SEO for Consultants: Easy Ways to Get More Clients

Let me paint a picture that might sound familiar. You're scrolling through LinkedIn, and you see yet another consultant posting about how they're "booked solid for the next three months." Meanwhile, you're sat there wondering where your next client is coming from.

Here's the thing – it's probably not about your expertise. I'd bet good money you're brilliant at what you do. The problem? Nobody can find you online.

After diving deep into the world of search engine optimisation for professional services, I've discovered what separates consultants who attract clients effortlessly from those who struggle. And trust me, it's not as complicated as the SEO world makes it seem.

Why SEO for Consultants Changes Everything

Let's get one thing straight. When someone needs help with their business, they're not calling ex-colleagues looking for recommendations anymore. They're up at goodness knows what time, Googling their problems, desperately searching for solutions. (If they’re Gen Z they might be Tiktok-searching their problems, but that’s a topic for another day.)

Take Sarah (not her real name, but let's roll with it). She's a really, genuinely good HR consultant who told me she'd only had three enquiries in six months. THREE! When I looked at her website, it was easy to see why.

She had done all of the basics to rank for “HR consultant”, but realistically that search term is too competitive for a small, independent consultant. She needed to think more strategically. We started targeting more niche aspects of her expertise, like:

“reduce staff turnover”

“HR for startups”

Rather than ranking for generalised terms, we started targeting her ideal customer, whether or not they knew they needed a consultant yet.

And, thus, got her a piece of the pie, and stopped her competitors from hoovering up all the warm leads.

What Your Clients Are Actually Searching

Here's where most consultants are going wrong. They optimise their websites for fancy consultant-speak that nobody actually uses. I've seen management consultants targeting "business transformation expert" when their clients are literally typing "my company is a mess please help" into Google.

Real searches look like:

• "How to fix a toxic workplace culture"

• "Consultant to help with staff retention"

• "Why do my best employees keep leaving"

See the difference? Your stressed-out potential clients aren't using your LinkedIn bio language. They're describing their actual problems in plain English.

The Technical Bit of SEO for Consultants

Before we talk about content, we need to sort out the behind-the-scenes stuff. Think of technical SEO like the foundations of your house – get it wrong, and everything else will start falling apart with a very minor shove.

Your Site Needs Fast

I once audited a consultant's website that took eight seconds to load. EIGHT SECONDS. I'd already made a cup of tea and come back to my laptop before it finished. Google hates slow sites, and so do your clients.

You can use PageSpeed Insights to find out what your actual site visitors are experiencing on your website.

Mobile Matters More Than Ever

Over half of all searches happen on phones now, and even more importantly, Google’s algorithms use the mobile version of your site to decide what shows up in search results.

URL Structure

Instead of having web addresses like /page123, use something that makes sense to your customers, like /hr-consulting-manchester. It's better for Google, and doesn't confuse humans. Win-win.

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Creating Content That Your Consulting Clients Will See

You can more or less forget everything you think you know about "thought leadership" and "industry insights." Your content strategy should answer one simple question: What are my ideal clients Googling?

Give Each Service Its Own Page

Don't put detailed descriptions of all your services on one page. It’s okay to have an overview, but each service you offer deserves its own dedicated page, targeting specific keywords:

• /employee-engagement-consulting

• /leadership-coaching-for-executives

• /workplace-culture-transformation

On each page, include:

• What the service involves

• Who it's perfect for

• What results they can expect

• Proper testimonials from clients that have used this specific service

• A clear next step (book a call, download a guide, whatever works best for your current workflow)

Blog Like You Mean It

It’s okay for you to use your blog for genuine thought leadership ideas and valuable information relevant to your industry, but that’s not all it should do. It should target specific problems your clients are trying to solve:

• "Should I hire a consultant or a full-time HR manager?"

• "Warning signs your company culture is broken"

• "How much does poor employee retention really cost?"

Each post should naturally weave in relevant keywords. (If you want to learn how to do proper keyword research, download our guide to SEO for Consultants here, or even better, sign up to this course: SEO for Beginners.

Local SEO: Dominating Your Home Turf

If you work with local businesses, local SEO is probably liquid gold for you.

A Manchester-based consultant trying to rank for "business consultant"? Good luck with that. But "business consultant Manchester"? Now we're talking.

Even if you don’t necessarily work locally, it will do you favours to have a really strong local SEO strategy.

Google My Business

Set up your Google My Business listing properly:

• Fill in every single field

• Add photos (not just a headshot – show your office, you at work, etc.)

• Get client reviews (and actually respond to them)

• Post regular updates

Create Local Content

Write content specifically for your area:

• "Top HR Challenges for Manchester Businesses"

• "Why Birmingham Startups Need Strategy Consultants"

• "Cost of Living Crisis: How London Businesses Can Retain Staff"

Naturally mention your location throughout your site (but you don’t need to go over the top with it).

Building Your SEO Authority

Links from other websites are like little votes of confidence for Google. It’s one of the hardest parts of SEO to crack, and there are ethical ways to do it and less-ethical ways to do it. There are easy ways to do it and there are hard ways to do it. There are things that Google likes, and things that Google doesn’t like.

As a consultant, I can only image that you’re already a bit sick and tired of cold outreach, so here are some other ways you get backlinks to your consultant website:

• Write guest posts for industry publications

• Get quoted in relevant news articles (try HARO for this)

• Speak at events and get listed on their websites

• Partner with other businesses that do similar things to you.

It's about building genuine relationships, not chasing links (the latter is likely to get you low quality, low relevance links, which ultimately aren’t going to move the needle).

Tracking Your Progress

You can't improve what you don't measure, but don't get lost in vanity metrics. Focus on:

• Which keywords are bringing in traffic

• How many of those visitors actually enquire

• Which pages convert best

• How many of your final clients actually found you through Google (you can use Google Analytics to track where your leads come from, or… you can just ask them).

Set up Google Analytics and Search Console (they're free) and check them monthly, not daily (it’s easy to drive yourself a bit mad otherwise).

The Mistakes I See Everywhere

After looking at dozens of consultant websites, these are the issues that I find coming up over and over again:

1. Writing like a corporate robot instead of a human

2. No clear call-to-action (what should visitors do next?)

3. Site slower than a week in jail

4. Small, AI-generated pieces of content that say nothing useful

5. Zero evidence of expertise or credibility

If you fix these issues, you're probably already ahead of most consultants.

FAQs About SEO for Consultants

How long until I see proper results from SEO?

You'll typically see some movement in 1-3 months, but the really good stuff happens around 6-12 months. I know it feels like a long time, but SEO is a proper investment, not a quick fix. Some of my pages started ranking within weeks, others took months. That's just how it goes.

Should I hire someone or do it myself?

You can absolutely start yourself with the basics. But if you're swamped with client work or want faster results, hiring an SEO specialist (expect to pay £500-2000 or $600-2400 monthly) might be worth it. Think of it as an investment that should pay for itself within 6-8 months.

What's the most important thing to focus on?

Creating content that matches what your ideal clients actually search for. All the technical wizardry in the world won't help if you're not answering the questions people are asking Google. Start with long-tail keywords like "leadership coach for tech startups London" rather than fighting for "business consultant."

How often should I publish new content?

Quality beats quantity every time. One brilliant, well-researched post per month is better than four mediocre ones. I've seen consultants succeed with monthly posts and others who publish twice weekly. Find what's sustainable for you and stick to it.

Can I rank without building links?

For less competitive keywords, possibly. In general, yes. But for the searches that actually bring in clients? You'll probably need some authority. Focus on earning links naturally through partnerships and sharing your expertise, not dodgy link schemes from 2010.

Conclusion

SEO for consultants isn't about tricking Google or cramming keywords everywhere. It's about making yourself findable in the places that your ideal clients are looking.

Start small. Pick your most profitable service and create one brilliant page for it, optimised for how clients actually search. Once you see it working (and you will), expand from there.

Remember, every consultant killing it online started exactly where you are now. The only difference? They started.

Your expertise is too valuable to stay hidden. Time to change that!