That I can see, many SEO providers do basic things:
- make website more SEO friendly
- create SEO relevant content
- connect to search engines
- review activity and report
- wash, rinse, repeat
Most businesses also charge monthly fees for the service, which is not unreasonable.
So, what would be considered disruptive in this industry, if a new provider wanted to create a new approach?
I'm an SEO consultant (mentioned by Ozzy at the top of the thread).
I don't know if it's considered disruptive but where I feel I add value to a lot of clients is marrying strategy to actions.
Strategy is understanding the entire market you're operating in and the different ways people will search to find your products or services. In my experience most businesses/websites think in very narrow terms - maybe looking to target just a few simplistic searches - and miss opportunities to expand their footprint in organic search. You've got to see the whole picture.
Using Google Search Console performance data for instance (which a shocking number of SEO companies don't despite it being both free and a treasure trove of information), you can gain some incredible insights. I'll usually dissect this data and outline the potential value of SEO to any prospective client before engaging in work. The size of the opportunity and the amount of work required to achieve it (monthly or as a block) will then determine cost.
Often, for a small, local business in a less competitive market, one-off works can be impactful and have a long-lasting positive effect. Some of my favourite projects over the last 20 years have been hand-holding new businesses as they launch their websites and just get some foundational presence on Google by covering the basics.
Monthly retainers are the norm for most though, usually because SEO success in competitive markets requires both investment and time. You have to identify the work required (usually based on the gap between where you are and the people currently winning the race), implement everything (which isn't always easy if businesses have complicated websites, development teams, additional stakeholders or other roadblocks) and then wait for Google to digest those improvements and (hopefully) reward the work. Along the way, your job as an SEO is to be transparent about what you're doing, explain the processes and present evidence of progress in the results.
The client plays an important role too. I find that the people who are 'plugged in' and interested in the process, tend to get the best results. That's because they see the challenges and help facilitate progress. I also like clients that constantly keep me in the loop about what the business is doing, new developments, etc because I can then respond with ideas about how SEO can add value to those things. It keeps things vibrant, creates a culture of collaboration and offers a much better chance of success.
I think SEO has a bad reputation and there's a lot of mistrust. To combat this, what I try to do is explain things logically, be transparent with the process, open up the data and most importantly, set expectations at the starting gun. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about the 'Rank position #1 in 2 weeks' guys so they will continue to give the legit SEO companies a bad rep.
What you've listed above Paul are a list of actions, which is the basis of most monthly deliverables. It's an OK top level overview (although I would say 'make website more SEO friendly' is somewhat broad
). But there's doing these things and there's doing them well. That is usually the key difference.
Anyway, apologies for the self-indulgence and hopefully this is insightful for someone. I just thought it might be good to get a perspective from the dark side!
