You have the team
Writers and developers are on staff and have time on the calendar.
SEO Consulting
Point your team at the work that brings customers.
You have writers and developers. We tell them what to do first, check it before it ships, and show you what it earned.
What we measureSEO Consulting3/3
- Roadmap items shipped
- Faults resolved and verified
- Qualified organic leads or sales
Get your free SEO audit
No cost and no commitment.
The search problem
A capable team still needs to know what comes first.
An in-house team can write and build, and still spend a quarter on the wrong work. Advice arrives from tools, vendors and forums, all of it plausible and none of it ranked. The team needs someone to say what matters for this site, in what order, and how to tell whether it worked.
We work with the people who publish. We set the priorities together, review briefs, drafts and tickets as they move, and read the results against a baseline we agreed before anything changed.
In plain terms
What does an SEO consultant do?
An SEO consultant diagnoses why a site is not earning the search traffic it should, sets the order of work, and reviews that work as your own team carries it out. The consultant advises and checks, and your writers and developers publish. It suits companies that have the hands and want the judgment.
Google’s own guide to hiring an SEO offers a fair test for anyone you consider, us included. Ask for past work, ask how results will be measured, and expect every recommended change to come with an explanation you can follow. For the audit itself, read-only access to Search Console is enough. If you would prefer the work done for you, that is our full SEO service.
When consulting fits better than an agency
You lack the order
There is a long list of possible work and no agreement on what comes first.
A big decision is close
A migration, a new market or a new section of the site needs a second opinion before it is built.
Results are unclear
Work is shipping, and nobody can say whether it moved anything.
What we do in SEO consulting
We study search demand, the pages that bring visits today, the technical state of the site and how leads or sales are counted. You get a written diagnosis of what is holding the site back, with the evidence beside each point.
Findings become a roadmap in order, each item with its expected effect, what it depends on and who on your team owns it. The list is short on purpose, because a roadmap of ninety items is a way of deciding nothing.
As your team works, we review page briefs, drafts, tickets and technical choices before they ship. We also join the planning meeting where search work competes for time, and help make the case for it.
After each release we compare search and conversion numbers with the baseline and say plainly what worked, what did not and what we would change. Then the roadmap is ranked again.
Before you hire anyone
How to test an SEO consultant.
A good consultant makes your team more capable each month, and a poor one makes it more dependent. You can tell the two apart early, before a contract is signed, by what they ask for and what they promise.
Be wary of certainty. Google states that no one can guarantee a first-place ranking, and that it has no approved partners or special submission routes for search. Anyone who claims otherwise is selling something other than the work.
- 01Ask for a past recommendation, and what happened after it shipped.
- 02Ask what they will need from you. Read-only Search Console and analytics access should be enough for an audit.
- 03Ask how they will rank the findings. “By impact and effort” needs a method behind it.
- 04Ask them to explain one technical finding to a non-technical colleague in the room.
- 05Ask who owns the documents, the data and the accounts when the work ends. The answer should be you.
What you get
Work you can hold.
- A written diagnosis with evidence for each finding
- A ranked roadmap with owners and dependencies
- Reviews of briefs, drafts and tickets before they ship
- A results read after each release, against the baseline
- Working sessions with your team, recorded if you want them kept
The readout
How we know it worked.
We record a baseline before we change anything, then read search visibility beside the actions that pay the bills.
- Roadmap items shipped
- Faults resolved and verified
- Qualified organic leads or sales
Pricing
Your investment in being found
Three ways to invest in your business showing up when buyers search. Each package is billed monthly, month to month, and each one includes everything in the one before it.
Foundation
The work every site needs, done properly and kept up every month.
$1,000a month
Month to month
We recommend
Growth
Foundation, plus the pages, articles and links that reach more of your buyers.
$2,500a month
Month to month
Leadership
Growth, plus press outreach, more markets and reporting that follows each lead to revenue.
$5,000a month
Month to month
The price changes only when the scope does, such as a very large catalog, many locations or a move to a new platform, and we agree any change in writing before the work starts.
Questions
Before we start.
Can our own developers and writers do the implementation?
Yes, and that is the point of consulting. We handle the diagnosis, the roadmap, the briefs, review and measurement, and your team publishes. The scope names who makes each change, so nothing is assumed.
Should we hire an SEO consultant or an agency?
Hire a consultant when you have people to do the work and need direction. Hire an agency when you need the work done. Some companies start with consulting and add hands later for writing or development, and the plan carries over.
What access do you need?
Read-only access to Search Console and analytics, a crawl of the site, and an hour with the people who know the business. We do not need to change anything on the site to tell you what is wrong with it.
How long is a consulting engagement?
It can be a single audit and roadmap, or an ongoing arrangement with reviews each month. We agree the shape after a first look at the site. There are no long-term contracts either way.
Who owns the work when the engagement ends?
You do. The diagnosis, the roadmap, the briefs and any documents we write are yours, and every account stays in your name from the first day.
Keep exploring
Find the next useful page.
All SEO servicesExplore the full search program and its specialized services.SEO auditA one-time review of the site and what to fix first.Technical SEOThe crawl, index and speed layer in depth.Enterprise SEOStandards and sizing for a large organization.SEO Content WritingBriefs and pages your writers can build on.SEO Website MigrationsA second opinion before a redesign or a move.
Tell us about the team and what it is working on. We will tell you what we would look at first.
- How your buyers search for what you sell
- Who shows up above you today, and why
- Your website, as Google reads it
Prefer email? Write to hello@wearemachina.com
Prefer to talk? Call (831) 230-7787
What we measureSEO Consulting3/3
- Roadmap items shipped
- Faults resolved and verified
- Qualified organic leads or sales
Get your free SEO audit
No cost and no commitment.