SEO Consultant vs Agency Services & Technology

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SEO Consultant vs Agency Services & Technology

Are you tired of waiting for SEO results and encountering roadblocks along the way? Have you ever wondered why your investment in SEO isn’t yielding the desired outcomes? Are you caught between choosing a personal SEO consultant or a full-fledged agency? If these questions resonate with you, then this guide is crafted to help you decide the best path for your SEO needs.

SEO Consultants: Expertise with Challenges

SEO consultants are individual experts who offer advice, guidance, and sometimes training to help businesses improve their SEO performance. This expertise is invaluable, allowing businesses to achieve success through strategic shortcuts. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows; the constantly shifting algorithmic and competitive landscapes in SEO, coupled with the delayed feedback mechanism, make the direct return on SEO effort traditionally hard to predict.

Moreover, the real triumph in SEO isn’t just about devising the right strategy but ensuring its proper and timely execution. Many businesses find themselves in a bind after several months without progress, realizing that large lists of recommendations from their consultants are useless without swift implementation. That’s where agencies make a difference. Having said that if you have strong executional capabilities and you can dedicated the resources necessary to ensure all the advice from an SEO consultant is implemented, this solution should be sufficient for your needs.

Agency Approach: Strategy Plus Execution

Agencies provide a team that does the analysis, strategy formulation, and crucially, the execution. With a larger scale, agencies have the capacity to service multiple clients, leading to more learning opportunities, which is essential for SEO. Experience across industries and countries provides a diverse range of challenges and learning experiences.

Technology First Approach to SEO

This commitment to learning as well as embedding this learning into a proprietary set of technology has allowed us to grow to over 130 professionals over the past decade. By combining agency expertise with this technology, they can scale SEO programs ten times larger than traditional ones. This has allowed them to start delivering SEO results within 6 weeks, whereas most traditional SEO agencies and SEO consultants can take much longer.

We go far beyond the traditional agency approach by integrating programmatic SEO, which we define as the progressive automation of SEO through AI. It accelerates out learning and adapts executions, delivering faster SEO results, and scaling SEO programs beyond traditional limits.

Cost Considerations

While cost is a significant factor when choosing between an SEO consultant, agency, or tech company, it’s essential to consider opportunity cost as well. If you could double, triple or even quadruple your current organic traffic within a year, what impact could that have on your business? We’d love to show you how exactly we’ve done this for businesses like yours.

Start Scaling Your SEO Performance In Just 6 Weeks

Choosing between an SEO consultant and an agency boils down to understanding your business needs, whether it’s B2B, enterprise, or international SEO, and what each option can offer. While SEO consultants provide valuable guidance in areas like technical SEO, the additional execution capability of agencies like Area Ten, enhanced with proprietary technology ensures bigger results in just 6 weeks. Explore your options. 

Contact us or book in SEO Fast Track today, and discover how Area Ten has worked with businesses like yours to deliver bigger results faster, starting in just 6 weeks. Our experience covers an extensive range of industries, including eCommerce, B2B, healthcare and lawyer verticals. We ensure proper execution in technical, content and offsite optimization, making it easier to achieve bigger SEO results, faster.

Case Study

Revs Check

  • 238

    Positions added since the SEO Programme started in December 2021

  • 78%

    YoY increase in SEO traffic

  • 29%

    Increase in SEO revenue over a year

Case Study

CarHistory

  • 172

    Position improvement in aggregate keyword rankings

  • 23%

    YoY increase in SEO traffic

  • 23%

    Sales revenue increase, delivering an SEO ROAS of 10.5

Case Study

Equifax

  • 419

    Position improvement in aggregate keyword rankings

  • 64%

    YoY increase in SEO traffic

  • 215%

    YoY sales revenue skyrocket in Credit and Identity products

Case Study

Quicken India

  • In just 3 months, QuickBooks India's priority terms ascended into the top 10 search engine rankings

Case Study

Snap Printing

  • 887%

    Lead increase via 24/7 Live Chat Sales, boosting conversion rates

  • 2,400

    Top-10 positions added in a 5-year period

  • 36.9%

    Organic traffic growth over a consistent 5-year period

Case Study

Learn To Trade Australia

  • 20

    Top Forex terms boosted to Top-3 rankings in just 2 months

  • 63.1%

    Organic traffic boost within the first 4 months

  • 90.5%

    Cheaper CPA achieved for forex course sign-ups in 4 months from Organic vs Paid channels

Case Study

Loans.com.au

  • 438

    Top-10 positions added in less than a year

  • 422%

    Year-on-Year organic traffic increase in 10 months

Case Study

Prezzee

  • 133

    Top-10 positions added in just 6 weeks

  • 747%

    Growth in organic traffic over 2 years

  • 303%

    Higher conversion rate from organic versus other digital channels

Case Study

eFax

  • 198%

    Organic traffic improvement over 3 years in B2B niche

  • 243%

    Expansion in keyword rankings with dominant head terms

Case Study

Pack and Send

  • 178%

    Surge in website traffic through targeted, strategic efforts

  • 91%

    Average increase in leads from targeted pages

  • 86%

    Monthly revenue growth due to successful SEO strategy

Case Study

BoozeBud

  • 153%

    Increase in Top 10 rankings in 6 weeks

  • 501%

    Growth in organic traffic over 2 years

  • 945%

    ROI surge in 2 years, outperforming paid media

Case Study

Marketplacer

  • 30%

    Increase in organic traffic within the first 6 weeks

  • 401%

    Organic traffic increase within 12 months

  • 453%

    Boost in organic leads over 12 months

Case Study

Peace Lilly

  • 35%

    Organic traffic boost in a year

  • 37%

    Increase in organic revenue in a year

  • 440%

    Increase in Organic visibility across target KWs

Case Study

MeetAlfred

  • 3881%

    Increase in non-brand incremental traffic in a year

  • 420%

    ROI surge in 1 year

  • 52%

    Average increase in transactions over a year

What Our Clients Say

Area Ten have supported Prospa with top notch professional service, both in performance marketing and SEO.

Their ongoing support helped Prospa consistently achieve its targets over the years.

I speak for all stakeholders at Prospa, past and present, when I say we couldn’t have asked for a better partner in this space!

Nadav Linden – Head of Performance Marketing & Digital Partners

As the former Head of SEO at Fairfax, Domain, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Jeremy on several projects, and the experience was nothing short of exceptional.

Area Ten’s ability to adapt to the ever-changing algorithms made a significant impact on our digital footprint. Their tailored strategies not only improved our visibility but also enhanced the user experience across our platforms.

Rama Gudipudi – Head of SEO @ Domain

“Our integrated SEO & PPC partnership with Area Ten has delivered incremental traffic and leads for our business. We are able to maximise our coverage on the search engines to effectively guide prospects to our website and generate cost-effective leads. On top of this, Area Ten also helps manage our live chat to drive incremental leads further.”

Adrian Mezzina, Schreuders

“Our SEO traffic and leads has continued to increased YoY and MoM since we started working with Area Ten over 2 years ago. SEO has become very important sales generation channel for PACK & SEND.”

Tim Robinson – Digital Marketing Manager @ PACK & SEND

“The GreeChat team has been excellent with providing a live chat service for our business. They have been responsive to our requests and willing to train their team to understand our offering. I would recommend them to any business wanting to have a 24/7 chat service on their website.”

Jonathan Gavshon – Co-CEO @ Group Homes Australia

“Earlier, we had used another live chat provider who could not help us with live chat leads attribution. We have been using Greechat for almost 4 years now with end to end lead tracking provided to us. The Greechat team is very easy to work with and love that the team is so responsive and willing to help. It is a great feeling knowing we have support right there with us and can ask them a question at any point. Hands down the most responsive and knowledgeable live chat providers I have ever used.”

Tariq Shafei – Director of Online Learning @ Kirana Colleges

“We use AreaTen to drive more sales for our business.

AreaTen supports us by providing actionable, valuable, and real-time insights as we work with the customers who depend on our information.

The team makes it easy to understand the data without having to be an online marketing expert, They have helped us every step of the way — from setting up campaigns to figuring out how best to analyse results. I recommend AreaTen to anyone looking to grow their online sales.”

Patrick Coghlan – CEO @ CreditorWatch

“We have had the pleasure of working with AreaTen for more than a year, and we can confidently say that they are among the best SEO companies we have ever worked with. Their expertise in search engine optimization has significantly contributed to our online visibility and increased traffic to our website. AreaTen’s team is knowledgeable, responsive, and dedicated to achieving results. Their attention to detail and ability to communicate complex technical concepts in a clear and concise manner is truly impressive. We highly recommend AreaTen to any business looking for top-quality SEO services.”

Dean Kim – Operations Manager @ Peace Lily

“We have been working with Area Ten for nearly three years and their knowledge and expertise has had a significant positive impact in helping evolve Snap’s digital marketing strategy. They are proactive with new initiatives and ideas that are aligned to Snap’s Transformation Strategy, ensuring we are in sync with the fast changing digital marketing space. The transparency that the Area Ten team provides in their reporting gives clarity on the ROI from the different initiatives undertaken. They are also willing to adapt to our individual requirements as well as challenge our thought process. It is this partnership with Area Ten that makes them our most valued resource as part of our agency roster.”

Raeleen Hooper – CMO @ Snap

“It’s been great to work with the team at Area Ten on performance based SEO model. We liked the structured approach they took to understanding our requirements and making recommendations around what we needed to do in conjunction with them. They were always available to provide expert advice and feedback around changes we were making. It was amazing to see results within the space of 2 months. Listed below are some of the results that were achieved since the start of the programme and Area Ten team have exceeded our expectations:

– Non branded organic traffic increased by 261%

– Aggregate rankings improved by 293 positions”

Elvin Singh – Customer Acquisition Manager @ Firstmac

“The Area Ten team has helped us to improve leads and visitor to conversion rates across a number of our channels. For example beyond just driving higher quality website traffic they also managed to improve the online enquiry rate by over 3x through form and page design changes. Area Ten’s experience has added enormous value to our website optimisation activity. They haven’t hidden behind jargon and consistently provide valuable learnings and input with how the various online marketing channels work synergistically together, ensuring our analytics is setup in such a way that we can properly track the true ROI for each channel.”

Andrew Grech – Partner @ Gordon Legal

“We worked with the Area Ten team on Paid Search, they handle all the paid search build, campaign implementation, and tracking set up to ensure we can track leads for all our Franchises which is amazing so we can move fast. I highly recommend Area Ten services. The support is A+, and whenever we’ve had questions, all issues are resolved or we’re provided hand-holding almost immediately.”

Todd Alexander – National Marketing Manager @ Ray White

“Area Ten was a key partner for Eventbrite in Asia-Pacific as we expanded our performance marketing into Singapore and Hong Kong. Their team was with us every step of the way as we developed our strategy to implement new Adwords and Display Network campaigns as Eventbrite’s platform was launched into new markets. We saw over 34% YoY growth in conversions from Singapore alone as a result of the advice, guidance and implementation that the Area 10 team completed, alongside significant improvements in click-thru rates, competitive bidding and cost per conversion. I would recommend their services to any business looking to rapidly accelerate growth through performance marketing.”

Joshua McNicol – General Manager APAC @ Eventbrite

“To help businesses simplify their retail operations, Square needs to be there for customers at the right time with the right information.

Area Ten has helped us with this over the last 5 years, delivering growth in sales through paid search and helping us unlock our growth potential. The team has always delivered expert advice and has been adaptable and reliable in maximising sales. Area Ten is a great partner to have on this journey.”


Cammy Nguyen – Paid Marketing Manager @ Square

“Proactiv as a brand has been built on the strength of its product as well as the effectiveness of its direct marketing. We have worked with Area Ten for almost 4 years. Their level of attention to the needs of the business have been of a consistently high quality. While we initially engaged them to help with our SEO this expanded to other aspects of our digital marketing given their ability to provide an integrated solution more robust than others we could find in the market. As a digital performance company that delivers they are firmly aligned with our ROI culture. We highly recommend them as a trusted advisor and partner for any performance driven organisation.“

Lara Giovenale – Marketing Director @ The Proactiv Company

“We’ve been working with Area Ten for over 3 years. They’ve delivered consistently for us across multiple brands in an extremely tough market vertical and operating environment. I’m ex-agency and have dealt with lots of others in the space and what Jeremy and his team do is unique and effective. Great guys to work with.“

Nick St John – Head of SEO @ IAG

“Area Ten has supported Zurich with a strong Paid Search and Social Media strategy, driving cost effectives leads and sales revenue for the last 5 years. The team understands our business and proactively seeks new initiatives and optimizations that are in line with our business goals. I would recommend Area Ten to any company looking to expand its online presence and revenue in a competitive industry like ours.”

Julie McCormack – Head of Strategy & Distribution, Direct Insurance @ Zurich Australia

“The impact the Area Ten have made to Kmart has been significant – helping to establish SEO as a function and supporting Parmiss on getting us up to scratch. We would not be where we are now without your assistance.”

Dan Smith – Head of Digital Engagement @ Kmart

“The Area Ten team have consistently delivered across the initiatives we have engaged them in. We were impressed from the start when they were able to deliver SEO results within a month where our previous agencies struggled for more than a year. Our work with them has expanded since then given they constantly innovate in line with needs of our business, delivering strong returns from what we invest which is why they are a key partner for us and why I thoroughly recommend them.“

Carla Viera – Marketing Director @ Regus

Frequently Asked Questions

SEO consulting is a specialized service where individual SEO experts provide advice, recommendations, and strategic insights to help businesses enhance their search engine visibility. Unlike agencies that often handle the complete execution of SEO strategies, SEO consultants primarily focus on analyzing the business’s needs, identifying opportunities, and crafting detailed plans. This guidance can be incredibly valuable for small to medium businesses, but larger sites may require an agency for full-scale execution.

To find a good SEO consultant who fits your needs:

  1. Determine Your Requirements: Understand if you need strategic insights, advice, or full execution support.
  2. Search and Research: Look for consultants with proven experience in SEO strategy and recommendations.
  3. Evaluate Expertise: Assess their ability to provide personalized strategies without necessarily handling execution.
  4. Consider Collaboration with Agencies: If execution support is needed, consider how the consultant might collaborate with an agency.
  5. Interview and Review: Assess their approach, ask for references, and evaluate costs, keeping in mind your specific needs for strategy versus execution.

When speaking with SEO consultants, consider the following questions:

  • What is your focus: strategy, recommendations, or execution?
  • How have you assisted businesses like mine with SEO strategy?
  • How would you collaborate with an agency if execution is needed?
  • Can you provide references showing success in SEO advising?

An SEO consultant typically concentrates on:

  • Strategic Planning: Creating tailored SEO strategies and recommendations.
  • Analyzing and Advising: Identifying opportunities and providing expert guidance.
  • Collaborating on Execution: If needed, working with an agency to ensure that strategies are implemented effectively.
  • Monitoring and Reporting: Keeping track of progress and adapting strategies as needed, with a primary focus on planning rather than implementation.

Costs for SEO consultants can vary but generally focus on planning, advice, and recommendations rather than full execution. They may charge based on the complexity of the strategy needed, with fees reflecting their specialized expertise in crafting tailored SEO strategies.

Choosing between an SEO consultant and an agency depends on your needs:

  • For Strategic Insights: If you need detailed analysis, strategy, and recommendations, an SEO consultant may be ideal.
  • For Full Execution: If you need comprehensive support, including strategy and execution, especially for larger sites, an agency might be the best choice.
  • Evaluate Collaboration: Consider how a consultant might collaborate with an agency if both strategic insights and execution are required.

Understanding the distinction between the roles of SEO consultants and agencies is essential to select the right professional. While consultants are experts in devising strategies and providing advice, agencies offer the additional advantage of execution, particularly vital for larger sites and more complex projects. By assessing your specific needs and understanding these differences, you can make an informed choice that aligns with your goals.

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