Architect SEOPals / Services / Architects SEO Consultant
Advisory engagementArchitects SEO Consultant: Direction, Not Delivery
An architects SEO consultant engagement supplies the plan and leaves the execution with you. Most practices asking for one already have somebody who can do the work and no idea what work to do — a studio manager, a marketing coordinator, a web partner — and that is a considerably better use of the budget than paying an agency to write pages your own people could write faster.
Sheet S1.07 · Advisory engagement · One client per metro per discipline
An architects SEO consultant is direction, not delivery
This is the distinction worth being clear about before anyone quotes you, because the two engagements are priced and staffed completely differently.
| Consultant | Done-for-you agency | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A brief, a page map, a prioritised roadmap, and someone to ask | The same plus the execution |
| Who writes the pages | Your studio, your marketing hire, or your web partner | Us |
| Right when | You have capacity and no plan | You have a plan and no capacity, or neither |
| Cadence | Monthly or fortnightly review, plus ad hoc | Continuous production |
| Cost shape | Lower and flatter | Higher and scoped to output |
Most practices asking for a consultant have a studio manager, a marketing coordinator or a web designer who can execute perfectly well and has no idea what to execute. That is precisely the case this engagement exists for, and it is a considerably better use of the money than paying an agency to write pages your own people could write faster.
When we would tell you to buy the other thing
If nobody in the practice has three or four hours a month to spend on this, a consultant produces a roadmap that sits in a folder. That is the most common way an advisory engagement wastes money, and it is worth being honest about at the outset rather than at month four.
Scope, stated as a fee proposal would state it
The brief
Which sectors you actually want, which localities you genuinely serve, what a qualifying enquiry looks like in writing, and what in the website can and cannot be changed.
Delivered as a document your partners can read and argue with, because they will.
The page map
One documented intent per URL across sectors, services and localities, with what exists, what needs writing, and what should be merged or removed.
This is the artefact that stops two of your pages competing for the same query later.
The technical brief for whoever owns the site
Written for your designer or developer rather than for us: page structure, image weight, text trapped in graphics, redirects, and the specific things not to touch.
Portfolio sites are image-led by necessity, which makes this a bigger lever in architecture than in most professions.
The content brief per page
What each page needs to say and the questions that extract it from your own fee proposals, award submissions and practice statement. Your people write it; we brief and review.
Review and direction
A standing session to look at what shipped, what moved, and what to do next. Plus the thing an agency retainer never gives you: someone to ask a question of before you make a decision.
Stated plainly, as exclusions
A fee proposal that lists no exclusions is not a fee proposal. These are ours.
Execution. We do not write the pages, build the site or place the links in this engagement. If you want that, it is the delivered programme rather than the advisory one.
Ranking guarantees. Not in this engagement or any other. No agency can honestly promise a position, and anyone who does is describing their marketing.
Architecture case studies. We have none published. The measured results in our portfolio come from other verticals and we do not present them as architecture outcomes. If proven architecture results are your requirement, we fail it and would rather you knew now.
Website design. We do not build sites. Where a rebuild is genuinely the right answer we will say so, and we have no incentive to say it when it is not, because a rebuild resets the clock on everything already working.
And the exclusivity, which is included
One client per metro per discipline, written into the agreement rather than promised on a call. In a profession where two practices in one city compete for the same shortlist, that is the term worth having in writing.
Three steps, no call required to begin
Email the practice name, city and disciplines
You get a straight answer on whether that market is open. If a practice in your city and discipline has signed, you hear that first rather than after a call.
A look at the site and the sectors you want
Free, and it comes back in writing. It will tell you whether search is plausibly worth anything to a practice of your size and in your sectors — including when the answer is that business development would serve you better.
Then the brief, if it is worth doing
Scope and fee agreed in writing before work starts. Monthly, cancellable on thirty days, invoiced in advance.
Where this sits alongside delivery
If you would rather we did the work, the six delivery services are SEO audit, technical SEO, on-page SEO, content strategy, local SEO and link building. The provider-type comparison, including where we score badly, is on architects SEO companies.
Questions we get asked
What does an architects SEO consultant actually do?
Produces the brief, the page map, the technical brief for whoever owns your site, and the per-page content briefs — then reviews what ships and directs what comes next. Your own people execute. It suits a practice with a studio manager or marketing coordinator who can do the work and does not know what work to do.
How is that different from a full agency engagement?
The consultant supplies direction; the agency supplies direction plus execution. Lower and flatter cost, and a much better use of the money if somebody in the practice can actually write the pages. If nobody has three or four hours a month, a consultant produces a roadmap that sits in a folder — and we would tell you that at the outset.
What is explicitly not included?
Execution, ranking guarantees, website design, and architecture case studies — we have none published, and the measured results in our portfolio are from other verticals rather than architecture practices. A fee proposal with no exclusions is not a fee proposal.
Is the exclusivity in writing?
Yes. One client per metro per discipline, written into the agreement rather than promised on a call. Where two practices in one city compete for the same shortlist, that distinction matters.
What are the commercial terms?
Monthly, invoiced in advance, cancellable on thirty days' notice, scope agreed in writing before work begins. Contact is by email; there is no call required to get an answer on whether your market is open.
When would you tell us not to buy this?
When nobody in the practice has the few hours a month to act on it, and when the sectors you want have almost no search demand — in which case business development is the better use of the budget. Both are real cases and both are better discovered now.
The rest of the set
Each of these covers a different practice type, situation or decision. They are not variations on one page.
SEO for architect firms
Who actually signs it off, and why multi-principal practices stall.
SEO strategy for architects
The sequence, mapped to the work stages a practice already runs on.
Architects SEO companies
Five kinds of provider, and what each is genuinely good for.
SEO keywords for architects
The keyword families that exist in this profession, and the volume trap.
Find out whether your market is open
Email the practice name, the city and the disciplines you work in. You will get a straight answer on whether that market is taken, and a read on what search is realistically worth to a practice of your size — including when the honest answer is that it is not your bottleneck.
We are architect search marketing, working with one practice per metro per discipline. Contact is info@seopals.com or the contact page.
SEOPals · Architect SEOPals · info@seopals.com · Austin, Texas
NO RANKING GUARANTEES. EVER. Organic search outcomes depend on competition, market, site condition and execution, and no agency can honestly promise a position. We have no published architecture-practice case studies; the measured results in our portfolio come from other verticals and are not presented as architecture outcomes. Reporting is measured with sources stated. Nothing on this page is a forecast or a projection. See the results disclaimer, editorial link standards and terms of service.