SEO Consultant
My goal as an SEO Consultant is to help you build your organic traffic to increase leads, sales and revenue.
When you’re a small business owner one of your most important tasks is probably your marketing.
As a small business owner, you need to start thinking of how you’re going to utilise modern marketing techniques.
My SEO consultancy service can help you gain relevant, converting organic web traffic.
Sometimes SEO isn’t that costly but it does require focus and commitment on behalf of the business. Depending on your market a simple clean, easy to use website with some great content can win online.
It’s always a difficult task to choose who you work with. I felt the same when choosing my accountant or what invoicing software I’m going to use (freshbooks is amazing by the way). Anything that takes investment requires a bit of research, find out more about me and my qualifications – Cian Murphy Bio.
In short, as an SEO consultant, I love to help small business owners win online. So, if you don’t have time or knowledge to get your SEO working for your business you should get in touch.
If you’re undecided or don’t know anything about SEO keep reading.
How can my SEO Consultancy Help Your Business?
I’ve created this page not only to try and build up my SEO client base, but also to help people understand a bit more about the practices and techniques involved in the process.
Every businesses SEO campaign can be unique. My first goal is identify your needs as a business. When we spend some time going over your business goals, I’ll be developing an SEO strategy that meets that goal.
Most strategies start in one of the following ways – we build your strategy from the ground up, we improve on a strategy that’s already in place or we repair a strategy that didn’t work for you in the past.
50% of businesses that I have worked with have said SEO or some form of digital marketing they tried didn’t work for them in the past. Unfortunately digital marketing done wrong can completely destroy your faith in the industry. I’m here to restore it.
What Does SEO Stand for?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It’s a form of search engine marketing that has developed vigorously over the last two decades.
Search engines change how they evaluate websites and web entities on a daily basis. SEO’s (Search Engine Optimisers) devote their time to understanding how search engines deliver content to the end user.
The most common thing you’ll hear is don’t optimise for search engines. Optimise for users. This is true from a holistic point of view but there’s more too it…
What are the Key Components to SEO a consultant should discuss?
- Have a clean search engine friendly website code.
- Ensure your content is informative and seen as quality by your users.
- Make sure your site architecture helps the user find what they’re looking for.
- Make sure your website is fast – does your web page load quickly?
- Is your website secure? Get an SSL Certificate.
- Enhance your local SEO. Get business listings and use a consistent address.
- Gain Your Brands Search Results Pages – Social Media is a great opportunity.
- Develop a content marketing strategy -> Write for your audience needs.
- Develop a strategy for gaining links and develop your brands web mentions.
If you’re really going to do well at SEO you need to become the expert in what ever topic you’re speaking about. Your expertise, authority and trust need to be conveyed on your website.
How Much do SEO Consultants Make?
Most SEO consultants will charge between €50 to €250 per hour depending on their level of experience, perceived value, time availability and business situation. They may also charge based on project fees.
I charge €100+VAT per hour. Generally I’ll work with companies for a minimum of 8 hours a month for a minimum 6 – 12 months. SEO takes time. I’ve worked with some clients for over 5 years.
A freelancer will generally charge less than an agency. Agencies may have large staffing and office costs. If you’re a large company and need over 20 hours a week on a project a large agency may be more suited to your needs.
You may also opt to employee a full-time in-house SEO when you’ve realised the value and ROI of SEO.
What are some tools to consultants use to help with SEO?
There are lots of tools available to help you understand the SEO performance of your website and to figure out what your competitors are doing as well.
They can analyse and develop keyword research and content marketing strategies for you.
Here’s some of my favourite tools:
| SEMrush | Screaming Frog | Google Search Console |
| Google Analytics | Ahrefs | Moz Link Explorer |
| Google Trends | Page Speed Insights | SimilarWeb |
These tools can be costly but if you’re a small website they have free options that give you some great insight.
Is SEO a Technical Job?
Yes, I believe you need a certain level of technical knowledge to be a good SEO professional. Especially if you’re in a competitive industry.
There are however many different types of SEO professionals. Technical SEO’s, On Page SEO’s, PR & Outreach SEO’s and content marketing SEO’s.
If you’re a non technical SEO you may have to spend more on web development assistance. It all depends on your business size and expectations.
In modern days, you could argue that the evolution of CMS systems such as WordPress has allowed non technical people enter the SEO industry.
Plugins like SEO Yoast, W3C Cache, WP Smush and AMP for WP have made it relatively easy to get a functional SEO optimised website off the ground in very little time and for a smaller budget.
How do I start SEO?
If you’re a business and need to implement an SEO strategy quickly you should speak with a consultant or agency. I’m available to speak whenever you need to.
If you’d like to learn there’s a huge amount of resources available online at the moment. The emergence of multiple SEO software companies has also brought about the evolution of free information.
These SEO software companies have expensive pricing and to entice you to come into their fold they’re giving away some of the best information available that some consultants will use as their own.
Here’s a few places to learn SEO in order of beginner to advanced:
| Brian Dean | Very good at explaining SEO in easy to follow Youtube clips. His channel is excellent. |
| Google Websmaster Tools | No better people to learn about SEO than the Google themselves. John Mueller is excellent at explaining SEO and what Google would like webmasters to achieve when conducting SEO. |
| Ahrefs | Excellent software company helping you find link profiles. Great place to start SEO learning. They give away some very good advice. |
| Moz | The Industry standard was created by Moz. I started following their previous CEO in 2010. Their resources are excellent. |
| Cian Murphy | I have no problem giving my training day a plug here. If you’d like to learn more about SEO in an interactive customised training day I can help. |
Cian is master of his craft and his no nonsense approach means that you get excellent and consistent service in addition to value for your money. Cian has been advising us for several years now and in terms of SEO and website design he has all the up to date knowledge needed to get us (as a small business owner) right up there when it comes to increasing our revenue through digital marketing. Cian is an expert in his field and always delivers on his promises – 5 star service well deserving of a 5 star rating. – Janet Tumulty
Quick SEO Consultant FAQ’s
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This is a technique to enhance how much traffic your website or digital assets receive from search engine results pages, SERP’s for short.
It depends on your keyword and industry competition. You could have traffic within 1 month depending on the popularity of your website. In a competitive industry SEO can take from 4 – 24 months to work.
Black hat SEO is when you use unethical tactics to trick search engines into ranking your website higher in search results. White hat SEO is when you focus on providing value to your visitors e.g. excellent content, a fast website, good user experience and great navigation.
Resources I use are Moz, Search Engine Land, Backlinko, SEO Roundtable, Twitter and Reddit.
Yes, SEO is constantly changing because search engines keep making algorithm changes, testing new features and rewarding sites that demonstrate E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority & Trust).