If your website’s ROI (return on investment) isn’t what it should be, you may need SEO help. Even if the site’s bringing you plenty of new customers, including search engine optimization in your overall marketing strategy is a good idea. You might wonder what you can get from an SEO consultant that you can’t get from an agency, and in this guide, we’ll tell you more about the advantages of SEO consultancy vs. paying an agency.

When companies implement effective SEO strategies, they quickly gain an advantage over competitors who aren’t as focused on their rankings. An SEO consultant in Sydney will offer recommendations, suggestions, and strategies to help your company retain its competitive edge.

By partnering with a consultant instead of an agency, you’ll gain the technical experience and knowledge of team members that focus on how existing and future trends affect search engine rankings. Most companies don’t have the time or staff to devote to improving a website’s optimization while following best practices. With help from an SEO consultant, your team members can focus on their core competencies.

In many cases, companies don’t implement the SEO recommendations for which they’ve paid. SEO implementation isn’t just a ‘quick pass’ at optimizing site content and making it more friendly to the search engines; it’s a constant process of inserting search engine-friendly content, keeping it that way, promotion, and monitoring. When SEO recommendations aren’t implemented properly (or at all), your investment is wasted.

A consultant and their ongoing oversight gives you a fresh perspective, targeted expertise, and enough resources to accomplish even the most complicated tasks. When more than one person is responsible for site maintenance and creation, there’s more of a margin for error, but a consultant can provide quality controls that help you protect your SEO investment.

Though most companies have marketing and IT departments, or at the very least, someone filling those positions, that’s not always enough to get the job done. Even if your company has an in-house marketing team, you know just how thinly spread those staff members can be. In the end, SEO becomes just another thing to check off the to-do list. An SEO consultant gives you the additional expertise needed to implement certain measures so your in-house team can focus on keeping the website running smoothly.

Although an SEO consultant is an incredible asset, it’s important to be cautious. Be very skeptical of any potential consultant who promises top positioning in the search engine results. Improving your company’s search ranking is a long-term process, and results aren’t guaranteed, especially for highly competitive keywords.

In the past, we’ve seen some quick-fix strategies that provide a temporary, artificial boost. However, Google and the other major search engines strongly discourage these ‘black hat’ practices, and sites that implement these tactics are often heavily penalized, losing their rankings and site traffic.

Trusting your SEO strategies to a faceless agency may be a big mistake, as a faraway ‘expert’ may not know which practices will hurt your business. By hiring a reputable and trustworthy SEO consultant instead of an agency, you’ll get the peace of mind that comes with knowing only ‘white hat’ tactics will be used.

SEO doesn’t work in a vacuum; it pairs remarkably well with public relations, pay-per-click, email and social media marketing, and brand advocacy. Search engine optimization brings a solid site and quality content, but if you’re not getting traffic and authority from other sources, it may take a while to pay off.

An SEO consultant will collaborate with other marketing channels, cooperating and sharing information to create a data-focused plan for success. They’ll look at your calls to action, search query reports, and more.

Any good consultant won’t just talk about content and keywords; they’ll strive to connect with you, the business expert. Your consultant will learn about your customers’ life cycles, action points, product usage, search methodology, and other factors. With this information, they won’t merely help you learn more about your audience; they’ll streamline your sales funnel and drive conversions.

There’s a person behind every Google search, and your consultant should use their understanding of that fact to send the right traffic to your site. By going with a consultant rather than an SEO agency, you’ll get more of the targeted, personalized service your company needs to stay ahead.