Fractional SEO: What it Is and How it Works

A fractional SEO.

WTH even is that. 

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This is a term/service that’s been somewhat growing recently and is probably going to get even more popular in the coming years.

So what even is a fractional SEO? What do they do? How are they different from a regular SEO consultant?

Well good news for you, this article will basically talk about everything you need to know about fractional SEOs. 

This article will pretty much be a full roundup about fractional SEO and if they’re worth hiring.

Let’s jump in.

What is a Fractional SEO?

A fractional SEO is an SEO consultant who provides part-time or project-based SEO to multiple clients. 

A fractional SEO is basically a mix between a full-time in-house SEO and an SEO consultant. 

Fractional SEOs typically work with several clients, basically working as an in-house employee for each one. 

This model allows businesses to bring on a consultant with SEO expertise without the commitment and expense of a full-time hire. 

While similar to an SEO consultant, fractional SEOs bring the same level of expertise as a consultant but will handle more hands-on work.

A fractional SEO will work with a client on a part-time basis, which can range from anywhere from 3-12+ months.

The fractional SEO model also works great for companies looking to scale without having to bring on a new employee. 

It’s a win for both the client and SEO.

The general gist is that you’re getting an SEO director without paying the full cost for an SEO director.

What Does a Fractional SEO Do?

A fractional SEO really can do anything an in-house employee and consultant can do.

A fractional SEO will usually help guide strategy while helping with the actual execution of the work (which is a key difference from an SEO consultant) 

Here’s usually what’s involved in a fractional SEOs day-to-day:

SEO Strategy

One of the main benefits of hiring a fractional SEO is that they can help at the strategic level. 

Like a consultant, a fractional SEO can help correct a business’s SEO strategy so it’s more in line with their business goals. 

A fractional SEO can help you prioritize what you should focus on and what you can ignore.

Technical SEO

Depending on the area of expertise for the fractional SEO, technical SEO will also be something they can help out with. 

The reason I say depending is because technical SEO can be a very broad field. 

If you need help with technical SEO, it’s worth looking into someone who specifically specializes in it.

Still, if you hire a fractional SEO, they can help with audits for indexing, page speed, and site basics. 

Some might even be able to help with schema implementation, too. 

It all depends on what you’re looking for. 

I won’t say technical SEO isn’t important, but it’s less important for smaller websites (less important is a keyword here).

Optimizing Content

Here’s where we start to split from the regular consulting model. 

A fractional SEO will be able to help you optimize content, whether new or existing. 

Not just provide recommendations, but actually apply edits directly on your website. 

While they usually won’t write content for you, they can help with basic optimizations like title tags, internal links, content structure, and just general content optimization (making sure your content is relevant enough to rank). 

Keyword Research and Content Strategy

A fractional SEO can also help with keyword research. 

This might seem like a simple task, but they actually take it a step further and help you find topics that have a higher likelihood of converting. 

So that means going beyond high-volume keywords. 

It means finding topics based on intent, competition, and conversion potential and helping you create a content outline that will have the highest likelihood of ranking for that keyword. 

Analytics and Performance Tracking

While this isn’t specific to a fractional SEO, they can help you set up analytics to help track performance. 

While most agencies should be doing this anyways, one of the first tasks a fractional SEO will knock out is setting up tracking. 

This will usually just be events in Google Analytics like form submissions, demo requests, calls, signups, etc. 

Team Mentoring and Training

This isn’t something that most companies request; however, it is a service most fractional SEOs offer. 

If you want to get the most out of the engagement, fractional SEO can take on a mentorship role within your company. 

They share their expertise, best practices, and basically train up your team on what they’re currently doing. 

The goal is to help the company become self-sufficient in SEO over time.

I consider it to be a job well done when a company is in a comfortable place and is ready to move on to the next stage.

There are probably a ton of other smaller tasks a fractional SEO can help with, but these are the biggest ones that come with most engagements.

Benefits of Working With a Fractional SEO

Okay so that’s what a fractional SEO can do, let’s talk about the benefits of working with a fractional SEO.

A Consultant With a More Hands-On Approach

As mentioned before, a fractional SEO is a blend between consulting and in-house support.  

Unlike traditional consultants who give instructions on implementation to the client, a fractional SEO will actually handle the implementations for them.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the consulting model, but it is very easy for clients to get distracted.

So a fractional SEO speeds up the execution of the work rather than leaving it up to the client.

More Strategic and Tactical Help

In a similar sense, a fractional SEO can help fix your strategy while providing support at the tactic level. 

With strategy, they can call out things that need to be addressed, whether it’s your content strategy, prioritizations, or potential bottlenecks that are hurting your SEO. 

At the tactic level, they can help execute link building, technical SEO, content planning, content optimization, and sometimes even conversion rate optimization. 

The only downside here is that a fractional SEO can be limited in terms of what they can and can’t do.

While a fractional SEO can do everything an in-house employee can do, they can’t create content or launch large link building campaigns (well maybe they can here, but it’s more effective with a larger team).

A fractional SEO will be most effective if you have the necessary pieces to allow them to scale your SEO efforts. 

More on that in the next section.

Cost Effective Alternative to In-House Employees or Agency

Probably one of the biggest benefits of working with a fractional SEO is that it’s cost-effective compared to hiring an in-house employee.

With a fractional SEO, you’re bringing on a senior-level employee without paying a full time salary. 

A fractional SEO works well for most businesses that need SEO support, but don’t have the budget to outsource to an agency or hire internally.

The only thing I’ll say here is that the only requirement to hire a fractional SEO is to have a team in place that can create content.

If you have an outlet for content creation, a fractional SEO will be the perfect fit for you.

If you don’t have a team for content creation, then you may be better off outsourcing content to an agency or hiring a content writer internally.

When is The Right Time to Hire a Fractional SEO?

So when should you hire a fractional SEO?

I know I mentioned that a fractional SEO can apply to most businesses, but where can they help out the most? 

And when is the right time to bring one on? 

1. Fixing Stagnant or Declining Organic Traffic, Revenue, and/or Leads: If your website isn’t growing or is trending downwards with traffic, that might be the right time to rope in a fractional SEO. In this case, they can help you identify what’s hurting your traffic, and then help you execute a strategy that will help reverse that trend.
2. Bridging the Expertise Gap: Most companies don’t have an internal SEO team. It’s usually a marketing specialist who is managing SEO along with a few other channels. They generally don’t understand SEO best practices either, so a fractional SEO can either help train up that team member or just manage SEO for you.  
3. Fixing a Broken Content Strategy: If your content strategy is feeling pretty aimless, a fractional SEO might be worth looking into. Like a consultant, they’ll help shift your focus on the topics you should be targeting, while helping you build out content that ranks. They’ll also help you find pages on your website worth updating.
4. Preparing for Major Website Changes: A fractional SEO probably works best if you're planning a website redesign, migration, or rebranding. These can get pretty messy so instead of having a consultant guide you, it’s probably better to have an SEO who can just manage it.

Again, there’s probably a few other reasons that might cause you to look into a fractional SEO, but usually these are the most common when clients first reach out to me.

How is a Fractional SEO Different From An SEO Consultant?

There are a few differences and similarities between an SEO consultant and fractional SEO.

I touched on them a bit earlier in the article, but I figured I’d offer a deeper dive here.

Basically, the main differences between a fractional SEO and an SEO consultant lie in their work structure and engagement model:

Engagement Model

Fractional SEO experts operate on a part-time, ongoing basis with their clients. 

They dedicate a specific portion of their time to each client, which can range from a few hours per month to half-time engagement. 

SEO consultants, on the other hand, are usually hired for specific projects. 

Their engagement is often more specific rather than full SEO management. 

Depth of Involvement

The main difference here is how involved fractional SEOs are with your company. 

They will basically become a part of your team (joining in regular meetings, joining team communication channels, and handling the actual execution of SEO).

Funny enough, I even tell my clients when I’m taking a day off (as if I was using PTO). 

I probably don’t have to do that, but when I work as a fractional SEO, it makes me feel like an in-house employee.

Consultants on the other hand will usually take on a more external role. 

Consultants are usually more focused on providing advice and recommendations, but they don’t actually handle the execution of the work. 

They’re great at the strategy level, but if you need more hands-on help, that’s where a fractional SEO comes in.

Hire a Fractional SEO That Knows How to Work As An In-House Employee

Hiring a fractional SEO allows companies to get experienced SEO help without paying a full price tag for it.

Even better, you can consider them to be a part of your team too. 

A fractional SEO will position themselves as an in-house team member to help your business grow while having the flexibility to not be a full time employee.