Why Your Small Business Needs an SEO Consultant
Your small business may be virtually invisible on Google. After all, how are new people supposed to find out about you? They can’t Google your business name if they don’t already know you exist!
You may have raving customers and a robust word-of-mouth operation. Perhaps you are running some local advertising.
However, there is an entirely different source of potential customers you can tap into on Google.
And you may be completely missing out.
According to BrightEdge research, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. And, according to SparkToro research, 63.41% of all US web traffic referrals come from Google.
Many of these Googlers may seek a product or service like yours. But they may not know about you or are unfamiliar with your brand.
How can you reach these people and convert them into customers? That’s where an SEO consultant comes in.
An SEO consultant’s job is to help small businesses like yours optimize their online business for Google search. When done correctly, you will rank high on Google for search terms important to your business.
This will generally lead to increased web traffic, leads, and sales.
In this article, we’ll discuss the role of an SEO consultant and how they can help a small business like yours grow. We’ll look at key services an SEO can provide you, how to choose a consultant that’s right for your business, and the benefits you can expect to reap from doing so.
What Is an SEO Consultant?
An SEO consultant is an independent marketing professional who understands search engine algorithms, user behavior, and online trends to improve website visibility for search engines. They offer strategic guidance, recommendations, and solutions tailored to a business's unique needs.
SEO consultants are different from agencies, although there is some overlap. SEO agencies are larger organizations that cover a wide breadth of marketing services. However, an SEO consultant is usually a solopreneur or a small partnership of independent individuals working together in a more specialized or niche area.
SEO consultants are also different from freelancers although, again, there is some overlap. Freelancers are often hired for limited or specific tasks. These are usually client-directed. For example, you might hire an SEO freelancer to write titles and meta descriptions for some web pages. Or to write you a specific series of blog posts.
On the other hand, SEO consultants are often more deeply engaged with the client’s overall business and tend to work more strategically and comprehensively. Sometimes, consultants are merely advisory and do not implement their recommendations at all, while others handle both. On the other hand, a freelancer is likely only handling the implementation side for a client.
An SEO consultant is also an alternative to an in-house SEO specialist. An in-house SEO specialist is a full-time small business employee, whereas a consultant is an independent contractor. In-house SEOs tend to be experts in the particular business they work for but may have less experience across different businesses and industries.
Finally, an SEO consultant differs from a digital marketing consultant in terms of the services offered. Once again, the caveat is that there is some overlap. But, generally, an SEO consultant’s goal is to help you improve your performance from search engines and (most often) from Google. On the other hand, a digital marketing consultant may advise you on many different marketing functions and channels, like paid advertising, social media, email marketing, and more.
Why Small Businesses Need an SEO Consultant
You may think your small business does not need an SEO consultant. And you may lack the resources (time and money) needed to hire and empower them to succeed. However, there are several reasons why hiring an SEO consultant can be a boon to your business.
For starters, SEO is a cost-effective form of marketing. However, it is essential to clarify that SEO is not free despite being an “organic” marketing channel. To win at SEO, you must either implement it yourself (takes lots of time, education, and experience) or hire someone to do so for you (takes more money but frees up your time). These are real costs.
SEO is an organic marketing channel because you are not paying to run advertisements. Running ads with a daily or even weekly spend can quickly eat up your entire marketing budget. Sometimes it’s worth it. But if your ads aren’t working, are too cost-prohibitive, or you are seeking additional sources of online customers, SEO might be perfect for your business.
SEO consultants can also help you with local SEO strategies. Local SEO focuses on particular and limited geographic markets like a town or a city, whereas national or generic SEO is nationwide or international in scope. The strategies and tactics are quite different for local versus generic search. A consultant can help you make tactical decisions for your small business's local market.
Finally, SEO consultants can create customized strategies for your business. Every small business has its own mix of objectives, customer personas, opportunities, and threats. While someone with general knowledge of SEO may be able to create a broad strategy, a custom-tailored approach is often far more effective and efficient.
Key Services a Small Business SEO Consultant Provides
Keywords, Content, and Technical SEO
The first step in any SEO consulting engagement is for them to learn about your small business and your ideal customer. Once that is established, a consultant will create several broad SEO strategies.
The first is most often keyword research. Keywords are the lifeblood of SEO. They are the terms or queries that users type into the Google (or Bing or Yahoo, etc.) search bar.
For example, if a user is seeking a place to order pizza for dinner, they may search for “pizza,” “pizza place near me,” or “restaurant with pepperoni pizza in Tulsa.” An SEO consultant will research and identify all important and relevant keywords for your business. Without this research, you are essentially flying blind.
Second, an SEO consultant will optimize on-page and technical SEO factors. On-page SEO refers to factors related to your website content, and technical SEO refers to your website's setup, structure, and performance.
There are many tactics at play here, including things like:
Optimizing meta tags (titles, descriptions, image alt descriptions, etc.)
Improving your URL structures
Creating relevant internal and external links
Adding sections or passages to make content more thorough
Improving the speed of your website, including loading time
All of these factors, and many others, contribute to SEO success. An SEO consultant can identify and prioritize which tactics will work best for effective and efficient marketing.
Other SEO Strategies
Local SEO optimization targets local geographical areas like towns and cities. For example, a small pharmacy in Newark, New Jersey, may only want to target potential customers in or near Newark. An SEO consultant can help you optimize your online presence, including your website and your Google business listing for local search.
Another SEO strategy that a consultant may implement is link building. Link building refers to acquiring external links to your website from other authoritative, quality websites. High-quality links send signals that your business is also of high quality and to be trusted. An SEO consultant will know which methods of backlink acquisition will be effective, which won’t, and which may be effective in the short term but are not ethical and pose risks to your long-term success.
Finally, an SEO consultant will often help you create new SEO-targeted and optimized content, including blog posts, long-form articles, and videos. SEO content is often different from other types of content, which may be more focused on things like virality or engaging with an existing customer base. A viral or engaging blog post may perform poorly in search. A consultant will help guide you on the types of content that will perform well on Google and how to create this content.
How Small Business SEO Consulting Differs
Some SEO consultants specialize in working with midsize or enterprise-level businesses. However, if you are a small business owner, you may have different needs. Several factors distinguish small business SEO from other types.
For one, many small businesses, especially brick-and-mortar ones, are only concerned with local SEO. That means you want to hire someone with ample experience dealing with regional markets, customers, strategies, and tactics. These can be quite different from general national or international SEO campaigns.
Budget considerations are another difference. It may be easy for an enterprise corporation to hire a large digital marketing agency or a team of in-house full-time SEO specialists to pump out high-quality content daily. However, small business owners know they have resource constraints and may be unable to afford those options. While a great small business SEO consultant won’t be cheap, they will also understand the budget constraints of your situation and be able to provide services that work within your budget and are cost-effective.
Small business SEOs may provide more personalized, hands-on service than their peers who target large enterprises. When dealing with an enterprise, there are usually many different teams, points of contact, specialists, and departments working together. However, with a small business, most affairs may be conducted directly between the owner or executive team and the individual SEO consultant.
A small business SEO consultant may help you identify and target immediate ROI opportunities. This can be a game changer for a small business with thin margins and small budgets, whereas large organizations may have the time for campaigns that stretch months and even years without producing measurable ROI.
Small businesses will likely have different keyword strategies than major brands like Coca-Cola, JP Morgan, or General Motors. It may be impossible for small businesses to attack large brands head-on. On the other hand, there may be many smaller keyword opportunities where a small business with razor-sharp focus and niche interests can beat its larger global competitors. A great SEO consultant will help you identify these opportunities.
How to Choose the Right Small Business SEO Consultant
Choosing the right SEO consultant for your small business can be overwhelming. There are thousands of options, from basement-cost operators on platforms like Fivver and Upwork to global powerhouses like the Big Four management consulting firms or international marketing agencies.
You want an experienced consultant who can work in your sector, industry, local market, or niche. That experience doesn’t have to be as an independent consultant. Many SEOs start as in-house employees or work for larger agencies to learn the ropes. However, in SEO, there is no magic formula you can learn in college; only direct experience will provide the knowledge an SEO needs to succeed.
You also want to know that your consultant can get you results. To help with this, you can read reviews and ask for testimonials or extended case studies that vouch for the consultant and explain how their strategies worked. If you can’t find information about an SEO and their performance, they are either relatively inexperienced or are raising a major red flag.
Cost is a premium concern. Independent SEO consultants can be expensive. You are paying not only for their hourly labor but also for the knowledge and years of experience they have acquired to become an expert in the industry. However, ethical SEO consultants should be transparent about their pricing. You should completely understand the various costs associated with service and what drives them. If an SEO cannot communicate what their services will cost or how this is being calculated, run, don’t walk away from the consultant and find someone else.
Finally, look for an SEO consultant who can communicate well with you and is a good temperamental fit. You don’t have to be best friends with your SEO or feel like sisters from another mother, but at the very least, you want to be able to get along and communicate well with each other. A lack of good communication can be one of the most important reasons an SEO campaign fails.
Finally, small businesses usually have smaller and simpler websites than their larger competitors. These will likely require some basic fixes, but you may not need the intensive focus on technical SEO that a large global company will need. An SEO consultant will help you determine how much of your resources should be devoted to technical SEO and when it is more prudent to focus on content creation, backlink building, or local search optimization.
Benefits of Hiring a Small Business SEO Consultant
A small business SEO consultant is there to help you get results. If you’re not seeing improved performance over time, you are likely wasting your money with an inexperienced or low-quality service provider.
The first sign of SEO success will be increased overall search engine visibility. A consultant will help you get your website pages in Google’s index, start ranking for relevant keywords, and show up in actual search results. This factor can be measured by metrics like
Impressions
Number of keyword positions
The average rank of keyword positions
Share of voice
The next sign of SEO improvement will be increased traffic to your site or your Google listing. This traffic will be relevant to your business because your consultant will target the correct keywords. This factor can be measured by metrics like:
Sessions
Visits
Entrances
Clicks
The third stage of SEO success is an improvement in leads. Leads are visitors who take some action that demonstrates they may intend to become an actual customer. Leads may be highly engaged with your content or take some action, such as signing up for a newsletter, submitting a contact form, or clicking-to-call your business. You may measure leads with such metrics as:
(lead) conversions
(lead) conversion rate
Form submissions
Calls
Subscriptions
Finally, the fourth, or money stage, of SEO success is increased sales. This is when SEO pays off for real. Unless you have a business built on acquiring web traffic, conversion to sales is the whole ballgame. You can measure it with metrics like:
(sales) conversions
(sales) conversion rate
Purchases
Revenue
ROI
How Brian M. Reiser Can Help Your Small Business
You now understand what a small business SEO consultant is and how they can help your business thrive. With my decade-long experience as an SEO expert, I have the knowledge and skills necessary to help small businesses like yours exponentially grow through Google search.
If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of SEO and how I can help your business today, I invite you to continue browsing my website and either submitting a message through my contact form or sending a direct email to me here.