Skyrocket Your Organic Traffic & Sales with An Expert SEO Consultant in London

An SEO consultant helps their clients to build and implement search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies.

But more importantly, SEO consultants give businesses advice that helps them increase their visibility in the search engines, increase their rankings, get more relevant traffic and increase the profits generated by the website.

SEO consultants conduct data-backed research such as competitive analysis, keyword research, website architecture mapping and off-page and on-page optimisation tactics, as well as review existing campaigns and backlinks and provide coaching, guidance and recommendations for best practices.

Firstly, an SEO consultant needs to identify the company’s business goals and understand who the business’s target audience is.

Next, the consultant needs to research and implement strategies that will increase traffic and improve rankings in the search engine.

There are three core areas involved in SEO that a consultant should incorporate into their strategies:

1. Technical SEO: The architecture of a website determines how easy it is for a search engine (or user) to crawl and index a website’s content.
2. On-Page SEO: Ensures that the keywords, metadata and tags are optimised correctly and that original, targeted and valuable SEO content is published.
3. Off-Page SEO: Generating good quality, relevant backlinks to the website.

As every website is different, the services required will vary, but SEO consulting can include the following services, depending on your business goals:

• SEO audit: Audits include a review of on-page optimisation, off-page optimisation, HTML, backlinks, site architecture, content and so on.
• Keyword research: To create a plan for increasing search engine rankings and generating more traffic, SEO consultants conduct detailed keyword research.
• Competitor analysis: By understanding what your online competitors are doing, what’s working for them and what’s not, SEO consultants can reverse engineer your website to rank better.
• Backlink audit: SEO consultants analyse your backlink profile to ensure that it is healthy. Then they can create a plan for improving and adding to your existing links.
• Website (re)design and development: SEO consultants will provide design feedback, CRO recommendations, review your site architecture, assess your content and provide on-page optimisation.

When you’re considering hiring an SEO expert in London, consider these five questions:

• Years of experience: How long has the expert been working in SEO?
• An understanding of all three SEO types: Does the SEO expert understand on-page SEO, off-page SEO and technical SEO?
• Proven track record: Can the expert prove how they have helped other companies? Are the companies in similar niches?
• Knowledge of other marketing areas: Does the expert understand CRO, UX, content creation and many other digital marketing specialisms?
• Excellent communication: Can they communicate well with your team?

With the rise in tools and apps to help with SEO, it’s understandable that you might question whether you can do the work yourself.

In our experience, there are some core benefits to hiring an outsourced SEO expert:

• Hiring an expert saves you time and money: SEO experts have tested and proven their techniques many times, which should mean that implementation on your site is far quicker and avoids costly mistakes.
• Hiring an expert means you benefit from their knowledge: SEO is constantly changing and it’s an SEO expert’s job to stay up to date with the algorithm changes.
• Hiring an expert improves ROI: When you hire an expert to help you meet measurable SEO goals, you’ll boost your brand awareness and improve your ROI.
• Hiring an expert means your data is analysed professionally: An SEO expert in London can read and analyse the data in the reports and extrapolate actionable business intelligence.

The short answer is, it depends. The exact scope of your business requirements, the deliverables, the time frame and skills will affect the actual price you pay.

To give you a ballpark figure, typical hourly rates can range from £50 to £150 in the UK. Bubblegum SEO charges an hourly rate of £100 for SEO consulting either by email, phone or video call.

With so many SEO agencies and consultants available, it’s hard to know how to choose the right one.

We believe that there are four key areas to consider before taking the plunge.

• Strategy: An agency should take time to understand your existing position and your business goals. If their proposed strategy doesn’t align with your goals, values or budget, then they aren’t a good fit.
• Results: Beware of agencies that promise guarantees of overnight SEO success. Instead, ask for case studies, testimonials and reports from past clients.
• Costs: Price is likely to be one of your largest considerations, but be sure to take into account that it’s normal for most SEO agencies to ask for a 6- to 12-month commitment. However, Bubblegum Search offer monthly rolling contracts.
• Communication: Throughout the hiring process, you should get an idea of the quality of communication from an agency or consultant. Trust your gut feeling and definitely don’t underestimate the importance of first impressions.

As well as considering the four core areas, we also recommend asking 11 key questions in your interview process.

Once you’ve decided to hire an SEO consultant in London, we recommend taking the following steps to make the hire:

• Step one: Arrange a consultation call to discuss your needs and business goals.
• Step two: If you get a good feel from the consultant, the next step is to ask them to conduct an initial SEO audit and/or submit a proposal.
• Step three: Consider whether the proposal meets your business goals and offers a good return on investment.
• Step four: If you decide to move ahead, the next step will be to hire the agency or consultant by signing their terms and conditions.

Local SEO is very important, particularly if your business has a physical location or provides a local service.

Studies show that 95% of smartphone users have used their device to perform local searches, out of which 61% called the business and 59% visited.

Location-based searches are a great way for potential customers to find you, and with the rise of smartphone usage, these figures are likely to continue growing.

What’s more, these calls or leads tend to be from people who are outwardly searching for services like yours, so it’s safe to assume that these are qualified, high-intent leads with a higher conversion rate.