Neither. Consultants set direction, agencies execute at volume. Many companies need both.
Guide · San Francisco
How to Hire an SEO Consultant in San Francisco
When you need a consultant, what to ask, and how to tell the difference between senior judgment and a confident pitch.
Book an intro call
30 minutes · No pitch, no proposal to chase
Hiring the wrong SEO consultant is expensive in a way that's hard to see. You don't just lose the fee. You lose six months pointed in the wrong direction, which for a Bay Area startup can be a big share of the runway.
Here's how to get it right, from someone who runs an agency and consults directly.
Consultant, agency or in-house?
| You need... | Usually best fit |
|---|---|
| A senior view of what to do and in what order | Consultant |
| Someone to own and direct search part-time | Fractional SEO director |
| High-volume execution: content, links, technical fixes | Agency |
| Daily hands-on work embedded in your team | In-house hire |
Many San Francisco companies combine them: a consultant or fractional director sets direction, an agency or in-house team executes.
What to look for in the Bay Area
- Experience at your stage. A seed-stage startup and a public company need different people. See startup SEO and SaaS SEO.
- Comfort with engineers. Your site probably runs on a modern stack. The consultant should write tickets engineers respect.
- Pipeline thinking. They should ask about ACV, sales cycle and conversion, not just traffic.
- A real view on AI search. Bay Area buyers use AI assistants heavily. Ask how they measure your visibility. See AI SEO in San Francisco.
- Clear scope and deliverables.
Questions to ask
- What would you look at first on our site, and why?
- Can you show a plan or audit you've delivered?
- Who actually does the work?
- How will we measure whether this is working?
- What would make you tell us to stop spending on SEO?
- How do you handle AI search visibility?
- How do you work with our engineers and content team?
Red flags
- Guaranteed rankings or first-page promises in a set time.
- Methods they can't explain.
- Reports built on vanity metrics.
- No questions about your business before quoting.
- Large link packages sold before any audit.
How to start
Start with a defined project like an SEO audit. It's the fastest way to see how someone thinks before committing to an ongoing engagement.
If you'd like to talk it through, book an intro call, in person if I'm in San Francisco.
Frequently asked questions
Audits take a few weeks. Ongoing strategy usually runs six months or more.
It varies with seniority and scope. Audits are usually fixed-price, ongoing work is monthly. For the numbers behind that, see SEO consultant rates.
Talk it through
If you're weighing a consultant against an agency or a hire, thirty minutes will usually settle it, whichever way it goes.
Book an intro call
30 minutes · No pitch, no proposal to chase