A Path to SEO Success

No matter your business situation – whether you’re a smaller to midsize business, e-commerce store or start-up – the expert you hire should be able to prove value upfront and that they can check off the following boxes,

☐ Comprehensive SEO audit process built on fundamentally solid onsite/offsite techniques that are also up to speed with the latest Google algorithm change

☐ Proficient, inside-and-out knowledge of your specific web platform (WordPress, Shopify, Wix, etc)

☐ Big-picture strategy that’s backed by success across varied industries & website types/sizes

For SMBs, an experienced consultant is the easy choice to build visibility, increase traffic and boost revenue by working hand-in-hand with you to sustainably improve organic search performance.

Before you contract with Path Digital Services, we’ll walk through how a project-based approach can best work for you – with the proposal itself 100% tailored around your specific business needs and objectives. This proposal & labor estimate process is designed to be as transparent as possible so that you get a true sense of the value upfront.

As an independently operating consultancy, Path Digital is built on a decade plus of real-world SEO experience for e-commerce, local business, startups and agencies, and we’ve set up our efficient, affordable packaged services so they work seamlessly for growing businesses and agencies alike. Additionally, we have relationships with both expert developers and blog content creators to offer you a full-service solution past the immediate SEO package work.

In short, our consulting approach is what allows us to respond to Google’s algorithm faster and make optimizations on the fly, work hand-in-hand with the business owner, and simply operate leaner and more efficiently than agencies can.

Path Digital offers digital service packages to new clients backed by 15+ years’ experience in the digital space, including SEO, e-commerce (conversion rate) optimization, WordPress-specific solutions, analytics, brand strategy, content strategy, UX (user experience) design, and digital & creative copywriting. We also work with select long-term clients on a retainer basis.

Over the years we’ve found that no matter your site’s situation, with these two deliverables,

A) Site audit (spreadsheet work to contain immediate onsite & technical priorities and set up directly for platform implementation)

B) Onsite/offsite strategy roadmap (forward-looking onsite & offsite strategy to catapult your site’s organic search growth, with actionable steps and content creation included)

Project management stays simple, and we can consult on and optimize ANY website — from small business WordPress sites to massive e-commerce site (keywords, content, links, structure, site performance/ technical SEO, off-page SEO) — for rapid and sustainable search visibility, organic traffic improvement and online growth. We have the breadth and depth of organic search experience to back this up. (That includes complex migration SEO efforts to help you move from one platform or domain to another.) The key to success is Path’s step-1 ‘package’ that leverages platform-specific expertise to fit as much value as possible in a contained scope of work.

Questions? Please see Frequently Asked Questions below, or contact us here.

A: As a service, search engine optimization consulting is built for small to midsize businesses (SMB). Overall, with this approach, an individual professional works hand-in-hand with the business owner or decision maker to consult and provide expert advice on ‘big picture’ organic search questions (including around platform frameworks), lead SEO strategy, as well as oversee and lead onsite & offsite implementation and/or do implementation themselves.

Working one-on-one with a consultant allows a typical smaller business to respond to Google’s algorithm nimbly, make optimizations on the fly, and simply move faster and more efficiently than they could by hiring a large agency. Agencies typically have many large clients to manage, divide tasks among different specialists, and aren’t able to offer a high degree of responsiveness due to how they scale.

An organic search consultant may also offer specialist services to larger organizations and digital agencies.

A: Whether you’re a smaller to midsize (SMB) business, start-up, or agency: taking a consulting approach can help you grow the fastest because it is tailored around your (or your client’s) site’s unique situation and intended to get you the most out of your SEO investment with real-world knowledge of the particular web platform you are working with. As you’re working with just a single professional, they are typically more “agile,” including taking the time to understand your business needs, scope out the effort level in advance, and can work on a per-project basis in addition to or rather than a set monthly retainer.

While organic search consulting can be a good fit for your businesses regardless of industry or niche, Google’s algorithm is complex; local and e-commerce SEO tactics can differ significantly, for example. But if the professional you hire is up to speed with the latest organic search trends, and can implement solutions for your specific platform (rather than just standalone consultation), then they should have the most adept “real-world” understanding what’s working in Google SERPs now.

There are scenarios where this approach doesn’t fit – if you’re trying to scale rapidly by building thousands of links at a time as an offsite tactic, for example (which we don’t recommend) – but a consultant is able to confidently advise you if any SEO task can be outsourced, for example, or when there’s a solution or tactic that may work better and/or save on digital marketing costs.

A: “Step 1” SEO is how we refer to all immediate onsite/offsite priorities that can be contained in our strategy & implementation package – the service package Path offers to new clients that is limited to a set scope and tailored around your specific site situation and web platform. SEO involves an ongoing effort, but the heavy lifting is ALWAYS at the beginning. From here, next steps can involve Search Console (search analytics) reporting, offsite SEO (directory submissions, for ex.), and more intensive onsite efforts (like around reviews/testimonials).

A: Once your site is resubmitted using Google Search Console upon completion of the package, the typical process is to wait 5-6 weeks, and we’ll see how Google is responding and how you are performing for your target search terms, among other success metrics that we identify as part of this initial round.

Once we establish success, the typical way to proceed is either A) ongoing monthly SEO retainer if justified, or B) second round of follow-up work, according to your specific business needs. In general, we recommend that you evaluate ongoing organic search investment after a report we deliver on progress (within 6-8 weeks of the first round of work). It’s all flexible around your goals and budget.

A: To help set expectations for organic performance success, Path Digital provides critical keyword insights and identifies opportunities as well as any roadblocks to growth in the SEO proposal upfront. Before we get started, you get this valuable takeaway for your business at no cost.

This way, you can see the specific onsite/offsite tactics we expect will make the biggest impact and how they’ll be delivered and implemented; it’s all transparent and defined on paper first. As a common example, the typical #1 starting goal is to improve daily search impressions – number of times viewed in search engines – by 2X. Once the package is complete, you get a Google Search Console report on progress, including a breakdown of specific performance metrics (# search impressions/ organic clicks), before we agree to go further. More on Path SEO ❭