SEO Consultant / Freelancer
An independent practitioner who diagnoses, plans, and advises across several clients without carrying the day-to-day production work.
Analogy Mental model
A specialist physician in private practice. They don't cook the meals or write every article; they examine, diagnose, and write the prescription that the client's own team fills.
In practice What you actually do
Three models dominate: a one-off audit priced by site size, a monthly retainer covering strategy and review, and project work such as a migration or an international launch. Whichever you choose, scope it in writing — unbounded availability is the fastest way to lose a client and resent the account.
Where people get burned Pitfalls
Consulting only works once you have a track record in a specific niche and can point to outcomes you personally owned. Going independent too early produces a generalist competing on price, which is the weakest position in the market.
This entry was written in English from the Chinese original, not machine-translated. Read the Chinese version →