One answer
An audit, a migration, or a strategy: fixed scope, a deadline, and a document with recommendations. Implementation and measurement stay with you.
Ongoing consultingSEO consulting services
SEO consulting services
on a steady rhythm.
An audit tells you what to fix. Ongoing consulting makes sure it gets fixed – and that growth follows. Every month I agree a plan with you, sign off on what your team ships, run content that reaches buyers at the decision stage, earn links where the data says they’re missing, and measure visibility in Google and in AI answers.
In short
What are ongoing SEO consulting services?
Ongoing SEO consulting (an SEO retainer) is monthly advisory work: the consultant runs the SEO and AI visibility strategy, sets priorities, prepares tasks for your team, verifies they shipped, and reports results in leads and conversions. Unlike an audit, it doesn’t end with a report – it runs for as long as it pays off.
When it’s worth doing
- An audit left dozens of tasks and someone needs to own the order and the sign-off
- You have no in-house SEO, and organic search is expected to bring in leads
- You have writers or a content agency, but they lack direction and briefs
- Buyers compare solutions in Google and ChatGPT, and you’re not there
- Pages passed a link audit and need links that a redirect can’t recover
When a project is enough
If you have one specific question – why traffic dropped, how to run a migration – an audit or a project is enough. And if nobody on your side can implement changes and you need dozens of articles a month, an agency with its own writers will serve you better.
Project or retainer
An audit answers a question; a retainer gets to a result
Both use the same method. The difference is who owns what happens after the report is delivered.
Running the channel
A monthly plan, sign-off on what ships, content, links, and measurement. Priorities change as the data changes.
Audit first, then a retainer
The audit gives a task list and a baseline. The retainer turns it into a plan for the following months and measures the result.
If the site has never had an audit, I spend the first month on diagnosis – without it, the plan would be guesswork.
Scope
What I do every month
We agree the scope at the start and adjust it to what the data says. Not every month covers all six areas.
Plan and priorities
The month’s task list, ordered by business value: technical fixes, content, links. Every task has an owner and an acceptance criterion.
Decision-stage content
Comparisons, alternatives, pricing, “best X for Y” pages – where buyers pick a vendor. Topic map, briefs, and review. Writing can be ordered from me separately.
Link acquisition
Only for pages where the data shows a real link gap. Mentions in industry sources and reclaiming links to dead URLs – no buying links.
AI visibility
A fixed set of buyer questions checked monthly in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews: how often you’re cited, and who gets cited instead.
Sign-off on changes
A recrawl and Search Console data check whether what your team shipped works. A task closes only when it passes its test.
Measurement and reporting
A separate channel for AI referrals in analytics, leads and conversions from organic search, and the pages that bring them. Traffic and rankings are context, not the headline.
How I work
From buyer conversations to a report in leads
- 01
Customer research
Before I open a keyword tool, I talk to your sales team and read call notes: the words buyers use, what they compare, what worries them.
- 02
Keyword and prompt map
One map for Google and for AI: the queries and questions of someone already choosing a solution. Every item has a target page.
- 03
Monthly plan
Technical tasks, content, and links ordered by value. We agree what your team does and what I do.
- 04
Ship and sign off
Your team ships; I write the tasks, answer questions, and verify the result with a recrawl or data.
- 05
Report and adjust
Every month: leads from search and AI, citation share, what worked, and what changes in the next plan.
Reporting
I report leads, not traffic charts
Every month I show how many enquiries and sign-ups came from search and from AI answers, which pages brought them, and how your brand’s share of answers to buyer questions is moving.
Traffic and rankings are in the report, but as context – what counts is whether the channel brings sales conversations.
- From Google
- From AI answers
AI citation share
+24 pp
Tasks signed off on time
86%
Illustrative example – it shows the report format, not a specific client’s result.
What you get
One page of report, not twenty
The monthly report fits on one page: what the channel brought, what shipped and passed sign-off, what didn’t work, and what’s next. The detail sits in appendices for whoever needs it.
Month 6 – summary
- Leads
- 15 from organic (+3 m/m), 3 of them from AI referrals
- AI citations
- 28% of the prompt set (40 prompts, 4 engines)
- Signed off
- 6 of 7 tasks passed their test; 1 goes back to the team
- Content
- 2 comparison pages published, 1 refreshed
- Next month
- Pricing in HTML, an “alternatives” page, 2 industry mentions
Illustrative example – it shows the format, not a specific client’s data.
Honestly
How we split the work
Strategy and sign-off my side
The plan, priorities, briefs, research, measurement, and verifying changes. You talk to the person doing the analysis.
Implementation your side
Code and CMS changes are shipped by your team or agency. Writing can be a separate order with me.
Results no guarantees
I don’t guarantee rankings or AI citations. I guarantee a data-based plan, sign-off on every task, and an honest report – including when something doesn’t work.
If the channel doesn’t move for several months despite the changes shipping, I say so plainly and propose a change of direction or ending the engagement.
Pricing
What drives the cost
The engagement is billed monthly, for an agreed number of hours, with one month’s notice. Four things affect the price:
Hours per month
From advisory and sign-off to running the whole channel, including content and links.
Scope
Whether it covers link acquisition, writing, and AI visibility tracking, or strategy and sign-off only.
Markets and languages
Each market is its own keyword and prompt map, its own AI prompt set, and its own content.
Starting point
After an audit, we start with the plan. Without one, the first month is diagnosis.
After a short call, I send a proposal with scope, hours, and price – before any work starts.
Related services
SEO
SEO audit
Technical health, content, links, and AI readiness – findings grouped by root cause, prioritized by business value, each with an acceptance criterion.
MoreContentSEO content strategy
What to publish next: a topic map, intent per page, the gap against competitors, and internal linking that builds authority.
MoreLinksLink audit
Whether links are really what holds you back, which lost links to reclaim, and whether your site links to dead ends.
MoreFrequently asked questions
How is a retainer different from an SEO audit?
An audit is a closed project: a diagnosis and a prioritized task list. A retainer starts where the audit ends – it drives implementation, signs off tasks, adds content and links, and measures the result every month.
Do I have to start with an audit?
You don’t have to order one separately, but without a diagnosis there’s no sensible plan. If the site hasn’t had an audit, the first month of the retainer is diagnosis.
What is decision-stage (BOFU) content?
Pages for someone already choosing a solution: comparisons, alternatives, pricing, “best X for Y” roundups. They get less traffic than guides, but they bring the leads – and they’re what AI answers cite most often when someone asks what to use.
Do you do link building?
Yes, within an ongoing engagement. I earn links for pages where the data shows a real gap – through mentions in industry sources and reclaiming links to dead URLs. I don’t buy links.
Do you write the content?
Yes, as a separate order. Within the retainer I prepare the topic map, briefs, and reviews; your team, an agency, or I can do the writing.
What does the report look like?
One page a month: leads and conversions from search and AI referrals, citation share in AI answers, signed-off tasks, and the plan for next month. Traffic and rankings sit in an appendix as context.
How long is the commitment?
One month. The notice period is one month, with no annual contracts. SEO results usually take a few months to show, but the engagement should continue because it delivers, not because a contract says so.
What’s the difference between an SEO consultant and an SEO agency retainer?
With a consultant, you work directly with the person doing the analysis, and implementation stays with your team. An agency retainer usually includes production at scale – writing, outreach, development – with an account manager in between.
Let’s talk about what
your channel should bring in.
Tell me what you sell, who buys it, and who on your side ships changes. I reply within one business day.
Ask about working together