The only difference between "full-service" SEO and SEO consulting, at least by our definition, is that in the case of full-service we have complete access to the client's website, and we are not only coming up with ideas on what to do, but we are making the changes ourselves, whereas with consulting we are merely telling the client what to do and it is up to them to implement our recommendations.

We didn't set out to provide consulting services, it has just happened naturally. It all started with a client saying "Our IT staff doesn't want anyone touching the website" to which we responded "Well, how about if we just tell them what to do and they make the changes and we charge you a little less?" Now, approximately half of our SEO clients have opted for our consulting services.

The benefits our clients see are that they don't pay as much, their internal employees pick up new skills, and eventually they can take SEO in-house. Yes, that does mean we risk losing customers, but it also gives us an edge in picking up customers. We have several clients who have gone with us almost entirely because we are willing to be completely open about our techniques and share with them what we do, whereas many other companies try to hide their "secret sauce." On average we see these consulting engagements lasting six months, either because the client does, in fact, take SEO in-house, or because the service fails.

The unfortunate or challenging aspect to SEO consulting is that clients often don't implement our recommendations, therefore they see no improvement in their rankings, traffic, or lead generation, and therefore they can't figure out why they're paying for the service. Indeed, it doesn't make sense to pay for the service in that case, but unfortunately most clients see the solution to be canceling the service, rather than starting to implement our recommendations or opt for the full-service SEO package.

As I was saying, we will soon be modifying the MWI website to reflect this offering, which we believe has quite a bit of potential. We may even offer packages that last a certain amount of time, and we may spin the offering as a training package of sorts, in which we provide monthly training sessions that are custom-tailored to a client's needs and situation.