Do I need an SEO Consultant to rank in Google?

No, you do not! And here is why:

While ranking with search engines like Google has a complicated science behind it, you don’t need to worry about it or become an SEO expert in order to rank. Anyone can organically rank with Google.

SEO optimization is an ongoing learning experience and the truth is: No one knows how to successfully pitch your business better than you!

Let me quickly explain how search engines work:
Those of you born in the 70s or before would remember something called the “phone book” and its successor “the yellow pages” which were the places to go to in order to search for a specific service or business.

Today in our Tech. age Search engines became the new phone book or Yellow pages, it is a massive database of almost every website that is active.

In the past, web designers used some SEO ranking techniques that focused on the repetition of certain keywords on the page as well as in the “head” of the page (in the meta tags and meta descriptions) Those techniques stopped working a few years ago and Google keeps on changing their ranking algorithm because they want to give you (the person searching for a service / or something else) The most relevant results first!
Many factors go into that “relevance calculation” but the most important one of them is consistent & helpful content related to the topic.

Take this very post as an example, I am trying to be as relevant as I can in discussing search engine optimization and get you to think about whether you to use an SEO consultant for your business.
I am not trying to fool the SEO algorithm by soiling the page with keywords, and I want my post to be read and digested by a Human so that it is helpful enough to you “the reader”
My goal isn’t to please Google! However, in pleasing my reader I would definitely get some search engine attention.

But SEO Optimization has 2 main arms:

1. On-page SEO
2. Off-page SEO

The first thing you need to know is that search engines index pages, so when we speak about ranking for a search term or keyword we are speaking about a specific page/post/article/blog post/video etc.
We are referring to a “piece of content” not to a website!

The second thing is that YOU control all the on-page SEO (your published content) which constitutes 80% 85% of organic search engine ranking (and of course this is “your relevance”)
Off-page SEO is mostly out of your control, it looks at things like the number of other websites “and social media posts” linking to your articles or pages, it also calculates the “Authority” of those websites (which I will explain in a separate article or video), it also includes ads.

So what do SEO consultants or agencies do?
They don’t all do the same thing!
– The vast majority of SEO services that you see advertised either buy Google ads on your behalf/ run short term ad campaigns, or engage in building back-links (off-page SEO)

– First, focus on your organic ranking then – and only then, you may want to look at the off-page SEO and Google or Facebook ads!
– In most cases you do not need more than your writer’s hat, keep posting and blogging real content that is helpful to your audience.

– But if you want to use an external party and don’t want to do this bit all alone, look for an SEO coaching service, someone to work with you to ensure that you do it right organically using the on-page SEO! Off-page SEO does not live for long, ads may temporarily put your page on the first page of Google search results, but once you stop paying it’s gone. (plus of course, it has the label “ad” on it, so it is a “pay to play”!

Think of it as a bit of Hand holding while you do great SEO work for your business.
You can work together on doing proper keyword research, analyze competition, get content ideas and keep improving.
Happy to discuss SEO coaching with you.