15 reasons why your business needs an SEO consultant

Ever wondered if an SEO consultant can help your business? The answer is yes. If you’re wondering if your business will benefit from an SEO consultant, read this blog to find out more.

What is an SEO consultant?

They are responsible for planning, executing and managing a company’s overall SEO strategy. An SEO consultant analyses, reviews, and improves websites and search engine rankings. Their main duties include:

• Keyword research
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Stay up to date with SEO trends
• Internal and external linking
• Implement SEO best practices
• Web analytics.

Here’s why your business needs an SEO consultant:

1. Trust and credibility

The goal of any SEO consultant it to establish a strong foundation for a good website. It should be easy to navigate, read and find. All of this contributes to users identifying you as credible and trustworthy.

However, this isn’t something that happens overnight. Building trust takes time, just like it does with people in real life.

2. Cost-effective

Sure, it costs money to hire an SEO consultant, but you have to spend money to make money. In the grand scheme of things, SEO is relatively cheap. Considering what you will get out of it, it will be worth the money spent. The more time and effort spent on SEO, the better it will get over time.

3. Increase your ranking

There’s no shortcut to gaining higher rankings on search engines. Most SEO consultants have years of experience. They constantly stay updated with updates and algorithm changes released by search engines.

A consultant can identify keywords to help your site climb the rankings of Google, Bing, Yahoo! and other search engines. They can establish which content generates the most traffic to your page.

4. Keep your site from being blacklisted

The last thing you want to do is get your site blacklisted and lose all your content. An SEO consultant will protect you against this. To do to cut corners, some creators used to use “black hat techniques” such as keyword stuffing and hiding text.

However, these methods can lead to your site being blacklisted on Google. Once this happens, you’ll be removed from the search engine’s provider site index permanently.

Being blacklisted leads to a loss in organic traffic, leading to a loss in sales. An SEO consultant will use ethical techniques to ensure your site doesn’t get blacklisted. Yes – it takes longer to see results but waiting longer and working harder far outweighs the potential impacts.

5. Generate organic traffic to your site

According to BrightEdge Research, almost 53 percent of traffic to websites comes from organic searches. An SEO consultant is experienced in driving websites forward, to help your website rank higher on search engine results.

6. Experience

You want someone who knows what they are doing right? You may think you’ll save money by doing it yourself. However, you won’t get the results you’re looking for if you cut corners. You’re more likely to damage your site rather than help it.

An SEO consultant has the knowledge and experience to make smart decisions for your site. They know what works and what doesn’t. They have experience of working with a range of clients from a variety of sectors.

7. Let’s you focus on other tasks

As a business owner, you already have a million and one things to do without adding SEO into the mix. It can take up a lot of your time optimising your website, writing new content and building links. With so much on your to-do list, you’ll be wondering how you’re going to have time. That’s what an SEO consultant is for.

They take the stress away from you and focus on SEO. This will give you time to concentrate on running your business while they take care of the rest. You’ll be less stressed about how your website is performing.

8. Stay ahead of the competition

It’s important to always keep an eye on how your competitors are performing. After all you don’t want to fall behind and lose customers to your competitors.

SEO is widely considered a staple of any marketing strategy. Your competitors are likely to already be taking steps to rank higher in search engines. So, you need to stay ahead of them. An SEO consultant can help drive your website forward.

9. Keep up with trends

Google is forever updating its search algorithm, if you’re not experienced in SEO, it can be hard to keep up. Without an SEO consultant your website could suffer.

A consultant can keep an eye on trends and stop your website from falling behind. They’ll know which trends can help you reach more customers. It’s a consultant’s job to make sure your SEO strategy is timely and effective.

10. Encourages local users to visit the store after search

Local SEO is beneficial for small businesses who have an offline presence as well as a digital one. After conducting a local search on Google, customers are more likely to go visit the shop. For example, a Think with Google study found that 76% of people perform a “near me” search. Within 24 hours, they visited the shop and 28% of them made a purchase.

11. Increases your social media following

Improving your visibility in organic searches means more and more people will know about your brand. Most people use social media platforms to access current information. Therefore, more people will start following your social media accounts to see relevant updates.

Maintaining social activity and engaging with customers can boost your website traffic. It also improves your brand’s credibility and improves your overall online presence and SERP ranking.

12. Long-term strategy

An SEO consultant’s work should have a noticeable impact within the first year of action being taken. Of course, this varies due to a range of factors such as the size of the website and the sector. Many of those actions will have an effect that lasts a few years. The more time invested in SEO, the longer a website stands to be a worthy contender. However, consistency is key, and SEO is an ongoing strategy.

13. Strengthens your website and online content

There’s no point in having a website if your reach, visibility, and engagement are poor. An SEO consultant will enhance the functionality of your website through content and design recommendations.

14. Accomplish your marketing goals

The most important thing an SEO consultant can do for your business is help you accomplish your marketing goals.

If you want to increase the sales of a product, an SEO expert can create content focused on that product. That tailored content will help drive sales forward.

6 tips for choosing an SEO consultant

If you’re looking to hire an SEO consultant for your business, here are some things to consider:

1. Define your goals

Look at what services the SEO consultant is offering. Do they align with your goals? This will help narrow down your search and choose a suitable consultant. Identify which areas of your online presence need work. What can the consultant do to improve these areas?

2. Do your research

Don’t just go with the first SEO consultant you find on Google. If you’re going to hire this person, you want to make sure they are the best fit for your company. You should spend plenty of time finding out about them and their work. How successful has their SEO work been in the past? What clients have they worked with?

Make some notes on each consultant as you go along. This will make it easier for you to choose one.

3. Identify their effectiveness

To determine how effective their techniques are, ask to see their SEO performance results. SEO metrics that should be tracked are:

• Rankings
• Organic traffic
• Leads and sales attributed to organic traffic.
• Keyword rankings.

4. Look at their portfolio

When choosing an SEO consultant look at what they’ve done for other customers. Their portfolio and case studies will give you an idea of their style and allow you to see their results.

The portfolio and case studies should be available on their website. If not, don’t hesitate to contact the SEO consultant to ask for them.

5. Follow them on social media

Take some time to follow their social media accounts. You could read some of their blogs or subscribe to their newsletter. This is a great way to find out more about them. You can learn their knowledge and expertise by reading the content they’re putting out.

6. Ask about their fees and contracts

One of the main things to consider when choosing an SEO consultant is how much it is going to cost. Ask them what their fees are, for example is it an hourly or daily rate? Other than price, you want to know if they offer fixed term contracts or ad-hoc?

Once you assess fees and services, compare them with competitors to see what the best value for money is.

Remember, you get what you pay for. If you’re prepared to pay very little, don’t expect big results.

4 mistakes businesses make when choosing an SEO consultant

These are the most common mistakes business make when looking for an SEO consultant that you should bear in mind.

1. Choosing the cheap option

Whilst we all want to save money, there are some things you shouldn’t go cheap on. Choosing a suitable SEO consultant is one of them. Opting for the cheapest option possible isn’t going to do you any favours.

2. Only searching locally

Of course, it makes sense to opt for an SEO consultant that is local. However, the location of your consultant shouldn’t be your top factor. You should prioritise experience, performance, and reviews over location. These areas will impact the quality of your service the most.

Restricting yourself to a small area is stopping yourself from what else is out there. You may not achieve the results you’re looking for if you only stick to one area.

Just because the consultant is far away doesn’t mean it will have an impact on the service they deliver. They will arrange to meet you and communicate regularly on video chats, phone or email.

3. Selecting a black-hat SEO consultant

A black hat consultant is someone who uses unethical techniques to rank highly on search engines. However, businesses often choose these consultants as they can generate results quickly. No one brands themselves as a black-hat SEO consultant, so be aware of their tactics.

4. Picking an inexperienced consultant

Some consultants will dazzle you with an impressive sales pitch. They’ll promise you the world. Don’t fall for it, a consultant’s experience should speak for itself.

Though you want to give people a chance, your business and reputation aren’t worth the risk of being ruined. Experience and results matter when it comes to SEO.

Final thoughts

We hope you have found this blog insightful and useful. We hope it has given you plenty of thought about how an SEO consultant will benefit your business.

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