How to charge THOUSANDS for SEO consulting | Eli Schwartz (Product-Led SEO)
May 28, 2024
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SEO expert Eli Schwartz discusses landing big-name clients like Zendesk and Quora, shifting to project-based consulting, predicting Google's 2024 updates, and the future of guest posts and AI in search engines.
Authoring a book on Product Lead SEO can elevate your brand and attract high-value clients.
Distinguishing between Programmatic SEO and Product Lead SEO emphasizes user-centric strategies for successful outcomes.
Transitioning from hourly rates to project-based fees enhances scalability and values experience in SEO consulting.
Long-term engagements in SEO consulting focus on collaborative strategy development to drive significant revenue growth for clients.
Deep dives
Creating a Unique Brand with a Bestselling Book: The Unplanned Success
Eli Schwartz, an SEO strategist, wrote a book on Product Lead SEO, unexpectedly selling thousands of copies. Initially treating it as a business card for clients, the book became a bestseller on Amazon. The book's success highlighted Eli's brand as a consultant with unique offerings, setting him apart in the field.
Differentiating Programmatic SEO and Product Lead SEO: Key Concepts
Eli navigates the distinction between Programmatic SEO and Product Lead SEO, emphasizing that Programmatic SEO is a tool to scale a product, while Product Lead SEO focuses on building user-centric products. He clarifies that the approaches are complementary but not interchangeable, with Product Lead SEO prioritizing user needs and experiences.
Transition to Outcome-based SEO Consulting: Charging by Projects
Shifting from hourly rates, Eli emphasizes charging clients based on projects or monthly fees. He highlights the inefficiency of hourly projects due to limitations in scalability and recognizing the value of experience in pricing. By focusing on outcomes and strategies, clients can benefit more effectively from SEO consulting.
Long-term SEO Engagements: Strategy Consulting and Value Creation
Eli's approach to SEO consulting involves long-term engagements focusing on strategy development and collaboration. By working closely with clients on SEO strategies, he aims to unlock significant revenue growth over extended periods. Understanding each client's unique needs and aligning strategy with their business goals are central to his consulting philosophy.
The Future of Search Experience
The podcast discusses the potential changes in Google's search experience, highlighting concerns about shifting to a chatbot-like system for search queries. The speaker predicts that dramatically altering the search experience may confuse the general public, who are not tech-savvy like SEO professionals. While generative AI is seen as valuable for specific tasks, such as providing recaps of news, maintaining a balance between traditional search results and generative AI responses is essential.
Evolving SEO and Marketing Attribution Challenges
The conversation delves into the evolving landscape of SEO where traditional principles like backlink authority are being redefined in light of AI advancements. The discussion also touches on marketing attribution challenges, emphasizing that both small and large companies face hurdles. While small companies may overanalyze limited data, larger organizations struggle with the complexity of vast datasets, emphasizing the need for a focus on essential metrics like revenue generation.
Marketing Best Practices
The dialogue explores the dynamics of online and offline marketing, emphasizing the difficulty of attributing marketing efforts to specific outcomes. It highlights the challenges faced by companies of varying sizes in interpreting and utilizing data effectively for marketing strategies. The conversation underscores the importance of focusing on fundamental metrics like revenue generation and the impact of AI in shaping SEO practices and search experiences.
How can you land big-name clients like Zendesk, Quora, Wordpress, and Shutterstock? And how can you shift to a better-paying structure as a consultant?
Eli Schwartz reveals how coining the term "product-led" SEO and writing a book about it opened doors he never thought possible, why it's a mistake to charge by the hour instead of by the product, and why SEOs should be charging more than $100 per hour.
He also discusses his 2024 predictions for Google SGE, ChatGPT as a search engine, and whether guest posts will pass any value in the eyes of Google.
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction and Eli's background
(02:15) Going Solo and Creating Product-Led SEO
(18:16) Holistic SEO vs Product-Led SEO vs Programmatic SEO
(24:42) Accepting Clients and Creating SEO Strategies
(35:27) How Long Should Client Engagements Be?
(39:39) Outbound Marketing and Client Acquisition
(44:44) The Unexpected Success of Writing a Book
(48:34) The Potential Impact of Google's SGE
(56:39) Will ChatGPT Launch a Search Engne?
(58:48) Will Google Announce That Guest Posts Pass No Value?
(01:06:29) Does SEO Ever Change?
(01:13:46) Company Size and Marketing Attribution
Where to find Eli:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze
X: https://x.com/5le
Newsletter: https://productledseo.substack.com/
Website: https://www.elischwartz.co/
Where to find Tim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/
X: https://x.com/timsoulo
Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/
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