How to choose an SEO consultant

There are a lot of SEO companies that promise a page one ranking, but are they on page one themselves? A consultant that practices what they preach will be on page one for terms such as ‘SEO consultancy [city]’.   

People often overlook searching for a company’s reviews when it’s a B2B transaction. However, looking beyond the company’s website of curated testimonials, how do they score on Google, Facebook and TrustPilot reviews? Do they respond well to their customer feedback on these platforms?  

With SEO there is a science and a right and wrong way. So, it’s important you find a company that has strong ethics and approaches it in the right way.  

Known as ‘white hat’, the right way is slower and organic – you’ll see results grow steadily with continued effort. A good consultant will be able to show you examples of their work and be keen to talk you through their approach. They will be realistic about the progress you can expect to make and honest that it will take time to gain momentum, whether you do the SEO yourself or they do it for you.  

Look out for a variety of ways that they can help your website to rank higher. For example, they may talk about some of these tactics:  

• Reduce the speed of your website  
• Fix technical issues  
• Develop quality content or improve existing content  
• Earn quality backlinks  

If traffic volume seems good but your website is not converting visitors into customers, they may be able to help you improve that. In this case, they may suggest tactics such as:  

• Enquire and chat options  
• Changes to your call-to-action text or style  
• Simplifying forms  
• Using software to ask visitors questions or track behaviour  
• Increase social proof by getting more reviews and testimonials  

How long it takes to see results will vary by company because it depends on the difficulty of the keywords you want to target and how much domain authority your website has at the start of the work. It could take 12 months if you target difficult keywords and have low domain authority. If they are easier keywords and your website enjoys a higher domain authority score, it can take just a few months.   

The wrong way is known as ‘black hat’. This is where a company tries to trick Google into seeing results quickly. This won’t be sustained, however, and your website can be penalised. You can’t get away with what companies used to do 15 years ago because Google is wise to it and releases regular updates to their algorithm. It needs to be ethical.   

Be wary of any consultant that promises very quick results without being able to explain their process to you, or if they are focusing on only one way of achieving this.  

Most good SEO consultants will offer you a free basic SEO audit and a call to go through how your website is currently performing and its potential to improve. They will be able to do this initial audit without needing to know your logins. Only after you sign contracts and formally appoint a consultant should you be asked for your logins.   

If you are looking to keep some of your SEO work in-house, a good consultant will be willing to work with you or your team to bridge knowledge and capacity gaps.   

To find one person who can do all four stages of SEO is difficult – especially if it is only one part of their role, which is often the case with in-house marketing teams. Using a consultancy for some parts can help you with focusing resources and learning from your consultant to strengthen skills in these areas.  

Ongoing training is a big part of what a consultant will do for your business – remember it is their job to keep on top of industry updates and trends, which you and your team wouldn’t expect to do in broader roles.   

You may also ask your consultant to do specific parts of the work for you. For example, many businesses find doing their initial keyword research daunting because it is time consuming and important, as it is the foundation for the rest of the SEO process. A good consultant will offer a range of packages with different service levels and be willing to tailor their offering to your requirements.