SEO and GEO consulting

What a consultation looks like step by step

1. Agreeing the questions. We clarify what the consultation is about, which decisions depend on it and what data we need.
2. Analysis before the meeting. We check the data and materials so that the meeting starts with findings and not with collecting information.
3. The meeting. We discuss the findings, show the evidence and answer the team’s questions. Technical people can ask about implementation details.
4. A written summary. After the meeting we send a description of the findings, the reasoning and a list of steps in the order they should be done.
5. Questions after the meeting. Before the consultation, we agree which follow-up questions it will cover.

The team returns to the summary later, so every recommendation in it has a reason, a statement of what it concerns and a description of how to tell that it has been implemented.

How to prepare for a consultation and what data to provide

The more precisely the questions are described, the more specific the answers. Before the meeting it is worth gathering:

• a brief description of the questions or decisions you want to discuss and why they matter now;
• read-only access to Google Search Console, the main source of data on keywords, pages and indexing;
• access to Google Analytics 4, if the question concerns changes on pages or visitor behaviour;
• the history of larger changes: when the template, URL structure, hosting or platform changed, or content was moved;
• materials to assess: mock-ups, a migration plan, a redirect map, agency reports, a list of pages;
• information on who in the team will implement the recommendations, so that their scope and language suit the people doing the work.

Read-only access to Search Console is enough and does not allow anything on the site to be changed. Without it we rely on measurements and estimates from external tools, which do not replace Google’s data on impressions, clicks and indexing of your site. We use the data and materials you provide only to prepare answers to your questions.

What the cost of a consultation depends on

The cost depends on the number and scope of the questions, the amount of material to analyse and the form of cooperation. A few questions about one decision need less work than a review of the migration plan for a large site. The number of people at the meeting also affects it, as does the need to work on data from several tools, and whether the team wants to be able to ask further questions after the meeting.

We agree the scope and terms before work begins.

When a consultation is enough, and when you need ongoing support or an audit

The choice of service depends on whether you can identify specific questions to discuss and whether you have someone to implement the recommendations.

A consultation is enough

• You have one or more specific questions, for example: whether a change to the URL structure is safe, which category layout to choose, why one group of pages lost visibility.
• You want to assess a proposed solution before deciding whether to implement it.
• You have a team that will implement the recommendations without further guidance.

You need an audit

If you need the whole site reviewed, it is better to start with an SEO and GEO audit, which checks indexing, structure, content and AI visibility and ends with an implementation plan arranged by priority.

You need ongoing support

If nobody in the company has the time or the skills to implement the changes, and SEO is meant to be a continuous process, recommendations without someone to carry them out will stay on paper. In that case ongoing SEO services may be the right choice, and we agree the scope of work and who implements the changes before we start.

What SEO and GEO consulting is

SEO consulting is a data-based conversation in which we answer the client’s questions point by point, without going beyond their scope. The consultant receives the questions, checks the data needed, discusses the findings with the team and hands over recommendations that the team implements itself. GEO consulting focuses on brand visibility in answers from AI assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.

This way of working suits companies that already have someone who implements changes: an SEO specialist, a marketing team, developers or an agency. What is missing is a second opinion, knowledge in a narrow area or an assessment of someone else’s assumptions. A consultant does not manage the site day to day and is not responsible for implementation, so the role ends with precise answers and a list of steps.

The most common consultation topics

A drop in visibility

We begin by establishing when the drop started and which pages and keywords it affects. We compare this with the dates of implementations, technical changes and Google algorithm updates. The analysis usually narrows the search for the cause to one of the following categories: a technical problem, a change in content, lost links or a change in the search results for a given keyword.

A new site structure

We check whether the planned categories, URLs and internal linking match how people search for services or products. A separate page makes sense when a topic needs its own answer. We also check whether similar pages duplicate content and whether Google shows the right page for a given query. We assess this at the mock-up stage, when a change is still cheap.

Choosing a platform or technology

Before you choose an ecommerce platform, CMS or framework, we check whether it meets SEO requirements: whether content is present in the page HTML without running scripts, whether you can configure canonical URLs, redirects, a sitemap and structured data, and how it performs. Some AI assistants may not see content added by JavaScript. For more on ecommerce, see our page on online shop SEO.

Migration

We review the plan for changing domain, platform or URLs: the 301 redirect map, the list of pages to keep, the indexing settings on the test environment and the way of checking results after launch. You will find the full description of the work on the page about migration that protects your visibility.

Assessing an agency’s work

Using reports, the list of completed tasks and Search Console data, we check whether the activities address what limits the site’s visibility and whether their effects are reflected in top 10 rankings and domain visibility. You get an assessment of each activity, and you make the decision about further cooperation yourself.

Brand presence in AI answers

We ask AI assistants the questions your customers ask and check whether the brand appears in the answers, how it is described and which pages are cited. The result shows what is missing in your content and in external sources. For regular measurement, see our AI visibility monitoring service. We describe the general approach on the page about AI SEO and GEO.

Local visibility

For businesses that operate in a specific area, we discuss the Google Business Profile, the consistency of contact details and local pages. We cover this topic in more depth in the section on local SEO.

How to assess the effect of implemented recommendations

We assess the effect on visibility metrics that can be measured before and after a change. It is worth recording the moment of implementation, so that the comparison has a reference point.

• Keywords in the top 10. The list of keywords for which the site appears in the first ten results, before and after implementation.
• Domain visibility. An aggregate ranking metric, tracked using the same tool and the same set of keywords.
• Presence, share of voice and citations in AI. How often ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude name the brand in answers to a set of questions, what share of mentions it holds against competitors, and which pages they cite.

Positions change with a delay after implementation, because Google has to review the pages again. That is why you do not assess the result the next day, and you repeat the measurement at regular intervals. We do not promise specific positions, because they depend on competition and on the search engine’s decisions. Every recommendation has a metric by which the team can judge whether it worked.

Consulting for teams that run SEO themselves

Teams with their own SEO specialist use consulting in several recurring situations.

• Before a major implementation. Developers and marketing want to check a change before it goes to production, because an indexing error costs more than finding it early.
• With an unusual problem. The in-house specialist knows the site but has encountered a problem they have not seen before, for example a sudden drop in one group of URLs.
• In a new area. The team starts work on visibility in AI answers and needs a measurement method and a first set of tasks.
• In a dispute over priorities. Marketing, product and IT disagree, and an outside, data-based opinion lets them decide.

For longer cooperation, the conversations can be arranged as regular meetings with the chance to ask questions between them. We agree the scope and frequency with the team on the basis of its needs.