Updated
Freelance SEO consultant who does the work himself.
I'm Jason Burns, a freelance SEO consultant based in Wellingborough, working UK-wide and remote-first. 17 years in search. A freelance consultant gives you one senior person doing the audits, the fixes and the calls - no account manager, no junior handover. Agency-grade thinking at a £450 day rate.
What changes when you go freelance.
I founded SEO Moves in 2014 and grew it past £1m, so this is not an agency hit piece. Agencies are the right buy when you need volume - lots of content, lots of hands. When you need senior judgement, the freelance shape wins. Here is the honest comparison.
| What you're buying | Freelance SEO consultant | Typical agency retainer |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the workThe bit that matters most | Me. The audit, the calls, the recommendations, the fixes. The person you meet is the person who delivers. | A team. Often a senior at the pitch, then a junior analyst doing the delivery from week two. |
| What you pay forWhere the money goes | Delivery time. £450 a day, published on this page. No account management layer built into the price. | Delivery plus overheads - account managers, office, reporting meetings, new business time. |
| Speed of decisionsIdea to shipped | Decided on the call. No ticket queue, no sprint backlog, no waiting for the monthly review. | Changes usually route through an account manager and land in the next sprint cycle. |
| ScaleWhen each shape wins | One senior person. Right for strategy, audits, technical work and training. Wrong for 50 articles a month. | Many hands. Right for big content programmes and multi-channel campaigns run in parallel. |
| CommitmentGetting out again | Month to month. Project work is fixed scope, fixed fee. Stop at the end of any month. | Often 6 to 12 month terms with a notice period written into the contract. |
Not sure which shape you need? Send me the brief - if an agency would serve you better, I will say so in the first reply.
The work, in three lanes.
Freelance SEO work is not one thing. Most briefs land in one of three lanes - and after 17 years I work hands-on across all of them. Each links to the full service page if you want the detail.
Ongoing search work - technical fixes, content systems and authority building. Rank in Google and stay there while I report on what actually changed and why.
SEO management serviceCrawls, site migrations, redirect maps, indexation problems and Core Web Vitals. The unglamorous work where most organic traffic is quietly won or lost.
Technical SEO serviceGetting cited by AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Clearer entities, citable writing and cleaner page structure - the part of search growing fastest right now.
GEO consulting serviceRates on the page, not on request.
Most freelance SEO consultants make you book a call to hear a number. I don't. These are the rates, and they are the same rates whoever asks.
| Engagement | Price | Best fit when |
|---|---|---|
| Half-day reviewThe usual first step | £225Fixed | You have one focused question - a traffic drop, a migration plan, a page that will not rank - and want a senior answer without a retainer. |
| Day rateAudit, fix sprint or training day | £450Per day | A full audit with a prioritised fix list, a hands-on technical day, or a training day with your marketing team. |
| Multi-day projectFixed scope, fixed fee | From £1,800Per project | Migrations, technical clean-ups and content system builds. You know the price before the work starts. |
| Monthly retainerOngoing senior days | From £1,800Per month | A fixed block of senior days each month for teams that want continuous input. Month to month - stop at any month end. |
Full detail on what each engagement includes is on the pricing page.
Brands I've worked on.
17 years in search. Founder of SEO Moves, the agency I started in 2014, grew past £1m and still run today. These are some of the names the work has covered along the way - with 80+ client projects behind them.
"Exceptional, always on time, to spec, and without fuss."
Best fit.
A quick sanity check before we talk - so you know whether a freelance consultant is the right engagement for what you actually need.
Right brief for me
- An in-house team that needs senior SEO judgement, not more hands.
- An SME that wants direct access to the person doing the work.
- An agency that needs white-label technical or migration support.
- A one-off audit or second opinion before a big site change.
Not the right brief
- You want the cheapest possible link building at volume.
- You need a full outsourced marketing department.
- You need someone embedded five days a week - that is a hire, not a freelancer.
Freelance SEO consultant FAQ.
How much does a freelance SEO consultant cost in the UK?
Should I hire a freelance SEO consultant or an agency?
How many days a month do I need?
Do you do one-off SEO audits?
Is there a contract or notice period?
Do you work with agencies on a white-label basis?
Where are you based, and do you work remotely?
Start with a half-day review.
£225, one focused question, a senior answer. Send the brief, the traffic drop or the migration plan. I reply within 1 working day - and if a freelancer is not the right shape for the job, the first reply says so.
Book a review