In the vast digital landscape where online visibility can be key to a business’s success, the role of an SEO consultant has become increasingly important. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the cornerstone of a successful online presence, and an SEO consultant is the person who helps businesses navigate the complexities of search engine algorithms. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the world of SEO consultants, understanding their significance, exploring their role, and discovering how ComeUp can connect businesses with freelance SEO consultants for exceptional success.
What is an SEO consultant?
Growing your company online is not a task for a single individual but for a team. One of the most efficient ways to develop businesses is to build out the SEO on your website. This is not a task to be taken lightly, as such it’s best practice to contact an expert to work on this for you. While you might not want to commit to bringing in consultants to help you, it’s in your interest to bite the bullet and do so. After all, you might learn a thing or two about improving strategy, marketing, and performance from your chosen consultant.
An SEO consultant can take the form of any type of employee, from a member of a marketing team to hiring agency staff to a freelancer. They are required by any self-respecting online business to understand how search engines work, what SEO trends are currently in vogue, and which search engine algorithms change with time. Organic SEO consultants have rich work lives filled with client meetings and developing SEO strategies. They also perform website audits and conduct keyword research, often using tools like Google Analytics to create the optimal user experience.
What is SEO?
But to take a step back, SEO (or search engine optimization) is a free strategy that encompasses several technical methods to build visibility on your website. The main idea behind SEO is to rank in the first few pages of your chosen search engine, such as Google or Bing. The reason why is simple: average potential clients are not interested in spending huge amounts of time searching for their chosen data sets in the great abyss that is the digital world. Because of this, it’s an excellent idea to bring on an SEO consultant to help your rankings, to be sure, but ultimately to grow online traffic to your website in a way only an expert can do. If you appear first on Google search your website is sure to attract traffic. So it’s essential not to underestimate the value of SEO.
White-Hat SEO
There are several ways that SEO optimization can take place, and the most common is called White-Hat SEO. This method is designed to respect the rules set by Google and other search engines. Some examples include uploading relevant content, using keywords, acquiring backlinks, and optimizing loading speeds and overall site performance. Using descriptive and keyword-rich meta tags is also a beneficial tool. This technique uses a bit more time (generally a few months), thus making it an excellent solution for the long term. ComeUp has a wonderful variety of White-Hat SEO experts who are the best in their field and will be happy to collaborate with you.
Black-Hat SEO
Contrary to White-Hat SEO, Black-Hat SEO uses technical strategies considered unethical and inorganic but perhaps works more quickly to get a site ranking higher in search results. For instance, the expert might saturate a website with keywords, upload hidden text content, or use fake links and comments. Keyword saturation, or stuffing, can take many forms, such as repeating phrases so often that it sounds unnatural. This type of SEO may take less time to show results, but it comes at the risk of your company being sanctioned or even blacklisted by search engines, with little hope of being reenlisted.
Grey-Hat SEO
A nice compromise can be to have your consultant use Grey-Hat SEO. This hybrid of Black- and White-Hat SEO requires a balance of the two techniques, such as using limited amounts of duplicate content or creating quality content but buying backlinks. While certainly an improvement on using exclusively Black-Hat SEO methods, Grey-Hat SEO still entails some of the same risks and should be exercised with caution.
Why Do I Need an SEO consultant?
So what exactly will an organic SEO consultant do for my company, you might ask. Well, there is not just one answer to this technical question. Some such consultants, like those on ComeUp, might conduct keyword research to later be used in your website’s written content, such as blog posts. This is a valuable resource because you might have the most learned writer on your staff, but without a solid keyword structure, they are essentially working for nothing. Another similar task for these experts is to create an SEO content strategy or to gather data on competing websites. Relevant elements to this might include discovering your target audience, creating a content calendar, and incorporating various content formats into your social media accounts.
A good industry professional will improve your website so that it hits the first couple of pages of Google, and they’ll do it using as ethical of techniques as possible. The main reason why you might want to be featured so early on is simple: having a maximum amount of visibility essentially guarantees more conversions and therefore, more sales. The expert will be able to work with a local brick-and-mortar and an online business since the main focus will be on creating a successful website. As a result, your expert can be located worldwide. This is a distinct advantage because an international staff member means your company is working around the clock. This creates an organic way of saving time on your search for success.
Making Improvements on Your Website
If your website is already on point, you might consider hiring a consultant to simply work on your optimization. For example, they might be asked to improve technical issues with your SEO or work on a broader topic such as site navigation and organization. An issue many websites have is not being as easy to navigate from a mobile device. Also, publishing good quality and relevant content improves your website’s authority and ranking. Furthermore, having an expert web developer, such as those on ComeUp, come in to implement technical search engine optimization is a good idea. This includes image compression and enabling browser caching.
Analyze the Competition
A more specific task for your service expert might be to conduct a competitive analysis of web pages that rank for target keywords to better understand how your online visibility can be equaled. This is because your business doesn’t live in a vacuum, there are many websites similar to yours all over the internet. The websites in question are all fighting to be featured in the same few spots on the first pages of Google. It’s important to uncover their winning strategies, but also to capitalize on any weaknesses. Using analytics tools and collecting data on the subject will help build these strategies for the success of your company.
Creating a Successful Call-to-Action Strategy
Furthermore, call-to-action improvements can be a task for your industry expert. Call-to-action (or CTA) essentially means getting your potential clients to take action from your website. This might entail purchasing an item, downloading a digital book, or signing up for a summit. Contact information, for instance, can be received through a good call-to-action, adding them to your marketing funnel immediately. ComeUp has quite a few services posted by CTA experts and should be your first stop during your quest for an SEO consultant.
Conducting Keyword Research
Conducting keyword research is an important part of being an SEO consultant because this is how phrases will be used by potential clients when searching for various products and services. The end goal is to optimize the website’s content around the keywords in question to improve search engine ranking and traffic. Some factors to consider when choosing a keyword are topical coverage, existing opportunities, and current competition. Many tools exist to help find keywords, which is likely for the best since it is quite slow if left as a manual task. However, you could always rely on a ComeUp service posted by a keyword research connoisseur to improve your SEO. If you know the keywords your audiences search, you will know what keywords you should use to give you the most chances to appear at the top of Google searches.
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization experts work by directly intervening on your website to make it more relevant to search engines such as Google. Some compatible elements include optimizing the content, to be sure, but also to improve the meta-description and title tags. Technical optimization can at times be overlooked, but a fast server speed and a unique IP address can make a huge difference. Analytics tools can also help establish what needs to improve and should be used with enthusiasm.
Soft Skills
An expert SEO consultant will also have valuable soft skills, such as solid communication ability. After all, you will want someone who can not only get results but also tell you about them in a manner that you’ll understand. Someone familiar with strategy planning will also be best in this situation. The reason why is that SEO as a field is often hectic and rather demanding, so being able to efficiently navigate the various obstacles is a huge plus!
Another important quality to have is an excellent problem-solving skill set. SEO is indeed a complicated field with many potential challenges, so a successful consultant will be able to navigate these obstacles with ease. Be it a search engine penalty, a drop in rankings, or a technical SEO issue, the consultant must find and solve the issue quickly. Searching for a person with thick skin comes at a distinct advantage here, as the world of organic digital growth can be quite cutthroat.
How to find an SEO consultant?
Finding a top-notch SEO consultant should be a priority, as they will improve search engine performance, rankings, and visibility, and also help you create a better experience for your website visitors. They can be found in a variety of ways, much like hiring for any other position. It’s important to consider several of the following hiring methods because each will provide a different experience and expertise for your business.
Think Local
You could first start by asking around in your local community by posting on social media groups. However, you will probably have better quality candidates if you make the effort to make a listing on a high-traffic job posting website such as Indeed or LinkedIn, as the respondents will be the ones actively looking for work. Be aware that this could potentially be a costly experience because you will probably need to hire several employees to fill the various responsibilities that SEO consulting experts generally do. For instance, some industry roles to fill might include a content writer, a community manager, and a marketing director, among others.
Find an Agency
If you don’t have the time or budget to hire a whole SEO consulting team, you could potentially use a local agency for your needs. However, be aware that a good quality agency will be costly (though still not so much as having a few full-time employees), and finding a satisfactory communication partner may prove challenging. That being said, your results will likely be timely, and the agency as a whole will have experience working with brands like yours. It may be a relatively impersonal and inorganic experience, so if this is important to you, perhaps elect a freelancer or a full-time employee to join your team.
Go For Freelance
The smartest move to save your company time and money is to use a freelance platform such as ComeUp. ComeUp values strong communication between buyers and sellers and offers a wealth of services designed to fill your SEO needs. It will be easier for you to control your budget as well as the time needed per project. For example, you could have one freelancer in charge of amping up the keywords on your website and another responsible for backlinks. Also, ComeUp as a platform will protect you from any hiccups you may come across along your hiring journey. Many freelance SEO professionals on the platform can help you improve your SEO results.
Last Words
Finding an SEO consultant for your business could potentially be a game-changer. From traffic analysis to keyword research, a strong consultant will be a welcome member of your marketing team and will help you learn on your path to success. After all, excellent SEO is what makes the difference between a wildly successful online experience and a low-ranking website stuck at the back pages of Google. Use a freelancer platform such as ComeUp to solve all of your SEO needs today and appear first in Google search!
