Best SEO Consultants in Australia

Disclosure: this list includes Blake Smith, the author of this article and founder of Performance Agency. He's included as one of six options, not ranked first by default, and evaluated against the same criteria as everyone else. Where his listing differs from an independent write-up, it's flagged.

Hiring an individual SEO consultant is a different decision from hiring an agency: you're buying one person's time, judgement and specific experience directly, rather than a team's combined capacity. That makes the differences between consultants matter more than they would when comparing agencies, since there's no team to smooth over a mismatch in specialisation or working style.

Methodology

This list focuses on Australian-based or Australian-serving independent SEO consultants with a real, checkable public presence: a named individual, a stated location or client base, and enough published information to verify who they are and what they actually do. It excludes consultants who couldn't be independently verified through their own site or public profiles at the time of research (September 2026).

Quick comparison

The consultants

Dave Hobbs

Perth-based, with more than 27 years in SEO, Dave Hobbs works as a freelance and fractional SEO consultant, including as a fractional SEO director for businesses needing senior strategic input without a full-time hire. His experience spans the period before AI search existed at all, which is a genuine advantage for businesses wanting someone who's watched multiple major shifts in how search works rather than someone who's only known the current landscape.

Worth knowing: a generalist with this much tenure is well suited to broad SEO strategy and fractional director-level work, but if AI search visibility specifically is the primary goal rather than one part of a broader remit, it's worth asking directly how much of his current work is AI-search-specific versus traditional SEO.

Raffaella Bronzi

Sydney-based, with 16 years in SEO and a multilingual, educator-style approach to client work. Independent write-ups describe her as focused on teaching clients the reasoning behind SEO decisions rather than just delivering them, which suits a business that wants to build internal understanding alongside getting the work done.

Worth knowing: this style is a good fit if you want to understand the "why" behind recommendations, but it may involve more of your own time investment than a fully hands-off engagement with a consultant who just executes.

Alfonso Mannella (Origin SEO)

More than 15 years in SEO, operating with a transparent published hourly rate and no long-term contract requirement. Origin SEO explicitly lists GEO (generative engine optimisation) as part of its service offering, which is a genuine point of differentiation among consultants at this experience level, since not all generalist SEO consultants have publicly extended into AI-search-specific work.

Worth knowing: the no-lock-in, transparent-rate model suits businesses wanting flexibility and clear pricing upfront, though it's worth confirming exactly how much of the GEO work is a distinct deliverable versus an add-on framing on top of standard SEO.

Nirav Shah (Possum SEO)

Melbourne-based, with 10 to 12-plus years in SEO, operating on a no-lock-in model aimed particularly at small and medium businesses and ecommerce. Possum SEO offers AI automation as an add-on service alongside core SEO work.

Worth knowing: the SMB and ecommerce focus, combined with month-to-month flexibility, suits a business wanting to test an engagement without a long commitment, though the AI automation add-on is a distinct service from AI-search visibility work specifically, and it's worth clarifying which one you actually need before signing on.

Blake Smith (Performance Agency)

Founder of Performance Agency, specialising specifically in AI SEO and GEO rather than operating as a generalist SEO consultant who's added AI search as one service among many. Background includes in-house B2B SaaS marketing experience prior to founding Performance Agency.

Worth knowing: the narrower specialisation is the actual difference from the four consultants above, all of whom offer AI SEO or GEO as part of a broader general SEO practice. That's a genuine trade-off, not a strictly better position: a business wanting a single consultant across all of SEO, not just AI-search visibility, may be better served by a generalist with a longer track record across the full discipline.

How to use this list

None of these five consultants (six counting Blake Smith) are directly interchangeable, since each represents a different combination of experience length, specialisation and working style rather than a simple better-or-worse ranking. A business wanting one senior generalist across all of SEO and AI SEO is better matched to Dave Hobbs. A business wanting to build internal understanding alongside the work is better matched to Raffaella Bronzi. A business wanting transparent hourly pricing with GEO included is better matched to Alfonso Mannella. A business wanting SMB or ecommerce-focused flexibility is better matched to Nirav Shah. A business where AI-search visibility specifically is the primary goal, not one service among several, is the scenario Blake Smith's narrower specialisation is built for.

If you're still deciding between a solo consultant and a full agency at all, AI SEO Consultant vs Agency in Australia sets out that decision separately from which specific consultant to choose.

FAQs

Is a specialist AI SEO consultant better than a generalist SEO consultant? Neither is categorically better. A specialist makes sense when AI-search visibility is the specific, primary goal. A generalist makes more sense when you need broader SEO strategy and AI search is one part of that, not the whole brief.

How much does an independent SEO consultant cost compared to an agency? How much does AI SEO cost in Australia? has real published rate ranges; consultant rates in these guides run roughly $100 to $300 an hour depending on seniority, which is generally less than an agency retainer but reflects one person's time rather than a team's.

Should I choose based on years of experience alone? No. Years of experience matters less than whether that experience matches what you actually need, a consultant with 27 years of general SEO experience and one with 5 years of AI-SEO-specific focus can both be the right choice depending on the brief.