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SEO specialist in Ireland
An SEO specialist with 20 years in search, where the person who runs your audit is the person who does the work. No account manager in the middle, no junior learning on your account.
Most SEO quotes in Ireland come from a team you will never meet. This one comes from the person who will be doing it.
I'm Conor O'Brien. I've spent 20 years in SEO, through every change Google has made to how it ranks and now to how it answers. I work with businesses across Ireland as an SEO specialist and consultant, and I build the websites too, which means the site and the search plan stop pulling against each other.
The specialist you hire is the one who does the work
Agencies solve a staffing problem by putting layers between you and the work. Someone senior wins the account, someone junior delivers it, and an account manager carries messages between you. Nobody is being dishonest, it is just how the model pays for itself.
Working with a specialist removes the layers. You ask a question and the person answering it is the one who made the change. A ranking moves and you hear why from the person who knows. It also means I can only take a handful of clients at a time, which is the honest trade.
- One person on your account, named, with 20 years behind them
- No work sent to a subcontractor without telling you
- Plain English reports you can read in five minutes
- Monthly, with 30 days notice, because results should keep clients rather than contracts
What you get as a client
Everything below sits inside one monthly fee. Which parts get the time depends on what the audit finds, and you see the plan before anything is done.
| Area | What that means in practice |
|---|---|
| Technical SEO | Crawl and index fixes, Core Web Vitals on mobile, canonical and redirect tidying, structured data |
| Keyword and page mapping | Research grouped by intent, one page per job, briefs written before anything is published |
| Content | Service pages, area pages and guides, written with you rather than about you |
| Local SEO | Google Business Profile, categories, photos, review prompts and citations that match |
| Links and digital PR | Earned coverage, local sponsorship and trade mentions. No bought links, ever |
| AI search | A fixed prompt set run monthly through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, plus AI Overview citations logged |
| Reporting | Search Console and Google Analytics 4, tied to enquiries, with a 30 minute call |
How an engagement runs, month by month
- Month one
Find and fix
Full audit, then the technical work that is holding the site back. You get the fix list in priority order, whether or not you carry on.
- Months two and three
Structure and pages
Keyword map turned into real pages. The ones that earn money first, area pages where they make sense, and the thin pages merged or removed.
- Months four to six
Authority
Links earned through outreach, local sponsorship and anything you are already involved in. Guides that answer the questions buyers actually ask.
- From month six
Compound
The plan narrows to what is working. Seasonal pages go out early, AI citations get tracked, and reporting shifts from rankings to enquiries and revenue.
How results get reported
Every month you get impressions, clicks and average position from Search Console, form submissions and calls from Google Analytics 4, the pages published, the links earned, and the prompts where an assistant named you or a competitor. No rankings tool screenshots, and no metric that cannot be tied back to money coming in.
What an SEO specialist costs in Ireland
Most Irish agencies will not print a number, which makes it hard to judge whether a quote is fair. Here is what the work actually costs in this market.
| Engagement | Typical Irish price | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-off audit | €300 to €1,000 | Finding out what is wrong, or a second opinion on an existing agency |
| Monthly, local | €250 to €800 | A business serving one town or city |
| Monthly, competitive or national | €800 to €2,500 | Crowded markets, several locations, online shops |
| Consulting day rate | €400 to €900 | You have a marketer in house and need direction, not delivery |
Figures exclude VAT and are the going rates in Ireland rather than a price list. Every quote is built for the site in front of me after the free audit, because a ten page brochure site and a three thousand product shop are not the same job. The full market picture is in our guide to SEO costs in Ireland.
Specialist, consultant or agency: which you actually need
All three labels cover similar work. The honest answer is that an agency is sometimes the right call, and here is when.
| Option | Who does the work | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| SEO specialist | One senior person, start to finish | You want judgement on every decision and direct access to the person making it |
| Consultant | One senior person, advising | You have someone in house who can execute and needs a plan to follow |
| Small studio | Two to six people, usually including whoever pitched | You need design, development and SEO running at once |
| Large agency | A team, with an account manager | Several brands or countries, or volume that one person cannot cover |
If your job genuinely needs a team of eight, say so and I will tell you. The checks worth running on any of them are in our guide to choosing an SEO agency in Ireland.
Twenty years, and what it buys you
I started in SEO in 2006, when rankings leaned on keywords and link counts. Panda and Penguin made quality the price of entry. Mobile first moved the goalposts again in 2015, Core Web Vitals in 2021, and from 2024 search began answering questions outright instead of listing links.
What that buys you is pattern recognition. Knowing which tactics have a short shelf life, which fixes move the needle first, and which "opportunities" are the same bad idea wearing a new acronym. It also means a fair amount of unlearning, because half the SEO advice online is a decade out of date and still confidently written.
More on the background on the about page, and on the newest part of the job on our AI search optimisation page.
Where I work across Ireland
Based in Malahide, County Dublin, working with businesses nationwide. Most of a project runs on video calls and shared documents, so distance rarely matters. For local search in particular there are pages for each main city, because the map pack works differently in each one.
Get a free SEO audit
Tell me about your site
I will check where you rank, what is holding the site back and the three fixes worth doing first. One working day for a reply, and no sales script.
Questions about hiring an SEO specialist
What does an SEO specialist actually do?
Finds out why a site is not getting found, fixes what is in the way, and builds the pages and mentions that earn rankings. In practice: technical audits, keyword research, writing, structured data, Google Business Profile work, link building and reporting tied to enquiries.
How much does an SEO specialist cost in Ireland?
A specialist or small studio usually runs €250 to €800 a month, and more in competitive markets. Day rates for consultancy run €400 to €900. A one-off audit costs €300 to €1,000. The fee is fixed after a free audit, with 30 days notice to cancel.
Is an SEO specialist better than an agency?
Not automatically. An agency suits businesses that need volume, several languages or a large team. A specialist suits businesses that want senior judgement on every decision and the same person answering the phone. Cost per hour is often similar, so judge on who does the work.
Do you work with businesses outside Dublin?
Yes. Based in Malahide, County Dublin and working with businesses across Ireland, with dedicated pages for Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. Most work happens over video calls and shared documents.
How long before I see results?
Technical fixes can move things within weeks. Local rankings usually shift in three to four months, and competitive national terms take six to twelve. You get a report from month one either way, covering fixes made, pages published and links earned.
Do I have to sign a long contract?
No. Monthly, with 30 days notice. Accounts and content stay in your name, so leaving costs you nothing but the notice period.
What if I already have an agency?
A one-off audit works well in that case. You get an independent read on what has been done, what is working and what the reports are not telling you, with no obligation to move.
Do you build websites as well?
Yes. Design, build and SEO as one job, which avoids the usual handover gap where a new site launches and rankings drop.