How can a business find a good SEO consultant?
To help you find a good SEO consultant for your business, we asked marketing professionals and SEO specialists this question for their best advice. From learning about SEO before starting your search to getting an SEO consultant with content-writing experience, there are several tips that may help you know what to look for in a good SEO consultant for your business needs.
Here are 12 tips for finding a good SEO consultant:
- Learn About SEO Before Starting Your Search
- Look for Transparency More Than Guaranteed Results
- Find One Who Understands Your Value Propositions
- Search on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Be Clear About What Type of SEO Help You Need First
- Find Out About Their Learning Attitude
- Get Referrals from Others and View Work Samples
- Check The SEO Domain Authority Score of The Consultant
- Filter Out Shady SEO Consultants
- Find Someone With Experience in Your Field
- Check The Ranking of The Consultant’s Own Website
- Get an SEO Consultant With Content-Writing Experience
Learn About SEO Before Starting Your Search
Understanding the basics of SEO can make sure that when you speak with a potential consultant, they’re not just talking circles around you. Anyone can sound like an expert to someone who doesn’t know about the topic at hand!
Learning more about SEO can also help you identify specific questions you might have for your website, which you can ask a potential SEO consultant to see whether or not they have solid and achievable ideas.
Adam Shlomi, SoFlo Tutors
Look for Transparency More Than Guaranteed Results
As an SEO consultant myself I may sound a little biased here, but I’ve seen enough nightmare freelancers (and what they’ve done to their clients’ websites) to know that if a consultant guarantees results, or is not transparent about what they do, then just don’t work with them.
You want to opt for transparency in an industry where it’s very hard to guarantee results in the first place, so aim for someone who is open and eager to get you on the same page in regards to an SEO approach for your website.
James Taylor, James Taylor SEO Consultancy
Find One Who Understands Your Value Propositions
There are few situations where you indiscriminately want to build traffic. You want qualified buyers who not only need your services but are good “fits” for long term partnerships. For this, you need to understand your buyers in an in-depth way.
You need to understand who can “pull the trigger” on a deal, what industries and roles close deals more quickly, as well as what these individuals deeply care about.
Once you understand all of these things, you can vet SEO opportunities for those that are truly applicable (rather than general organic-traffic-building opportunities). To do this, you’ll need an individual who can understand your value propositions and customers as well as has the SEO skills to follow up on these insights.
Merrill Cook, Arist
Search on LinkedIn or Twitter
As a business owner, you know that SEO is important to the success of your online presence. But finding a good SEO consultant can be tricky- especially if you don’t know where to look. One great way to find a qualified SEO consultant is to leverage social media.
Search for “SEO” consultants on LinkedIn or Twitter. See who is getting the most engagement on their posts. I find Twitter to be particularly useful because it is more conversational and you can get a style of how they engage with clients about SEO tips and strategies and who is respected among peers.
Darin Tuttle, Tuttle Ventures LLC
Be Clear About What Type of SEO Help You Need First
After interviewing more than 50 SEO experts, I learned that you can’t hire just one. SEO folks are just as specialized as any other industry. There are technical SEO experts who deal with the actual architecture and function of your site. And there are content SEO experts who specialize in keyword research, content ranking, etc.
You will have to know what type of SEO help you need so that you can hire the right expert. If it’s been years since you’ve updated your website or you’re just starting out. Look for technical SEO help so that you can create a solid tech foundation for your site. With that in place, you can start working with a content SEO person.
You will have to be the one to know which expert you need because many SEO folks can solve any problem from their area of expertise. And that’s not always what you need. YOU will have to do your own research, talk to people so you can make smart hiring decisions.
Ivana Taylor, DIYMarketers
Find Out About Their Learning Attitude
The SEO industry is very dynamic. It’s not possible to read one book (which is probably outdated by the time it gets published) and acquire knowledge that will be sufficient for years. Good SEO consultants read the industry news and follow digital trends that are constantly changing.
They question the digital world around them and test different strategies to find creative solutions. If you’re looking for a good SEO consultant, check if they’re willing to learn new things.
Ask them questions like: “What steps are you taking to improve your SEO knowledge?” or “What article on SEO trends have you recently read?” By asking these questions, you can see if the candidate puts effort into improving their knowledge or are stuck in doing things the old way.
Dorota Lysienia, MyPerfectResume
Get Referrals from Others and View Work Samples
One of the best ways to find a reputable SEO consultant is by asking for recommendations from other businesses. Chances are if they’re getting a good service from their SEO consultant they’ll be more than happy to recommend them to you as long as your business isn’t directly competing with them that is!
You can gain recommendations by joining local business groups or by engaging with online business communities where people may be able to point you in the right direction as an SEO consultant that gets results. Whenever you find an SEO consultant you’re interested in working with, make sure to ask for examples of their work to see what they’ve achieved for other businesses like yours.
Steph Andrusjak, SEO Steph
Check The SEO Domain Authority Score of The Consultant
Ask the potential SEO consultant if they will build links to your site. (They should!) Then ask the SEO consultant for a list of websites for which they built links for a period of at least 6 months. Take each website address and enter it into https://ahrefs.com/website-authority-checker If none of the websites have a score of at least 50, I suggest you do not hire this consultant.
There is no exact rule, but it’s very challenging to appear at the top of search engine results when you have a score lower than 50. Look for an SEO consultant who has a track record of building quality links to their clients’ sites. This is a big part of ranking your website.
Scott Lieberman, Touchdown Money
Filter Out Shady SEO Consultants
Ask if they guarantee the results of their SEO work. No good SEO will ever guarantee higher rankings or traffic. Their work could take months to pay off, or a Google update will change everything. This is a good way to filter out shady SEOs that bait businesses with over-the-top, unrealistic promises.
Markus Maibaum, Veganivore
Find Someone With Experience in Your Field
To find a good SEO consultant, look for someone who has experience working with your industry. Someone with experience in your field is going to be able to give you advice that is more relevant and helpful than someone who doesn’t have much knowledge about your industry. This is because you need someone who understands how to optimize your website for both search engines and potential customers.
One way to do this is to focus on their list of clients who they have worked with in the past and projects that are most relevant to what you need. You should also ask about their process: What do they do first? How long does it take? How much does it cost?
Masha Mahdavi, SEM Dynamics
Check The Ranking of The Consultant’s Own Website
An SEO consultant is only as good as their own ranking. If you want to find great SEO consultants, look at who is on the first page of search results for terms such as “SEO consultant (your city or town)”. If they are unable to get a good ranking for themselves, how on earth will they be able to help you with yours?
Miles Burke, Australian Software Guide
Get an SEO Consultant With Content-Writing Experience
Search engine optimization is all about ranking in browser results. These results are driven by what the user finds relevant to their search. The right consultant will know how to optimize the search engine because of their experience engaging target audiences through content and the strategic use of keywords.
They know what users are looking for because they have been successful in capturing user attention in the past. Organic engagement comes from tapping into what individuals find useful as it relates to their searches and using the most effective keywords for the browser to identify.
A good SEO consultant will be able to inform a business on how to create browser results that are certain to capture clicks from niche searches using long-tail keywords. Content writing is a useful source of experience to develop this knowledge from a consultant’s perspective.
Katy Carrigan, Goody
Submit Your Answer
Would you like to submit an alternative answer to the question, “How do I find a good SEO consultant?” Submit your answer here.
Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.