SEO Services · Denver, Colorado
What Does an SEO Consultant Actually Do?
Not link-buying, not keyword-stuffing, not a mysterious algorithm dance. Here’s what the work actually looks like, day to day, written by the person who does it.
7 minute read
What an SEO consultant does first: an audit, not a sales pitch
Before an SEO consultant touches anything, the first real step is looking at what’s actually there: your site’s technical health, what’s already ranking (if anything), who’s outranking you and why, and where the genuine opportunities sit. This isn’t a generic checklist run against every client. It’s specific to your site, your market, and your competitors.
A good audit starts from real data: your actual Google Search Console and Analytics numbers, not guesses or a scraper’s made-up “visibility score.” That’s the difference between a consultant who tells you what’s really happening and one who’s just running a template.
The technical foundation
Content and keyword work can’t do anything if Google can’t properly read or index the site, so technical health comes first. That means site speed, crawlability, indexing status, mobile-friendliness, Core Web Vitals, and structured data (schema markup that tells search engines exactly what a page is about). It also means fixing the boring stuff that quietly caps your rankings: broken internal links, duplicate content, missing alt text, pages accidentally blocked from search engines entirely.
None of this is glamorous. Almost none of it is visible to a visitor. But a site with a broken technical foundation can have the best content in your industry and still never show up.
Redesigns are where sites most often lose their rankings. When pages move or URLs change, every old address needs a redirect to its new home. Otherwise the ranking value those pages built up disappears overnight. A good consultant maps those redirects before launch, not after traffic drops.
The real checklist
8 technical checks every audit covers
Not an exhaustive list of every possible SEO task, just the specific things that actually cap a site’s rankings when they’re wrong.
- Site speed & Core Web Vitals
- Page load speed, interactivity, and visual stability scores that factor directly into rankings, not just user experience.
- Crawlability & indexing
- Making sure Google can actually find and read every page that should rank, and isn’t accidentally blocked from the pages that shouldn’t.
- Mobile-friendliness
- The site has to work and read well on a phone, not just a desktop monitor, since Google indexes the mobile version first.
- Schema markup
- Structured data that tells search engines exactly what a page is: a business, a service, a review, an article.
- XML sitemap & robots.txt
- The map that tells search engines what exists on the site, and the file that tells them what’s off limits.
- Broken links & redirects
- Dead ends that waste crawl budget, frustrate visitors, and quietly bleed off the ranking value a page had already built up.
- Duplicate content
- Multiple pages competing against each other for the same ranking instead of one page doing the job well.
- Image alt text
- A real accessibility requirement that doubles as an extra signal for what a page is actually about.
Keyword and content strategy
This is finding the actual terms your customers search for, not the ones with the biggest volume, the ones that bring qualified visits. A plumber optimizing for “plumbing” nationally is chasing a keyword that will never convert. Optimizing for “emergency plumber Denver” brings someone with a burst pipe and a credit card in hand. Each important page gets its own primary target, so your pages support each other instead of competing for the same search.
Once we’ve mapped the right terms, the next question is whether a page exists to answer them well. Sometimes that means writing something new. Just as often it means rewriting an existing page that doesn’t answer the question a searcher is asking. The goal is a genuinely useful page, not one stuffed with the keyword ten times. Clear, direct answers are also what featured snippets and AI answers like Google’s AI Overviews tend to quote. That’s the focus of our Content SEO & GEO work.
The short version
- Audit first: real Search Console data, not guesses.
- Fix the technical foundation before anything else matters.
- Target the keywords real customers actually search, not vanity terms.
- Optimize the unglamorous on-page details Google reads to understand a page.
- Report honestly, with real numbers, and adjust the plan based on what actually moved.
The unglamorous work of on-page optimization
Title tags, meta descriptions, header structure, internal linking, image alt text. This is the part of the job that’s easiest to describe and easiest to underestimate. It’s small, repetitive, and it’s a real chunk of the actual difference between a page that ranks and a nearly-identical one that doesn’t. Search engines read these signals to figure out what a page is about and whether it deserves to rank for a given search. Get them wrong and even great content gets misread or ignored.
Ranking is only half the job. Once people find a page, it has to turn visitors into calls and inquiries. That means a clear next step on every page and contact options that are easy to tap on a phone. It also means copy that speaks to what the customer actually came for.
SEO isn’t a trick you apply to a website after it’s built. It’s making the website actually deserve to rank, technically, structurally, and in what it actually says.
Donnie Seigler · Crack-Ajax
Reporting that means something
Before the work starts, we agree on what success means for your business, usually calls, form leads, or booked appointments, not just rankings. The work doesn’t stop once the fixes ship. We review SEO against real Search Console and Analytics data on a regular schedule. We track what moved, what didn’t, and why. Then the plan adjusts based on what the data shows, not a canned monthly PDF nobody reads. If something isn’t working, a good consultant tells you and changes course. They don’t quietly bill more hours against a plan that isn’t moving the needle.
What an SEO consultant doesn’t do
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking, since Google’s algorithm is proprietary and constantly shifting. Anyone who promises page-one results in 30 days is either overselling or targeting a keyword no one searches. SEO also isn’t a one-time fix; it’s ongoing work with compounding returns, closer to maintaining a storefront than flipping a switch. A consultant’s job is honest work and honest reporting, not magic.
Since 2015
The SEO consultant you’d actually be working with
Donnie Seigler has been building and optimizing WordPress sites since 2011, and running Crack-Ajax since 2015. We don’t hand SEO work off to a junior account manager or an offshore team. The person who runs the audit is the same person who writes the fixes and reports back on what moved.
That means no explaining your business twice, no waiting on a ticket queue, and a direct line to the person who actually did the work.
Where to go from here
If you want the step-by-step version of how this all actually unfolds on a real project, see how SEO actually works: the process. If your business depends on nearby customers finding you, local SEO is usually the fastest-moving piece of this work.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about hiring an SEO consultant
Straight answers to what people ask before hiring one.
Hiring and cost
How much does an SEO consultant cost?
We bill ongoing work at our published rate of $180/hr ($150/hr for non-profits). For a one-time audit or a scoped set of technical fixes, we often give a flat estimate instead. That way you know the cost before anything starts.
How is a consultant different from an agency?
A consultant is usually one person doing the actual work: auditing, writing, fixing. At an agency, your account often goes to whoever’s free that week. A project manager then relays between you and whoever actually touches the site. Working directly with the person doing the work means fewer handoffs and faster fixes.
Do I need a consultant if my website already looks good?
Looking good and being easy to find are two different things. A polished site can still be invisible to search engines when its title tags, schema, headings, and structure have problems. The audit is what tells you whether that’s the case for your specific site.
Results and ownership
Can an SEO consultant guarantee rankings?
No, and be skeptical of anyone who says otherwise, since nobody controls Google’s algorithm. A good consultant can honestly commit to what’s in their control: doing the work and reporting honestly. They can also give you a realistic read on what to expect, based on results from similar sites and markets.
Who owns my website, domain, and Google accounts?
You do. Your domain, Google Search Console, Analytics, and Google Business Profile all belong in your business’s name, and we just get user access. If you ever stop working with us, everything stays with you. If a previous provider set them up under their own accounts, we’ll help you transfer ownership back.
My search traffic dropped suddenly. Can you find out why?
Usually, yes. A sudden drop almost always has one of a few causes. It might be a redesign that broke redirects or blocked pages, an indexing problem, a Google algorithm update, or a competitor moving ahead. Search Console data and the timing of the drop usually point to the cause. From there it’s a specific repair plan, not guesswork.
Want this done for your site?
Start with a free SEO audit, a plain-English look at what’s holding your rankings back, from the person who’d actually do the work.