SEO Consultant by the Hour: Second Opinions and Coaching

An SEO consultant is the person you call when you don't need another pair of hands. You need a second pair of eyes, or someone to teach the hands you already have.

That's what I sell here: my head, by the hour. Two jobs come up most. Owners ask me to check what their agency is actually doing for the money. And companies with an in-house marketer ask me to coach that person, so they stop guessing and start fixing the right things.

No retainer, no package. You book the hours you need. If that's useful, tell me what you'd like a second opinion on and I'll reply with a plan and a fixed quote within one business day.

Starting at $100 an hour, or $150 for a 60-minute coaching session. That covers calls, second opinions, reviews of agency work, and coaching for in-house teams.

What you can hire an SEO consultant for

• A second opinion. An agency proposal, a redesign plan, a quote for "AI search optimization", or a traffic drop you can't explain. You get a straight answer in plain English.
• An agency-work review. I check the work you've paid for against your own data (details below).
• In-house coaching. Regular sessions with your marketer or web person, built around your site, not a generic course.
• Decision calls. Should you move platforms, merge two sites, split a US and a Canadian site, or hire a retainer at all? I'll give you my view and the trade-offs.
• Written notes after every call. What we covered, what to do next, and links to the sources.

How it works

1. You fill in the questionnaire. What you need checked or learned, and which accounts I'd look at.
2. I reply with a plan and a fixed quote within one business day. For a review, I estimate the hours up front. You approve before I start.
3. You give me read-only access. Viewer or restricted access is enough for most reviews. I never need to own anything.
4. I do the work, then we talk. A typical agency-work review takes three to five hours, depending on how many accounts and months are involved. Coaching runs in 60-minute sessions, weekly or every two weeks.
5. You get written notes. Short, prioritized, and yours to share with whoever does the work.

Checking your agency's work, with evidence instead of vibes

This is the part most owners ask for, and it's where I'm most useful.

Google publishes its own list of questions to ask an SEO, including "Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site" and how they measure success. A monthly report full of charts often answers neither. So I go to the sources the report should be built from.

What I check

• Search Console. The Performance report shows clicks, impressions (how often your site appeared in results) and average position, straight from Google. I compare the agency's claims against it, page by page.
• The pages themselves. If the report says titles were rewritten or content was added, I check the live pages. If nothing visible changed in six months, that's a finding.
• Google Ads change history. If they run your ads, change history shows who changed what, for up to two years. "Weekly optimization" should leave footprints there.
• The links they built. I spot-check the placements in their report: are they live, are they on real sites people read, and do they look like the patterns Google's link spam policy names, such as paid links or keyword-stuffed guest posts?
• Who owns the accounts. Domain, Search Console, Analytics, Business Profile, Ads. If the agency is the owner, you're renting.

What you get back

A short written verdict: what's real, what's missing, and what to ask your agency next. Sometimes the answer is "they're doing good work, the market is just slow." I'll say that too. A fair check cuts both ways.

If you'd like to try a first pass yourself, my 20-minute self-check for agency results uses only free Google tools.

SEO coaching for your in-house person

Plenty of small companies have one marketer who's been handed "the SEO" along with email, social and the trade show booth. They don't need a course. They need someone senior to look at their actual site with them.

A typical session: we open your Search Console together, pick one problem, and fix it or plan the fix. Then there's homework, and next session starts with what happened. Over a few months your person learns to spot what matters and skip what doesn't.

Who this is for (and who it isn't)

This suits owners and teams across the US and Canada, from contractors and clinics to law firms, local retailers and SaaS startups, who either already pay someone for SEO or have someone in-house who can do the work.

It isn't for you if you want the work done rather than advised. Consulting hours don't include implementation, so if nobody on your side can make the changes, having me run your SEO monthly makes more sense. And if what you need is a full crawl of the site with a prioritized fix list, the fixed-price technical audit is better value than hourly time.

SEO consulting pricing

An Ahrefs survey of 439 providers found the most common rate for SEO consultants is $100 to $150 an hour, with consultancies averaging about $171. My prices, as of October 2026:

Reviews take longer when there are several sites, several agencies, or years of history to untangle. I'll give you the estimate before any clock starts. Prices are in USD, and Canadian clients can pay in CAD at the day's exchange rate. The rest of the list is on my full rate list.

Why ask me

I've been in search marketing for 20+ years, doing SEO since the mid-2000s, plus PPC and affiliate work. I've trained and led junior SEO specialists, so coaching isn't a side gig I picked up last year. I hold a current Google Ads Search certification, and the details are on the page about me and my certifications.

I've also sat on both sides of the table. I've spent over $150,000 of my own money on paid ads over the years, so I know how it feels to pay for marketing and wonder where it went. That's the lens I bring to every agency review.

SEO consultant FAQ

How much does an SEO consultant cost per hour?

Survey data puts the most common rate at $100 to $150 an hour, with specialist consultancies averaging around $170. At BigRed, consulting starts at $100 an hour, and a 60-minute coaching session is $150. Reviews are quoted up front in hours, so you know the total before work starts. Whatever the rate, ask who will actually do the hours and how senior they are.

Can you tell me if my SEO agency is doing a good job?

Yes, usually in three to five hours. I compare their reports with your Search Console data, check the live pages they say they changed, spot-check the links they built, and confirm who owns your accounts. You get a written verdict and the questions to ask them. Sometimes the answer is that they're doing fine work in a slow market, and I'll say so.

What's the difference between SEO consulting and SEO coaching?

Consulting is me giving you answers: a second opinion, a review, a decision. Coaching is me teaching your own person to find the answers, session by session, using your real site. Owners tend to want consulting. Companies with an in-house marketer usually get more from coaching, because the knowledge stays after the sessions end.

Do you need full access to my accounts?

No. For reviews and coaching, read-only access is usually enough: restricted or full user in Search Console, viewer in Analytics, read-only in Google Ads. I never need to be an owner. If I spot that someone else holds ownership of your accounts, that goes in the report as one of the first things to fix.

Next step

If you want a straight answer about your SEO, or a coach for the person doing it, book your first hour through the consulting questionnaire. I'll reply with a plan and an hour estimate, and you decide from there.