There are many characteristics and elements that make the difference between an amateur and a consultant. On the flip side, if these characteristics and elements will be lacking, you’re gonna see big problems in your consulting business.
And being an SEO consultant, it’s our duty to maintain our client’s rankings and avoid mistakes as much as we can because sometimes a minor mistake cost a lot. And that’s not just in the SEO business, in al the industries.
So, without further ado, Let’s jump into the article and see the ways that can take your SEO consulting career from zero to hero.
1.Define Your Goals
Defining your goals at the start is the key to a good consulting relationship. By doing this, whoever involved in the project will have a clear understanding of the project. It’s obtainable and reasonable and they hold themselves accountable.
Without defining goals, it’s very hard to show value to the project or even have an understanding of whether the project going to be successful or a complete loss.
Choose which metrics are important and make sure you keep a track of them so you can frequently report on the project progress.
2.Educate Your Clients
When it comes to the digital space, education plays an important role in a successful client/consultant relationship. Educating your clients with a proper understanding of your expertise will be helpful when it comes to delivering value to your clients.
The truth is, there are hundreds of facets out there regarding digital marketing like that you can’t expect some to be the jack of all trades. While talking of SEO, there’s On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, and Technical SEO. And all the tactics and techniques fall under these three categories.
And the SEO market is changing too fast and if your client won’t have the knowledge of this. He’ll be left behind and you too.
3.Show Your Expertise
A good SEO consultant is not the one who only aware of what’s happening in the market but also understands the bid picture – the process. It’s highly important to improve your knowledge and be up-to-date about the company your working with and the industry as a whole.
During this period, ask questions to your client and get as much information as you can. And, it didn’t stop here. Make sure to stay in touch with your client to know if there’s any changing in the company, new goals, even things that are less of a priority
4.Answer Clearly
When a client asked a question, a good SEO consultant will immediately and clearly answer it. I know this sounds obvious, but still many take it a big challenge.
You may want to represent your points first, you may be overwhelmed with work and the information you need to represent, but doing this fast and carefully is the key that’ll make you’re a good SEO consultant.
Acknowledging your client and solving their problems and concerns is required to be a successful SEO consultant and build a good relationship with your client.
For instance, a good SEO consultant wouldn’t say: I’ll address this problem in the next presentation, or let’s talk again after a few mins. Make sure you give a professional and accurate answer and only speak what’s necessary and required.
5.Take Action
It’s the nature of your consultancy that you’ll not always have complete control over your recommendations and the execution. The point is: you’re relying on your execution over the recommendations to achieve your goals.
So, what to do if you face this kind of situation?
Consider doing the following:
- Prioritize what’s the quick deliverable: Not all the recommendations are of high priority. Decide which things are of top priority and which ones aren’t. By doing this, you’ll know that everyone is focusing on the priority things and which can have an immediate impact.
- Encourage execution: A good SEO consultant always make strategic and solid recommendations. By doing this, you can present these recommendations in a way that encourages people to work more efficiently by stressing their importance.
- Consider alternatives: Do you know if there’ll be another approach that would help you with the desired results? Is there any way to help you execute your plan more efficiently? Is yes, go for that and achieve your goals fast.
Lastly, once you’ll consider all of the above ideas, can you help with the execution of it?
6.Know Your Audience
To be a good SEO consultant is to know your audience and be able to communicate with them. You need to know what’s on the other side of your call and joining meetings.
This way you can communicate in a way that everyone can easily understand and this will help you put a step ahead with key decision-makers.
7.Prove Your Value
To complete this, defining your goals will help you a lot in proving your value. A good SEO consultant sets clear recommendations and communicates efficiently.
As a consultant, it’s very important that your client is aware of your doings and how it’s affecting the performance of the project.
It’s also important that you communicate in an easy and simple way. That’s one of the biggest challenges I see in digital marketing – reporting.
Any SEO consultant can put together pieces of key points in the report that shows the website performance. Go a step further and tell the whole story to the client. It’ll help you prove your value that why you’re the best option your client is getting.
Conclusion
There are certain characteristics that made an SEO consultant a good one and separate them from others. The key is consistency and constant improvement. If you’ll not improve, you’ll be left behind as an outdated product. Being a good SEO consultant isn’t that easy but the efforts worth it – to see happy clients and establishing long-term relationships, getting valuable referrals, and good business growth. We’ve shown you seven ways to become an SEO consultant or if you’re already an SEO consultant, check where you’re lacking.
