How To Start a SEO Business According To an Expert

Everyone wants to rank on Google, but not everyone knows how to get there. This creates a huge opportunity for skilled search engine optimization (SEO) pros to help businesses stand out. In 2024, there were more than 300,000 SEO and internet consultants in the US—an 18% jump from 2023. 

The competition is stiff in the SEO industry, but demand continues to rise, especially as AI-driven search picks up. Starting your own search engine optimization business can turn your expertise into reliable, long-term income. Some SEO experts choose to develop software, but you don’t have to become the next Ahrefs or Semrush to succeed. Even a small, well-run SEO agency can build steady recurring revenue with the right systems.

I’ve built an eight-figure SEO business from the ground up. Here’s my advice on how to start your own SEO business, including how to choose your offering, create a sustainable sales strategy, and retain clients for long-term growth.

How to start an SEO business

1. Define your offering
2. Craft your business model
3. Determine your marketing and sales strategy
4. Deliver and delight

Starting an SEO company involves several steps. Break the process up into these four main buckets:

1. Define your offering

There’s no “right” way to do SEO. The first step is to clarify what exactly you offer, to whom, and how. Here are three ways to think about your offering:

Service vs. software

Are you going to sell SEO services—your or your team’s time in exchange for monthly retainers or consulting—or build an SEO software product, such as a new keyword research tool or an AI-driven content brief creator? 

Service businesses require the least investment to start, but they demand more people to deliver the work as the business scales. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses require more upfront investment—in cash and in time to create the product—but may entail fewer ongoing costs.

Some businesses offer both, combining software and service.

Specialty

Most SEO businesses differentiate themselves by choosing a specialty. There are two ways to specialize: horizontally or vertically.

• Vertical specialty. A vertical specialty focuses on a specific industry, like construction, sports, or skin care. This allows you to build deep expertise in that particular niche. Local SEO is also a vertical specialty focused on geographic targeting, including Google Business Profile optimization and local citations.
• Horizontal specialty. A horizontal specialty focuses on a specific type of SEO service, such as link building, content development, or technical SEO, delivered across industries, helping you refine and master a particular skill.

Choose one path. Choosing both can make your niche too narrow—such as link building for construction companies—limiting your potential client base.

A third option is to offer full-service SEO to all industries. This is generally the hardest approach to differentiate, since you’re providing everything to everyone. However, it can help you land initial clients before you commit to a specific niche.

Spectrum of execution to strategy

Consider the spectrum between execution-focused support and a strategy-intentive engagement. Some agencies frame their focus primarily on high-volume, fast execution, while strategic firms are more about being a thought-partner. 

Customers have varying budgets and expectations. An enterprise client might comfortably invest $10,000 or more per month on SEO, while a startup may only allocate $1,000. Both can (and should) receive high-quality services, but the type and scope of that work you can deliver will naturally differ.

As a rule of thumb, clients at the lower end of the budget range typically need to choose between strategy and execution when directing their spend. They’ll either look to hire someone to oversee strategy and teach them to do execution, or they’ll guide the strategy and have their agency focus on high-efficiency execution activities (such as content writing or link building). Clients with deeper pockets will often expect both strategy and execution from one partner.

2. Craft your business model

Once you’ve defined your service offerings, the next step is to clarify how they’ll make money—who you’re targeting, how you’ll price your services, and what risks you need to consider.

Market gaps

Ask yourself, who is your target market? What do they value? What’s missing that you can offer? Identify where your target audience’s needs aren’t being fully met.

Let’s say you’ve decided on a vertical specialty: full-service SEO services to construction businesses. Trades business owners are typically time-crunched and don’t have the bandwidth to learn SEO or be involved in day-to-day marketing decisions. They often prefer a model where they can trust one expert to handle everything, from strategy to execution. That means you could offer a hands-off SEO package that includes strategy, content, web optimization, and reporting, all handled end to end with minimal client involvement.

On the other hand, if you’re working with marketers, they likely want to be involved in decision-making, value transparency, and want to level up their SEO skills. For this type of client, you might offer a collaborative model that emphasizes strategy sessions and education.

Consider your gross margin

Gross margin refers to the amount of money you make after covering your costs to deliver your product or service (this is referred to as your cost of sales). Ideally, this gets better over time. Service gross margins improve as your team gets more efficient at delivering work, while software gross margins scale as you add more customers, because every new customer doesn’t add much to your total costs. 

For SEO services, consider the cost of delivery and the time required to complete it. A rule of thumb is to aim for a gross margin of around three times your labour cost to stay profitable after accounting for overhead costs such as software, rent, and administration. 

For example, if your monthly retainer includes 30 hours of work and your labor cost is $50, you could charge your clients around $150 per hour.

Communicate risks and time to see results

SEO is inherently risky because you can’t guarantee results. Google’s algorithm changes or shifting search behaviors can easily affect outcomes. While you can influence performance, promising specific results is difficult. Some SEO professionals do offer guarantees—accepting the risk of refunds if targets aren’t met—but most digital marketing agencies avoid this approach.

You don’t need to guarantee results, but you do need to be transparent about the risks involved with SEO and set expectations with clients. Clear expectations upfront help clients stick around past the critical six-month mark. Address these key points with every client:

• How long SEO efforts take to see results. Typically three to six months.
• The benefits the client can expect. Such as improved organic search traffic and authority.
• How you’ll reduce risk. Such as regular performance reporting and data-driven strategies.
• What you’ll need from clients. For example, you might make recommendations that they’ll need to implement.

3. Determine your marketing and sales strategy

If you run an SEO business, you might think you need to dominate search results for your own site first. The truth is, that’s usually unnecessary. The SEO market is highly competitive, with many businesses already optimized, making it difficult for small agencies to rely solely on organic search to attract clients. 

Fortunately, there are other client acquisition methods:

Networking in person

This includes attending conferences or industry events. For example, if you’re in the construction niche, attend construction conferences where owners are learning about how to grow their business. Connect with prospective clients actively looking for marketing support.

If you offer link-building services, SEO conferences are ideal for meeting marketers who want to expand their SEO efforts.

Partnerships

Partner with other agencies or groups that share your audience, but don’t offer SEO—such as sales firms, consultants, or web developers. Position yourself as their go-to SEO referral to get warm leads.

Outbound sales

Cold emailing can be tough, especially since SEO often suffers from a trust gap. Many business owners have been burned by over-promises. To help your sales pitch stand out, personalize your outreach by starting with free mini SEO audits or quick-win analyses that demonstrate your SEO expertise or the kinds of results you could deliver.

Thought leadership

Share your SEO knowledge by publishing your own content marketing on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, or email. You might write thought pieces about where the industry is headed, trend reports, or case studies of your client successes. Over time, this can build a following of prospective customers who can convert into leads.

Win AI mentions

Seeking AI mentions or citations is still a new and evolving discipline, called answer engine optimization (AEO). Because of this, it’s highly experimental. No one can say with certainty what consistently drives AI mentions, especially since patterns vary by industry. What we do know is that appearing as a recommended source in AI search results gives you visibility beyond traditional search engines, so it’s worth becoming skilled at systematic experimentation. 

Early signals suggest that some tactics (which tie back to SEO fundamentals) are beginning to work. These focus on creating content that LLMs can confidently cite, including:

• Publishing authoritative content on topics you want to be associated with
• Getting included in third-party lists or roundups, where AI usually pulls information from
• Creating “reference material” for LLMs, like data studies, glossaries, and how-to guides

Going wherever your audience is

Identify where your prospective clients are looking for information about growing their business. Is it Facebook groups? Industry-specific Slack channels? Podcasts? Reddit forums? Join these spaces, add value by answering questions and sharing SEO knowledge, and build relationships before pitching your services.

4. Deliver and delight

The final step to starting a successful SEO business is retaining your clients and building a steady pipeline. Happy SEO clients stick around. Even better: they tell their friends.

Deliver great work

You may have a solid offering and great networking skills, but if your services fall short, your clients will quickly move on. The ability to deliver great work is something you refine over your career, and it’s worth returning to often. It’s a complex challenge with no single correct answer. But there are a few best practices that can help guide you. 

Standardize and productize the services you deliver over and over again. If you’re doing something different every time, it’s difficult to get better. When you repeat the same deliverable over and over, you build mastery and refine your process with every iteration. 

Gather feedback on your deliverables. Ask your clients what they like and don’t like, and you could even go so far as to have your clients rate each deliverable on a scale of one to five to give you a measurable sense of what’s working and what needs improving. 

Go the extra mile for your clients to exceed their expectations. For example, if they’re expecting a content strategy, include sample content outlines, a publishing calendar, or a distribution checklist. 

If you’re not the best person to handle certain parts of the work, hire experts who are. These could include link builders (if you offer link-building services) or content writers to execute on SEO articles.

Get client feedback

Measure client satisfaction regularly to address any issues proactively. A simple way to do this is by sending Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys every six months to gauge how likely your clients are to refer you to others. Combined with informal check-ins after major deliverables, you’ll have a pulse on how your clients feel and how you can improve your processes.

Get referrals

SEO businesses grow on the backs of client referrals. While you do need a sales and marketing strategy, a stream of happy clients recommending your product or service is the most powerful growth engine you can build. Ask for testimonials, feature success stories on your website, and consider offering referral incentives.