Achieve your revenue goals with a Fractional SEO
Fed up with the lackluster results of your current SEO agency but not ready for the commitment of a full-time hire?
Andrew can help with that! Schedule a discovery call today!
What Is A Fractional SEO
A Fractional SEO gives you the best of both agency and in-house SEO. You get the senior level leadership and expert strategy of an experienced agency leader plus the deep understanding of the company and integration within the marketing team as a fractional in-house resource.
Your SEO success shouldn’t be overly complicated and certainly doesn’t have to be expensive. As a Fractional SEO I am a flexible part-time member of your team who leads SEO strategy, coordinates with company and marketing initiatives, actively participates in marketing meetings and implements SEO work. Below are a few of the key areas of focus.
Revenue-Driven SEO
Too many inexperienced SEOs and SEO agencies focus on “best practice SEO” with checklists and audits to drive strategy. The Fractional SEO focuses on revenue and creates strategies and priorities based on growing the bottom line. SEO is not a passive checklist based channel, and needs the right experience to become the highest performing marketing channel.
Customer-Centered Content Strategy
Gone are the days of keyword and search-volume driven strategies. The Fractional SEO creates a content strategy that puts your customers at the center. I take time to understand who the audience is, what their JTBD (jobs to be done) are and how our content can best reach them.
Ongoing Technical Support
Technical SEO is often undervalued and only implemented after something goes wrong. The Fractional SEO not only implements technical SEO when things go wrong, but leverages technical SEO to drive targeted traffic and grow revenue.
Active Digital PR
Link-building is hard, expensive and even when successful, doesn’t drive revenue. The Fractional SEO builds brand authority and discoverability in places where your future customers frequently visit. This includes activating your company experts in guesting on podcasts, quoted in publications, and sharing their expertise.
SEO Testing
SEO is often mistakenly treated as a “one-and-done” channel where once content is “optimized” you move on and never look back. The Fractional SEO tests and iterates on content, messaging, and optimization to increase rankings, traffic and ultimately revenue.
Share of Voice
Google’s SERP for your most important product keywords are filled with articles like “top 10 [product solution]”. The Fractional SEO not only focuses on getting your website to rank for your product keywords but works to increase your share of voice by working to get your product listed on other pages on the SERP.
Why Hire A Fractional SEO?
Many marketers I work with are tired of working with SEO agencies that do minimal implementation and are disconnected from the company but are stuck because there isn’t enough budget for a full-time expert inhouse SEO. The Fractional SEO takes the best of both worlds with the flexibility you can afford.
Hiring a full-time in-house SEO can add strain on budgets already stretched thin. Agencies on the other hand are less expensive but deliver far less value and are disconnected from the product and marketing initiatives. The Fractional SEO cost structure is flexible based your your specific needs and can be similar to the pricing of an agency but with the added bonus of being an integrated and contributing member of your marketing team.
In an effort to drive profitability, agencies are constantly trying to lower cost. This often means hiring talent that is less experienced that rely on templates and checklists to do SEO. The Fractional SEO is a senior level SEO with over a decade of direct SEO experience. Each engagement is a custom strategy from the best senior leadership agencies can offer as a fractional, in-house resource.
Hiring an inhouse SEO can take 4-6 months and once hired will take another 2 months to onboard and be part of your team. The Fractional SEO can be onboarded and begin work in a fraction of that time. No need to spend months interviewing, negotiating, and compromising to get the SEO resource you need. Onboarding a fractional SEO can be spent strategically joining marketing meetings and product demos.
Agencies don’t have time to join your marketing meeting, or collaborate with your team on an integrated project. Instead, integration is boiled down to one-way reports and monthly syncs. The Fractional SEO not only joins marketing meetings and slack channels but is an active participant in all interactions. We understand the power that comes when the marketing team is aligned and collaborating.
Agencies typically lack the collaboration necessary for an effective SEO strategy. In-house SEOs either lack the expertise or are bogged down in the weeds to really drive strategy. The Fractional SEO has both the expertise and necessary collaboration to create a strategic SEO campaign that aligns with company goals and puts SEO as a revenue driving marketing channel.
Agencies often struggle with truly implementing their work. This puts agencies in the “recommendation” seat and puts all the ownership of implementation on already stretch thin in-house marketers. The Fractional SEO is an integrated and trusted part of the marketing team. We can work directly with content and web teams to activate implementation or we can implement SEO ourselves.
Due to the high employee turnover at agencies you rarely work with the same people for longer than a year. Most agency POCs are switched 2-3 times a year leaving it up to in-house marketing leaders to re-explain marketing initiatives, the product UVP, etc. The Fractional SEO is your long-term partner and will your main point of contact for your first year and beyond.
Who is Andrew Eagar?
Hi, I'm Andrew! As a senior SEO leader and Director of SEO in both agency and inhouse environments I experienced first-hand the struggles and deficiencies of both. I started The Fractional SEO as a way to better serve companies that need more from their agency but aren’t ready for a full-time in-house SEO. My unique experience allows me to fill that need. I am a firm believer that SEO is at it’s best when it is a fully integrated part of the marketing team. SEO Strategy is so much better when it can learn from the success and even the failings of ABM, PPC, Email, and social. SEO strategy is at it’s best when it comes from someone familiar with the product and company. While leading teams of 20+ SEOs at agencies I was responsible for developing the SEO product responsible the organic performance of our clients. I created custom strategies, and worked one-on-one with client POCs. While implementing SEO strategies inhouse I coordinated with all marketing, product, and website efforts to implement effective and efficient SEO strategies. With fifteen years of direct SEO experience, I know what it takes to drive organic/SEO performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
The better part of my career has been spent as a Director of SEO at various agencies. There are three main challenges Agencies face that negatively impact their effectiveness.
- Agencies are constantly pushing for higher profitability. Leaders at agencies are responsible to drive value at increasingly lower cost. Agencies are often forced to either hire less experienced SEOs or templatize strategy to drive costs down.
- Agencies aren’t built for true collaboration. Working with agencies can often feel one-sided with in-house marketers taking the lead on strategy and agency account managers sending one-way reports.
- Agencies work employees hard leading to high turnover. This in turn fractures continuity and sets performance back as in-house marketers start from scratch with another person and another strategy.
The Fractional SEO overcomes these challenges by:
- As a fractional resource, marketing leaders pay a consistent hourly rate regularly adjusting based on the needs of the business. This allows the Fractional SEO to focus on performance.
- Unlike an agency, The Fractional SEO is considered an in-house resource, attending and contributing to meetings, proactively participating in slack channels, and integrating SEO into broader marketing and company initiatives.
- Working with The Fractional SEO is a true partnership working with the same person, month-over-month, year-over-year.
Hiring an in-house SEO is all about timing. Hiring the SEO of your dreams can be expensive and take a long time. Many companies can’t afford a revenue driving SEO leader and make the mistake of hiring a less expensive junior SEO and hope for the best.
The Fractional SEO is a senior SEO leader perfect for companies not ready for the commitment of a full-time in-house resource. Companies can leverage this fractional resource as they grow and before they hire an in-house SEO.
As a Fractional SEO pricing is very flexible and can change quarter by quarter based on the needs of the company and marketing team. Typical engagements are anywhere from $3,000-$8,000 /mo at $125/hr.
In-house SEOs are typically a salary of $100k/yr with total cost to employer of $130k/yr or nearly $11,000/mo.
Most performance agencies have a minimum of $10,000/mo at a rate of $200/hr. That’s $10,000 for 50 hours of work.