Two different SEO consultants might specialize in different things. For example, Blake Mitchell, a SEO Consultant based in Toronto, can guarantee results using Ahrefs, SEMRush, and PageOptimize Pro whereas someone else might prefer to use the tools Moz or Majestic to help them out. Everyone follows a different method to gain different types of results so it’s important to look for a consultant that meets your needs. I always tell my clients that I do search engine optimization with them and not for them. This is an important conceptual distinction and an important area of disagreement between me and many of the SEO companies that exist throughout the San Francisco Bay area. Without being overly critical of the SEO industry, let me just point out that there are many unscrupulous companies that do little more than take the client;s money without providing monthly reporting or other metrics, and without doing much of anything to actually improve their rank on Google or Bing. That is not to say that every search engine optimisation company is actually dishonest, because of course that is not true. It is, however, an important problem in the SEO industry.
SEO Consulting Company vs. SEO Firm
In this blog post, let me explain some of the differences between the perspective of a San Francisco SEO consulting company and an SEO firm like this SEO company in Brisbane as an example. First and foremost, a consultant sees his or her role as working with his clients. He does not see it as taking over the project in its entirety from his client, nor does he see himself as an employee of the client company. Nor does he see himself as an independent operator providing a completely independent service to the client. Rather, a consultant sees himself as intertwined with the company he is working for. I think another good analogy here is the analogy of a coach. A coach does not win the basketball game for the team, but rather coaches the team to its own victory. Does the team need the coach? Of course! Does the coach need the team? Of course! They are both necessary but distinct roles.
An SEO Firm: What does it Do?
An SEO firm, in contrast, often sees its role as doing the search engine optimization project independent from the company. This was doable in an earlier era of technical SEO, but as Google has tightened the screws through the various updates such as Penguin and panda and as content marketing has become more and more important, it is more and more difficult for an SEO company to do the project FOR you. To write good content means that you have to know something about the subject matter, and generally speaking, only the client company really knows the subject matter, for example there are websites like https://www.seo-semantic-xhtml.com/5-lawyer-seo-strategies-for-bringing-more-clients-to-your-law-practice/ that help businesses become more visible when potential clients search. However, to write SEO-friendly content means that you have to know some of the basics of search engine optimization. You can see where this is going: it is a better model to work with each other than to work independently.
The client needs the SEO consultant and the SEO consultant needs the client. It’s that simple, and that interconnected!
Technical SEO (the use of inbound links, computer-based tricks, etc.) is on its way out. It had its heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000’s, but Google has pretty much driven the final nail in its coffin. Yes you must know the technical aspects of search engine optimization. But that technical knowledge is not enough. Similarly, yes links are incredibly important! What external links are not enough, and you must have links from relevant websites that contain relevant content.
So, in sum, I always say that I do SEO with my clients, and not for them. That is an important distinction, and you have to get it right.
