SEO Services You Can Offer as a Solo Consultant
SEO is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. Businesses of all sizes are fighting to get found online, but many still don’t understand how search engines work or how to leverage them effectively. That’s where solo SEO consultants come in. You don’t need to be part of an agency to offer powerful results. In fact, many small businesses prefer working with a single expert who can guide them clearly, personally, and affordably. If you’ve got SEO knowledge, here are 11 high-value services you can offer to start or grow your consulting business today.
1. SEO Audits
A comprehensive SEO audit is often the first step clients need—whether they know it or not. It involves analyzing their website’s technical structure, on-page content, user experience, and backlink profile to identify strengths and weaknesses. This gives clients a clear roadmap of what’s holding them back from ranking and where they should focus first. As a solo consultant, offering detailed, actionable audits (with visual reports) is one of the easiest ways to prove your value and win long-term clients.
2. Keyword Research
Many business owners guess what their customers are searching for—but effective SEO starts with accurate keyword data. By offering keyword research services, you help clients understand what terms their audience uses, how competitive those keywords are, and where real opportunities lie. You can break this down by content type (blogs, service pages, product listings) and even offer keyword clustering for long-term content strategy. Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Ubersuggest make this a high-impact, high-margin service.
3. On-Page SEO Optimization
Once keywords are chosen, you can help implement them by optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, headers, internal linking, image alt texts, and more. On-page SEO is one of the most direct ways to improve rankings, and most clients have never done it correctly. Offer this service on a per-page or package basis. Bonus: since most websites are built on platforms like WordPress or Shopify, you can upsell implementation if they don’t want to do it themselves.
4. Technical SEO Fixes
Even with the best content, a slow or broken site won’t rank. Technical SEO ensures that a website is crawlable, indexable, fast-loading, and mobile-friendly. This includes fixing broken links, improving Core Web Vitals, optimizing crawl budgets, and cleaning up structured data. As a solo consultant, you can either offer technical audits or provide direct fixes. Clients with larger, older sites will often pay premium rates just to have someone make their site “Google-friendly” again.
5. Local SEO
Local SEO is crucial for businesses that rely on foot traffic or regional customers—think restaurants, gyms, dentists, or law firms. Offering services like Google Business Profile optimization, citation building, local keyword research, and review strategy can deliver fast, visible results. Local SEO is less competitive than national SEO, which means your work can create impact more quickly—making clients happy and more likely to stick around.
6. Content Strategy & Planning
Great SEO starts with great content. Many businesses know they should blog or create landing pages, but they don’t know what to write or how often. As a consultant, you can offer content calendars, blog topic research, and SEO-focused outlines. You don’t need to be a writer—just provide strategic guidance based on search intent and keyword opportunities. Pairing this with your keyword research service is a powerful, ongoing offer.
7. Link Building
Backlinks are still one of the most important ranking factors—but they’re hard to earn and even harder to scale. That’s why many businesses outsource it. As a solo consultant, you can offer white-hat link building methods like guest posting, link outreach, HARO pitching, and digital PR. Be transparent about your approach (no shady PBNs), and charge per link or campaign. This is one of the most lucrative SEO services because of the direct impact links have on rankings.
8. Competitor Analysis
Clients are often curious (or anxious) about their competitors outranking them. Offering competitor SEO analysis helps you identify what others are doing better—from keywords they rank for to backlink sources and content strategy. This not only informs your client’s strategy but positions you as a data-driven expert. Use this service to help clients find content gaps, link-building opportunities, or missed keyword targets they hadn’t considered.
9. SEO Reporting & Analytics
Even great results don’t matter if the client can’t see or understand them. Monthly SEO reporting is a service in itself—especially for business owners who don’t want to log into Google Analytics or Search Console. Provide clean, visual reports that show traffic growth, keyword movement, backlink count, and page performance. Add in expert commentary to show what’s working, what needs adjusting, and what’s coming next. Done right, reporting builds trust and encourages clients to stay long-term.
10. E-Commerce SEO
E-commerce businesses have specific SEO needs—category page optimization, product schema, internal linking, image optimization, and more. As a solo consultant, you can specialize in platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento to help online stores boost visibility and drive sales. Product pages are often neglected, which gives you a clear value proposition. Offer audits, on-page optimization, and keyword research tailored specifically to product intent and buyer behavior.
11. SEO Training & Coaching
Not all clients want “done-for-you” services—some want to learn how to do SEO themselves. Offering 1-on-1 coaching, team training, or even group workshops is a great way to scale your expertise without doing the implementation. You can teach business owners how to use tools, audit their own sites, create content strategies, or manage freelancers. These services often command premium hourly rates and position you as an educator, not just a technician.
Conclusion
Being a solo SEO consultant doesn’t mean you have to offer everything—but it does mean you can specialize and still serve clients effectively. These 11 services give you multiple entry points to attract clients, upsell existing ones, and build recurring revenue. Start with one or two based on your strengths, and expand as you go. In a world where SEO is only becoming more important, offering high-quality, focused services as a solo consultant is not just sustainable—it’s highly profitable.
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