What distinguishes a good SEO consultant?

There is quite a widespread group today calling themselves SEO consultants, or something similarly sounding. They offer a variety of very different types of services, and today I’d like to share my view on what a good SEO consultant does.

First of all, we need to agree that there is a difference between an SEO consultant and a webmaster, or between an SEO consultant and a web developer. Often the tasks overlap, but the core competencies are far from the same. Once we have clarified that, we’ll find out what separates a good SEO consultant from a bad one—so hang on until it gets more interesting.

What is an SEO consultant?

An SEO consultant is, in most cases, a strategist. This is the resource that ensures the website gets optimal traffic from search engines, based on the goals set.

If we put aside how payment is handled (which is usually something people always react to when discussing consultants—whether it should be hourly billing, ongoing fees, or whatever), and instead look at the skills and the work being done, it becomes very clear. The goal of all SEO, of course, is to increase profitable traffic from search engines (not the paid results). There are many factors influencing this, and here the consultant must know and plan what needs to be done for the best outcome.

This is not limited to code or content; it’s not just about (though it often includes) writing good titles and meta descriptions. It’s not solely about working to make sites faster, but that can be part of the work if the site doesn’t meet Google’s requirements. The SEO consultant is almost always a strategic resource and only very rarely the person who executes the tasks.

The SEO consultant should, if all goes well, have an understanding of how Google evaluates pages and creates search results. This includes understanding the authority that a particular page on a site will be credited with, to recognizing the difference between a good headline and a bad one (from an SEO perspective). It’s about understanding which result a discerning searcher will click on and getting the visitor to land on the most profitable page on the site for that specific visitor.

An example of knowledge a good SEO consultant needs is the ability to estimate the PageRank a specific page will receive (doesn’t have to be an absolute number but relative to other pages on the site); otherwise, they won’t be able to suggest an optimal navigation structure. If you don’t know how strong a page becomes if linked in a certain way, you don’t know if it will stand in the competition.

What separates a good SEO consultant from a bad one?

The first thing I’d like to mention is something to keep in mind with some bias. Maybe it’s because we are a company from northern Sweden, but I personally dislike consultants who primarily present PowerPoint slides and talk. We also don’t go in and change your code (you should have the final say on that, not your SEO consultant), but a quality SEO delivery cannot be just PP slides—you’ll definitely recognize those consultants if you’ve worked with them.

Another difference between a good and a bad consultant is the contract length. This is such an easy way to measure confidence in one’s own product that it’s strange not more do it. If the consultant feels the need to lock you into a multi-year contract, do you think you’ll be happy? Do you think your consultant believes you’ll be happy?

The last difference between good and bad SEO consultants I want to mention is experience. It’s a bit harder to measure but extremely important. SEO is a long-term job. In many cases, a project can span several years, especially in competitive segments. If you have a consultant who has only worked with SEO for two years, you can be certain they’ve never seen an entire project through in a competitive segment. You don’t get to see the full journey in such a short time. Moreover, to be a good SEO consultant, you need to have seen many projects. A handful of implementations mean very little in a world of constant nuanced decisions.

My view on SEO consultants—what’s yours?

These were some of my thoughts on what makes a good SEO consultant. You probably have your own ideas about this, and I’d love to see you leave a comment!