Create a high quality invoice now!
Make an Invoice NowThe SEO consultant invoice is issued by a service that provides optimizations to a website to rank higher in search results on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. An SEO consultant commonly bills their client by the hour or on a per-project basis. The goal of the consultant is to move a website higher on organic search which is the free part of the search results below the ads. The client essentially pays the consultant so that they do not have to pay for ads in order to be on the top of a search engine’s listings.
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What is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. It’s the ability for a website to appear within the listings of a search engine when a user searches for a certain word or phrase (known as a “keyword”). A keyword is any combination of characters/words that are searched enough to warrant being tracked on a monthly basis. Anyone can see the popularity of a keyword by using Google’s free service called Google Ads Keyword Planner, or by using the popular paid service called SEMRush.com. SEO consultants use these services when planning to layout the structure of a client’s website. SEO is the combination of making a website that is user friendly (good design and URL structure), has great content (original writing and images), and caters to a niche (closely related keywords). Because Google is the world’s top search engine, SEO standards are held to the ever-changing algorithms that Google rolls out regularly. It’s an SEO consultant’s job to know exactly what Google is doing at every move. Google will often let the world know about any changes via their twitter feed at Google Webmasters.
The SEO Process
For anyone starting out in the website world, it’s typically best to be your own SEO consultant. Let’s face the facts, if a person is so good at SEO, then why aren’t they making millions of dollars with their own website via search engine optimization? The first test to finding a good SEO consultant is seeing if you can find them by performing a basic search on Google – if they appear on the first (1st) page, it’s a decent indication of their SEO capabilities. In general, a promising SEO consultant will know how to do the following, as outlined below:
Step 1 – Buy a Good Domain Name
Search engines value a domain name as a high priority when indexing a site into its search results. If a website is trying to rank for the keyword “SEO”, it would be a good idea to have the keyword “SEO” in the domain name – for example, www.seo(your company name or location).com. Domains can be bought with a domain registrar such as Godaddy.com. Have your SEO consultant provide you with a list of possible domain names for your niche.
Step 2 – Website Structure
If you do plan on hiring an SEO consultant, it’s best to do so before you build your website as they can give advice about your website’s structure. Page titles and URLs should contain the keywords you are trying to rank for, and they should not contain random numbers or words. If your website uses WordPress, there is a popular plugin called Yoast SEO that can analyze your content for SEO-related metrics.
Step 3 – Providing Good Content
Good SEO consultants know that the more a user engages with a website, the better it will rank within search results. The only way a user will engage with a website is if it provides quality content (writing, images, or videos). Consultants can help find writers to write blog posts for your website. Images will need to be optimized (file size reduction) so that they do not slow down your website’s performance (speed).
Step 4 – Site Indexing
In order to notify Google and other search engines that your website exists on the internet, your SEO consultant will need to create a sitemap, which creates a list of all your website’s pages and submits them to Google. Then, in order to track users and see how they are interacting with your website, your SEO consultant will need to install Google Analytics on your website and setting up a Google Analytics account.