successful seo consulting for @hubspot #agencyexpertseries webinar

#SuccessfulSEO by @aleyda from @orainti for #agencyexpertseries

Successful SEO Consulting



I’m Aleyda Solis


+10 Years of SEO experience in the agency side, in-house specialist and as an independent consultant


I own a boutique SEO consultancy called Orainti


Helping brands that you likely know


Achieving organic search visibility increase


Driving scalable organic search growth


That ultimately achieves a positive ROI


As well as happy clients


How can you do the same and develop a successful SEO consulting business?



Start by establish your USP in SEO: Why they should hire you specifically and not another agency or consultant?



Start by establish your USP in SEO: Why they should hire you specifically and not another agency or consultant?


๏ Trust: Ethical principles as a consultant, that will not put in risk your clients business and will keep complete transparency in the actions to be implemented.

๏ Convenience: Offering all digital marketing or SEO capabilities?

๏ Specialization: Offering specific SEO services and in-depth knowledge and experience?


Verify that there’s a fit with the type of

client and project before pitching,

accepting or signing a new deal



Verify that there’s a fit with the type of

client and project before pitching,

accepting or signing a new deal


๏ Size of business: Do you target a high volume of small clients or low volume of big clients?

๏ Type of business: Do you target B2B or B2C clients?

๏ Type of industry: Do you specialise on businesses of certain industries?

๏ Type of projects: Do you specialise on projects that cover certain SEO activities or specific markets?


Set the right expectations early on about the SEO process times, resources and flexibility required to make things happen



Set the right expectations early on about the SEO process times, resources and flexibility required to make things happen


๏ Access to internal data in order to have required information to advise

๏ Minimum expected time to see improvements *after* recommendations are executed

๏ Flexibility & resources required by the client to implement recommendations

๏ Involvement from the client teams to execute and align efforts


Have someone from the client side to be

the “SEO champion/owner” who should

be your main contact point and

should help to coordinate and get

things done



Have someone from the client side to be

the “SEO champion/owner” who should

be your main contact point and

should help to coordinate and get

things done


๏ An internal SEO project manager who should have necessary capacity “approve” actions and goals

๏ Someone who can internally communicate and coordinate to make things happen across different areas


Ask (and validate yourself) about any previous SEO activities or changes that could influence the current site rankings and can also serve as an input for the process


#SuccessfulSEO by @aleyda from @orainti for #agencyexpertseries#SuccessfulSEO by @aleyda from @orainti for #agencyexpertseries

๏ Check what worked well and what didn’t in the past

๏ Verify if the site has suffered from penalisations

๏ Obtain information about former structural Web changes as migrations or redesigns

๏ See if the business has other Web properties in production or for test purposes

Ask (and validate yourself) about any previous SEO activities or changes that could influence the current site rankings and can also serve as an input for the process


Start with a complete audit &

research to understand the

business & site status & context in the

industry, as well as situation and USP vs

competitors#SuccessfulSEO by @aleyda from @orainti for #agencyexpertseries


๏ Even if you’re focusing on a specific side of SEO is critical to have as much understanding as possible of the context to identify opportunities and establish an effective strategy

๏ A technical, content, link popularity analysis, audience search behaviour vs. competitors should be required to start

Start with a complete audit &

research to understand the

business & site status & context in the

industry, as well as situation and USP vs

competitors


Always develop your own keyword research, to validate the audience behaviour yourself, even if the client already provide their own data, to identify opportunities



๏ Take client “off-line” market knowledge into consideration

๏ Use former SEO process or PPC campaigns keyword and competition research as an input

๏ Always validate yourself by developing your own keyword and competition research as these can easily change over time

๏ Don’t use only a single data source, verify with as many sources as it is viable

Always develop your own keyword research, to validate the audience behaviour yourself, even if the client already provide their own data, to identify opportunities


Replicate the audit and

research to be “mobile

targeted” in order to validate for the upcoming

mobile first Google index



Replicate the audit and

research to be “mobile

targeted” in order to validate for the upcoming

mobile first Google index


๏ Use the “smartphone” crawler when doing the technical audit and “mobile” segmentation for keyword and content research

๏ Identify potential gaps between the desktop and mobile optimisation status that should be closed before the release of Google’s mobile first index


Prioritize your topics/terms/keywords targets not only based on volume, relevance, competition and seasonality but also their potential profitability towards the business



Prioritize your topics/terms/keywords targets not only based on volume, relevance, competition and seasonality but also their potential profitability towards the business


๏ Check with client to align the keyword research outcome based on business criteria: if there are categories or types of services or products that they want to prioritise due to profitability, a new release or competition reasons

๏ The final selection should be balanced to cover both low-hanging fruit as well as highly beneficial but more competitive topics


Establish relevant & reasonable kpis

as well as goals along your client based on what’s

feasible to implement and the

desired ultimate business outcome



๏ For the KPIs: Which are the different aspects, areas and activities that you will be working on for which you can easily obtain reliable “success indicators”?

๏ For the Goals: What’s the final outcome that the client is looking to achieve from a business perspective?

Establish relevant & reasonable kpis

as well as goals along your client based on what’s

feasible to implement and the

desired ultimate business outcome


Develop actionable SEO recommendations based on the audit findings, specifying the required technical, content or promotional resources to implement them



๏ For every identified issue in the SEO audit an actionable recommendation should be made to implement the solution

๏ Every recommendation should specified if it’s going to require technical, content or promotional support from the client, in order to coordinate well its execution

Develop actionable SEO recommendations based on the audit findings, specifying the required technical, content or promotional resources to implement them


Take screenshots to every SEO issue

identified to document them,

and provide examples of every relevant scenario,

as well as all the identified instances

to be fixed



๏ Taking and including screenshots of the identified issues in the SEO recommendations is critical so is easier to fix them as well as to document them in case there are doubts in the future about their previous status

๏ Do the same every time you validate an implementation

Take screenshots to every SEO issue

identified to document them,

and provide examples of every relevant scenario,

as well as all the identified instances

to be fixed


Prioritize SEO recommendations based on the identified issues and opportunities taking into consideration their potential impact to achieve the desired goals



๏ Assign a priority to each recommendation based on how critical it is to achieve the desired goals

๏ Priorities should be updated when recommendations are shared with the client based on the effort required to implement them

๏ Highest impact, easier to implement actions should then be first

Prioritize SEO recommendations based on the identified issues and opportunities taking into consideration their potential impact to achieve the desired goals


Agree on a clear and “agile”

implementation roadmap, with

specific deadlines to launch the established

activities that you should follow-up

with the client



๏ Development and launch times should be agreed along the client for each recommended action, following the agreed priority.

๏ Follow an “agile” approach to launch fast with an “iterative/incremental” thinking.

๏ All the required stakeholders involved in the process should agree and approve the established roadmap.

Agree on a clear and “agile”

implementation roadmap, with

specific deadlines to launch the established

activities that you should follow-up

with the client


Get early involvement from all the relevant stakeholders who should also include SEO goals as part of their own areas ones



Get early involvement from all the relevant stakeholders who should also include SEO goals as part of their own areas ones


๏ The different areas involved in the SEO related implementations should also make them part of their goals, in order to obtain their actual attention and care

๏ Each stakeholder involved in each task should attend the calls & meetings around them, and understand the desired final outcome as well as the reason behind


Keep an on-going & transparent

communication with the client about your

work status with frequent calls to

“touch base” and clarify any doubts

during the implementation

process#SuccessfulSEO by @aleyda from @orainti for #agencyexpertseries


๏ A fluid communication is critical to make sure that you clarified any doubts that the client might have and recommendations are implemented as expected instead of finding issues at the end.

๏ It’s also important that the client knows the status of the tasks that you are in charge of execute to effectively align each other and keep updated.

Keep an on-going & transparent

communication with the client about your

work status with frequent calls to

“touch base” and clarify any doubts

during the implementation

process


Document all the the findings, deliverables and communication with the client in a project management system that will also facilitate the process coordination



๏ Use a project management system for every interaction with the client so is easier to share after with other team members if necessary or follow-up.

๏ From Basecamp to Jira, use a system that better fit to the SEO process characteristic.

Document all the the findings, deliverables and communication with the client in a project management system that will also facilitate the process coordination


Always validate yourself the

implementations before and after

they are launched to make sure they have

been executed as specified



Always validate yourself the

implementations before and after

they are launched to make sure they have

been executed as specified


๏ Enable a “test” environment that replicates the one in production to validate and approve directly every implementation before it is released.

๏ Always check yourself again after each implementation is executed to check it has been effectively taken to production.


Report about the KPIs, goals and activities status every month, suggesting improvements based on the current situation



Report about the KPIs, goals and activities status every month, suggesting improvements based on the current situation


๏ Share monthly reports during “formal” clients follow-ups showing the advancement from an implementation perspective and their impact in the KPIs and goals.

๏ Make the reports actionable, so you recommend on actions to take additionally or change based on the results achieved until then.


SEO is an iterative/incremental

process: if you identify that

something is not working, be flexible

to pivot or change and viceversa, if

something works better, to focus or

expand #SuccessfulSEO by @aleyda from @orainti for #agencyexpertseries


๏ Re-Prioritize the process recommendations & connected actions based on the identified results if you see that something is not working as expected or working better than what you planned.

๏ Re-align and agree with all the stakeholders so they are aware of the changes and the reasons behind.

SEO is an iterative/incremental

process: if you identify that

something is not working, be flexible

to pivot or change and viceversa, if

something works better, to focus or

expand


Parallel to your client work, keep updated by following up with Google updates, SEO related news and findings from industry publications and twitter


Parallel to your client work, keep updated by following up with Google updates, SEO related news and findings from industry publications and twitter


๏ Due to the continuous changing nature of SEO is critical to keep updated.

๏ Follow main industry publications like SEL, SEJ, SERoundtable, as more reliable sources.

๏ Twitter offers a great way to keep updated as well as interact and promote your own content and findings.

๏ Take with a “grain of salt” what you read, double verify with more and reliable sources, your own tests and “common sense”.


Drive tests with your own sites to

validate hypothesis on what is working

applied to the different scenarios you have with your

clients



Drive tests with your own sites to

validate hypothesis on what is working

applied to the different scenarios you have with your

clients


๏ It’s critical that you double verify yourself what you “read” from others, even reliable sources.

๏ Remember that there are usually many ways to implement and achieve the same results and they might change based on each site context.

๏ Develop your own tests with a purpose, to validate the viability to achieve results in other ways that are feasible to implement.


Share about your experiences in your own blog, as well as third-party platforms that can drive you more visibility as LinkedIn or industry blogs to develop your authority



๏ Sharing about your own experiences is one of the best ways to receive feedback, additional ideas or confirm your findings.

๏ Publishing will also bring your business visibility and authority, as well as could be a potential client driver or get you invite to share in events.

๏ Use third-party platforms along your own blog in order to reach a wider audience, especially at the beginning.

Share about your experiences in your own blog, as well as third-party platforms that can drive you more visibility as LinkedIn or industry blogs to develop your authority


Go to digital marketing events to network with other SEOs, stay updated

and if possible share by speaking

about your experiences with

the community



Go to digital marketing events to network with other SEOs, stay updated

and if possible share by speaking

about your experiences with

the community


๏ Learn and ask directly to industry leaders that you might not have access to otherwise.

๏ Expand your network, exchange ideas, learn and even identify business opportunities or bring new leads in a more “personal” setting with people who you might not have known otherwise or only seen online… make friends.

๏ Meet clients or partners in a different and funner environment.


You can also go to other industries conferences to network, inspiration, share about your SEO knowledge and get potential leads



You can also go to other industries conferences to network, inspiration, share about your SEO knowledge and get potential leads


๏ Great to get out of the “echo chamber” and bring new ideas to your SEO activities.

๏ They are better settings to get leads from, as you will be interacting with a non-SEO audience and community, that could become potential clients.


When you achieve the expected results,

ask for clients testimonials or

success stories that you can publish in

your site, proposals and share with

potential clients to establish trust



When you achieve the expected results,

ask for clients testimonials or

success stories that you can publish in

your site, proposals and share with

potential clients to establish trust


๏ “it's not bragging if it's true”, ask permission to your clients to share about the SEO results you have helped to achieve (anonymizing sensible data) and/or get a testimonial from them.

๏ Your happy clients will also likely become a main source of leads with spontaneous referrals, let them know they will be appreciated.


Establish your USP

Verify Client & Project Fit

Set right client expectations

Have a client-side SEO Champion

Check for old SEO activities

Start with an audit & research

Develop your own KW research

Make your SEO mobile first

Use business criteria for KWs

Use business for KPIs & Goals

A recco for each found issue

Take screenshots to document

Prioritize SEO recommendations

Set agile schedule to execute

Share SEO goals & involvement

Keep an ongoing communication

Use PM system for coordination

Always validate implementations

Actionable results reports

Be flexible to change strategy

Keep updated with SEO news

Develop your own tests

Share & blog your experiences

Network by going to conferences

Go out of the SEO echo chamber

Ask for testimonials

Let’s wrap-up!


It’s time to grow your SEO Consulting



Thanks! Questions?


successful seo consulting for @hubspot #agencyexpertseries webinar

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