SEO Management - on demand

Even minimal technical errors can have devastating consequences for organic visibility. For example, a dynamic multiplication of URLs can occur:

I once managed a small online shop with about 500 products. The products were of high quality, and there was demand. The prices were competitive, and the design was very appealing.

However, this online shop had practically no rankings. The main reason was a problematic logic in the pagination.

As a result, each click generated a new URL. Instead of the desired approximately 500 product pages, the shop system generated at least 350,000.

Since search engines like Google or Bing operate based on crawling, these at least 350k pages are then evaluated. Consequently, the entire website receives a devastatingly poor rating, and search engine bots visit less frequently.

The SEO audit for this online shop also revealed other findings. But above all, the technical solution for these at least 349,500 subpages provided the decisive boost for organic visibility within a few weeks.

The client then opted for monthly SEO management. In this format, we primarily expanded the category pages and the subpages for economically particularly interesting products.

The ecosystems of Google and other major search engines are inevitably subject to fluctuations and major movements as part of updates.

September 2022 Google Update vs. organic visibility of boersennews.de (according to Semrush)

In the event of ranking losses or drops in visibility indices, it is important to remain calm. First, not all negative movements have an impact on business, such as:

• Algorithmic cleanup of irrelevant rankings
• Technical volatility on the part of the indices

Furthermore, the nature of a Google Update rollout can inevitably lead to very large fluctuations. A key reason is that a multitude of very different values are used for rankings.

In addition to technical aspects like web performance, this primarily includes user signals. The British SEO Oliver Mason was able to prove in a sensational test that the pot of user signals can be emptied.

This may sound trivial and purely technical, but the effect is drastic. Especially websites with excellent content but (relatively) low authority are therefore massively shaken by many core updates.

Their previously good rankings resulted from the collected user signals. These are suddenly reset to zero, and accordingly, such websites can experience a very abrupt decline. I have seen drops of 95% within 24 hours.

Such ranking drops usually recover within four weeks or at most six months, because new user signals emerge and are then evaluated. This mechanism on Google’s part is extremely annoying for the operators of such websites.

However, a fundamental departure from the previous strategy would then be a big mistake. Rather, as an SEO consultant in such a situation, I tend to look for potential in the details. However, a massive threat and significant need for action arise with other types of ranking losses:

• Drops due to technical problems – for example, conflicts can arise following a plugin update, leading to dysfunctionality of critical features. Without a “repair,” such a website will not recover but rather crash even deeper. Here, one must react with an SEO audit.
• Creeping position loss due to content – the vast amount of content on websites loses at least partially or even completely its topicality and relevance over time. Furthermore, especially in the informational area, many topics are now better addressed with videos than previously with texts. In such cases, a comprehensive content audit is indicated, and often a substantial adjustment of the SEO strategy is required.
• Successful SEO by the competition – the competition never sleeps, as the saying goes. While this is not always true, there are, of course, very active competitors who fight for a place in the market and then want to expand it. If you are outmaneuvered by a competitor, there is an urgent need for action. One should start with a competitor analysis and adjust one’s own SEO strategy based on that.

The exact scope of activity of an SEO consultant can vary greatly from project to project and is agreed upon individually. The client’s needs and, in individual cases, the service provider’s capabilities are decisive.

However, it generally refers to one-time consulting activities, in contrast to ongoing operational implementation within the framework of monthly SEO management. These terms are not uniformly defined or categorically delimited.

Here are some examples:

• SERP & Ranking Analyses
• Competitor Analyses
• SEO Audits & Backlink Analyses
• Keyword / Cluster Research
• Strategy Development
• Tactics Training
• Process Consulting
• Monitoring / Performance Control

The general answer is: yes. Support from an SEO consultant is always advisable when you use search engine traffic for commercial purposes. It is essentially like the question of whether you should involve a tax advisor for your annual financial statements.

In addition, small businesses in particular have an operational advantage over large providers: they are very flexible, and the number of stakeholders is small, which makes coordination much easier. Large companies, on the other hand, often need months just to approve a short text.

My hourly rate as an SEO consultant is €150/h.

However, the total cost of an SEO project depends on additional factors, such as:

• Type of SEO measures: The scope can vary greatly depending on the topic area and the specific challenges of a project. For example, working with an outdated system can require additional effort and therefore increase costs.
• Competitive situation: The intensity of the respective competition and the pulling power of a company’s USPs generally have a very strong influence on the required SEO effort.
• Provider’s home market: SEO prices vary greatly by region and provider. As an SEO freelancer from Berlin, for example, I am significantly more affordable than my competitors from Hamburg or Munich. In addition, agencies are also more expensive than freelancers due to organisational overhead.
• Contract type: Some SEO providers calculate on the basis of fixed-term contracts with monthly retainers, while others bill on a project basis. The devil is usually in the details here, and unfortunately, inexperienced clients very often fall for targeted misdirection by salespeople. I am happy to explain which contract type is the best choice for your SEO project in a detailed preliminary consultation.

Monthly costs for a promising SEO project usually range from a few hundred to several thousand euros.