What Clients Really Need From an SEO Strategist: Beyond Rankings, PDFs, and Plugins

You wouldn’t believe how many calls I’ve been on that start with, “We just want to rank on the first page of Google.” That’s fair. It’s a good ambition — but it’s also a bit like saying, “I want to be fit,” while standing outside a locked gym, in flip-flops, holding a donut.

SEO isn’t magic. It’s architecture. It’s plumbing. It’s roadmaps. And half the time, when I get brought in, I find out the foundation was never finished. You can hire me right now via my freelancer page on Upwork or set up a 30-minute call with me via Calendly.

The Real Job of an SEO Strategist

Clients often come to me thinking they need content — and sometimes they do. But more often, what they actually need is clarity.

My job isn’t just to sprinkle keywords into paragraphs or install some SEO plugin and walk away. My job is to:

• Discover what’s broken

• Build a prioritized plan

• Guide implementation (or do it myself)

• Monitor and iterate — rinse, repeat

Most of the value I bring happens before I touch a line of copy.

The Discovery Call Analogies

Over time, I’ve developed a handful of analogies I use in discovery calls — not just to sound clever, but to help business owners see the big picture.

The Mechanic vs. The Driver:
You're the one driving the car. I'm the mechanic you bring it to when it doesn't start, stalls out, or won’t pass inspection. I don’t just kick the tires — I pop the hood and explain what that rattling sound is.

The Treasure Map vs. The Maze:
Most SEO audits are a maze. You get a 32-page PDF and no idea where to start. I give clients a map instead — here’s where we are, here’s where the gold is, here’s how we get there without falling into a snake pit of wasted time and random fixes.

The Gym Buddy vs. The Personal Trainer:
SEO plugins and AI tools are gym buddies. They’ll spot you — maybe. I’m the personal trainer who says “your form is off,” rewrites your program, and gets you results without throwing out your back.

What Clients Actually Need (But Rarely Ask For)

Most businesses don’t have an SEO problem — they have an indexing problem. Google can’t find half the content. Or it’s duplicated. Or the site’s structure is a tangle of 404s, ?variants, and orphan pages.

So I start there:

• Crawl and index health

• Site structure and internal linking

• Metadata clarity and intent mapping

• Page speed and Core Web Vitals

• GBP if it’s local — and schema if it’s not

Before we add sparkle, we need structure.

Why Tools Don’t Replace Strategy

I don’t use Ahrefs. I don’t use BrightLocal. I don’t need Sitebulb to tell me what my gut and Google Search Console already did. That’s not arrogance — it’s experience.

Don’t get me wrong: tools help. But strategy? That’s where the lift happens. You can rent all the bulldozers you want — but if you don’t know what you’re building, you’re just digging holes.

When Clients Say “I Want to Rank,” What They’re Really Saying

“I want to be found by the right people.”
“I want traffic that converts.”
“I want leads, not fluff.”

That’s what I help with — connecting visibility to value. Because ranking for something nobody’s searching for is just… quiet bragging.

What I Bring to the Table (Without Sounding Like a Brochure)

• 25+ years of SEO, starting back in the Altavista days

• Thousands of hours in the trenches with small businesses, eCommerce, agencies, and complex brands

• Deep experience in Google Business Profiles, technical SEO, content strategy, indexing recovery, and site architecture

• No tools for tools’ sake. Just insight, clarity, and real-world execution

Final Thought: It’s Not Magic. It’s Architecture.

I’m not the guy who’ll sell you a dream. I’m the one who shows up with a tape measure, a blueprint, and a promise to explain everything along the way.

If you’re tired of SEO that feels like a black box — let’s open the lid.

FAQ: Frequently Asked SEO Client Questions

Q1: How long does SEO take to work?
SEO is a long game. Most clients see meaningful traction in 60–90 days, with substantial growth within 4–6 months if strategy and implementation are aligned and consistent.

Q2: Can you guarantee first-page rankings?
No — and anyone who does is selling snake oil. I guarantee clarity, best practices, and strategy execution, not outcomes controlled by algorithmic black boxes. That said, I do have a strong track record of helping clients outrank competitors.

Q3: What’s the difference between on-page, off-page, and technical SEO?

• On-page SEO is everything on the site: content, titles, meta tags, headers, internal links, etc.

• Off-page SEO refers to signals from other sites: backlinks, mentions, reviews.

• Technical SEO is the plumbing: site speed, crawlability, indexation, schema, and structural hygiene.

Q4: Why don’t you use Ahrefs, Sitebulb, BrightLocal, or Surfer SEO?
Because I don’t need to. I rely on Google Search Console, GA4, browser-based tools, and my own manual auditing methods honed over 25+ years. No extra dashboards, no noise — just results.

Q5: Do you offer backlinks?
I don’t do manual outreach or link buying. Instead, I’ll advise on safe authority-building strategies, help identify targets, and coordinate with content teams or link builders if needed. My goal is long-term domain trust, not spammy spikes.

Q6: I already installed Yoast/RankMath/All-in-One SEO. Isn’t that enough?
Nope. Plugins are assistants — not strategists. They won’t fix indexation issues, build your content strategy, or analyze crawl depth. They’re a helpful layer, not a solution.

Q7: How do you know what keywords to target?
Through a mix of search intent analysis, competitive review, and manual Google SERP modeling. I map what your ideal customers are searching for, how they phrase it, and what kind of content Google currently rewards.

Q8: Do you work with developers or content teams?
Absolutely. I’m used to collaborating with devs, writers, and designers to ensure strategy becomes action. I speak both tech and plain English.

Q9: How often will I get updates or reports?
That depends on the engagement — but typically, I deliver monthly progress summaries, key wins, areas needing focus, and next-step recommendations. I also do live strategy reviews when needed.

Q10: What’s the first thing you’d do if I hired you?
A diagnostic audit — covering crawlability, indexing, site structure, content footprint, and competitor position. No assumptions. Just reality, mapped clearly.

SEO Glossary (For Normal Humans)

Indexation
The process of getting your site’s pages added to Google’s searchable database. If it’s not indexed, it won’t rank — period.

Crawlability
How easily Google’s bots can move through your site. Broken links, loops, and blocked pages can disrupt this and tank visibility.

Internal Linking
The practice of linking between pages on your own website. Done well, it helps users navigate and tells search engines what matters most.

Schema Markup (Structured Data)
Special code you can add to a webpage to help search engines better understand your content — often resulting in rich snippets (stars, prices, FAQs) in Google results.

SERP
Stands for "Search Engine Results Page" — the list of results shown after a search. Getting on Page 1 is the goal, but how you appear matters too.

Search Intent
What the user actually wants when they type something into Google. Is it informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional? Great SEO matches intent, not just keywords.

On-Page SEO
The process of optimizing things within your pages — like title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and content itself.

Technical SEO
The under-the-hood stuff: how fast your site loads, how it’s coded, how easy it is for Google to understand and rank your content.

Canonical Tag
A bit of HTML that tells Google which version of a page is the “main” one — especially useful when you have duplicate or similar pages.

Google Business Profile (GBP)
Essential for local SEO. Your GBP listing controls how your business appears in Maps and local search results. It’s your digital storefront for location-based discovery.

Core Web Vitals (CWV)
Google’s user experience metrics:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How fast your content loads

• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): How responsive your site feels

• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): How stable your layout is as it loads

Orphan Pages
Pages that exist on your site but aren’t linked to from anywhere else. Google has a hard time finding them — which usually means no traffic. You can hire me right now via my freelancer page on Upwork or set up a 30-minute call with me via Calendly.