Organic SEO consultants can take your business to the next level by advising and implementing you on the best SEO practices for a worthwhile investment.
In today's digital landscape, SEO has become a vital component of any successful online marketing strategy. Because of this, organic SEO consultants are highly sought-after. But, you'll need to be armed with the right knowledge in order to hire the right person and/or SEO team for your business. After all, these professionals can bring you a solid ROI, but only if you're sure that you're getting your money's worth.
In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know about organic SEO consultants, including:
Let's dive in!
What Is Organic SEO?
To start, organic SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website's content, structure, and technical aspects to improve its visibility and rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) using best SEO practices. From initial auditing, to keyword research, to producing new SEO content in blogs, landing pages, and web copy, to optimizing existing content, and analyzing the performance of those efforts, there are many factors that play a role in a successful SEO strategy.
Yet, if it's done right, SEO has the potential to organically bring a lot of traffic to your business resulting in growing your audience, increasing your sales, and a healthy ROI overall. This is why it's important to call in a professional to help.
Organic SEO vs. Other Types of Marketing
While SEO focuses on attracting high-quality, organic traffic from an initial investment with results potentially taking several weeks to months, paid advertising and social media marketing offer immediate visibility and results — but at the cost of ongoing price.
And, because SEO can bring traffic to your business long-term (and, naturally) most people — once they are educated on the impact SEO can have — choose to make that larger investment upfront versus spending thousands on paid advertising methods with no light at the end of the tunnel.
What Is an Organic SEO Consultant?
An organic SEO consultant is a professional who is trained and/or experienced in many different aspects of SEO. Via consulting, they will help you answer your most pressing SEO questions and provide you with actionable steps you need to take in order to see results. And, because many organic SEO consultants also provide services in conjunction with or in addition to the consulting they are offering, you can often use them for all of your SEO needs; a true bang for your buck.
Whether you have a team in-house to help you execute the consultant's suggestions or you're looking for someone to handle everything from start to finish (but, while explaining to you how it all works for YOUR business), organic SEO consultants are often a great investment because of how much they can offer.
What Organic SEO Consultants Can Do for Your Business
All this considered, it takes a lot of SEO knowledge and experience to get to the level where a true SEO professional is at. Here are just some of the things an organic SEO consultant can do for your business:
Build brand credibility and trust: By working with organic SEO consultants to improve your rankings, you enhance your brand's reputation and establish yourself as an authority in your industry, which is important for all businesses. Ranking high in organic search results with high-quality content signals credibility and trustworthiness to readers.
Deliver long-term results: Organic SEO strategies are designed to deliver sustainable results. By building a solid foundation and earning trust from search engines, your website can maintain its rankings even if you reduce or pause your marketing efforts for a while. And, those efforts are meant to help you reach goals, whether it is simply driving more traffic or getting users to sign up and/or pay for a product or service.
Provide value for your target audience: Though SEO content and copy is mean tto drive significant traffic to your website, even posts that may not rank as well should still be meaningful to your readers. By writing high-quality SEO content, you're still providing value for your audience, and that's priceless.
Save you time and money: Compared to other marketing channels, organic SEO offers a cost-effective and time-saving approach to generating traffic and driving conversions. Once your website achieves higher organic rankings, the ongoing traffic it generates is essentially free, which is obviously an undeniable investment. And, since SEO professionals know how to optimize existing content, you dont have to worry about starting over.
The Importance of Customized SEO Strategies
SEO can benefit businesses who operate in all different industries. While most SEO professionals understand how to utilize search engine optimizes for all different niches, sometimes it's worth going with a consultant that knows (or, at least has more experience with) your own. This usually helps to speed up the process, because they already know what to focus on in the initial stages of consulting.
Let's take a closer look at some examples:
Small business and startup SEO consultant: Small businesses and startups often struggle to gain visibility and compete with larger, more established companies. Hiring an SEO consultant who knows the pain points and goals of SMBs/SMEs can be a wise investment to help you level the playing field and achieve online success.
Real estate SEO consultant: The real estate industry is highly competitive, with countless agents and agencies vying for top rankings in search results. A real estate SEO consultant can leverage their industry knowledge and expertise to optimize your website for location-based keywords, create compelling property descriptions and valuable blog posts catered to both existing and new clients, and make suggestions regarding effective link building strategies. This can give you a competitive edge that'll help attract more leads.
Legal SEO consultant: A legal SEO consultant will conduct comprehensive keyword research to target relevant practice areas, implement them into your landing pages, newsletters, and blog content, and can guide you to building authoritative backlinks within the legal industry. By improving your search visibility, you can attract potential clients and establish your firm as a trusted authority in the legal field.
Technology SEO consultant: The technology industry is dynamic and highly competitive and thus hard to rank for when countless companies are pushing out innovative products and solutions each day (usually with a lot of investment to achieve this). To stand out from the crowd and reach your target audience, a technology SEO consultant can help you prioritize important keywords for your business at a competitive price-point.
What Is the Process Like When Working With an SEO Expert?
Believe it or not, no two organic SEO consultants are the same. With such a vast range of price points, SEO knowledge, niche expertise, and specific services offered, every consultant will have a slightly different (sometimes, VERY different) resume. This will impact who you decide to work with.
Of course, it also depends if you're looking just to talk to someone about your SEO strategy —which you may plan on then implementing in-house — or if you want someone to explain to you how it works and then implement that strategy for you.
For the sake of giving you some insight into the process, we'll explain how it works at Hana LaRock Writing, where we put an emphasis on SEO research and implementing on-page SEO:
Step 1: Discovery Call
To start, book your first consulting call where we will meet to understand your business objectives, target audience, and industry landscape. During this one-hour call, we'll answer your questions about SEO, and may also discuss your budget, timeline, previous experience with SEO, and who will be implementing the SEO strategies we provide (your team, or us).
Most importantly, we'll want to know what you hope to get out of the process. This initial call will allow us to gain valuable insights and align our strategies with your goals, while also setting some expectations in terms of communication and projected results.
And, guess what? If you do end up signing up for SEO services, we'll apply a discount that's equal to the cost of the first consulting call to your payments going forward.
Step 2: Website Audit and Analysis
As organic SEO consultants, we often start the process by conducting a comprehensive audit of your website with a focus on SEO content and copywriting strategies. We take a look at your current web copy and content strategy, and may ask to look at some analytics to understand the results of any SEO efforts implemented up to the point. From there, we'll take a look at areas of improvement, and understand how we anticipate users will interact with SEO content on your site going forward.
There are scenarios in which an audit may be substituted for a more comprehensive discovery call. This would perhaps be the case for businesses who are sure they need SEO services, whether it's because they are re-branding or are just getting started, and want to understand how to implement a strong SEO foundation from the get-go.
*We may also skip this step if our clients have already met with an SEO research and/or auditor, and want to hire us for that next stage: creating a content calendar based on those keywords (and implementing it with our team of writers). More on that in a bit
Step 3: Industry Research & Initial SEO Research
The next step — and, one of the most important depending on who you ask — is that we perform comprehensive keyword research to identify the most relevant and valuable keywords for your business. This ensures that we optimize your website for the terms your target audience is actively searching for.
Most organic SEO consultants will utilize their preferred keyword search tool(s) in order to find the best keywords for your business, taking into account search volumes, competition levels, and user intent. This research shapes the content optimization and targeting strategy going forward. We would then organize keywords in a way they can be most easily presented to you, and offer guidance on next steps.
In order to do this step right, we'll need to do a deep dive to understand your industry more (if we don't already — hence the customized SEO strategies we mentioned). But more importantly, what you're offering to your clients, as well as your expertise we can use to take a unique angle on the content we produce. This is because articles who are written from an authoritative perspective tend to rank better. That being said, it's also important to produce creative content that will inspire your audience in addition to SEO content! We'll discuss all this after sending you a questionnaire.
Step 4: Content Calendar/Brief Creation
As you may already know, although there are many factors that influence SEO, but producing SEO content generally has the most influence on your company's success in terms of driving traffic organically.
Based on the SEO keywords we find to have the best potential for you, we develop a comprehensive content calendar that outlines the topics, keywords, and other relevant information for your website's blog posts, pages, and other marketing materials that will have the goal of ranking for SEO. Depending on the package you choose, some of these tasks may come as suggestions, while others will be used to write SEO content or copy for your site right away.
Step 5: Implementation & Optimization
If following the previous step you plan on producing the SEO writing in-house, we can create a style guide and SEO content briefs for each article, in order to help you get the best results. We can also set up follow-up consultation calls to check-in on your progress, in case you need help managing your content strategy and/or your team's deadlines. And, we can offer SEO editing for any posts you produce in-house, depending on the circumstances.
However, if you'd like us to take the entire process off your hands, we're happy to do so by implementing the content calendar from step 4. Again, based on your timeline and budget, we can do being publishing SEO content and implementing keywords on your site aggressively — over a period of 3 months to start — or a long-game strategy, over a period of 6 months and up.
If necessary, we will also use this time to optimize existing content. This could mean anything from giving an outdated article an update by making it relevant and adding in keywords, to taking an existing article that maybe is already ranking for a keyword, but needs to be fleshed out more to keep it in position.
And, What About Other SEO Services?
Remember when we told you that no two organic SEO consultants are the same? Well, as mentioned, here at Hana LaRock Writing, we focus on SEO research and SEO content/copywriting, also known as on-page SEO.
Other organic SEO consultants may put more of an emphasis on other services. This usually just comes down to preference, as some SEO experts like certain parts of the job more than others, or have found they ares successful with something and what to stick to it.
In any case, other organic SEO consulting services may include:
Overseeing SEO on the back-end: This involves delving into the technical aspects of your website, ensuring that it is easily crawlable by search engines. They would work on optimizing meta tags, headers, sitemaps, and URL structures, maximizing your site's visibility to search engine crawlers.
Social media marketing: Though the whole purpose of organic SEO is to have content attract traffic all on its own, posting certain content on social media can give it that extra push it needs. Some organic SEO consultants may offer support in social media marketing.
Monitoring and analysis: All organic SEO consultants (including ourselves) should have a basic understanding of analytics in order to understand how your site is ranking, especially after a given SEO strategy is implemented. But, others will really focus on continuously monitor your website's performance for the long-term, analyzing key metrics such as keyword rankings, organic traffic, and user engagement. They provide detailed reports and actionable insights, allowing you to measure the success of your SEO efforts and make data-driven decisions, including continuing/new SEO strategies.
Link building and off-page optimization: To establish authority and credibility, organic SEO consultants focus on building high-quality backlinks from reputable sources. They employ various strategies, such as guest posting, content promotion, as well as PR and outreach, to earn valuable links that improve your website's search engine rankings.
Content Management & strategy: SEO is just one piece of the puzzle and it's a big one. But, many businesses will truly benefit from a comprehensive content strategy, and a person to manage it all. In some companies, this is done in-house, but in addition to hiring an organic SEO consultant, content management in its entirety can be outsourced as well.
How Much Should an Organic SEO Consultant Cost?
Ah...the million-dollar question (ha). Most likely, you wouldn't be here reading this unless you were wondering how much you'd have to shell out for an organic SEO consultant!
The first thing to understand about cost is that the pricing for organic SEO consulting services can vary based on several factors, including: the scope of work involved, industry competitiveness, the packages offered, and the consultant's level of expertise. It also matters what type of services they may implement for you after advising you on the best SEO approach for your business, as we do.
Spoiler alert: An expensive SEO consultant does not always equal a good one, likewise for one offering lower prices. There are many flashy companies out there offering SEO services for a pretty penny. Some of these do work. But, at the same time, there are newbies in the industry who may charge less as they build their client portfolio, but who are very well-versed in SEO tools and know how to get you good results fast. In either case, SEO is a time-consuming project for any organic SEO consultant, especially if they have multiple clients.
What really sets one consultant apart is whether or not they are able to hear your company's needs and be transparent about what they intend to do to help you reach those goals. And, that they will give you their very best efforts in order to help you reach them. No SEO professional can guarantee results 100% of the time. But, they should know enough to get you in a better place than where you were before you began working with them.
Let's break down the factors influence the cost of organic SEO consulting:
Project scope and complexity: The complexity and size of your project plays a significant role in determining the cost of organic SEO consulting. If you have a large website with numerous pages, want an aggressive approach for developing SEO content for a new site, or require extensive technical optimization, the consultant may need to allocate more time and resources, which can impact the overall cost.
Competitive landscape: If you're operating in a highly competitive market where multiple businesses are vying for top rankings, it may require more research, effort, and strategic planning to achieve desired results.
Services included: The range of services provided by the organic SEO consultant can impact the cost as well. Some consultants offer a comprehensive package that includes the works. Others may offer specific services or focus on a particular aspect of organic SEO. The more extensive the services offered, the higher the cost may be. It may also depend how much the advice you get from the consultant you plan to implement in-house or outsource.
Level of expertise and experience: Consultants with a proven track record, specialized knowledge, and a strong industry reputation may charge higher fees than those without. That being said, their expertise can bring added value to your SEO strategy, resulting in better outcomes for your business overall.
Customization and consultation time: Consultants who provide customized strategies and spend more time understanding your business and industry landscape may charge higher fees. The level of consultation and collaboration required can impact the overall cost, as it involves additional time and effort. This is why pricing models also differ from one SEO strategist to the next; some offering fixed rates for different packages, others charging by the hour and/or operate on a retainer basis.
With all this in mind, some people can pay a few hundred dollars for consulting, while others can pay several thousand dollars over a period of time.
To start, at Hana LaRock Writing, we charge $130/hour, which we discount for if you decide to move forward with our SEO services (which include future calls). Again, these costs can range in price depending on what your needs and goals are.
We also do installments, which you can learn more about in our FAQ.
Ultimately, though the cost of organic SEO consulting is an important consideration, it's important to keep in mind on the value and ROI it can provide.
Why Free SEO Consultations Are Rare
You may have come across offers for "free SEO consultations", but it's important to recognize why most reputable SEO consultants don't provide this service for free.
Here's why:
First off, SEO consultants invest significant time and expertise to analyze your website and unique business goals, conduct keyword research, perform competitor analysis, and create a tailored SEO strategy, including implementing those keywords into via content creation on your site (and more). Even the most experienced consultants can only work as fast as the tools they are using. (Speaking of which, they need to pay for these tools.)
Providing these services for free devalues their expertise and the value they bring to your business. And, offering free consultations often attracts a large number of casual inquiries or individuals seeking free advice without genuine intent to hire an SEO consultant. This can be time-consuming and distracting for consultants who prefer to work with committed clients. If you see a company offering a free SEO consultation, it's best to be wary.
Instead, some companies — including ours — may offer a consulting call that will be discounted off the next payment if the client decides to book services or additional calls over a contract period of time.
Can't I Do This SEO Thing Myself?
Many business owners may wonder if they can handle organic SEO on their own without the assistance of a professional consultant. While it is true that some basic SEO techniques can be learned in a few hours, there are several reasons why hiring a professional can provide significant advantages versus striking out on your own:
Reason #1 — Organic SEO consultants are specialists in their field.
Organic SEO consultants possess in-depth knowledge of SEO best practices. They stay updated with the latest changes and developments in the SEO landscape, allowing them to develop effective strategies tailored to your business. Their expertise and experience can save you time, effort, and potential costly mistakes associated with trial-and-error approaches.
Reason #2 — As a business owner, your time is valuable.
Trying to manage organic SEO on your own can be time-consuming and distract you from focusing on your core business activities. In our experience, just the research part of SEO consulting for one client can take 10-20 hours alone.
By hiring a dedicated organic SEO consultant, you can delegate this critical task to professionals who will dedicate their time and expertise to optimizing your website and driving results, allowing you to concentrate on other essential aspects of your business.
Reason #3: — Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving.
SEO is rapidly changing, and has gone through many stages since its inception — or, at least since what it is was given a name. Keeping up with these changes can be challenging. Organic SEO consultants are well-versed in algorithm updates as well as general SEO an trends, and know how to adapt their strategies accordingly.
The Role of AI in Organic SEO
AI has given many businesses around the world the ability to create content at a faster rate. But, faster doesn't always equate with "high-quality" which is essential for SEO to work.
The fact of the matter is, integration of AI becomes more prevalent in organic SEO because it can help consultants do their job more efficiently, especially when they have several clients they are working with.
Ultimately, we believe that it's important to not shy away from SEO consultants who may utilize AI, and in fact, may even encourage you to partner with organic SEO consultants who embrace and leverage this technology in an appropriate manner. Though, do your due diligence: there are plenty of "SEO consultants" out there who rely on AI to actually do their job, which can be an insult to your investment.
When Is It Time to Hire an SEO Professional?
Now you have all this information at your disposal, but maybe you're not sure if now is the right time to start searching for organic SEO consultants. If any of the below pain points resonate with you, then it's not ever too late — or, too early — to reach out to an SEO specialist:
Limited internal resources: If your team lacks the necessary expertise, time, or resources to effectively implement and manage an SEO strategy, it's a clear indicator that you need to hire an SEO consultant. Outsourcing your SEO efforts to a professional allows you to leverage their knowledge and experience, freeing up your team to focus on core business functions.
Declining organic traffic and rankings: If you've noticed a significant drop in your website's organic traffic or rankings, it's a strong indication that your current SEO approach is not working effectively. An SEO consultant can conduct a thorough audit of your website, identify the issues affecting your performance, and develop a tailored strategy to regain lost visibility and improve your organic search presence.
Competitive disadvantage: Are your competitors consistently outranking you in search results? Falling behind the competition can negatively impact your business. An SEO consultant can analyze your competitors' strategies, identify areas for improvement, and develop an SEO plan that helps you get on top, and at the very least, maintain your position
Expanding into new markets or services: When you're looking to expand your business into new markets or offer new services, it's important to have a solid SEO foundation in place. An SEO consultant can conduct market research, identify relevant keywords, and create a targeted SEO strategy that aligns with your expansion plans. This ensures that your website is optimized to attract the right audience and drive growth in new areas.
Need for strategic guidance: Sometimes, you may have a basic understanding of SEO but require strategic guidance to take your efforts to the next level. An SEO consultant can provide valuable insights, recommendations, and best practices to optimize your SEO strategy. Whether it's creating a content calendar, conducting competitor analysis, or improving website usability, their expertise can help you make informed decisions and achieve better results.
Return on Investment (ROI) optimization: Are you investing in SEO but not seeing a significant return on your investment? An SEO consultant can evaluate your current SEO initiatives, identify areas for improvement, and implement strategies to maximize your ROI. By focusing on data-driven decision-making, they can help you allocate your resources effectively and ensure that your SEO efforts generate measurable results.
And, if you're thinking to yourself that you're not sure, but getting SEO help sounds really important, then just book a 30-minute consulting call and we can talk about more!
How to Choose an Organic SEO Consultant
While it may be tempting to handle organic SEO on your own, the benefits of hiring a professional organic SEO consultant undoubtedly outweigh the DIY approach.
But, here's the tricky thing. Not only are there many SEO consultants out there, chances are that most of them are using their knowledge of organic SEO to grow their own business. What we mean to say is, they are pretty dang good at getting their own content to rank, essentially catching you right where they want you — the page you clicked on in Google that's on their website, leading you to book their services.
And, that's okay.
For instance — we tried to rank for a keyword on this page, too (can you guess what it is?). But, that keyword was a little challenging to rank for, and as we are competing with other awesome professionals, who knows where you'll end up finding this page in a search engine. In any case, we wanted to provide valuable content no matter how the article ends up doing, and that's what an organic SEO consultant should also focus on when they implement these strategies for your business.
Anyhow, in order to find the right person for your business, here are some questions we recommend asking:
1. "What is your industry experience and track record?"
Look for organic SEO consultants who have experience and a proven success in your industry (or, at least in their own!). You can do this by asking for testimonials, proof of metrics of their efforts, or just by getting to know their process. Like with any consultant, there are pros and cons to hiring people who have been in the game a while versus those who are new to it.
But, someone who has at least gotten their feet wet (even if on their own projects) will have a deeper understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within your niche, enabling them to develop effective strategies tailored to your business.
At Hana LaRock Writing, we have done SEO writing and strategy for ten years. In this time, we've helped our clients rank on the first three spots on Google and drive traffic to their website.
2. "What is your customized approach, strategy, and process?"
No matter the industry, each business has their own unique goals and budget to help attain those goals. No matter how much money you have to invest, it's important your investment is handled with care, and you get a personalized approach to your needs.
By asking this question, you're one step closer to choosing an organic SEO consultant who takes the time to understand your business and develops a customized approach and strategy based on your specific needs and objectives.
In case you didn't catch it, our unique process is explained above!
3. "How do you help manage expectations?"
SEO is something that takes expertise, but there are aspects of it that can't always be guaranteed even by those with years in the field. If you're hoping to rank first on Google for every keyword, you may need to adjust your expectations; though, your consultant will certainly do their best.
In the meantime, effective communication is essential to the relationship. Ensure that the consultant provides clear and transparent avenues of communication, keeping you informed about the progress, strategies, and results of your SEO campaign. These expectations should be discussed from the get-go, so that both you and the consultant have manageable — and, reasonable — expectations to work with.
This includes establishing expectations (and boundaries) around communication in general, i.e., which platform should you discuss project details on, when will deadlines be met, how long should it take for the consultant to reply to an email, etc.
4. "How much input can I/should I have in the process?"
A successful partnership with an organic SEO consultant involves clear communication, but it also takes collaboration. If you're thinking, "Wait, aren't I hiring them to take the load off of my hands?", the answer is yes — but you will still have to help them help you. SEO can't work to its fullest potential unless the consultant has their questions answered by their client, AKA,you. They may need to ask you questions regarding your goals, objectives, past SEO strategies, your products and solutions, your target audience, etc.
Therefore, you might actually want to avoid a consultant who promises to just do the work without much conversation beforehand. There should be several opportunities for collaboration (even if they are brief), and if you want to be involved in the process — which we always encourage — there should be room for that, too.
Look for a consultant who values your input, actively keeps you in the loop of the decision-making process (even if you trust them to take over, they should give you updates), and provides guidance based on their expertise. A collaborative approach will yield the best results for your business.
Why Invest in Quality Organic SEO Consulting & Services
Organic SEO consulting is at the core of a business's content marketing strategy. By optimizing your website for organic search visibility, organic SEO consultants can help you attract targeted traffic, increase brand credibility, and achieve sustainable growth. With its long-term benefits and adaptability, organic SEO offers a powerful way to unlock online success without too much investment.
But, in order to do this, it's worth investing in quality organic SEO consulting to ensure that your website's optimization is handled by experienced professionals who can deliver tangible results.
Book your first SEO consulting call now to learn how we can help you start building a foundation for a successful SEO strategy. Or, if you're ready to get started, go right ahead and fill out our Google form.
Or, view our services page to learn more.
Still have some questions? Contact us and we'll get back to you ASAP!