Blake Smith Hire Me

Independent SEO consultant · Melbourne

SEO Consultant Melbourne

Hi, I’m Blake Smith, an independent SEO consultant helping Melbourne businesses improve their visibility in Google, organic traffic and revenue. I’ve worked in SEO and digital marketing for more than 10 years.

I work directly with business owners, marketing teams and developers across Melbourne to find what is actually limiting search performance, and which changes are worth making first.

Book a Consultation How I Approach SEO
Blake Smith, Australian SEO consultant

SEO Consulting Services for Melbourne Businesses

Most Melbourne businesses that contact me have a specific problem rather than a general wish for “more SEO”. Sometimes it is a traffic drop after a redesign. Sometimes a competitor has started outranking them on the pages that bring in enquiries.

I can help if:

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    Organic traffic, rankings or enquiries have stalled or dropped.

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    You’re planning a redesign, replatform or migration and want SEO handled before launch, not after.

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    Your WordPress, WooCommerce or Shopify site sells well through other channels but underperforms in organic search.

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    Your in-house marketing team or developer needs senior SEO direction rather than another agency retainer.

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    You need a technical SEO audit that explains what is wrong and what to fix first.

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    Your business depends on Google Maps visibility in particular parts of Melbourne.

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    You want to understand how your business appears in AI search tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.

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    You want to change what people see when they search your business name.

What gets prioritised depends on the evidence, not a fixed package.

The work covers SEO strategy, technical SEO, on-page SEO, content strategy, internal linking, ecommerce SEO, digital PR, local SEO and AI search visibility.

Local search in Melbourne

What Makes SEO in Melbourne Different?

Melbourne is a city of clusters, not one central market.

Local Search Across Greater Melbourne

A large share of Melbourne’s commercial activity sits well outside the CBD. The Victorian Government’s Plan Melbourne identifies seven National Employment and Innovation Clusters: Monash, Parkville, Fishermans Bend, Dandenong, La Trobe, Sunshine and Werribee.

For SEO, that matters because demand for many professional and B2B services is not centred on the CBD. A business supplying companies around Clayton or Dandenong is competing in a different local environment from one in Southbank or Docklands, even when both describe themselves as “Melbourne”.

Monash Parkville Fishermans Bend Dandenong La Trobe Sunshine Werribee

Google Maps Visibility Is Highly Location Sensitive

Google lists relevance, distance and prominence as the main factors in local search results. In dense inner suburbs such as Richmond, Fitzroy or South Yarra, there can be dozens of competitors within a few kilometres, so a business can rank well on its own street and drop away a few suburbs later.

A business in the eastern suburbs shouldn’t expect the same Local Pack visibility in Werribee or Craigieburn, however strong its Google Business Profile is.

Does Adding Melbourne Suburbs to a Google Business Profile Improve Rankings?

Adding suburbs to a Google Business Profile service area does not automatically improve rankings in those suburbs. The service area tells customers where you work, but Google still measures distance from the verified business location.

For a business that serves all of Greater Melbourne, wider reach usually has to come from organic search: well-structured service pages, location content where demand justifies it, internal linking and authority.

In Melbourne, CBD visibility, suburb or cluster visibility and Melbourne-wide organic visibility are often three different jobs.

“

Very talented internet marketer who thinks outside of the box.

– Andrey Matveyev

Why Work With an Independent SEO Consultant?

When you work with me, you work directly with the person analysing your website and making the recommendations.

There is no handover from a senior salesperson to a junior account manager, and no reporting layer between the work and the decisions.

I can work on my own or alongside Melbourne marketing teams, developers and other agencies, whether the job is diagnosing a specific problem, setting the strategy or supporting implementation.

Recommendations are prioritised by likely commercial impact, so the first changes are the ones most likely to matter.

How I Approach SEO

Every engagement starts with the business: what you sell, which customers are valuable and how the website is expected to produce revenue.

From there I review existing organic performance and Google Search Console data, look at the actual search results and the competitors in them, then work through site architecture, internal linking, technical issues, content and, where it matters, authority and links.

Illustration of a consultation conversation

For Melbourne businesses with a local component, I also look at:

  1. 01

    Local Pack visibility around your actual location

  2. 02

    How your Google Business Profile is positioned and categorised

  3. 03

    Where proximity limits what Google Maps can do for you

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    Melbourne-wide demand versus suburb or cluster demand

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    Whether dedicated location pages are actually justified

SEO is not a fixed checklist. The order of work depends on what the evidence shows.

Common questions

Questions From Melbourne Businesses

Can you work with businesses outside the Melbourne CBD?

Yes. I work with businesses anywhere in Greater Melbourne and across Victoria. The work is done remotely, using video calls, shared documents and access to your analytics, so being outside the CBD makes no difference.

Do I need a separate page for every Melbourne suburb?

Usually not. A suburb page is worth creating when there is real search demand, the search results support that type of page and the page can say something genuinely different.

Otherwise, mention the areas you serve where it helps customers and let a strong Melbourne page and good service content do the work.

SEO Consulting in Melbourne and Across Australia

I work with businesses throughout Melbourne and Greater Melbourne, while also consulting with companies elsewhere in Australia and internationally.

For the broader national overview of my work, see my SEO consultant in Australia page.

SEO Success Stories

Here are some of the businesses whose SEO campaigns I’ve worked on, and one of the results.

Client logos: ELMO Cloud HR & Payroll, Versace Home, Carpet One Floor & Home, Mettro, Manchester Warehouse, Aquabliss, St. Frock and JDH Architects

247%

increase in organic traffic for a national flooring brand

Industries include SaaS, national flooring companies, local solar providers and just about everything in between.

What Clients Say

Blake is cool, calm and collected, you can throw anything his way, he’ll handle it like pro

– Georgia Leaker

Blake was focused and reliable as a strategic consultant

– Christopher McLaren

I would gladly give Blake a referral to anyone ready to progress or make the imperative jump into the online space

– Lindsey McIntyre
SEO consultation on a video call, talking a client through their results

Looking for an SEO Consultant in Melbourne?

If you want experienced SEO advice without passing your project through several layers of an agency, tell me what you’re working on.

I’ll review where things stand, point out the likely opportunities and recommend a sensible next step.

Book a Consultation

Tell me about your project. You’ll hear back from me directly.