Why Do You Need SEO Consulting?

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for 'Search Engine Optimization.' It is the work of optimizing a homepage or website so it appears more prominently on search engines like Google or Naver (Korea's dominant search engine, ~58% market share). It is mostly used for marketing purposes, aiming for top placement on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs).

Why You Need SEO

SEO optimizes your homepage without additional marketing spend, secures top placement in search, and increases visitor rates. This makes it a low-cost or no-cost marketing method. Visitors also arrive directly through search, based on keywords related to your product or service. As a result, inquiry and purchase conversion rates are higher than for ad-driven traffic. In short, when someone interested in your service or product searches a related keyword, your homepage appears at the top, and the chance of a click and visit increases.

SEO Elements

So what elements do you need to know to optimize your homepage for search engines? SEO has many elements, but the most efficient one to handle yourself if you are not an SEO expert is 'On-Page SEO.' On-Page SEO is the work of optimizing the elements within your homepage so search engines award it a high score.

7 Core Elements of On-Page SEO

• Content Optimization: Structure content around search keywords and manage content quality to deliver valuable information.
• Title Tag: A title that reflects the page's core topic.
• Meta Description: A summary description of the page's content.
• Header Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.): Provide content structure, hierarchy, and clarity so search engines understand the page well.
• Mobile Optimization: Build with responsive design that delivers a good user experience on mobile devices.
• Loading Speed: Keep your homepage's loading speed fast to provide a good user experience.
• Image Optimization: Set keywords through image ALT tags and optimize image file size and dimensions.

Beyond 'On-Page SEO,' search engine optimization broadly includes 'Off-Page SEO' and 'Technical SEO.' For a site to appear at the top of the first SERP, the full range of SEO elements must be comprehensively reflected across individual pages and the entire site.

Unless you are an SEO expert or an SEO agency, learning all of SEO and applying it technically to your homepage is not easy. If you have other responsibilities, efficiency drops, and results may fall short relative to the effort invested. For this reason, we recommend entrusting search engine optimization to SEO consulting or an SEO agency.

In this article, we explain what SEO consulting is, why you need it, and what you can expect to receive through consulting.

What Is SEO Consulting?

SEO consulting is a 1:1 diagnostic and tailored proposal service that diagnoses the problems in your current homepage or website and presents the direction and specific methods for SEO. In other words, it is a consulting service that delivers concrete plans to optimize your site and its pages so they rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Why You Need SEO Consulting

Most people who seek SEO consulting do so because their homepage is not appearing in search or because their rankings are not moving. SEO consulting is needed to identify and fix the reasons and problems behind a homepage's lack of visibility, in order to raise its SERP rankings going forward.

The reasons a homepage fails to appear vary greatly from case to case. In most cases, it is likely a combination of issues rather than a single cause. Therefore, an expert must comprehensively diagnose your homepage's overall condition and external factors through SEO consulting to identify the problems. After the diagnosis, you receive direction and concrete action items tailored to each problem, aimed at successful indexing and top placement on the first page of search engines.

Even when your site appears but rankings do not improve over time, we identify and remove the factors hindering SEO on your current homepage. Then, through competitor analysis and keyword analysis, you receive specific guidelines for building competitive, high-visibility pages.

SEO Consulting vs. SEO Agency Service

If you find it difficult to set up SEO yourself, you may be looking into SEO agencies. Understanding the key difference between an SEO agency and SEO consulting helps you decide which to choose.

The biggest difference between an agency and consulting is 'recurring cost.' Hiring an SEO agency means paying a monthly or annual management fee. With SEO consulting, on the other hand, your company can execute the delivered guidelines in-house, so there is no recurring cost.

2 Cases Where We Recommend SEO Consulting

In this article, we focus on the cases where we recommend 'SEO consulting' over an agency.

First, if content creation is the main purpose of your homepage, we recommend consulting over an agency. Content must deliver high-quality information with clear topics and substance per page, so search engines recognize each page's topic clearly and award high SEO scores. Service providers and information providers understand their own content more clearly than an SEO agency does. So rather than outsourcing, it can be more efficient to build SEO content yourself, based on SEO consulting and guidelines.

Second is when you have a marketing manager in-house. If your company has a marketing department or manager, that person sets the company's overall marketing direction. So rather than having an external party lead your homepage content and marketing elements, it is more efficient for an internal manager to learn SEO directly and control operations and marketing.

SEO Consulting Services Provided by 238lab

• Problems with your current homepage (current-state diagnosis)
• Technical SEO measures for SEO
• Concrete content strategy planning examples and direction
• Comprehensive search engine optimization proposal
• Post-implementation review

Search engine optimization can improve dramatically just by diagnosing your current homepage's problems through consulting and becoming aware of the bad habits that recur in homepage management and content creation. Even if you research and apply SEO elements on your own, optimization will hit a ceiling unless you remove the negative factors your existing homepage carries.

So if you are facing visibility problems on search engines (Google, Naver), it is best to find an SEO consulting firm and first identify the problems with your current pages.