s the best decision.

Step 4: Now that you have your SEO goals, it’s time to consider the budget

The prices for professional SEO help can be very different. Usually, most services start with an audit. Some agencies may offer a free audit, but we don’t suggest using these because they are meant to scare you. The cost of an audit can be as much as $1,500 or even more.

How much should new businesses spend on SEO?

For new businesses with limited funds, we suggest putting aside $2,500 for SEO help that is done for you. An audit is only helpful if you can make changes by yourself and it costs around $1,000.

• How much money should established businesses save for SEO?

Established businesses should set aside $5,000 to perform SEO on their sites. Some companies may ask for a deposit of at least $1,500 per month, with most contracts lasting for at least six months.

• Why wasn’t SEO included in my website design? Why do I have to pay for it separately?

Usually, most design companies offer “basic SEO,” which involves adding page titles and descriptions and submitting them to Google Search Console. This is really helpful on its own. However, many designers don’t pay much attention to this part of their designs.

Step 5: Contact SEO companies that understand your type of business

Don’t worry much about SEO experts knowing about a certain topic, but it’s really important for them to understand how your business works. For instance, we don’t help online stores with their advertising unless they want our help with planning content for searches.

If you have a service that you want to promote using search engines to get more customers, you’ll need an SEO consultant who understands how people choose that type of service. If you sell courses, you’ll want to work with someone who knows about the online course business.

If you’re a coach, you should make sure your SEO consultant understands why people hire coaches instead of consultants or other specialists. Many people still don’t know much about coaching.

Also, ensure that the SEO experts you are speaking to have experience in helping companies attract people who are looking to buy products or services at your price range. A buyer who can only spend up to $100 will be looking for different things than a buyer who can spend up to $10,000.

This is where the details of SEO are most important. We don’t think it’s a good idea for people to use freelancer websites like Upwork. Instead, we suggest working with a professional directly. It might be hard to find the right person for you, but it will be worth it in the end.

Step 6: Request the company to show you an example of their SEO strategy or share success stories from previous clients

Remember that SEO consultants may have confidentiality agreements that limit what they can tell you, but it’s okay to ask them to explain how they help clients and what their methods are. Here are some questions you can ask a potential SEO consultant:

• What do you usually check in your audit?
• Can you suggest ways to improve sales on my website, or should I hire a marketing consultant for help?
• Can you give me a report that shows the changes?
• How should we track the progress of our SEO work?
• Can you suggest blog topics that could help attract more people to our site?

You might also want to ask your potential SEO expert about the details of their work, such as specific questions about what they do:

• How much time does it usually take to see the outcome?
• Can you help me make my off-page SEO better?
• Can you give us more content to help us keep expanding on what you’ve made?
• Do you need a retainer, or can we work on a project as it comes up?
• Can you help us make our content better for search engines?

Both sets of questions don’t have correct answers, but they should make sense for your business. These talks should be a chat to see if you both work well together.

Step 7: Research about SEO so that you can work well with your chosen expert

This may seem easy, but one of the main reasons our clients have a hard time working with us is because they don’t take the time to gather all the information we need about their businesses. Be ready to inform your SEO expert about:

• Character profiles of the perfect clients
• Information about what you offer and how much it costs
• Your ability to create content
• Visitors to a website
• The amount of people who are interested in your products or services and the number of people who actually buy from your website

A leader in your company should do this work, not someone who is not familiar with how the whole business works.

Step 8: Continue to be involved after you hire your SEO expert and ask questions if you are ever unsure

SEO is important, so you should always be involved in it. For instance, the company you work with might suggest changing the words on your website based on the keywords they have researched.

This could affect your messages, so work with them to find a compromise or think about the disadvantages of not making that change. This also means that if they have ideas for the future, you should include them in your current marketing plan. Make sure you use the resources they’ve given you to the best of your ability.

Step 9: After you have finished the initial SEO work, clarify what to do next

Each SEO consultant has their own way of doing things. Some people work on a project and get paid for it, while others work regularly and get paid a fixed amount. There is no one correct way, but it’s important to know what you have agreed to.

After the first project is finished, make sure to decide if you want to keep working together or find someone else. It’s better to be clear about it so that there are no surprises for either the client or the consultant.

If you like working with your SEO agency, ask them how you can keep working with them every month or every three months. Ask them what you can do to keep making progress. And give them a five-star review on Google to help their search engine ranking.

If you continue working on something after you first start, make sure to have proof of what you did so you can show it to new team members or future marketing strategists. Many times, clients don’t know what their old SEO company did.

When we ask, they are usually nice and willing to help, but it slows down our work. We suggest making a marketing “wiki” in a database tool like Notion or Google Drive to easily share any SEO work or marketing strategy in the future. This will be helpful for you later on.

Step 10: Keep track of how well your website is doing after your initial SEO

You may notice some strange behavior on your website after an SEO overhaul. Your website visitors might decrease because your strategy could be targeting a smaller group of people who are more likely to buy from you.

Your rate of turning visitors into customers might also change, and people may start finding your website in new ways. Don’t worry about any of this. We suggest checking search engine trends every three months and making changes as needed for the following three months.

This way, you’ll have a strong pattern that doesn’t just change with the seasons. Check what keywords you are ranking for, which ones are bringing the most traffic to your website, and most importantly, what questions people are asking on your website.

Are these good leads who can use your company? Is the number of leads increasing but not many are turning into customers? This data is helpful for making changes to your SEO strategy as your business grows.

SEO is not something you do once and then forget about, or just something to check off a list. Instead, consider your SEO plan as part of your overall marketing strategy, and your SEO consultant as an important partner in your business’s long-term success.

Also Read: Hire an SEO Company or DIY? The Cost-Benefit Analysis You Need

Benefits of Hiring an SEO Expert

Experience and Expertise

An SEO expert has a lot of knowledge and experience that can be really helpful. They keep up with the newest trends, changes in algorithms, and best ways to do search engine optimization.

This knowledge helps them make your website better for search engines like Bing, Google, and others. They know how to find the best keywords, make the website better, get more links, and plan the content so that their work helps your website get seen more and get more visitors.

Strategic Approach

SEO doesn’t work the same for everyone. An SEO expert creates a plan that fits your business goals and the people you want to reach. They check everything, look at other businesses, and find ways to make your online presence better.

This smart way of thinking goes beyond just using the right words on the internet to also include making the website work well, look good on phones, and be more convenient for people to use. When they match SEO tactics with overall marketing goals, they make sure your website not only gets a higher ranking, but also brings in and keeps high-quality visitors who become potential customers.

Cost Effective

Paying for SEO help is a good idea for saving money in the future. Unlike paying for ads all the time, SEO helps to increase website traffic naturally and in the long run. When your website shows up higher in search results, it brings in more people who are looking for products or services like yours.

This specific group of people who visit the website are more likely to make a purchase, which means the business will make more money compared to using other marketing methods. 

An SEO expert helps you spend your money wisely by using strategies that bring lasting results, like creating good content, getting good links, and making sure your website shows up more in local search results. This means your investment will keep bringing in benefits for a long time.

Measurable Results

SEO is good because it can show how well it works. SEO experts use various tools like to see how well websites are doing. They track things like how many people visit the site, where it shows up in search results, how many people leave right away, and how many visitors become customers.

They create thorough reports that show how their plans are working and give information about how people use and like them. This method uses data to show you the results of your SEO investment. It helps you see what is effective, what needs to change, and make smart choices to improve your digital marketing.

By consistently checking and making your SEO plan better using this information, an SEO expert makes sure your website keeps getting better and more people can see it. They use specialized tools for each category to get the required information.

Competitive Advantage

In today’s tough online competition, using SEO can help your business stand out and do better than others. An SEO expert helps you do better than your competitors in search results, so more people can see your website and you can get more potential customers. 

When your business shows up at the top of search results for important words, people trust and believe in it more. They think top-ranked websites are more reliable. Furthermore, a good SEO plan helps to make your brand stand out and be well-known in your industry.

It also helps more people to recognize and remember your brand. Always making improvements and adjusting to changes in algorithms can help you stay ahead of others in your industry. This will help you take advantage of opportunities for growth and make your business bigger.

Final Thoughts

Hiring an SEO expert is more than just making your website easier to find. It’s a smart investment in your business’s future success. SEO professionals are experts at using their skills and experience to understand how search engines work. They can create custom plans to help you get better results from search engines.

Working with an expert can help you stand out online, get more people to visit your website without paying for ads, make users more interested in your website, and ultimately make more sales. Plus, an SEO expert helps you save time by letting you focus on main business tasks while they take care of improving your online presence.

When you think about your SEO options, focus on honesty, having a track record of doing well, and sticking to ethical standards. Picking the right SEO expert can help make your online marketing really powerful and keep your business successful and profitable for a long time.

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