To go pro in SEO, build real results, package clear services, and sell them with proof.
People hire help to get search traffic that turns into revenue. Your job is to raise qualified visits, cut wasted crawl paths, and turn pages into leads or sales. This guide walks through skills, proof, offers, delivery, and repeatable habits that land and retain clients.
Becoming An SEO Adviser: Starter Guide
Start with the core stack. You’ll need search knowledge, a simple project system, and one reliable way to win business. Pick one niche or site type at first, like local services, B2B SaaS, or content sites. Narrow scope speeds learning and helps you speak your client’s language.
Core Skills You’ll Use Weekly
Search work blends tech, content, links, and measurement. You don’t need to code full apps, but you should read HTML, tweak templates, and write copy that answers a query. You’ll also read logs, compare competitors, and spot gaps in site structure and metadata. The table below keeps the starting list tight.
| Skill | What It Means | Proof To Show |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Basics | Fix crawl traps, slow pages, and index bloat; set canonicals; add structured data. | Before/after crawls, WebPageTest runs, Core Web Vitals trend. |
| Keyword Mapping | Group pages to search intent, match titles, and avoid cannibalization. | Map in a sheet with target terms and URLs. |
| On-Page Craft | Write headers, meta tags, and body copy that answers the query and builds trust. | Drafts with measured gains in clicks and dwell time. |
| Internal Links | Link clusters and key pages to move equity and guide users. | Before/after graphs and click maps. |
| Link Earning | Pitch useful pages, digital PR angles, and partners to cite your work. | Referring domains with context and anchor variety. |
| Reporting | Show what moved and why using clean dashboards and plain language. | Monthly deck with KPIs tied to dollars. |
Pick A Lane And Build Proof
Pick one lane and run a sample project. You can rank a small site you own, partner with a friend’s business, or trade a short sprint for a case study. Keep scope to six weeks. That time box forces decisions and yields clean before/after snapshots you can show on calls.
Design A Six-Week Sprint
Week 1: baseline crawl, speed tests, analytics check, and tracking fixes. Week 2: keyword map and title tags. Week 3: page outlines and one pillar article. Week 4: internal links and schema. Week 5: a small digital PR push. Week 6: tidy redirects, add FAQs to key pages, and ship a one-page report.
What Counts As Proof
Numbers close deals. Show growth in non-brand clicks, pages indexed, and revenue from organic. Screens from Search Console and analytics carry weight. Tie wins to actions you took, not luck. When you show charts, add one line that says what changed and when.
Learn From Source Material
Search platforms publish clear rules and playbooks. Read the SEO Starter Guide on Google Search Central and the Search Quality Rater Guidelines once a quarter. These keep your advice grounded and help you avoid myths that drain budget and trust.
What The Platforms Tell You
Core themes stay steady: put people first, ship fast pages, and remove friction. Build pages that fully answer the task. Keep ads out of the first screen. Use descriptive alt text and sensible file sizes. When you cite facts or medical claims, lean on recognized authorities. Small habits like these lower risk and raise trust.
Set Up A Simple Stack
You don’t need fancy software to start. Use a crawler, a rank tracker, a speed tester, and a sheet. Add a writing tool and a dashboard. Pick tools you can master and keep them light so you move fast.
Suggested Tool Belt
Crawler: Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. Rank tracking: a daily tracker for target terms. Speed: WebPageTest and PageSpeed Insights. Logs: your host or a plugin. Dashboards: Looker Studio fed by Search Console and analytics. Docs: a shared drive with folders for audit, content, links, and reports.
Design Offers Clients Understand
People buy outcomes, not tasks. Name your packages by result and timing. Sell a one-time audit, a six-week sprint, and a monthly plan. Keep deliverables clear and fixed. That clarity removes friction in sales and delivery.
Three Simple Packages
The audit finds issues with fixes ranked by impact and effort. The sprint ships key changes and one content cluster. The monthly plan mixes content, links, and tuning with a set number of hours. Use the table below as a starting menu and adjust to your market.
Sample Menu With Ranges
| Package | Deliverables | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|
| Audit | Full crawl, speed tests, issue list, fix plan, and a review call. | $1.5k–$5k |
| Sprint (6 Weeks) | Titles, copy refresh, internal links, schema, one pillar page, outreach. | $4k–$12k |
| Monthly Plan | Content, links, tuning, and reporting with set hours and goals. | $2k–$8k/mo |
Deliver Work That Sticks
Great delivery keeps clients long term. Ship early wins in week one or two. Fix tracking and page speed to show quick gains. Keep a simple doc with “shipped, queued, blocked.” Send a short Loom or call recap that points to next steps.
Audit Walkthrough
Open with the scoreboard: traffic, conversions, top pages. Then show the three main blockers with plain fixes. Keep the rest in an appendix. Give the dev team exact steps with line items and owners. A punchy audit beats a 100-page dump that nobody reads.
Content That Moves Needles
Pick one pillar and a set of helpers. Write to a real reader and match search intent. Use descriptive headers, short paragraphs, and answer boxes. Add product data, prices, or steps where it helps the reader decide. Link new pages to the best sellers and the category hub.
Links Without Risk
Earn links with pages that carry data or a useful template. Pitch local groups, suppliers, and industry sites. Avoid paid link schemes. Track anchors and source types. When a mention goes live, check crawl and index, then add an internal link to pass value where you need it.
Price With Confidence
Price by value, not hours. Set a floor so you can do real work. If a lead asks for a cheap test, offer the audit or the sprint. That guards your time and sets clear terms. Raise rates once your calendar fills past 70%.
Proposals That Win
Keep your deck to ten slides. Problem, plan, proof, price, and next steps. End with a start date and a payment link.
Find Clients Without Cold Spam
You only need one steady channel. Pick referrals, LinkedIn content, partner agencies, or niche events. Post one tight thread per week that teaches a small win and shows a chart. Ask happy clients for a two-line testimonial and a referral.
Positioning That Opens Doors
Be specific. “I help local dentists book more implants from search” beats “I do SEO for anyone.” Specific wins more calls and better fees. Your site should show your lane, your offers, and proof. A simple case study page with charts and two quotes works better than a bloated portfolio.
Measure What Matters
Track inputs and outcomes. Inputs: titles shipped, pages published, links earned. Outcomes: non-brand clicks, revenue by channel, and lead quality. Report on actions taken and the lift tied to them. Keep vanity charts out of the deck.
Build A Lightweight Dashboard
Use Looker Studio with connectors for Search Console and analytics. Create a one-page view: top queries by click growth, top pages by revenue, and failed pages that need a rewrite. Add annotation lines when you ship changes so gains tie to work.
Stay Within The Rules
Search platforms care about safe layouts, honest claims, and helpful pages. Keep ads out of the first screen. Keep font sizes readable. Mark sponsored links as such. When you cite a rule or dataset, link to the source page so readers can check it.
Where To Read Official Guidance
You can learn from the SEO Starter Guide on Google Search Central and from the Search Quality Rater Guidelines. These documents outline content quality, E-E-A-T signals, and ad-safe layouts. Read them, follow them, and show clients how your process lines up with those rules.
Make Your Work Repeatable
Turn each step into a checklist you can run on any site in your lane. Save templates for audits, titles, briefs, and outreach. Keep a library of before/after shots. With a simple system, you spend less time reinventing and more time shipping.
Weekly Rhythm
Plan Monday, ship Tuesday through Thursday, and report Friday. Book one hour for learning. Read one section of the starter guide, one public case write-up, and one topical blog post. Add small notes to your swipe file so ideas are easy to reuse.
Mini Checklist
- Pick one lane and write a one-line promise that names the outcome.
- Run a six-week sprint on a site you control and publish the charts publicly.
- Package an audit, a sprint, and a monthly plan with clear scopes.
- Track inputs and outcomes in one dashboard.
- Revisit platform guidance each quarter and trim tactics that drift.
Common Pitfalls To Avoid
Don’t chase hacks or rumor threads. Don’t buy links. Don’t ship giant PDFs nobody implements. Don’t promise rankings you can’t control. Do the basics well and show proof. That boring consistency wins renewals and referrals.
Ready To Start
Pick a lane, run a six-week sprint, publish the case study, and sell three packages. Keep a clean stack and a weekly rhythm. Stay close to official guidance and ship work that helps real users. That’s the path to steady deals and long-term clients.