Search Engine Optimisation
SEO Consulting
You have the people. You want someone who has seen this go wrong before, and a document you can act on without a retainer attached.
SEO consultancy gives an in-house team direction rather than delivery. The Nexclick audits, plans, trains and reviews, charged at a day rate, with every output written as a document you own. It suits businesses with capable people who need a second opinion or a settled argument.
Is this you?
What usually prompts the call
- You have an in-house marketer who is capable but has never run search at this scale.
- Two people internally disagree about direction and it has stalled for a month.
- You are choosing an agency and want an informed second opinion on the proposals.
- You need someone senior to explain to the board why this takes six months.
What we do
The actual deliverables
Things that appear on an invoice, not adjectives.
- Diagnostic and direction setting
- What is actually constraining performance and what the next six months should focus on. Delivered as an argued document rather than a list.
- Second opinions on agency proposals
- Reading a proposal you have been sent and telling you what is genuinely valuable, what is padding, and what is missing. Frequently the highest-return day anyone buys from us.
- Team training
- Half-day or full-day sessions pitched at your team’s actual level, on your own site rather than on generic examples. Recorded, so new starters can catch up.
- Ongoing review and challenge
- A recurring session where your team brings decisions and we argue with them. Cheap, high-leverage, and it prevents six months of confident movement in the wrong direction.
- Interim leadership
- Standing in as head of search while you recruit — setting direction, reviewing work, holding agencies to account. Days per month rather than full-time.
- Agency selection support
- Writing the brief, scoring the responses and sitting in on pitches. Knowing which questions expose a weak agency is most of the value here.
- Board and stakeholder communication
- Explaining timescales, risk and trade-offs to people who are not going to read a technical document. Often the reason an internal team cannot get budget approved.
Checklist
Questions that expose a weak SEO agency
Ask these in a pitch. We would rather you asked them of us too. A confident, specific answer to most of them is the clearest signal available at proposal stage.
- 01"What would you not do for us, and why?" — an agency with no answer is selling everything.
- 02"How long before we see results?" — anything under three months for competitive organic terms is a warning.
- 03"Can you guarantee rankings?" — the correct answer is no. Any other answer ends the meeting.
- 04"Who owns the content and accounts if we leave?" — should be you, unambiguously.
- 05"Show me a report you sent a client last month." — redacted is fine. Look at whether it leads with enquiries or impressions.
- 06"How do you build links?" — if the answer is vague or priced per link, ask again.
- 07"What happened on a campaign that did not work?" — no examples means no honesty or no experience.
- 08"Who will actually do the work?" — the person in the pitch, or a junior you will never meet?
- 09"How do you decide what to prioritise?" — should reference impact against effort, not a fixed package.
- 10"What do you need from us?" — a good answer includes access, approvals and a named decision-maker.
- 11"What is your notice period?" — long lock-ins compensate for weak results.
- 12"How would you measure success?" — should be your commercial metric, not their activity metric.
- 13"What is your view on AI-generated content?" — tests whether they are thinking or following.
- 14"What would make you tell us to stop spending?" — the single most revealing question on this list.
How it works
Step by step, with timeframes
Timeframes are typical rather than guaranteed, and they assume we get account access and approvals when we ask.
- 01Day 1
Scope the question
A short call establishing what you actually need answered. Consultancy engagements go wrong when the question is vague, so this is not a formality.
- 02Days 1–5, typically
Work
Analysis, review or session preparation, depending on the engagement. Most are between one and five days.
- 03End of engagement
Deliver and discuss
A written document plus a session to talk through it. The discussion tends to be where the value lands.
- 04Two weeks after
Follow up
Questions answered at no extra cost, because a document nobody could act on has not achieved anything.
What you get
Reporting and ownership
- A written document you own outright, usable by your team or a future agency.
- Recorded training sessions, so the knowledge survives staff turnover.
- A named list of things we recommend not doing, which is often the more useful half.
- Two weeks of follow-up questions included after every engagement.
- No retainer, no lock-in, and no obligation to buy delivery from us.
Tools and platforms
- Google Search Console & Analytics
- Ahrefs or Semrush
- Screaming Frog
- Your existing reporting stack
- Recorded video sessions
Timeline
How long this actually takes
Most engagements are one to five days and deliver within two weeks. Training is booked and delivered within a fortnight. Ongoing review sessions run monthly or quarterly. The value shows up differently from delivery work: you are buying a decision or a direction, not a change to the site, so the effect appears in what your team does next rather than in a ranking report. Consultancy is the wrong purchase if you need work done and have nobody to do it — in that case a retainer is honest and cheaper, and we will say so.
Pricing model
Day rate
Day rate, quoted before the engagement. No minimum commitment and no requirement to buy delivery afterwards.
Questions
SEO Consulting questions
When is consultancy better than a retainer?
When you have people who can execute but need direction, when you need a decision settled, or when you want an independent view before committing budget. If you need the work done and have nobody to do it, a retainer is cheaper and more honest, and we will tell you that on the first call.
Will you review a proposal from another agency?
Yes, and it is one of the more common engagements. You get a written assessment of what is genuinely valuable, what is padding, what is missing, and what to negotiate. We have no interest in the outcome beyond you making an informed decision.
Can you train our marketing team?
Yes, pitched at their actual level and taught on your own site rather than generic examples. Sessions are recorded so new starters can catch up. Half a day covers fundamentals; a full day covers technical work or content strategy in depth.
Do you offer fractional or interim search leadership?
Yes, typically two to four days a month. It works well while recruiting, or for businesses too small to justify a full-time senior hire but large enough to need one. The remit is direction, review and holding delivery partners to account.
What if we disagree with your recommendation?
Then we argue about it, which is largely what you are paying for. The document records the reasoning so you can disagree with the argument rather than the conclusion. Consultancy where the client simply accepts everything has not been worth the fee.
Is there a minimum engagement?
One day. Plenty of useful engagements are a single day — a proposal review, a direction session, a training half-day. There is no minimum commitment and no requirement to buy anything afterwards.
Last reviewed 28 July 2026.
Tell us what you are trying to fix
A 20-minute call, no pitch deck. The Nexclick will tell you what we would do, roughly what it costs, and whether we are the right people for it.