Phil Kurth
/ Services / SEO Consultant Melbourne

SEO Consultant Melbourne

I am an independent SEO consultant working with Melbourne businesses on the technical side of search: why Google is not indexing your pages, why page one rankings are not turning into enquiries, and how your site reads to AI search engines. You deal with me directly. I run the audit, I write the findings, and I am the one who fixes them.

Start with an audit Have a chat first

What does an SEO consultant do?

An SEO consultant works out why your site is not earning the search traffic it should, and tells you what to fix first. The work is diagnosis and direction rather than a monthly activity report. For most business sites the answer sits in the technical layer, which is where I spend my time.

  • Who it's for: Melbourne business owners, agencies and in-house teams who want a senior technical opinion rather than a retainer.
  • What it costs: a fixed-price audit at $1,500 + GST to start. Implementation is quoted after you have the findings.
  • Where I work: based in Geelong, working with Melbourne businesses over calls, email and written reports. Melbourne is an hour away when meeting in person matters.

What you get that an agency won't

There is no shortage of SEO services in Melbourne, and plenty of good agencies among them. They are built for content production at volume, with an account manager in front and a team behind. That shape suits some businesses. It is not what I offer, and the difference is worth understanding before you pick one.

You talk to the person doing the work

No account manager, no handover, no telling your story twice. When you ask why a recommendation matters, the answer comes from whoever wrote it.

A developer, not a marketer

Most real SEO problems are code problems: indexing, render-blocking scripts, invalid structured data, a migration that dropped its redirects. I have been building sites for nearly 20 years, so I can find those and fix them.

Findings you own

The audit is a fixed price and the report is yours. Take it to your own developer if that suits you better. Nothing about it is written to lock you into the next step.

What I help with

Most Melbourne SEO work lands in one of these six areas. Most sites have two or three of them running at once.

Indexing and crawl problems

Pages that sit in Search Console as "Discovered, currently not indexed" for months. There is always a reason, and it is rarely the one the plugin tells you.

Rankings that don't convert

Position 5 with almost no clicks usually means something is sitting above you in the result, or your snippet is not answering the query. Both are fixable once you can see which it is.

Core Web Vitals and speed

Slow servers, oversized images, and plugins doing expensive work on every page load. I measure before and after, so you can see what actually moved.

Structured data

Schema that validates, matches what is on the page, and covers the types your business actually needs. Most sites carry markup that quietly stopped matching the content years ago.

AI search visibility

Whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can read your site and are willing to cite it. This is scored as part of every audit I run.

Migrations and recovery

Planning a platform move so the traffic survives it, or working out what went wrong when a previous one did not.

Melbourne businesses I work with

I am in Geelong, not Melbourne, so it is fair to ask whether that matters. Here is the work instead of an argument.

Melbourne Institute of Plastic Surgery

Surgical practice site, rebuilt and maintained.

View the project →

MDT Design

Melbourne jeweller, custom WordPress build and ongoing work.

View the project →

Larsen Jewellery

Multi-location retailer across Melbourne and Sydney.

View the project →

Wine Decoded

Melbourne wine educator, WooCommerce and a custom filter index.

View the project →

UPCO

Melbourne construction products supplier.

View the project →

Leaders in Business

Membership platform for Melbourne business owners.

View the project →

How it starts

Every engagement begins with the same fixed-price audit, so we both know what we are dealing with before anyone talks about scope.

1

You give me access

Read-only access to your Google Search Console and Analytics. I will walk you through it if you have not done it before. It takes about five minutes.

2

I run the audit

A 100-point review across technical SEO, structured data, AI citability, E-E-A-T signals and crawler accessibility, at $1,500 + GST.

3

You get the findings

Five to seven business days later, an interactive report with every finding ranked by impact. There is a full sample you can read first.

4

You decide what happens next

Some clients hand the report to their own developer. Some ask me to do the work, which I quote once we both know what is involved. Some sit on it for a quarter.

What clients and agencies say

5.0 from 22 Google reviews
Fenton Stephens
Fenton Stephens
★★★★★

Finding a web developer in Melbourne who's genuinely reliable and technically strong isn't easy. We’ve worked with several over the years, and Phil stands out. As an agency, we need someone who can handle complex client website builds efficiently and with sound judgement. Phil delivers exactly that: sharp technical execution, proactive problem-solving, and communication we can count on. We consider him a true collaboration partner, not just a contractor, and recommend him without hesitation.

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Kosta Theochari
MDT Design
★★★★★

We had the absolute pleasure of working with Phil to build our new WordPress website, and the experience was outstanding from start to finish. Phil is an incredibly talented WordPress specialist who not only delivered a website that exceeded our expectations but also made the whole process stress-free and enjoyable. He was always easy to communicate with, quick to respond, and genuinely cared about getting everything just right for us. Nothing was ever too much trouble, and he patiently guided us through each stage of the build while keeping everything on track and meeting deadlines perfectly. His professionalism, technical knowledge, and supportive approach gave us complete confidence throughout the project. We’re absolutely thrilled with the final result and would highly recommend Phil to anyone looking for a reliable, skilled, and dedicated WordPress developer. No doubt we will be working with him again. Regards, Kosta Theochari -MDTdesign

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Brent Szalay
Brent Szalay
Leaders in Business
★★★★★

We loved working with Phil to build the Leaders in Business website. Phil is incredibly easy to deal with, works fast, and really understands what you’re trying to achieve. The quality of his work is outstanding, and he made the whole process simple from start to finish. We were so impressed that we’re now recommending Phil to our clients and members who want a high-quality website delivered without the usual fuss. Highly recommend Phil - thanks again for a great job!

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Frequently asked questions

What Melbourne businesses ask before they get in touch. If yours isn't here, ask me directly.

An SEO consultant works out why a site is not earning the search traffic it should, and tells you what to do about it in order of impact. In my case that usually means the technical layer: whether Google can crawl and index your pages, how fast the site responds, whether your structured data is valid, and how your content reads to AI search engines. You get findings and a prioritised plan, not a monthly report of activity.

Melbourne agencies typically run $1,500 to $5,000 a month on retainer, and one-off audits range from about $1,500 to $6,000. I start with a fixed-price audit at $1,500 + GST, which covers the full 100-point review and a prioritised action plan. After that you decide whether you want me to implement the fixes or hand the plan to someone else. There is no retainer you have to sign to get the audit.

It depends on whether you are buying advice or ongoing work. Advice is a one-off cost and you own the findings. Ongoing work is priced by the hours it takes, and most small business sites need a burst of technical fixes rather than a permanent retainer. If someone quotes you a monthly figure before they have looked at your site, they are selling a package, not a diagnosis.

No, and I am not. I am based in Geelong and I work with Melbourne businesses the same way I work with clients in Sydney and Brisbane, over calls, email and written reports. The work is reading your Search Console data, crawling your site, and fixing code. None of that improves by being done in the same room. If you do want to meet in person, Melbourne is an hour away and I get there regularly.

With an agency you usually get an account manager, and the work happens somewhere behind them. With me you get the person doing the work. I do the audit, I write the findings, and if you want the fixes done I write that code too. The trade-off is honest: an agency has more hands for content production at volume, and I do not.

No, but it has grown a second half. People now find businesses through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews as well as through the blue links, and those systems pick sources on different signals. That is why my audit scores AI citability and crawler accessibility alongside traditional SEO. A site that is invisible to AI search is losing a channel that did not exist two years ago.

Want better rankings?
Let's talk.

It starts with the audit, so you know what is actually wrong before anyone quotes you to fix it. I work with Melbourne businesses and clients right across Australia.

Start with an audit
Phil Kurth, web designer and developer in Geelong