3 Reasons Why You Should NEVER Hire an SEO Consultant In 2023

By Alex Faraway Last updated Feb 26, 2023

ranking-your-website-blog-high-on-google

Reading Time: 10 mins

Are you considering hiring an SEO consultant to help improve your website’s search engine rankings? Think again. While it may seem like a good idea at first, the truth is that hiring an SEO consultant could end up costing you more time, money, and headache than it’s worth. I will show you how you can do it for free.

Here are a few reasons you should do it yourself and never hire an SEO consultant. It is pretty easy to do it when you understand what it is and how it works and you will always have 100% control over the SEO on your website.

In short:

Hiring an SEO consultant can be a bad idea for your business due to several reasons. It can be expensive, and there is no guarantee that the consultant will deliver the desired results. Additionally, there is a risk of damaging your website’s reputation if the consultant uses questionable or unethical SEO tactics. Finally, relying solely on an external consultant may prevent you from developing in-house expertise and an understanding of SEO best practices.

Table of Contents:

1. They Can’t Guarantee the Results

SEO consultants often promise to quickly get your website to the top of Google’s search results (or any other search engines). However, the reality is that there are no guarantees when it comes to search engine optimization. Google’s algorithms constantly change; what works one day may not work the next.

As a result, many SEO consultants use black hat tactics that can give excellent results fast BUT hurt your website’s rankings in the long run. You will be happy and pay for the work done but then everything will crash and the SEO consultant is gone. And even if they initially get your website to rank higher, those results may not last. You NEED to understand the basics of SEO to really know what is going on.

What are Black hat SEO tactics?

Black hat SEO tactics are strategies used to manipulate search engine algorithms to gain a higher ranking for a website.

These tactics may include:

keyword stuffing
cloaking
link buying and selling
hidden text
doorway pages
and other manipulative techniques

These techniques often work temporarily but can have damaging long-term effects. For example, Google actively works to detect and penalize websites that use black hat SEO tactics. Penalties include the manual or algorithmic downgrading of a website’s rankings, removal from the index altogether, or even suspending the website’s associated accounts.

Although SEO consultants may initially get a website to rank higher using these techniques, they often fail to recognize the potential long-term consequences. As such, it is essential to avoid SEO consultants who use black hat SEO tactics and instead do it yourself or focus on SEO professionals who prioritize high-quality content and ethical SEO practices.

2. They’re Expensive

SEO consultants can charge thousands of dollars per month for their services. And while they may promise significant returns on your investment, there’s no way to know whether those returns will materialize.

Many businesses spend far more money on SEO consultants and agencies than they ever see in return. And when you factor in the cost of fixing any damage caused by black hat tactics or other mistakes made by the consultant, it becomes clear that hiring an SEO consultant is often a waste of money.

The best way to determine if SEO is worth it for your website is to track the results of SEO efforts. Numerous tools can help you track the progress of SEO, such as Google Analytics and Search Console (learn about these tools on Skillshare). These tools can provide comprehensive information about how users interact with your website and make it easier to identify what SEO tactics are or aren’t working so you can stop wasting money on SEO consultants.

Organic search versus paid search

It would be best to consider tracking organic search traffic performance versus paid search traffic. This can help you assess which SEO tactics provide the most value, allowing you to determine whether SEO is worth it or maybe you should do the basic SEO and invest the rest of the money on paid search instead. Additionally, tracking keyword rankings over time can help you identify trends in user behavior and make adjustments accordingly (later about it).

It’s important to note, however, that SEO isn’t a one-time investment; SEO requires ongoing effort and maintenance to yield long-term success. Therefore, it’s essential to regularly monitor SEO campaigns and adjust strategies as necessary in order to keep up with changing trends. Doing so will ensure that SEO remains effective and is worth the investment.

Hiring an SEO consultant to monitor results and apply changes will cost a lot, but if you learn SEO yourself, you can save thousands of dollars monthly.

3. You Can Do It Yourself

The truth is that most businesses can handle their own basic SEO needs without the help of a consultant. The initial work only takes 10-20 hours. You can improve your website’s search engine rankings without spending a dime on outside help by using free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console and following best practices for on-page optimization and content creation.

And if you need more advanced help with things like link building or technical SEO issues, plenty of affordable resources available online can teach you how to do it yourself.

So how to do it FOR FREE?

You can do SEO by yourself and pay 0$. All you need is to invest 10-20 hours in understanding the basics and doing SEO on your website.

Basics can be learned from various sources, including YouTube videos and courses offered by professionals on Skillshare and usually only takes around 30 minutes to understand the basics.

For those looking for SEO tutorials on YouTube, plenty of informative videos are available. These videos can be great resources for understanding the fundamentals of SEO and provide an introduction to more advanced topics. Search for “SEO basics” and you will find a lot.

For more comprehensive SEO knowledge, Skillshare offers online courses with experts such as SEO Masterclass: “Beginners Guide to SEO” or “Step-By-Step Guide To SEO“. These courses cover SEO topics such as keyword research, content optimization techniques, and link-building strategies. They also include tips and advice from SEO industry professionals to help learners develop their SEO skills. While Youtube is free, Skillshare has a monthly subscription of around 13.99$, which is much cheaper than hiring an SEO consultant and paying 1000$. You can also subscribe for a 10-day trial for 0$ and then cancel it after you have learned all you need about SEO.

3.1 Keyword research

Everything starts with keyword research. It is an integral part of SEO and can be essential for helping to improve search engine rankings. Keyword research helps identify the terms and phrases users search for, allowing them to create content that matches their customers’ needs.

Keyword research tools allow us to see how many people are searching for the term on Google they enter, how competitive the term is (i.e., how many other websites are targeting that keyword), and related terms that could be used to expand their reach instead.

You should also note any long tail keywords—targeted phrases with three or more words—as these can help reach particular audiences who might be further along in the buyer’s journey and closer to making a purchase decision.

When conducting keyword research, it’s important to remember that SEO isn’t just about driving traffic – it’s about driving quality traffic with high conversion rates. To do this, you must ensure you focus on relevant keywords with low competition so they can maximize returns on investment while minimizing risks associated with spending resources on keywords that may not net any returns at all.

You don’t want to spend a lot of time optimizing for something with 1000 searches/month and extremely HIGH competition when you can find something with 100 searches and LOW competition. You can use Mangools to do it. Just subscribe for a 10-day trial but cancel it when you finish the research. It is also an excellent tool to build a good SEO on your website so maybe you want to keep the subscription.

Let’s say you offer office desk rental and you want to find a good keyword to optimize for. You may use the “office desk” as a keyword and hope for the best but here is how it looks like:

As you can see, the competition for “office desk” is very high. In contrast “office furniture rental” is much lower in the green area, which means you can easily reach good SEO results so your website can rank on the first page on Google (in red, you will most likely never reach the first page on Google) unless you start learning advanced SEO tactics and invest in expensive tools like SemRush.

When researching keywords, you should focus on intent-based keywords, which indicate what a user wants or needs. For example, someone searching for “Italian restaurants in Los Angeles” has a specific goal, whereas someone searching for “restaurants in L.A.” may have a more general inquiry. Intent-based keywords, as these types of queries, tend to yield higher conversions and better ROI than generic terms.

3.2 On-page SEO

The second step in SEO is ensuring that your website is correctly optimized for search engine crawlers. This includes providing each page title tags and meta descriptions are keyword-rich and relevant to the content and creating a hierarchy of headings (H1s, H2s, etc.) that guides search engine crawlers through the page’s content.

You should also make sure that all images have alt text related to keywords and captions associated with them to help improve their SEO ranking. Additionally, ensuring that all pages on your website have unique titles and URLs is essential, as this can help search engines crawl them more easily.

Content creation is also crucial for SEO success. Your website should include high-quality content that is informative and engaging for users. This will not only help attract visitors organically but will also increase your website’s SEO ranking over time by showing Google that you are an authoritative source on a particular topic or subject.

Several free plugins for WordPress will help you to do the on-page SEO:

SEO tools usually have a friendly interface and guide you exactly on what to do:

A free version of RankMath offers many futures available only in the premium version of other plugins. I also consider that you use WordPress because it is the most popular tool but of course, you may use a different CMS. For WordPress, I would recommend a good hosting like BlueHost.

In SEO you need to optimize every critical page on your website. You may also want to optimize category and product pages if you have an online store. Writing content is time-consuming so maybe you want some help from Jasper AI but it is not for free, unfortunately, but yet much cheaper than a copywriter. Use that link and you will get 10 000 words for free.

Advanced: Try using year in your titles like “best hotels in XXX in 2023” or try always adding location for example, “office furniture rental in XXX“. People often search for fresh information for this year or businesses around them.

3.3 Off-page SEO

Off-page is a link building which is another essential SEO tactic. Doing so involves getting other websites to link back to yours to show Google that other sources find your site relevant and trustworthy. You can use third-party directories such as Yelp or Angie’s List to create backlinks or high-quality content that other websites may want to link to you naturally or ask them to link to you.

Let’s say you offer office furniture rental then maybe you can contact some businesses that offer delivery of fruits to the offices or coffee machines. Their audience is very relevant to you but you are not competitors.

3.4 Tracking

Once SEO you have optimized your website for search engines, the next step is to track keyword rankings. You want to see how it is going for your keywords. You can use Mangools for it or a Serprobot (free). These tools allow seeing how well your website performs based on the keywords you target.

One of the most important metrics you should track is the average position of your website in SERPs (search engine results pages). Tracking SERP rankings allows understanding how well you are ranking for specific keywords and determining which keywords they should focus more attention on.

Advanced: Another metric you should pay attention to is click-through rate (CTR), which measures the percentage of people who click through a link when it appears on a search results page. This metric helps determine if your SERP listing is attractive enough to attract users. You should also pay attention to bounce rates – this metric measures how long visitors stay on a page after clicking through from a SERP listing before leaving without action.

SEO tracking can provide valuable insights into what keywords are driving traffic and revenue, as well as areas where improvements need to be made for businesses to maximize their ROI from SEO efforts. It also enables SEOs to experiment with different strategies and tactics to build an effective and sustainable SEO strategy that will continue yielding results in the future.

3.5 Maintenance

Finally, SEO requires regular maintenance to stay effective long-term. You should frequently monitor which keywords your website ranks for, assess what users are searching for related to those keywords, and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly if needed. Doing so will ensure you get the most out of SEO efforts in terms of both organic traffic and higher rankings on SERPs (search engine result pages).

Conclusion

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for any website to rank higher on search engines. However, hiring an SEO consultant may not always be the best idea. Here are some reasons why you should never hire an SEO consultant:

They may use unethical practices: Some SEO consultants use black hat techniques to improve your website’s ranking, which can lead to penalties from search engines.
They may not have updated knowledge: Search engine algorithms change frequently, and if your SEO consultant is not up-to-date with the latest trends, it can harm your website’s ranking.
They may not understand your business: Every business has a unique target audience and objectives, and an SEO consultant who does not understand your business cannot create effective strategies.
They may charge exorbitant fees: Many SEO consultants charge high prices without delivering significant results, which can strain your budget.
You can do it yourself: With the right resources and knowledge, you can learn and implement basic SEO techniques instead of relying on an expensive consultant.

While SEO is essential for online success, hiring an SEO consultant may not always be the best option due to various factors like unethical practices, lack of updated knowledge, inability to understand your business objectives and to charge exorbitant fees. Instead of outsourcing this task entirely, consider learning basic techniques or working with a reputable agency that understands your business needs.

In short, hiring an SEO consultant is rarely worth the time or money invested. Instead of relying on someone else to handle your website’s optimization needs, take matters into your own hands and learn how to do it yourself and save $$$. Your wallet (and your website) will thank you in the long run.

FAQ

What is an SEO consultant?

An SEO consultant advises and guides businesses on optimizing their website for search engines like Google.

Why do businesses do mistake to hire SEO consultants?

Businesses hire SEO consultants because they lack the knowledge to improve their online presence and attract more customers.

How much does it cost to hire an SEO consultant?

The cost of hiring an SEO consultant can vary depending on the consultant’s or agency’s experience and reputation. It can be expensive, especially when working with a reputable expert.

Why it is not worth the investment to hire an SEO consultant?

It depends on your business goals and budget. While there are benefits to working with an experienced SEO consultant, it’s essential to weigh the costs and risks before deciding which usually shows to be very high and often not worth the ROI.

Can I trust that an SEO consultant will deliver results?

Some SEO consultants may promise results that are unrealistic or impossible to achieve. It can be difficult to know whether you’re getting your money’s worth if you don’t understand the strategies used. That is why you should always learn the SEO basics.

What are some risks associated with hiring an SEO consultant?

Risks include high costs, lack of transparency, risk of penalties if black hat tactics are used, and potential harm to your business in the long run.

Can't I just learn about SEO myself instead of hiring a consultant?

Absolutely! You really should. Many online courses, tutorials, and articles can teach you SEO basics in 30 min.