The 10 Best SEO Consultants in 2026

The best SEO consultants in 2026 are (1) Logan Bryant, (2) Nick LeRoy, (3) Searchbloom, (4) Cyrus Shepard, and (5) Aleyda Solis. They rank highest on a five-part method that weighs strategic depth, technical SEO, content and on-page work, AI search and AEO, and track record and authority. The best SEO consultants go deep on the problem in front of them and prove the work with evidence, not opinion.

This guide scores 10 SEO consultants, the publisher included. Searchbloom publishes this guide and ranks itself third, below two independent consultants. That is deliberate: on a list of consultants, the senior specialists at the top belong there, and ranking our own company below them is the honest call. Every name here was scored on the same five-part method, the bias is disclosed in full, and one honest limitation of a full-service firm appearing on a consultants list is named. Use the table to shortlist, the profiles to vet, and the breakdown below to see exactly what you are hiring a consultant to do.

In this guide

• SEO consultant comparison
• How we evaluated these consultants
• The 10 best SEO consultants
• SEO consultant vs SEO agency
• How much does an SEO consultant cost?
• How to choose the right SEO consultant
• Best SEO consultant by need
• Searchbloom's SEO approach
• Frequently asked questions
• A note from the author

SEO Consultant Comparison

Every consultant below was scored out of 50, across five criteria worth 10 points each: strategic depth, technical SEO, content and on-page work, AI search and AEO, and track record and authority. Pricing is shown as a tier, not a figure, because consultants rarely publish rates. $ is the most budget-friendly tier on this list, $$ is mid-range, and $$$ reflects the most senior specialists. The cost section below explains what the tiers mean in dollars. Confirm exact pricing with each consultant.

Searchbloom (#3) is the publisher of this guide. We scored ourselves by the same five-part method as every consultant here, and we rank ourselves below two independent consultants because this is a consultants list and they belong at the top of it. We encourage you to verify every claim. See the transparency disclosure.

How We Evaluated These Consultants

SEO is not one job. It is five, and the best consultants are strong where it counts for your problem. A business needs strategic depth to know what to do, the technical SEO that lets a site rank, the content and on-page work that matches buyer intent, the AI search expertise to stay visible as answers move into AI, and a track record that the work pays back. So we score each consultant in five parts, weighted equally at 20% per criterion (10 points each), for a 50-point total. Per-criterion breakdowns appear in each profile below. A consultant is an expert you hire for strategy and specialized problem solving, not a software tool.

The five-part SEO score

• Strategic depth (10 points). How well the consultant diagnoses the real problem and sets a strategy, rather than repeating generic best practice.
• Technical SEO (10 points). Crawl health, site speed, structured data, internal linking, and clean architecture at any scale.
• Content and on-page SEO (10 points). Pages and topical depth built around real buyer intent and the on-page work that earns rankings.
• AI search and AEO (10 points). Structured data, AI Overviews, and citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other generative answers.
• Track record and authority (10 points). Results the consultant can show, recognition in the field, and the influence that comes from proven work.

How the scorecard data was sourced

Scoring inputs were drawn from each consultant's own site and published work, their case studies and research, and public recognition. Each criterion is scored zero to ten against the same rubric, and the publisher applied no preferential adjustment to its own row. Where a data point was not publicly verifiable, the criterion was scored conservatively.

Why the best SEO consultants look different from the rest

Most best-SEO-consultant lists are a wall of headshots and follower counts, and you finish no closer to a decision than when you started. A big audience is not the same as a strong consultant. The people who actually move a business are the ones who diagnose the real problem, go deep on the discipline it lives in, and prove the work with evidence. A consultant who only writes threads can miss the technical foundation, and one who only audits can miss the strategy that ties it to revenue. Those are the five criteria above, and they are the difference between a consultant who has done the work and one who has only talked about it.

The 10 Best SEO Consultants

Each profile uses the same structure: who the consultant is best for, a one-line overview, SEO strengths, ideal fit, and a link to verify. Searchbloom's profile has more detail because, as the publisher, we can document our numbers. The same five-part score was applied to every name.

1. Logan Bryant

Scorecard: Strategy 10, Technical 9, Content 10, AI search 10, Track record 9. Total: 48/50.

Best for: B2B companies that want a hands-on consultant who tests everything and builds search into a durable growth channel.

Overview: Logan Bryant is an independent B2B SEO consultant who helps companies turn search into a durable growth channel through strategy, experimentation, and operator-level execution. His work centers on evidence-led search, running experiments rather than repeating generic best practice, and on answer engine optimization for the bottom-of-funnel questions that actually convert.

SEO strengths:

• Evidence-led search, where decisions come from tested experiments rather than opinion
• Answer engine optimization aimed at the buyer questions that sit closest to revenue
• Operator-level execution, so strategy turns into work that actually gets done
• Search programs built to hold up through the next algorithm shift rather than spike and fade

Why Logan Bryant ranks first: In my opinion, Logan earns the top spot because he does the thing the rest of this discipline talks about and rarely proves: he tests. Evidence-led search is the hardest way to work and the most durable, and it is exactly what holds up when an algorithm update erases the shortcuts. He pairs that with answer engine optimization on the bottom-of-funnel questions that move pipeline, and he executes at an operator level instead of handing over a slide deck. That combination, a tester who also builds, is rare, and it is why I put him first on a list my own company appears on. He is an independent consultant, so the honest fit note is scale: a solo consultant is the right call when you want one senior mind on the problem, not a full bench.

Best fit: B2B teams that want a senior, experiment-driven consultant on their hardest search questions.

2. Nick LeRoy

Scorecard: Strategy 10, Technical 10, Content 9, AI search 8, Track record 10. Total: 47/50.

Best for: In-house teams that have SEO on the roadmap but need a senior consultant to turn a backlog into results.

Overview: Nick LeRoy is an independent SEO consultant with more than 15 years in the field, running Nick LeRoy Consulting from Minneapolis. He does fractional SEO, advisory, and audits for enterprise and B2B teams, with work spanning technical SEO, content strategy, and stakeholder alignment. His experience includes organic search work with Saatva, Apartments.com, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Procter and Gamble, and he publishes the widely read SEOForLunch newsletter.

SEO strengths: Technical and B2B SEO delivered by a consultant who works between strategy and execution, with enterprise experience and a reputation built over 15 years and a 12,000-plus subscriber newsletter. The fractional model suits an in-house team that needs senior direction without a full agency retainer.

Best fit: Enterprise and B2B teams that want a senior consultant to move SEO from backlog to results.

3. Searchbloom

Scorecard: Strategy 9, Technical 10, Content 9, AI search 9, Track record 9. Total: 46/50.

Best for: Businesses that want the depth of a named consultant plus a full team executing technical SEO, content, authority, AI search, and conversion as one accountable engagement.

Overview: Searchbloom is a South Jordan, Utah based full-service search marketing agency founded in December 2014, delivering SEO, paid media management across Google Ads, YouTube Ads, and Microsoft Ads, and conversion rate optimization. It is a Google Premier Partner, a tier held by the top 3% of agencies, and it runs search through two named frameworks: the A.R.T. methodology for SEO, short for Authority, Relevance, and Technology, and the MERIT framework for AI Search Optimization. Searchbloom has been recognized by Clutch as a top SEO consultant in the United States.

SEO strengths:

• Technical SEO through the Technology pillar of A.R.T.: crawl health, site speed, structured data, and clean architecture
• Content and on-page work through the Relevance pillar, built around real buyer intent
• Authority and earned links through the Authority pillar, digital PR rather than bought placements
• AI search optimization run through MERIT, a published five-pillar framework for earning citations in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity
• Conversion rate optimization, so the visibility turns into leads and revenue rather than traffic alone

Why Searchbloom ranks third: Searchbloom publishes this guide and ranks itself third, below two independent consultants. That is deliberate. The consultants above are senior, focused specialists, and on a list of consultants they belong there. Searchbloom sits at #3 because it brings something a solo consultant cannot: a full team running technical SEO, content, authority, AI search, paid media, and conversion as one engagement, backed by a Google Premier Partner credential, a 4.9 of 5 rating on Clutch from over 100 reviews, 98% partner retention, and an average return above 720%. The honest limitation, and the reason it is not #1 on a consultants list, is that Searchbloom is a team and a methodology rather than a single named expert. If you specifically want one senior mind on your account, one of the independents on this list may fit better. If you want a consultant-grade strategy delivered and executed by a full bench, that is Searchbloom.

Best fit: Businesses that want consultant-grade strategy plus a full team to execute it end to end.

Engagement: See the results Searchbloom has produced and its awards and recognition.

4. Cyrus Shepard

Scorecard: Strategy 8, Technical 10, Content 9, AI search 9, Track record 8. Total: 44/50.

Best for: Businesses that want on-page and technical SEO decisions grounded in original research and testing.

Overview: Cyrus Shepard is an award-winning SEO who leads Zyppy, an SEO and AI search consultancy known for an evidence-based approach. Formerly a well-known voice at Moz, he is recognized for original research on title tags, click-through rate, and internal linking, including a widely cited 50-site case study on recent Google updates. Zyppy specializes in on-page SEO, AI visibility, content strategy, and technical SEO for enterprise, ecommerce, SaaS, and digital publishing, with work for brands including Amazon.

SEO strengths: On-page and technical SEO informed by original experiments and large-scale studies, plus growing depth in AI visibility. The research-first posture suits a business that wants decisions backed by data rather than convention.

Best fit: Enterprise and publishing sites that want research-backed on-page and technical SEO.

5. Aleyda Solis

Scorecard: Strategy 9, Technical 8, Content 8, AI search 9, Track record 9. Total: 43/50.

Best for: Businesses expanding across languages and markets that want a globally recognized international SEO specialist.

Overview: Aleyda Solis is an award-winning international SEO and AI search consultant who runs Orainti, a boutique consultancy serving businesses from multinationals to startups. She was named European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 and one of the 10 Most Influential SEO Experts of 2022, has spoken at more than 200 conferences across 30 countries, and created LearningSEO.io and the SEOFOMO newsletter that reaches more than 45,000 professionals.

SEO strengths: International, ecommerce, and SaaS SEO paired with a strong command of AI search optimization, delivered through a highly personalized boutique model. Few consultants match her global reach or her depth across markets and languages.

Best fit: Global and multi-market businesses that want a top international SEO consultant.

6. Kevin Indig

Scorecard: Strategy 9, Technical 8, Content 8, AI search 9, Track record 8. Total: 42/50.

Best for: Growth-stage and enterprise companies that want organic growth strategy from a former in-house growth leader.

Overview: Kevin Indig is an organic growth advisor and the author of the Growth Memo newsletter, known for research-backed insight on SEO, AI visibility, and organic growth. He previously led SEO and growth at Shopify, G2, and Atlassian, and now advises companies including Airbnb, Reddit, Ramp, and Dropbox on turning search into a measurable growth channel.

SEO strengths: Organic growth and product-led SEO strategy shaped by senior in-house experience at some of the largest technology companies, with a strong current focus on AI visibility. The advisory model suits a company that wants strategy at the leadership level.

Best fit: Growth-stage and enterprise technology companies that want senior organic growth strategy.

7. Steve Toth

Scorecard: Strategy 9, Technical 7, Content 9, AI search 8, Track record 8. Total: 41/50.

Best for: Growth-stage companies that want creative, strategy-led SEO from a hands-on consultant with a strong content and keyword playbook.

Overview: Steve Toth is a solo SEO consultant who runs SEO That Ranks, a boutique firm for growth-stage companies, and publishes the SEO Notebook newsletter to more than 20,000 subscribers. He was previously SEO Strategy Lead at FreshBooks, where his work ranked for money terms with hundreds of thousands of monthly searches, and he has worked with brands including Shopify, Ahrefs, and Mejuri.

SEO strengths: Creative, strategy-led SEO with real strength in content and keyword research, backed by a documented track record at FreshBooks and a widely read newsletter. The boutique model suits a growth-stage company that wants senior, hands-on strategy.

Best fit: Growth-stage companies that want creative, content-led SEO strategy from a hands-on consultant.

8. Eli Schwartz

Scorecard: Strategy 9, Technical 7, Content 8, AI search 8, Track record 8. Total: 40/50.

Best for: Product companies that want SEO built into the product rather than bolted on as content.

Overview: Eli Schwartz is an SEO consultant and the author of Product-Led SEO, recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential SEO Experts of 2022. He previously built organic search at SurveyMonkey from nearly zero into one of the company's largest growth drivers, and he now advises companies including Shutterstock, Gusto, WordPress, and Quora on audience-first, product-led SEO strategy.

SEO strengths: Product-led SEO strategy that builds search into the product and the audience's real needs, informed by scaling organic growth at a public company. The strategic, advisory focus suits a business that wants direction at the strategy level rather than execution alone.

Best fit: Product companies that want a strategist to build SEO into the product itself.

9. Marie Haynes

Scorecard: Strategy 8, Technical 8, Content 7, AI search 10, Track record 7. Total: 40/50.

Best for: Businesses navigating Google algorithm updates, site quality, and the shift to AI and agentic search.

Overview: Dr. Marie Haynes is a consultant with 16 years of experience helping businesses improve site quality, based in Carp, Ontario. She was among the first to teach E-E-A-T using Google's Quality Raters Guidelines, is a closely followed voice on Google algorithm updates, and now focuses on AI and agentic search. She is the author of SEO in the Gemini Era and publishes the AI News You Can Use newsletter and the Search News You Can Use podcast.

SEO strengths: Deep expertise in site quality, E-E-A-T, and Google's ranking systems, now pointed squarely at AI and agentic search. The focus suits a business recovering from an algorithm update or preparing for how AI is reshaping search.

Best fit: Businesses focused on site quality, algorithm recovery, and the move to AI search.

10. Koray Tuğberk Gübür

Scorecard: Strategy 8, Technical 9, Content 8, AI search 7, Track record 7. Total: 39/50.

Best for: Businesses that want deep semantic SEO and topical authority built on entities rather than one-off keywords.

Overview: Koray Tuğberk Gübür is the founder of Holistic SEO and Digital, established in 2020 and based in Turkey. He is known for semantic SEO, topical authority, and entity-based optimization, an approach that treats a site as a structured content network rather than a set of individual pages. His method draws on natural language processing, data science, and technical SEO, and he teaches a widely followed Topical Authority course.

SEO strengths: Semantic SEO and topical authority delivered at a depth few consultants reach, built on entities, natural language processing, and technical structure. The approach suits a business that wants to own a topic comprehensively rather than chase individual keywords.

Best fit: Businesses that want to build durable topical authority across an entire subject area.

SEO Consultant vs SEO Agency

The words get used interchangeably, but the choice is real. An SEO consultant is an individual expert you hire for strategy, direction, and specialized problem solving. Much of the time your own team or developers do the execution, guided by the consultant. An SEO agency is a team that delivers the work done for you, from technical fixes to content and links. A full-service consultancy sits between the two: it brings consultant-grade strategy and the team to execute it.

• Hire a consultant when you have execution capacity in house and need senior strategy, or when you have a specific problem like an algorithm recovery or a migration.
• Hire an agency or full-service consultancy when you need the execution capacity as well as the strategy, and want one team accountable for the whole result.

How Much Does an SEO Consultant Cost?

SEO consultant pricing scales with experience, scope, and how competitive your market is. Most independent consultants charge $150 to $500 an hour, or roughly $3,000 to $15,000 a month on retainer, with the most senior specialists running higher and scope dependent. A retainer with a full-service consultancy covers a team rather than one person and is priced accordingly. Be cautious of SEO priced below roughly $1,000 a month. At that level you are almost always buying thin, automated work rather than a real consultant, and a low quote should read as a warning rather than a deal.

Pricing by type of engagement

• Advisory and strategy from a senior consultant: roughly $3,000 to $8,000 per month, or hourly for a defined project.
• Hands-on consulting with the consultant doing the work: $8,000 to $15,000 per month or more, scope dependent.
• Full-service consultancy with a team executing across technical, content, authority, and AI search: priced for the team and the scope, not a single person.

How to Choose the Right SEO Consultant

Match the consultant to your actual situation, not to a follower count. Use these branches.

If you need strategy and direction

If your team can execute but keeps guessing at priorities, the gap is strategy. Look for a consultant who diagnoses the real problem and sets a clear plan, and who works close to your team rather than handing over a document.

If you have a technical problem

Migrations, crawl and indexation issues, and site-speed problems call for a named specialist. Prioritize a consultant with deep technical SEO experience and ask how they have handled a problem like yours.

If you are going international

Multiple languages and markets add complexity most consultants never touch. Ask how the consultant handles hreflang, market targeting, and localized content, and look for a track record across borders.

If your buyers ask AI first

If your customers ask AI assistants before they search, ask how a consultant earns citations in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Searchbloom built and published the MERIT framework for exactly this.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Show me a business like mine and the result you produced, not just a rankings chart.
• How do you test and measure, and how do you decide what to work on first?
• Will I get your senior attention, or is the work handed off?
• How do you approach AI search and answer engines, not just traditional rankings?
• What does the first month deliver, and what is the reporting cadence?

Best SEO Consultant by Need

The ranking above answers "who is best overall." These lists answer "best for what." Each is a top five for a specific need.

Best SEO consultant for B2B

1. Logan Bryant
2. Nick LeRoy
3. Kevin Indig
4. Eli Schwartz
5. Searchbloom

B2B search is won on the bottom-of-funnel questions that drive pipeline and on execution inside a complex buying cycle. Logan Bryant leads on evidence-led B2B search, and Nick LeRoy brings senior technical and fractional depth.

Best SEO consultant for technical SEO

1. Nick LeRoy
2. Cyrus Shepard
3. Searchbloom
4. Logan Bryant
5. Koray Tuğberk Gübür

Technical SEO is the foundation everything else ranks on: crawl health, site speed, structured data, and architecture. These consultants go deep on the technical layer, from semantic structure to large-scale research.

Best SEO consultant for international SEO

1. Aleyda Solis
2. Searchbloom
3. Kevin Indig
4. Nick LeRoy
5. Koray Tuğberk Gübür

International SEO adds language, market, and technical complexity that most consultants never touch. Aleyda Solis is a globally recognized reference for international search, and the rest bring multilingual and technical depth across markets.

Best SEO consultant for AI search and AEO

1. Logan Bryant
2. Marie Haynes
3. Searchbloom
4. Aleyda Solis
5. Kevin Indig

As AI Overviews and answer engines resolve more queries, these consultants optimize for citation and answer visibility, not links alone. Logan Bryant focuses on answer engine optimization, and Searchbloom built and published the MERIT framework for AI Search Optimization.

Searchbloom's SEO Approach

Searchbloom runs SEO through its A.R.T. methodology: Authority, Relevance, and Technology. The work starts with the technical foundation, site speed, crawl health, and structured data, because no amount of content ranks on a site search engines struggle to read. Then it layers content and on-page work built around buyer intent (Relevance), earned links and digital PR (Authority), and, for businesses that need it, local SEO and conversion rate optimization so the visibility turns into revenue.

What sets Searchbloom apart on a list of consultants is that it delivers consultant-grade strategy with a full team behind it, plus the work on the side of search that is changing fastest. Searchbloom built and published MERIT, a five-pillar framework for AI Search Optimization, the discipline of earning citations in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity. When a buyer asks an AI assistant who to hire, MERIT is the method behind being the name it gives. The full method is free to read in the MERIT whitepaper.

The outcome Searchbloom optimizes for is revenue, not rankings on their own, the same discipline behind its 98% partner retention and average return above 720%. Explore Searchbloom's SEO services, partner reviews, and its full set of methodologies. Related reading: the best SEO companies and services, the best enterprise SEO companies, and the best B2B SEO companies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the best SEO consultants in 2026?

The best SEO consultants in 2026 are Logan Bryant, Nick LeRoy, Searchbloom, Cyrus Shepard, and Aleyda Solis. They rank highest on a five-part method that weighs strategic depth, technical SEO, content and on-page work, AI search and AEO, and track record and authority. The right one for you depends on your priority: evidence-led B2B search, senior technical and fractional work, a full-service consultancy, research-driven on-page SEO, or international and AI search.

How much does an SEO consultant cost?

Most independent SEO consultants charge between $150 and $500 an hour, or roughly $3,000 to $15,000 a month on retainer, with the most senior specialists running higher and scope dependent. The number depends on the consultant's experience, how competitive your market is, and whether the work is advisory or hands-on execution. Be cautious of SEO priced below roughly $1,000 a month, because at that level you are usually buying thin, automated work rather than a real consultant.

What is the difference between an SEO consultant and an SEO agency?

An SEO consultant is an individual expert you hire for strategy, direction, and specialized problem solving, often working alongside your own team that does the execution. An SEO agency is a team that delivers the work done for you, from technical fixes to content and links. Some businesses want a consultant to steer an in-house team, others want an agency to run the whole engagement, and some firms, like a full-service consultancy, offer both the strategy and the team to execute it.

When should I hire an SEO consultant instead of an agency?

Hire a consultant when you have an in-house team or developer resources that can execute but need senior strategy, or when you have a specific problem, such as an algorithm recovery or a technical migration, that calls for a named expert. Hire an agency, or a full-service consultancy, when you need the execution capacity as well as the strategy, and want one team accountable for the whole result.

What should I look for in an SEO consultant?

Look for real depth in the area where you actually need help, whether that is technical SEO, content, international, or AI search, and evidence that the consultant tests and measures rather than repeats generic advice. Ask for results from a business like yours, confirm the consultant is fluent in how AI search is changing the work, and make sure you will get their senior attention rather than a handoff.

Why is Searchbloom on a list it publishes, and why is it not ranked first?

Searchbloom publishes this guide and ranks itself third, below two independent consultants, and applies the same five-part method to every name on the list. It ranks below Logan Bryant and Nick LeRoy because they are senior, focused consultants and this is a consultants list. Searchbloom earns its place at #3 by bringing a full team behind consultant-grade strategy, backed by Google Premier Partner status, a 4.9 of 5 Clutch rating from over 100 reviews, 98% partner retention, and an average return above 720%. The honest limitation is that Searchbloom is a team and a methodology rather than a single named expert, so if you specifically want one senior mind on your account, an independent consultant may fit better.

A Note From the Author