Samuel Edwards

Private blog networks (PBNs) have been used for years as an SEO strategy. Perhaps you have dabbled in creating one yourself or collaborated (in some cases unawares) with others who own them. Here we’ll discover more about PBNs, including: Definition of a private blog network (PBN) How PBNs are created Pros and Cons of a private blog network History and risks of PBNs Let’s get at it! What Is a Private Blog Network (PBN)? Let’s start with a description of PBNs, including how they work—or at least how they’re supposed to work. A private blog network is a collection (network) of individual, distinct websites (blog) owned by a single person or organization (private), typically for the purpose of generating links for a primary domain. To understand why this could be valuable, you have to understand the basics of link building. When conducting a Google search, Google’s algorithm considers both the relevance of potential websites (whether or not the results are related to your query) and their authority. Their “authority” is a measure of their trustworthiness, which is calculated based on a number of factors; most prominently, this is determined by the number and quality of links pointing to the domain. If you earn enough high-quality links, your “domain authority” will grow, and it will be easier for you to rank in the future. So let’s say you have a primary website and you’re looking to do SEO for your personal injury law firm. If you wanted to build PBN links, you could purchase domains relevant to the law, develop content for those sites, and use them to build links back to your main money site (a glorified and solely-owned link wheel for SEO purposes). This allows you to forgo conventional link building strategies, which require patience, attention to quality, relationship building, and did I mention patience? Hypothetically, all the nodes in your PBN could be used as separate avenues for revenue generation, and tightly interlink with each other. However, this is a problematic approach for a few reasons. First, this would be extremely time- and money-intensive, and your peripheral sites probably won’t be as profitable as your main site; accordingly, this bears out a low return on investment (ROI). Second, the closer your nodes’ relationships are, the more likely they’re going to be targeted with a Google penalty. There are a number of strategies that people have used to improve the effectiveness of their PBNs. For example, it’s common for people to purchase expired or expiring domains for their PBN nodes; these tend to have a lot of existing authority, meaning the links you build with them will instantly be more powerful—without having to wait months for the new websites to mature. Are Private Blog Networks (PBNs) White Hat or Black Hat? In SEO, everything is about quality. You want to provide high-quality, natural content to your readers, and build high-quality natural links on external publishing websites. Accordingly, your SEO “Spidey sense” might tingle when reading a description of how a private blog network (PBN) works. Is a private blog network a black hat or white hat tactic? If you’re building a PBN for the pure purpose of manipulating your search rankings, and your nodes are throwaway sites with no real purpose, you’ll be violating Google’s terms of service. In fact, it’s even possible to report websites and networks engaging in this behavior. In the past, Google has taken manual action against PBNs to limit their influence and dissuade webmasters from building them (which we’ll touch on in the next section). Accordingly, you can describe PBNs as a black hat tactic. That said, there’s a lot of room for customization and improvement in your PBNs. You could build a small PBN of just one or two extra sites, and spend a lot of time fleshing out those sites with high-quality content, genuinely intended to be valuable to readers. In this scenario, your websites would function as independently valuable, self-sustaining entities, with the links you build merely as an added bonus. Here, your PBN could mostly be considered white hat. Because of this, a private blog network exists in a kind of “gray hat” territory. Google explicitly encourages webmasters not to engage in PBNs, but there are ways to make them more valuable. The PBN Google Crackdown of 2014 Of note, Google issued a massive crackdown on PBNs back in 2014, and continues to remain vigilant in handing out manual penalties for suspected offenders. The specific violation cited by these manual actions was typically “thin content.” Some SEO professionals reported traffic drops of up to 90 percent over the course of a single weekend, and were never able to recover using the same tactics as before. If you decide to use PBNs, you need to be prepared for this possibility. There are several ways to guard yourself from penalty, of course. For the most part, Google brings the penalty down on sites that clearly seem related to each other. It often detects this by noting the link relationships between domains, or by noting the public owners of each domain; domains that tightly interlink with each other and are owned by the same person are frequently the target of penalty. You can fight back in a few important ways Make your registration public, or use different registering entities. Don’t allow your websites to fall under the same registration umbrella. Use a diversity of links. If your nodes are constantly pointing to each other, and only each other, it’s going to be a red flag. Make each site independent. While you may be building nodes to “feed” a central important site, try not to make that relationship obvious with your content or structure. Each site should stand independently. Assess publishers. If you’re using a white label link building service or a white label SEO team, you will want to apply strict guest blogging filter parameters to the sites from which you are looking to acquire backlinks. The ROI Problem With PBNs There’s

If you boil down Google’s Ranking Factors, it’s just math. What makes one site rank above another is simply based on a (complex) weighted calculation. And, while link building has always been the bell of the ball when it comes to ranking, it is NOT the most correlated factor for ranking in Google. No, the most correlated ranking factor is that you have diversification among all the other top factors. The more of the Google ranking factors listed here you add to a given web page, the more tuned your page will be for your target keyword and the better able you will be to: Outrank big competitors in Google search and Survive the onslaught of never-ending Google updates with less massive rankings drops The list below (which we first released as a simple infographic in 2015) contains the top 200 statistically significant Spearman correlated Google ranking factors, including the technical on-page SEO you will need to perform to rank higher. These factors aren’t just guesSEO hearsay. They’re based on real, statistical data. But, SEO beware! Over-optimization is definitely a thing, especially if you’re just building links. DISCLAIMER: When considering these Top 200 Google Ranking Factors, please keep in mind this list only includes factors where the data is available as an outside observer. Google itself has other data NOT included here (e.g. click-through rates, user search history, on-page dwell time, bounce rates and returning visitor data) that would help provide a more complete picture.  The 200 factors included here represent the absolute best measure of observable statistical correlation.  Ready to dive in? How to Read This Guide to Google Ranking Factors Before we dig into the most important Google ranking factors to acknowledge, let’s talk about how to read this guide. Declaring a “ranking factor “ Remember, Google doesn’t give us full transparency. We don’t know the exact mechanics of how Google search rankings or Google’s algorithm works. However, by observing and analyzing the structure of web sites and how they perform in Google Search results, we can mostly reverse engineer how the algorithm works. We declare something to be a ranking factor when it’s sufficiently measurable and apparently capable of influencing rankings in SERPs. Ranking factor correlation vs. causation Because there are so many variables in play, it’s hard to demonstrate causation, but correlation studies have shown what areas actually contribute to higher rankings and which do not. As such, we are heavily interested in and reliant on strongly correlated items when evaluating different Google ranking factors. While Google Analytics may show engagement data, most third party tools ignore these factors when calculating rankings weights because they don’t have them. But, they are critical. Be sure dwell time and bounce rates for your pages are in-check. Correlation alone can’t prove that one specific change or one specific variable is responsible for an observed result. Spearman correlations Throughout this guide, we’ll be including Spearman correlations associated with all Google ranking factors. Put simply, this is a statistical assessment of variable correlation; when the ranking factor is present, rankings tend to increase. There are actually thousands of Google ranking factors that Google measures, but these are those that are statistically significant enough to make the cut. And, quite frankly, if you choose to focus on more than 200 Google ranking factors, you’re going to become overwhelmed by the data (which is actually available, by the way). Validating findings We use a combination of different research approaches, different types of software, and different external sources to assemble and rank are most important ranking factors. We encourage you to attempt to validate or invalidate our findings, by doing your own research. But, much of the data here has been gleaned through the use of both Cora from SEOToolLabs and SurferSEO. Cora is the original, technical SEO tool. Surfer is the copycat. Both are great, but Surfer has a better user interface. Surfer analyzes over 500 factors, Cora boasts some 2,000+ and you can see them in detail from their exported, separate reports. It’s interesting to note that a strong correlation between social signals and rankings ceases to exist. So, let the data do the talking! Ranking Factor Categories Our list of Google ranking factors isn’t going to be segmented by category but rather listed in order of relevance and importance. The dozens of ranking factors at the top of the list are either more influential or more directly observable as influential factors. Overlap and similarities Many of the rank factors on this list are similar to other factors. For example, “backlinks,” “dofollow backlinks,” and “nofollow backlinks” are counted separately, and there are separate factors for the presence/absence of a feature and the occurrence frequency of that feature. Though repetitious at times, there are usually important nuances and subtle distinctions to note. Top 200 Most Statistically Significant Factors for Ranking on Google Without further ado, let’s take a look at the 200 top Google ranking factors that influence your positions in Google search results. Ranking Factors 1-47: Statistical Spearman Correlation -0.35 to -0.20 As of this writing, the following are the most statistically significant ranking factors for ranking #1 for your most competitive keywords. The correlations and weights will change as the algorithm is updated, but of over 2,000 scanned factors across the entire web, these are those that are the MOST significant. 1. Is Inner Page Is the page an “inner” page? Put even more simply, is it not a homepage? Interior web pages like your Product page, Contact page, and all your blog posts are going to rank easier than homepages. This is only one of the reasons performing SEO on your homepage is often more difficult and extraordinarily complicated. 2. Number of Top 50 Shared Factors Used This gets a bit meta, as this Google ranking factor consolidates the top 50 shared factors represented by a given page. Optimizing for many different ranking factors is correlated with higher rankings. Just like link diversity and anchor text diversity, it is even

What is a link wheel in SEO? Are link wheels a reliable, sustainable SEO strategy? In short, link wheels have inherent problems, including: You’ll never have enough time or resources to create the high quality backlinks you want Link wheels are limited in their ability to improve your search engine rankings They are expensive in time and money Link wheel are a beast to maintain and will be a content black hole They are the quintessential black hat SEO strategy and can be detected by AI in the linkgraph For a well-rounded SEO campaign, you need more than a link wheel creation . You need professional link building strategy & backlink building services from an SEO agency. However, if you’re interested in building a link wheel creation to run an experiment or just to boost your site a little bit, here’s what you need to know. What is a Link Wheel in SEO? Link wheel (a.k.a “hub and spoke”) can be visualized like a wheel with your main web page in the middle connected to “spokes” that represent backlinks from other websites. In addition to each “spoke” linking to your main site, the “spokes” link to each other. Whether or not a link wheel works depends on how it’s created. Are link wheels just reinvented blog networks? At first glance, you might think a link wheel creation sounds just like a blog network. While the mechanical structures are similar, there are distinct differences. Blog networks are an old, ineffective, black hat SEO tactic that is essentially a link farm. A link farm consists of numerous blogs that publish reciprocal links to each other, usually without considering the content. For example, web pages are linked with anchor text that may not have anything to do with the content of the page, but anchor text is used in an attempt to rank for specific keywords. While blog networks generated fast, short-term rankings in the past, those days are over. Blog networks have been deemed illegal because they junk up the search results (if they rank), don’t provide long-term SEO benefits, and don’t offer value to visitors. Link farms aren’t worth much, if anything, and search engines quickly blacklist websites that appear to be part of a link farm. Link wheel creation, on the other hand, might be part of a blog network, but that blog network is not black hat. The distinction lies in the quality of the content created and how the backlinks are connected. Not all blog networks are black hat The truth is that blog networks aren’t inherently black hat. Black hat blog networks exist solely to create backlinks and will publish any content, often automatically, without editorial review. White hat blog networks are groups of high-quality websites or blogs that provide genuine value to visitors. Link wheel fall into the “white hat” category. Although link wheel can be categorized as “white hat” blog networks, they’re still technically blog networks. They don’t automatically get a high level of respect from search engines. Not because it’s impossible, but because of the time and effort required to earn a high-ranking status for one website. When you have a link wheel with, say, ten websites, you have to put in the time and effort equal to developing ten high-ranking websites. Almost nobody has time for that, which makes most link wheels poor quality. This is why link wheel creation aren’t recommended as a primary SEO strategy. High-quality link wheels require extensive time and effort to create. In fact, link wheel require far more time and effort than building one authoritative website. Essentially, Link wheel creation requires creating and maintaining multiple, individual high-quality authoritative websites. In the end, those websites link to one another, but with specific purpose and intention. Link wheels can be a legitimate, strategic, long-term strategy Although the legitimacy of link wheels is hotly debated, the term “link wheel” only refers to the pattern of linking between websites and says nothing about the quality of the content. There’s no evidence that link wheels with high-quality content don’t work. In fact, if all the sites in a link wheel independently rank high in the search engines, Google won’t penalize those sites for being owned by the same person. There are plenty of websites that publish content that links to each other’s content on a regular basis. Those websites aren’t part of a link wheel – they’re just high-ranking, high-quality sites with amazing resources that people reference on a regular basis. With that said, it’s hard to establish a link wheel creation of that caliber. However, it’s not impossible. Building a link wheel? Prepare for plenty of hard work If you’re going to create a link wheel, be prepared to put in plenty of hard work, time, and money. Link wheels aren’t free or effortless to create. You can’t just pay someone to create your links and content and call it a day. If you pay someone to do work for you, you’ll need to do the planning. Effective link wheels require careful planning and strategic execution beyond what you can do on your days off. If you decide to create one, you’re looking at a full-time job for at least a year or more. Technically, an effective link wheel creation is no different from creating a series of phenomenal websites in the same niche. Although, you can’t just make a bunch of websites and expect results. You’ll need to build each website from the ground up as its own entity with its own market, audience, design, content, link building strategy and purpose. In other words, embarking on the task of creating a link wheel is the same as committing yourself to creating multiple, independent, full-scale website projects. You can benefit from a link wheel, but only when you go all out with each website as its own project. Once each site is established, your backlinks will hold more value. Creating your own link wheel vs. joining an existing link wheel

Link building has come a long way since the early days. Successful offsite SEO and link building is no longer a matter of quantity (though, quantity and regularly still play a role) so much as it is a matter of quality. In order to build the authority of your own site, you must leverage the domain authority of existing sites, and construct high quality backlinks that are meaningful in the eyes of users as well as search engines. Actually, building links on major news sites isn’t as difficult as you might imagine. But it takes work!  Try any or all of these three significant ways you can earn valuable backlinks from major sites: Write High Quality (Link Worthy) Content Writing high quality content is one of the most effective ways to increase the likelihood that you will attain high quality links from larger websites. In short, writing high quality content increases the perception that you are a professional and leads other website owners to believe that you are the type of individual with whom a business relationship could be mutually profitable. There are a variety of things you can do to ensure that the content you produce is high quality: Make your text is “scannable.” To ensure that your readers can quickly scan through your content to find the information they want, make a point to include things such as headers, bullets, and numbered lists. Use shorter paragraphs, shorter sentences, and more line breaks. It helps people scan/skim the content which is how most people consume text content these. If it isn’t skimmable then I think people will just click that back button and look for something that is. Be very focused and targeted when using h2 and h3 tags to segment content into sections that make sense, so readers can easily get to the info they want. Become a source for research. Be a source for first-person research and data in the form of industry surveys, direct market research and unbiased reporting. Report your findings via graphs and charts and promote them heavily. You are likely to get natural, quality links this way. Lists of statistics work VERY well for becoming a link-worthy, linkable source. Don’t focus on word count. It’s really more about post quality. In fact, most of post updates have involved cutting a lot of content that I just felt was too fluffy. Cut the fluff wherever you can and get to the point. People have short attention spans these days and just want answers. Move the “meat” of your articles as close to the top as possible. No more long-winded intros or background stories. I also cut out stuff that I think should be obvious to my readers, and I just try to get right to the good stuff. Listicles are big-time winners, especially for acquiring high quality backlinks. Make sure every post has a target keyword. Use Yoast to make sure you are optimizing each post for its target keyword, and after publishing the post I always make sure to build at least three internal links to it from other pages on your blog, using the keyword as anchor text, when possible. Keep your opening paragraphs as short as possible, while including the target keyword as close to the top as I can. It’s all part of my effort to cut out fluff and just provide dense content. I think people are just tired of fluff in general. Become a Source & Thought Leader If you’re serious about getting links from larger websites, you should know that becoming a thought leader in your area of business can help you accomplish your objective. This is the case for several reasons, one of which is that your website gains credibility (and subsequently, visibility) when people believe that you have extensive education and experience in your chosen field. So, how do you become a thought leader in your area of business? Write and publish a book & then promote it. Continually publish thought leadership articles on your website that are sharable, include research findings Attend lectures and conferences where you can network with other thought leaders In the remote working era, you can even connect with other thought leaders on social channels. Linkedin is my personal favorite for this Becoming a source also means using channels that can connect you with high-profile journalists where you can acquire quality links for your website. For more information on this strategy, please visit our HARO link building services guide. Add A Blog Adding a blog to your website is a fun and effective way to get more links from larger websites. Like several of the other link building strategies outlined here, adding a blog is a viable link building strategy because it can increase the visibility of your website and thereby catch the attention of larger websites who will then view linking you in to be a mutually profitable decision. To make the most of each blog post, be sure that the content you publish there is interesting and informative. Also make a point to try to guest post on the blogs of other people. This is a good networking strategy that also increases the likelihood that you can reach more people within your target audience. Implement Proven Social Media Optimization (SMO) Strategies. One of the many effective strategies that can help you get links from larger websites is to simply increase your visibility in the online world. In short, a large website cannot link you if they do not hear about you somehow. With this idea in mind, take note of the fact that social media channels are an incredibly useful (and cost effective) way to share information about your business’s goods and services with other people. There are a variety of social media optimization (SMO) strategies you can implement to increase your business’s online visibility. For example, tweeting at peak times (5 pm) will increase the likelihood that a large number of people learn about the goods

Most non-legal professionals get much of their information about the industry from crime dramas they see on the small screen. But life doesn’t always imitate or accurately reflect art. The general public sees men and women dressed to the nines going toe-to-toe with opposing legal teams, pulling out all the stops to represent their clients, and sometimes challenging judges.  But plenty goes on behind the scenes that most people aren’t remotely aware of. U.S. law firms operate like well-oiled machines, relying on specialized software to do just that. According to Zion Market Research, the worldwide legal document management software segment was worth $1.9 billion in 2022. It could expand at a 12.28% compound annual growth rate between 2023 and 2030 and be worth about $4.73 billion by the end of the forecast period.  Meanwhile, Verified Market Research reports that the U.S. enterprise legal management software segment is worth $455.39 million and could grow to $817.03 million by 2031. Mondor Intelligence adds that the AI software market in the legal industry is on pace to reach $2.19 billion this year and grow to $3.64 billion by 2029.   Law firms use AI tools to run their operations better, according to Mondor Intelligence. It explains that internal legal departments usually spend half their time reviewing contracts. That can cause productivity-draining bottlenecks and delays. However, AI tools help lawyers improve efficiency and productivity by handling all but the most essential parts of legal documents. If your law firm is looking for legal tools, what are the top options for 2024? The good news is that there are tons of options out there. But that doesn’t mean all of them are a great fit.  Continue reading to see 10 of the top legal software tools that can benefit your legal practice. Law.co Are you looking to automate and streamline complex legal processes and research? Do you want to optimize your contract drafting and editing with the power of GPT? Law.co — where law and AI meet — is the answer. It’s the ultimate AI platform for lawyers and law firms. Use it to digitize and optimize legal operations by leveraging the power of AI. With Law.co, you’ll benefit from the fusion of GPT tech with semantic search from our custom-trained legal database including north of 1 million cases and 20,000+ contracts. Prepare to revolutionize your legal research. And while Law.co is NOT legal practice management software, it is a great enhancement tool for research, drafting and structuring complex estate planning law. SmartAdvocate SmartAdvocate is one option if you want legal case management software. It’s billed as an all-in-one platform with AI features baked in. You can automate your legal processes, simplify document management, access user-friendly dashboards and reports, and improve the intake process. The solution also has tech that can boost profitability, says the company. Features include eSignatures, texting integration, a client portal, office calendaring, and more. Clio Clio is also worth adding to your shortlist when you need legal practice management software that offers everything your law firm requires in one place. Whether you want to work on billing, document management, or communication, Clio is worth putting through its paces. According to the company, law firms can use the software to find and win new clients, send bills and get paid, and create and access documents from anywhere. Whether you’re working solo, at a small law firm, or at a mid-sized or large legal practice, Clio is one option to mull over when looking for the best law practice management software. Filevine  Filevine is an AI-powered solution that the company says will accelerate your law firm. You can use it to lessen the burden of redundant tasks, customize procedures and processes to meet the needs of lawyers and the law firm, draft documents, connect your workflow with all your documents and contracts, and more. The company claims to offer solutions for all practice types. PracticePanther  Consider PracticePanther if you’re seeking software to automate your law firm. The law practice management software features include case management, document management, legal billing, legal customer relationship management, calendaring, eSignature, and more. It’s made for solo, small- to medium-sized, and large practices that want an all-in-one solution.  When it comes to legal practice management, PracticePanther has not left anything out. Actionstep  While many law practice management software options on this list are for law firms of all sizes, Actionstep is built with the needs of mid-size law practices in mind. The legal business management platform offers tools mid-size law firms can use to operate their businesses, create sustained growth, and increase profitability. The solution delivers everything needed in one place. You find CRM, document assembly and storage, matter management, time and billing, accounting, and other tools. The company says the platform offers unlimited scope for law firms to evolve. MyCase MyCase is a legal software solution offering tools for case management, billing and payments, client intake, lead management, client communication, and financial practice management software. If your law firm wants to stay organized with legal case management, MyCase is worth considering as a great case management software solution. Legal Files Legal Files is another possibility if you need legal practice management and case management software. It offers lawyers and law practices an all-in-one tool to streamline matter and email management, eBilling, litigation, and reporting. You can save time and resources by automating legal processes, centralizing data, and working more efficiently. CaseFleet CaseFleet helps lawyers build successful cases by offering tools that help review evidence, organize facts, and decipher trends. Its document reviewer feature helps lawyers to quickly and easily enter and review case evidence. It also provides a great task management solution.  Smokeball  Smokeball is another legal practice management software option for lawyers and law firms. It can help users eliminate administrative tasks so they can concentrate on high-value tasks. Using Smokeball, users can run more profitable and organized legal practices and attract more clients. It includes automatic time tracking, seamless integrations, a library of 20,000+ legal forms,

It’s not easy to build a successful SEO strategy. That’s true even if you have decent domain authority and some SEO experience to start with. That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) consultants exist. These talented professionals often have years, if not decades of SEO experience – and the business acumen and communication skills to use that experience to transform organizations like yours. There are consultants that serve different niches and offer different types of skills, and of course, each consultant has their own unique style and approach to bring to the table. But when you’re searching for an SEO consultant, it’s sometimes hard to find the right fit. Not only do you need to find someone with the right skills, the right industry familiarity, and the right price range, but you also need to find someone who will work well within the context of your organization. That’s one reason why we came up with this list of underrated SEO consulting services in the search engine optimization industry in 2025. It’s pretty easy to find the biggest names in the industry, but what about the talented and successful SEO consultants who fly under the radar? Why Hire an SEO Consultant? Why should you hire an SEO consultant and not a full-fledged SEO company?       Knowledge and expertise. Most individuals and organizations hire consultants for their knowledge and expertise. There are specific problems they don’t know how to solve or strategic elements they don’t know how to create – and a consultant with ample experience in the industry should be able to step in and resolve the issue. Even better, if your consultant has expertise in your specific niche, they can help you navigate the unique challenges of your industrial landscape and develop your business to be more competitively viable. This is also much cheaper and easier than trying to learn everything yourself, from scratch.       Practice experience. Qualified SEO consultants have real experience helping businesses like yours achieve their SEO goals. They know how to recover from penalties, how to overcome growth plateaus, and how and when to change goals during the execution of your strategy – and they’ve learned from their past mistakes so they can help you avoid making similar mistakes in the future.       Outside perspective. It’s valuable to hire an SEO consultant for their outside perspective as well. If you’re used to solving all your business’s problems from within, or exclusively relying on internal SEO teams, you could likely end up with blind spots that you don’t even recognize. An external, competent professional can help you identify those blind spots and work around them with new knowledge, insights, and recommendations.       Cost savings. Some organizations are reluctant to hire SEO consultants because they don’t want to spend the money. But in the long term, SEO consultants have the power to save you money. You’ll get better results, faster by following their advice, and you might be able to forgo the need of hiring new internal staff members while doing it. Oftentimes, consultants more than pay for themselves.       Better results. The primary driving factor for hiring an SEO consultant is the ambition to achieve better SEO results. For whatever reason, your current efforts just aren’t cutting it – and you need an amplifier to drive more organic traffic to your website. What Makes an SEO Consultant Underrated? For the purposes of this list, what criteria are we using to designate SEO consultants as underrated, specifically? Generally, we want to find SEO consultants who are extremely good at what they do, and who we feel should have an even greater market share in social media marketing circles. We want people with:       Experience in the industry. As a prerequisite, we need SEO consultants who have meaningful experience in the industry. Ideally, we want people with decades of experience in both national and local SEO services and general digital marketing, and preferably people with business management experience and leadership experience as well. The more, the better.       Proven results. Simply being a search engine optimization (SEO) consultant, Google Ads manager or a digital marketer for several years doesn’t mean you know what you’re talking about or that you’ll be able to replicate your past success. That’s why we specifically focused on candidates with a long, proven track record of results. They’ve helped dozens of brands and clients achieve their strategic goals.       Communication and support. Search engine optimization consulting isn’t just about sharing technical knowledge or forming high-level strategies; it’s also about communicating effectively and providing ongoing support. That’s why we also considered the working relationship that various SEO consultants have with their clients.       Industry recognition. Finally, we needed to consider each consultant’s level of industry recognition. We wanted underrated consultants, so we specifically sought out candidates who were recognized as talented professionals, but without much online visibility, pomp and circumstance. Top 13 Most Underrated SEO Consultants in 2025 With those criteria in mind, here are our most underrated SEO consultants in 2025:    1. Michael Cottam. First, there’s Michael Cottam. Michael Cottam brings a host of skills to the table, including site architecture planning, SEO site auditing, programming, and business management and startup experience. He’s spoken at conferences like MozCon, SearchFest, and Innotech, and has been featured on too many podcasts, panels, and webinars to list here. With his evolving SEO expertise and unique approach, he can help you solve almost any SEO problem. Whether your issues include on-page SEO or off-page SEO, Michael has you covered.    2. Aaron Rains. Aaron Rains is another SEO consultant with more than 15 years of experience – and a consulting firm that started as a one-man operation. His core SEO services include keyword research, strategic guidance, on-page SEO, penalty recovery, technical SEO services, and more – and he has lots of free educational resources on his website for anyone interested