SEO consultant · London
SEO Consultant London: You Work With Us
We run a UK SEO consultancy, and your work is done by us, every month.
The first call is free and there is nothing to sign.
5 stars across 300+ Google reviews Phone 020 7112 8794
You work directly with us.
Direct SEO support
What is an SEO consultant?
An SEO consultant is one person you hire to improve how your website ranks in Google. Unlike an agency, you deal with that person directly. We are a freelance SEO consultant in the UK, working with one client per niche per area.
Consultant or agency?
Should you hire a consultant or an agency?
Hire a consultant when you want one senior person thinking about your website. Hire an agency when you need a team producing a lot of work at once.
Both can work. They fail in different ways, so it helps to see the trade honestly.
| What we are comparing | First Place SEODirect consultancy | A London SEO agencyLarger provider | The cheapest freelancerLowest-price option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | One senior consultant. | Often a junior, after the pitch. | One person, sometimes subcontracted. |
| Monthly fee | £500, £1,000 or £2,000, published. | Quoted only after a sales call. | Often under £300. |
| Minimum term | No minimum term. | Commonly 6 to 12 months. | No minimum term. |
| Clients in your niche | Never more than one. | Often several at once. | Not usually disclosed. |
| Who you contact | The consultant doing the work. | An account manager. | One person, when they are free. |
| AI search visibility | Included in every plan. | Often a paid add-on. | Rarely covered at all. |
If a large team is genuinely what you need, say so on the call and I will tell you. There is a case for it, and we have written it out on the page for if you would rather have an agency.
Before you hire anyone
What should you ask before you hire anyone?
Use these on me as well. If a consultant dodges any of them, that is your answer.
01 Contract and time Who is named in the contract, and how many hours will they spend?
A name and a number, in writing. Vagueness here is the most expensive mistake in this industry.
02 Site review Have you crawled my site yet?
If they quote before crawling, they are quoting a package.
03 Pricing What does the price depend on?
The honest answer is three things. How many pages need fixing, how competitive your terms are, and whether you have anyone in-house who can implement. Industry barely matters.
04 Your involvement Who at my end has to do something, and how quickly?
Good recommendations sitting in a queue return nothing. This question exposes whether they have thought about your side of it.
05 Exit terms What happens if I want to stop?
Ask about notice, ownership of the work, and what you keep.
Who does the work
Who actually does the work?
We do. Every audit, every recommendation, every report has my hands on it.
That is question one on the list above, so here is my answer in the terms I just asked you to use. My name goes in the contract. The hours go in with it. You can hold me to both.
Most agencies will not put a name in a statement of work. There is a reason for that.
The person who impresses you in the pitch is usually the person who sells, and the person who does your work is usually somebody you have not met yet.
Some background on how we ended up doing this, if it helps you decide.
SEO consultancy pricing
Choose the Level of SEO Support You Need
Most London SEO consultants charge between £100 and £400 an hour, or £2,000 to £15,000 a month on retainer. Those figures come from the published rates of two consultants who rank on the first page for this term. ITJobsWatch puts the median London day rate at £281 (opens in a new tab).
I charge less than that, and I publish it.
Starter SEO Consultancy
For smaller sites that need the essentials handled properly.
£500 /month
Enquire About Starter- 2 search-led articles each month
- 1 new or rebuilt page each month
- Core business directory listings
- Essential on-page SEO fixes
- Plain-English monthly report
Growth SEO Consultancy
For businesses that need steady, consistent monthly progress.
£1,000 /month
Enquire About GrowthEverything in Starter, and:
- 6 search-led articles each month
- 2 new or rebuilt pages each month
- Business listings and citations managed
- Ongoing on-page SEO improvements
- Google Business Profile support
- Review support
Market Leader SEO Consultancy
For competitive markets and larger growth targets.
£2,000 /month
Enquire About Market LeaderEverything in Growth, and:
- 12 search-led articles each month
- 4 new or rebuilt pages each month
- Website speed improvements
- Ongoing competitor monitoring
- Link building
- Google Search Console performance tracking
- AI citation tracking
What you are paying for
What does a freelance SEO consultant actually do?
There are two versions of the job. You either pay for advice alone, or you pay for advice and implementation. Which one you need decides what the work should cost.
Choose the model that fits your team
Advice only
For businesses with a developer or marketing person who can make the changes.
- I do Work out what needs to change and explain why
- Your team does Builds and publishes the changes
- Why it costs less You are paying for the thinking, not the implementation time
Advice and implementation
For businesses where nobody in-house regularly works on the website.
- I do Work out the changes and make them myself
- Your team does Provides access, answers and approvals when needed
- Why it costs more You are paying for more of my time each month
The work follows three stages
The delivery model changes, but the SEO work itself stays in the same order.
Fix what is broken
Start with technical and on-page problems because they are often the quickest and cheapest issues to put right.
Build the right pages
Create pages that answer what your customers actually type when they are looking for help.
Earn trusted mentions
Earn mentions from other websites that help Google take those pages and your business more seriously.
The first 90 days
What Happens in the First 90 Days?
we crawl your site first
Before we quote anything, we run your website through a full technical crawl. Anyone who quotes a monthly fee without looking at your site is selling a package.
We agree who can publish
Somebody at your end needs to be able to push a change live within a week. This one factor predicts whether the work pays off more reliably than any other.
The broken things get fixed
Weeks two to six are unglamorous. Speed, indexing, page titles, internal links, and the pages Google has quietly stopped showing.
The building starts
From week six you should see the first movement in Search Console. Real ranking change usually shows between months three and six.
Proof you can check
Why should you believe any of this?
Because you can check the parts that matter. My Google reviews are public, my address is real, and the phone number reaches me rather than a switchboard.
What we will not do is promise you a position. Nobody can, and any consultant who does is either guessing or hoping you will not check. What we will promise is that you will know what I am doing, why, and what it cost.
Google Us
See our reviews
London coverage
Where in London do you work?
Across all of it, and we have written a page for each area rather than claiming coverage I cannot show.
Central London
Mayfair, Soho, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, Holborn, Westminster and the City.
North London
Camden, Islington, Hampstead and Belsize Park.
East London
Shoreditch, Hackney, Dalston, Canary Wharf, Stratford and Tower Hamlets.
South London
Brixton, Battersea, Wandsworth, Putney, Greenwich, Southwark and Lambeth.
West London
Chelsea, Kensington, Fulham, Hammersmith, Notting Hill, Ealing and Chiswick.
Most consultants ranking for this term mention London and stop there. Search behaviour changes between Mayfair and Hackney, and so does the competition, which is why the pages are separate.
First Place SEO, International House, 4 Maddox Street, Mayfair, London W1S 1QP.
Frequently Asked Questions
What else do you want to know?
Ask About SEO
How long does SEO take to work?
Most businesses see measurable movement between three and six months. Small technical fixes can show within weeks, but ranking for a competitive London term takes longer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
Can you guarantee first page rankings?
No. Google's own guidance for businesses hiring an SEO says that no one can guarantee a number one ranking, and warns you to be wary of anyone who claims they can, so a guarantee is a sales device rather than a promise. What we can commit to is transparency about what we are doing and what it costs. You can read Google's guidance on hiring an SEO (opens in a new tab) yourself.
What if SEO has not worked for me before?
This is common. Usually the problem was the wrong strategy, work that never got implemented, or expectations nobody managed. Tell us who you used and what they did, and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth trying again.
Do you work with businesses outside London?
Yes. We are based in London and we work with businesses across the UK. The consulting happens on video calls either way, though London clients can meet in person.
Do you charge hourly, daily or monthly?
Monthly. Fixed fees of £500, £1,000 or £2,000 and no minimum term. Hourly and day rates suit one-off problems, and we will say so if that is what you actually need.
Is a consultant cheaper than an agency?
Usually, yes. London agency retainers commonly start at £1,000 to £2,000 a month, with a 6 to 12 month commitment attached. The saving comes from no office, no account manager and no sales team.
Free SEO consultation
Talk to Me About Your SEO
Tell me what your business sells, where you want to be found and what is getting in the way. I will review your website, explain what I would prioritise and tell you honestly whether I am the right person to help. The first consultation is free, there is no obligation and you keep the advice either way.
Still Looking?