SEO Consulting
SEO consultant: one-to-one SEO consulting built on Google's patents
The SEO consultant you hire at The SEO Papers is its founder, Ludovic, working online from the agency's Paris offices with clients in France and worldwide, in English or French, with no on-site meetings. Each live session turns a patent-backed SEO & GEO audit of your domain into actions ranked by impact and effort.
Free patent-backed SEO & GEO audit on your domain. No commitment.
SEO Consulting: $99 / 45 min, credited toward your first retainer month. See the offer Prices in USD. No VAT added (French micro-enterprise VAT exemption, art. 293 B of the French tax code).
This page sets out, in order, what an independent SEO consultant does for your site and in AI search, who Ludovic is and how he works remotely, how a consulting session runs, how to hire the right SEO expert, and what one session costs. It starts with the role itself.
What is an SEO consultant?
An SEO consultant is a search engine optimization specialist who diagnoses a site, sets its priorities and advises the team that executes the work. The goal of that advice is organic visibility, on Google and in AI search engines. The role stays advisory: the business keeps the decisions, and its own team or an agency carries out the work. Who hires one? A business that has people to execute but needs a diagnosis and an order of work hires an SEO consultant. At The SEO Papers, the SEO consultant is the founder himself, and each recommendation traces back to Google's patents. That work covers six areas, from the audit to the follow-up, and extends into AI search.
What does an SEO consultant do?
What an SEO consultant does falls into six areas, from diagnosis to follow-up.
| Area | What the SEO consultant does | Where it is covered |
|---|---|---|
| SEO & GEO audit | The consultant diagnoses technical, semantic and GEO gaps, ranked by impact | Session steps |
| Technical SEO | The consultant checks crawl, indexation, Core Web Vitals, canonicals and redirects | Audit vs session |
| Content and semantic SEO | The consultant maps topics, entities and semantic gaps against competitors | Audit vs session |
| Link building | The consultant advises on links and mentions to earn, without buying links | This table only |
| GEO | The consultant makes pages citable by AI search engines | AI search section |
| Follow-up | The consultant reads the results and re-ranks the roadmap's priorities | This table only |
Together, these six areas cover the three pillars of SEO: technical SEO, content, and links. The fifth area, GEO, carries that work into AI search.
Why does an SEO consultant work on AI search?
An SEO consultant works on AI search because, for Google AI Overviews, the answer starts from pages that rank: Google's patent US 11,769,017 B1 describes a summary written from documents selected among search results. Which engines? The work spans 6 generative AI engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Overviews, the scope our team covers, not a count of every AI engine on the market. For the 5 other engines, starting from ranked pages is our reading, since no patent read by our team describes it for them. This work is generative engine optimization (GEO): one patent-based method, applied by one SEO consultant, serves both.
Who is your SEO consultant?
Your SEO consultant is Ludovic, founder of The SEO Papers, the SEO & GEO agency he runs. He has 9+ years in SEO and digital marketing. From 2016 to 2025, he was founder and CEO of Digital Marketing Partner, a digital marketing agency covering SEO, content, paid media and lead generation for B2B and B2C clients across France. At The SEO Papers, you work with him directly: the agency is boutique by choice, with limited client slots. His research is public every week, on YouTube and in the newsletter (@TheSEOPapers), so you can verify the method before you ever talk to him.
Over1,205+LinkedIn followers9+ years
SEO & digital marketing
Former agency founder · B2B & B2C
Patent-backed
Method you can verify
Google patents, docs & peer-reviewed research
Founder-led
No bait-and-switch
Real expert time on your account
Two traits shape how this SEO consultant works with you: remote sessions in English or French, and a method traced to Google's patents.
How does a remote SEO consultant work with clients in the USA?
A remote SEO consultant works with clients in the USA by video call and in writing; Ludovic works only this way, with clients in the US, in France and worldwide. Three practices define the remote work of this online SEO consultant.
Video calls for every session: the remote session and the findings walkthrough run on video, and every deliverable arrives in writing.
English or French for every client: each remote session runs in either language, for a site in one market or in several.
US dollars for every price: prices are set in US dollars, and the session price sits in the pricing answer below.
In either language, each session applies the same patent-based method.
What does a patent-based SEO consultant do differently?
A patent-based SEO consultant traces each recommendation to Google ranking patents or to Google's published documentation and research, so you can check its source instead of trusting an opinion. In a session, that difference shows in three ways. First, each priority comes with the mechanism that justifies it, as the patent or the documentation describes it. Second, the method is published every week as public research, so its reasoning can be checked. Third, the method states its limit: a patent describes what Google's system can do and does not confirm what Google runs in Search today. Each patent behind these recommendations is explained one by one in the guide to Google patents.
How does an SEO consulting session work?
An SEO consulting session works in four steps, from the free audit to the written summary.
- Free SEO & GEO audit: you request it online with your domain, and it arrives within minutes.
- Live walkthrough: for 45 minutes, by video call, your SEO consultant takes you through the findings and the roadmap.
- Roadmap: the session ranks the top actions by impact and effort.
- Recording and written summary: both reach you after the session.
You book and pay online in one step when you reserve the session.
The steps leave you with three deliverables, and the first step, the free audit, differs from the session itself.
What do you get after an SEO consulting session?
After an SEO consulting session, you get three deliverables from your SEO consultant.
- The roadmap of ranked actions: the top actions ranked by impact and effort, so the team knows what to do first.
- The recording of the session: a copy to share with the people who execute.
- The written summary: the decisions of the session, in writing.
Each deliverable builds on the free audit, which comes first and works differently from the session.
How does the free SEO audit differ from the consulting session?
The free SEO audit differs from the consulting session because the audit diagnoses your domain within minutes, while the session gives you 45 live minutes with your SEO consultant on your priorities.
| Step | Who does it | Duration | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free SEO & GEO audit | Requested online with your domain | Delivered within minutes | Semantic gaps, technical issues and GEO visibility, ranked by impact |
| SEO consulting session | The SEO consultant, Ludovic | 45 minutes, live | Roadmap ranked by impact and effort, recording, written summary |
Why does the session start with an audit? The audit measures where the domain stands, so the 45 minutes go to priorities, not discovery. The audit method belongs to the agency's SEO audit service.
123K total organic clicks in 13 months
D2C sneakers SEO
3.64K total organic clicks in 16 months
Paris BTP recruiter SEO
46.1K total organic clicks in 12 months
Smartwatch ecommerce SEO
Clicks verified in Search Console
// faq
How do you hire an SEO consultant?
You hire an SEO consultant by choosing the form of help, checking the person and confirming the price before you book. The answers below follow that order: consultant, freelancer or agency, the place of ChatGPT and AI SEO, five checks for a good SEO consultant, local SEO advice, then the session price, its credit toward a retainer and what a guarantee covers.
SEO consultant, freelancer or agency: which should you hire?
Hire an SEO consultant when your team executes, an SEO freelancer when you need set tasks done, and an SEO agency when you need a plan executed over months. The line between them is who advises, and who executes; a freelancer bills time, while an agency more often bills a month or a project.
| Criterion | SEO consultant | SEO freelancer | SEO agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main role | Diagnoses and sets priorities | Carries out defined tasks | Runs execution across several workstreams |
| Who you work with | The person who makes the diagnosis | One person, on the tasks ordered | A team, with someone leading the account |
| Fits when | Your team executes | You need extra hands on a set task | You need execution capacity |
The SEO Papers offers two of these forms and no freelance service: the consulting session with its founder, and the monthly retainer in which the patent-based agency that Ludovic runs executes the roadmap.
Can ChatGPT replace an SEO consultant?
No, ChatGPT cannot replace an SEO consultant, because the diagnosis starts from your site's data and business priorities, which a chat assistant does not set for you. Google's February 8, 2023 post “Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content” rewards high-quality content “however it is produced” and treats automation used to manipulate rankings as a spam-policy violation. A session serves teams that use AI tools and need an order of work.
Do you need an AI SEO consultant on top of an SEO consultant?
No, you do not need an AI SEO consultant on top of an SEO consultant: GEO works on the same pages, and for Google AI Overviews it starts from rankings, a dependence that stays our reading for the other engines. “AI SEO” can mean SEO done with AI tools, so compare criteria, not labels. The GEO page details what a generative engine optimization agency does, engine by engine.
How do you find a good SEO consultant?
To find a good SEO consultant, check five points, each verifiable before you book.
- A named, verifiable person: check the consultant's name, background and public profile; Ludovic's are given above.
- A sourced method: check that each recommendation traces to patents or Google documentation, as it does here.
- Published results: check case studies measured in Search Console; the results band on this page links to them.
- Verifiable client reviews: check reviews on an independent platform you can open yourself; The SEO Papers' client reviews are on Trustpilot.
- A price published before booking: check that the consultant's price is public; this page publishes the session price, so no quote is needed.
These checks rank no SEO consultants and make no “best” claim: they apply to any provider you compare.
Does an SEO consultant advise on local SEO?
Yes, an SEO consultant advises on local SEO when local search matters for the business: the Google Business Profile, name, address and phone (NAP) consistency, reviews and location pages. Local SEO adds a geographic layer to SEO: the local pack, the Google Business Profile, and reviews, all covered by our local SEO agency. This advice runs remotely, like every session, and local SEO for businesses is one of the agency's services.
How much does an SEO consultant cost?
An SEO consultant at The SEO Papers costs $99 for a 45-minute session, paid when you book.
SEO Consulting
$99/ 45 min
Patent-backed audit on your domain, then a focused working session on your priorities.
- Free SEO & GEO audit on your domain (delivered within minutes)
- 45-min live walkthrough of findings and roadmap
- Top actions ranked by impact and effort
- Recording + written summary
- $99 credited toward your first retainer month
Prices in USD. No VAT added (French micro-enterprise VAT exemption, art. 293 B of the French tax code).
The SEO Papers does not bill by the hour: SEO Consulting is one 45-minute session for $99. The session includes the 45-minute live walkthrough, the roadmap ranked by impact and effort, the recording and the written summary, after the free SEO & GEO audit of your domain. Market rates of consultants, freelancers and agencies, by the hour and by the month, are compared on the SEO agency pricing page.
Is the SEO consulting fee credited toward a retainer?
Yes, the SEO consulting fee is credited toward a retainer: the $99 paid to your SEO consultant is credited toward your first retainer month. The retainer then executes the roadmap, with monthly reporting tied to revenue and leads and no commitment. Only the retainer carries the written guarantee: +33% non-brand Google clicks in 3 months, or we refund the gap, capped at the fees paid. The page on what serious SEO costs lists the retainer prices and the guarantee's 4 conditions.
Can an SEO consultant guarantee results?
No, an SEO consultant cannot guarantee ranking results, because no SEO consultant controls Google's rankings. Google Search Central says so for the top position in “Do You Need an SEO? Tips for Hiring an SEO”: “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google”. A session sells a diagnosis and a roadmap, not a ranking. The SEO Papers' written guarantee covers measured traffic, not a position, on the monthly retainer only and under its conditions.