How to Make $1M a Year as a Solo SEO Consultant | Eli Schwartz (Product-Led SEO)

“I don't think any SEO consultant should be charging a client less than $10,000 per month.”

Eli Schwartz, author of Product-Led SEO and a solo consultant for clients like Tinder, Coinbase and LinkedIn, joins Tim Soulo to talk about what SEO consulting pays, and why. His math for a $1M practice starts with a $10,000-a-month floor, and at the top of the range, he knows solo consultants earning more than $100,000 a month from a single client.

They're charging for value, not hours.

You'll come away knowing what to charge, how to land the clients who can pay it, and what to measure when the CEO asks what AI visibility is worth.

He shares:

How he quoted Blue Nile $10,000 a month, expecting a counter at $5,000, and made it his baselineWhat a $10,000-a-month client can get, from content briefs to one expert hour (his own rate on Intro: $495 for 15 minutes)Why personal brand and social proof win the big clients, and the podcast appearance that brought in G2 and WordPressWhy it took nine months of sign-offs to get "dating" into Tinder's homepage title tag, and about 12 hours to rankWhy prompts aren't keywords, and the business metrics he'd use insteadWhat's the most expensive problem you know how to solve?

Where to find Eli:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze/X: @5leWebsite: https://www.elischwartz.co/

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/X: @timsouloWebsite: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:17 The $10K-a-Month Floor

06:40 What $10K a Month Buys

12:05 Earning Six Figures a Month

16:10 How to Land Big Clients

30:04 The Million-Dollar Question

38:14 Build a Business, Not a Podcast

43:28 Earn It or Buy It

51:26 Measure by Revenue, Not Prompts

56:13 The Future of AI Trackers