How to start consulting?
-
I’ve been in the SEO game now for about a year with Market Motive Practitioner training/certification. I was the only in-house SEO person at my very small company. I fully admit I still have a lot to learn and having the Moz community helps because I have no one else to collaborate with. Still, I would like to start offering some simple services like local seo, blogging or creating content. Do you think these are good services to start consulting with? I admit the tech part is still a challenge to me.
-
I received great answers to my question but Donna's seems to hit home. I do find my self feeling that I'm lacking in "real-world" SEO experience. Luckily I love to learn and I guess its never to late to do that even at 51 yrs of age. I am passionate about this field so going to put in 100% commitment!
-
Hi Diana.
First, I agree with EGOL that you absolutely have to be able to show value.
Second, given where you're at on the learning curve and your own admission about being challenged by technical SEO, I think it might be premature for you to be thinking about branching out on your own.
If I were you, I'd be looking for a position in a highly regarded existing SEO company. Figure out what you're good at NOW, and offer up those services. Be open and honest about your desire to learn and to eventually branch off on your own. Also set a realistic time frame during which you'll dedicate yourself to your new company and give them your all. Hunker down, do a good job, and learn as much as you can about technical SEO AS WELL AS how to run a small business. At the end of your allotted time frame, re-evaluate. You may be surprised at what you discover.
-
One of the finest thing I did when I plan to quite the job and start to offer services, I started to treat myself like an annoying client who have a less budget and expecting big! I started giving myself timelines for my own projects and targets that I have to achieve within that timeline.
Once I pass through that exam I start with a service that was easily scalable and was producing value to the overall picture.
My advice to you is to do the same, test your skills and talent, challenge yourself and once you pass your own exam, you probably will be ready to offer services to your clients. If you really care your client’s money and your reputation and wanted to play safe start with one service that adds value to the big picture and then let your clients suggest you to start full service consultation.
Just a thought!
-
Do you think these are good services to start consulting with?
Any service that can produce measurable positive value for your client is a good one to start consulting with.
The question is... Are your skills and expertise strong enough to produce value? Can you point to at least a few items of content that are at the top of the search engines for valuable queries or that have pulled in massive traffic that resulted in conversions? Have you taken small businesses from invisible on the web to the top of local search in a moderately competitive market?
Anybody can say... "I can do blogging". When it comes down to numbers most of those blog posts pull in less than a dozen visitors per month.
So, if you have numbers that would make a client smile and deliver them at a price that works for you then you are ready to offer the service.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
3 Main Local Ranking Factors
In the Moz article titled Should You Pay for Local Listings Management? by Miriam Ellis, she makes this statement: "Prominence, proximity, and distance are the three types of factors Google tells us it takes into account when ranking local businesses. " I always thought that classic on- and off-page SEO was one of those three factors. What puzzles me about Miriam's statement is this: What's the difference between distance and proximity? Aren't they the same thing?
Local Listings | | btreloar3 -
Hi all, we recently started to claim Apple Maps listings on behalf of our agency's clients, is it possible to transfer ownership of an Apple Maps listing from one Apple ID account to another Apple ID account?
We'd like to claim and complete our clients' Apple Maps listings with our agency Apple ID, then once we're finished completing and verifying each listing, transfer to the client's Apple ID. Is it possible to transfer ownership of an Apple Maps listing from one Apple ID to another? Thanks
Local Listings | | NOUS-Australia0 -
Google map pack confusion
Hi there!
Local Listings | | RobWilson
My name's Rob and I'm the owner of Nimble Nerds in Sydney, Australia. We provide on-site visits to customers at their locations to provide IT Support. I would love some insight on my confusion please, as I can't get my head around it after months. I've made individual pages targetting individual suburbs, eg 'computer repairs putney'. I noticed that only suburbs without individual tailored pages were showing in google map pack. So to test it I deleted my Putney page so it would re-index to the home page. Not only did this not result in appearing in that suburb on Map pack I also lost my SERP ranking as well. Is it still good to make individual pages for suburbs please?
Is this going to negatively affect my map pack rankings in suburbs where they're pointing to the homepage?
Does map pack only point to homepages? Confused! Ahah0 -
Google My Business search results for multiple listings
I am wondering how people set up their Google My Business listings to appear in the search results similar to this business, Hulme Orthodontics. I attached an image below that'll give more details. I am working with a client that has two locations similar in distance to Hulme Orthodontics, and I have tried everything and have come up with no answers as to how I can properly get Google to format the search results in this way. I assume that there is no actual way to manage this and that Google decides this on their own. However, if anyone has any insight regarding this manner, that would be much appreciated! Thank you for your help! UsEr3rK
Local Listings | | DylMar1 -
Not Showing Up in Local Pack - Possible Possum Filter?
We have a medical practice client who isn't showing up at all on local category searches for their zip code. Wondering whether it's a Possum algorithm filter, and if so, how we can resolve this. The client is named Wall Street Dermatology, and is located in the same building as two other medical practices in the same dermatologist specialty. They share the same address (65 Broadway, New York, NY), but have different unit numbers. My client is Suite 904. To be clear, these are entirely separate businesses that are not affiliated with each other. They happen to be located in the same building. When running local searches (for example, in US zip code 10004) for the category term "dermatologist", my client is not appearing at all. The two other practices are appearing just fine. In fact, one of the competing practices has not only their practice listed, but one of their doctors individually and even one of the physician assistants. My client, Wall Street Dermatology, isn't showing up. IMO, the GMB profile is robust, with more reviews than competitors, and more content overall. While there's SEO work to be done, the citations and link profile exceeds some of the other practices who are showing up in "dermatologist" (use zip code 10004) searches. Google is showing profiles of dermatologists who haven't even claimed their profiles or have websites.One more thing: For a two-week span, the business was showing up in the 3-pack for "dermatologist" after making upgrades to the GMB profile. This was a first. So they've been there before. However, they made some changes to NAP. 1) added the providers name to the business name: "Business Name: Provider Name". 2) Updated "Suite" to "Ste" in order to match USPS. After that change, the business fell off entirely again.Note: We do appear on searches for the business name. And we do appear for some secondary keywords (for example, "Cosmetic Dermatology"), but not for the main keyword. Is this related to Possum (https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-possum)? Is Google confused that my client is related to the other practices in the same building? Any suggestions?
Local Listings | | sponnu01230 -
Local Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries Disappearing from Google Maps when Plurals used.
This is the second time I have posted this question and never got a satisfactory result. I have an SEO client in Tacoma Wa and when you type (Dispensaries Near Tacoma they are in the Top 3 snack pack and the Google maps shows 20 other similar businesses. However, when you search (Dispensary Near Tacoma) only 3 or 5 recreational marijuana shops show up and my client disappears. Someone earlier suggested it could be because of the categories selection, but that can't affect ALL the other shops and like I said it happens in other cities. for example Dispensary Near Olympia vs Dispensaries Near Olympia. I have the full write up and pictures and diagrams on my blog. Please HELP! This could affect your future clients also. https://isenselogic.com/local-business-disappearing-on-google-maps-when-plurals-used/
Local Listings | | isenselogic0 -
Website won't rank in home country (but does in others).
I have a bit of an odd scenario for you. I'm working with a content marketing company based in Sydney, AU**.** Oddly, this web property ranks for almost 4x as many keywordsin the US than the AU. (See attached). It also ranks much more favorably for target keywords in NZ. This is despite having an AU ccTLD, proper geolocation targeting in GSC, and Google My Business and other NAP citations pointing towards an AU address. To add to this geo-targeting issue, the site has absolutely bombed in search visibility over the past year. We are talking more than halving our search exposure. **What's been done: ** Sitemap created and submitted. All versions of GSC created and verified. New site structure for top level landing pages. Redirects okay. Internal link structure okay. Robots.txt and other indexing issues fine. Google My Business fixed (Incorrect NAP previously). No duped content. No known penalties Site crawl - no major issues. html lang changed from "en-US" to "en-AU". Reduced load speed by over 100%. Fixed an issue with Yoast creating duped pages for media files (same title tags on orphaned pages). Currently auditing and working through citations. Removed .js banner causing indexing issues. Removed a sitewide footer link from an external site, sending 20k inbound links w/same anchor. http --> https redirects okay. Title tags structured properly, and targeting well-researched KWs. **Despite these necessary corrections, I haven't seen a blip of life. ** TL;DR, Poor visibility in general, especially over the past year. More favorable rankings in foreign search (not AU). Stumped! H8i2D9u AGBvD3q eM4nwTV
Local Listings | | Jeff_Baker1 -
Had a local SEO client completely drop off in all rankings...?
Hey everyone! I wanted to ask the Moz community on what I should be on the lookout for in this situation; I have a local SEO client, an orthopedic clinic, who out of nowhere completely dropped off the map. Their Search Visibility is now at .001%. I really have no idea what would have caused this... I have dozens of other local SEO clients and have never seen this before.
Local Listings | | TaylorRHawkins2