Kia ora, I'm Spiro Kovac
The Auckland SEO consultant who does the work himself
I help businesses across Aotearoa rank on Google, win the map pack and get cited in AI answers. You deal with me from the first audit to the monthly report. No account managers, no juniors, and never more than 20 clients at once.
- Capped at 20 active clients
- Month-to-month, no lock-in
- Google, Maps, ChatGPT and Gemini
Illustration of the goal. Real timelines depend on your market and starting point.
Who I help, and what changes
Most of my clients are owner-led New Zealand businesses where one extra enquiry a day changes the year. The work looks different for each of them.
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Local service businesses
Trades, clinics, firms and anyone whose customers search "near me". The goal is more calls and quote requests from the suburbs you actually service, through a sharper Google Business Profile, one strong page per service and a steady flow of reviews.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile -
Ecommerce brands
Shopify and WooCommerce stores competing with Australian and global retailers. I fix the category structure, faceted navigation and product templates so collection pages rank for the searches that buy, not just browse.
Shopify SEO -
B2B and professional services
Longer sales cycles need content that answers buyer questions before they call. I build service pages around commercial intent and support them with articles that earn links and get quoted in AI answers.
Content SEO
Why a consultant instead of an agency
Agencies scale by adding people between you and the work. I cap my client list instead.
When you hire a large SEO agency, the person who sells you the retainer is rarely the person who touches your website. Strategy gets handed to an account manager, the work goes to whoever has capacity that month, and the report arrives full of charts that don't answer the only question you care about: are more of the right people calling?
I run SEO Consultant differently. I take on a maximum of 20 active clients so I can do the audit, write the strategy, make or brief every change, and explain the results myself. If something isn't working, you hear it from the person who can fix it.
What that means in practice
- You talk to the specialist. Calls, emails and reports come from me, not a rotating account team.
- Work is prioritised by revenue, not by checklist. We fix what moves enquiries first, then build authority.
- Plain-English reporting. Rankings, traffic and leads from Google Search Console and GA4, with what I did and what's next.
- No lock-in contracts. We agree a 6 to 12 month roadmap because SEO compounds, but you stay because it's working.
I also teach SEO. My WordPress SEO Simplified course is used by web designers to build sites that rank, which keeps me honest about explaining the why behind every recommendation.
SEO services, matched to what's holding you back
Every engagement starts with an audit. From there we pick the services that close the gap between you and the businesses ranking above you.
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SEO audit and technical SEO
Crawl errors, index bloat, slow templates and broken internal links quietly cap how far good content can rank. I find them, rank them by impact and fix them in your CMS or brief your developer.
Core Web Vitals, crawl budget, indexing, site architecture
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Keyword research and strategy
I map the searches your buyers actually use to the page that should win them, sized by volume and difficulty in the New Zealand market, so you build what earns money first.
Search intent, topic clusters, competitor gaps, 180-day SEO strategy
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On-page SEO
Titles that earn the click, headings that match intent, copy that covers the topic properly, and schema that tells Google exactly what each page is about.
Title tags, internal links, schema markup, click-through rate
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Content SEO
Service pages and guides that answer real buyer questions, planned as hubs so each new page strengthens the ones around it. Written for Kiwi readers, not rewritten from overseas templates.
Content briefs, topical authority, content refreshes
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Local SEO and Google Business Profile
Categories, services, photos, reviews and location pages tuned so you show in the map pack for the suburbs you serve. This is usually where local businesses see the fastest lift.
Map pack, NAP citations, reviews, suburb pages
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White-hat link building
Links from real New Zealand publishers, suppliers, associations and local media, earned with content worth citing. No private blog networks and nothing you'd be embarrassed to see in a link report.
Digital PR, unlinked mentions, resource links
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AI search optimisation (AEO and GEO)
Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Gemini pull answers from pages that are clear, well structured and consistent about who you are. I tighten your entity signals, structured data and answer formatting so you're the source they quote.
Entity SEO, structured data, answer formatting, llms.txt
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SEO migration
Redesigning, rebranding or changing platforms is the fastest way to lose rankings you've spent years earning. I map every URL, manage the redirects and monitor the launch so traffic holds.
301 redirect mapping, replatforming, domain changes
How we get you to page one
The same four stages for every client. What changes is how long we spend in each one.
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Audit
I review your Search Console, GA4, site crawl, Google Business Profile and backlinks to find what's blocking growth today.
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Strategy
You get a 180-day roadmap: target keywords mapped to pages, quick wins first, and a clear view of what the competition is doing.
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Build
Technical fixes, page rewrites, new content and local signals, shipped in priority order and checked against Google's guidelines.
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Compound
Monthly reporting, link earning and new pages for the opportunities the data shows. Rankings that compound instead of reset.
Businesses I've worked with
From East Auckland contractors to international groups moving platforms, including several SEO migrations where keeping existing rankings was the whole brief.
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CPL Group
International SEO migration
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Smart Express
SEO migration
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AATROX Communications
International SEO migration
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Hushtec Solutions
International SEO migration
Search in New Zealand still runs through Google
AI is changing how answers are shown, not where Kiwis go to find a business.
89%
of searches in New Zealand happened on Google in September 2026, with Bing a distant second at under 8%.Source: StatCounter Global Stats, search engine market share, New Zealand
That's why the foundations haven't changed: a fast, crawlable site, pages that genuinely answer the search, and enough authority that Google trusts you over the next result.
What has changed is the top of the results page. AI Overviews now summarise answers before the blue links, and more people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini for recommendations. Those tools draw from the same well-structured, clearly attributed pages that rank in Google. So I optimise for both at once: classic rankings for the clicks, and clean entities, schema and answer-first copy so AI tools cite you by name.
Working with businesses across Aotearoa
I'm based in Dannemora, East Auckland, and meet Auckland clients in person. Everyone else gets the same service over video calls and shared dashboards.
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SEO Auckland
Tāmaki Makaurau's search market is the most competitive in the country. Suburb-level local SEO and service pages that outrank agency templates.
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SEO Christchurch
For Ōtautahi and Canterbury businesses who want senior SEO without paying for a big-agency structure.
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SEO Wellington
Professional services, government suppliers and Hutt Valley trades competing for a smaller, high-value search market.
Questions people ask before hiring an SEO consultant
What does an SEO consultant actually do?
An SEO consultant works out why your website isn't getting found and fixes it. In practice that means auditing the technical health of your site, researching the searches your customers use, rewriting and building pages to match them, optimising your Google Business Profile, and earning links from relevant websites. A consultant differs from an agency mainly in who does the work: with me, the person who plans your strategy is the person who carries it out.
How much does SEO cost in New Zealand?
Ongoing SEO for a New Zealand small business typically runs from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month, depending on how competitive your market is and how much work your site needs. One-off audits and migrations are quoted as fixed projects. My SEO pricing page explains what each level of investment includes, and you'll get a fixed quote after a free strategy call.
How long does SEO take to work?
Technical fixes and Google Business Profile improvements can show results within weeks. Meaningful ranking gains for competitive terms usually take 3 to 6 months, and the most competitive Auckland keywords can take 6 to 12. A brand new website takes longer than an established one because it has no authority yet. I'll give you a realistic timeline for your keywords in the strategy call.
Do you guarantee first-page rankings?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Nobody controls Google's algorithm. What I do guarantee is transparent work: you'll see exactly what was done each month, why, and how it moved your rankings, traffic and enquiries. Page-one rankings are realistic for most NZ businesses with the right keyword targets and consistent work.
Can you help us show up in ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews?
Yes. AI search tools favour pages that state facts clearly, use structured data, and describe your business consistently across the web. I optimise your site and listings for that alongside traditional SEO, so the same work improves your Google rankings and your chances of being cited in AI answers.
Will I be locked into a long contract?
No. Ongoing SEO is billed month to month with reasonable notice. I recommend committing to at least six months because SEO compounds over time, but you're never contractually trapped. I'd rather earn your business each month.
Do you only work with Auckland businesses?
No. I'm based in East Auckland and happy to meet local clients in person, but I work with businesses throughout New Zealand, including Christchurch and Wellington, and with some international clients. Nearly all SEO work happens online, so location doesn't limit results.
Let's find out what page one is worth to you
In 30 minutes I'll show you where your search traffic is leaking, what the businesses above you are doing differently, and what's realistic in the next 6 to 12 months. No pitch deck, no obligation.