Michael C.

Freelance SEO Consultant | Expert-Vetted | Audits | Local | SaaS

📈 More revenue from search. No agency BS. I'm a freelance SEO consultant. I've optimized 100+ websites and spent years leading SEO at a St. Louis agency before going independent. Now I take a small number of clients and do the work myself. What I actually do: 🟢 Technical SEO: audits, site migrations, crawl + indexing issues, Core Web Vitals 🟢 Organic strategy: keyword mapping built around revenue intent, content plans, internal linking 🟢 Google Ads: campaign builds, restructures, and ongoing management 🟢 Builds + measurement: WordPress, Shopify, GA4, Google Tag Manager, Search Console Why me instead of an agency: 🟢 You get me. Same person on the call, in the audit, and in the ad account. No handoff to a junior after you sign. 🟢 Straight answers. I'll tell you when a page won't rank organically and paid will get you there faster. Automated "SEO scores" and raw issue counts aren't results, so I don't report them as results. 🟢 Built for your situation. I map keywords to what actually makes you money first, then expand. Your competitors and your margins decide the plan, not a checklist. Industries: law firms, home services, SaaS + startups, manufacturing, managed IT and cybersecurity Free 30-minute consult (DM me). Common problems I get hired to fix: 🟢 Traffic dropped after a website redesign or migration and nobody can tell you why 🟢 You rank for your business name and almost nothing else 🟢 Google Ads is spending budget but the leads aren't turning into customers 🟢 Competitors show up in Google Maps and the local pack and you don't 🟢 A previous agency left behind spammy backlinks, thin pages, or a broken site structure 🟢 Your analytics don't match your CRM and you can't tell which channel actually pays 🟢 You have hundreds of blog posts and none of them bring in business 🟢 A new site is about to launch and you don't want to lose the rankings you already have Tools and platforms I work in every week: WordPress, Shopify, Webflow migrations, Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, Google Ads, Google Business Profile, Semrush, DataForSEO Common questions: How long does SEO take? - Depends on your site, your competition, and what's already broken. Technical fixes can show up in weeks. Competitive rankings usually take months. Anyone who gives you a date before looking at your site is guessing. Do you do one-time audits, or only ongoing work? - Both. Most clients start with a technical SEO audit + roadmap, then decide whether they want me implementing it or handing it to their team. Can you work with my in-house developer? - Yes. I write developer briefs specific enough to hand off without a translation layer in between. Do you do local SEO? - Yes, including Google Business Profile optimization, local landing pages, and citation cleanup. Do you handle content too? - I do content strategy, briefs, and editing. I don't publish unedited AI copy and I won't recommend more blog posts just to add volume. Revenue is what matters. I already have an agency. Can you tell me if they're doing a good job? - Yes, You'll get a straight answer either way, including if the answer is that they're doing fine. Can you guarantee first page rankings? - No, and anyone who does is either lying or planning to rank you for terms nobody searches. What I can promise is that you'll always know what I did, why, and what it moved. What does it cost? - Depends on scope. Audits are flat rate, ongoing work is a monthly retainer, and I quote after I've looked at your site. If the budget is tight I'll cut scope rather than cut corners. What do I get in a report? - Rankings, traffic, and conversions tied to the work we agreed on. You won't get an automated "SEO score" or a count of 4,000 issues. Those aren't results, they're just software output. Do I keep access to my accounts? - Always. Google Ads, Analytics, Search Console, and your website stay in your name. Nothing is held hostage if we stop working together. My site got hit by an algorithm update. Can you fix it? - Sometimes. First I figure out whether it's a content, technical, or off-site problem, because the fix is completely different for each one. Some drops aren't recoverable and I'll tell you if I think that's the case. I've been burned by an SEO before. Why is this different? - Fair question and you should ask it. Ask me to explain any recommendation I make. If I can't tell you what it's supposed to do and how we'll know if it worked, don't do it. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, US Central time. I work with clients across the US and internationally.