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Freelance SEO Consultant

Hi, I'm Eli.
I do SEO.

Founder of Astutely. I help startups, founders, and growing teams leverage organic search through content strategy, technical SEO, and link building that actually drives traffic. No fluff, no bloated retainers. Just the work.

Work with me → LinkedIn → See results →
Eli McGarvie — SEO Consultant, Astutely
Based Remote — US & Europe
Experience 4 years independent
Focus SEO & content strategy
Website astutely.cc
LinkedIn eli-mcgarvie

How I ended up
here.

I got into SEO sideways. I was writing content at a startup and started experimenting with high volume content campaigns — testing what ranked, what didn't, and why. The results were good enough that when I left, former competitors in the same space started asking me to replicate what I'd done for them.

I chose not to get a real job. I didn't want to manage someone else's calendar or sit in meetings that had nothing to do with what I excelled at. I wanted to obsess over interesting problems, solve them properly, and move on. So I went independent and started freelancing. I've been doing it for four years.

Astutely isn't an agency. It's me. Every strategy I put in front of a client, I built. Every audit I deliver, I ran. When you work with Astutely, you're working with the person who actually knows what they're doing. You're not working with an account manager or an intern, you're working with an obsessed freak.

I started in content but the data pulled me deeper. I've spent hundreds of hours in Ahrefs and Google Search Console — staring at crawl logs, dissecting competitor backlink profiles, mapping keyword clusters. At this point it's less methodology and more instinct. I know what I'm looking at.

01
One client at a time
I don't spread myself thin across twenty retainers. When I'm working on your site, I'm actually thinking about your site and obsessing over your specific problems to find that competitive edge.
02
Data first, instinct second
Four years and hundreds of hours in the tools has turned me into a reclusive outcast, but thankfully one that can feel out a damn good strategy.
03
Trust is the product
The best client relationships are the ones where they hand me the problem and let me solve it. When that trust exists, the results follow. Clients who've let me do that keep coming back and get the best results.
04
No unnecessary work
I only do what moves the needle. Not because I'm cutting corners but because I've learned that most of what agencies bill for doesn't. I only focus on what I'm good at. Simple.

How I work

What working
with me looks like.

No handoffs, no junior staff, no mystery. You get me — directly involved in the strategy and the execution.

🔍
I start by diagnosing
Every engagement starts with a proper audit. A deep analysis of what's holding you back and what the quickest path to ranking looks like from where you are.
🎯
I focus on one problem
I don't take on ten clients at once. When I'm on your project, I'm fully on it. I find the angle your competitors haven't found and I build a strategy around that specific edge.
⚙️
I do the actual work
Strategy, briefs, content, audits, outreach. I either build it myself or manage the people building it. Either way, nothing leaves without me knowing exactly what's in it and why.
📈
I report on what matters
Rankings, traffic, and pipeline. Quality over quantity. If the work is moving the needle, the data shows it. If it isn't, I tell you that too.

Honest takes

Things I actually
believe.

Four years of independent work gives you strong opinions. These are mine. You might not agree with all of them, and that's the point, because I'm purposely being controversial.

On the industry
Most SEO agencies don't
know what they're doing.
Almost every client I speak to has been burned by an agency that overcharged and underdelivered. The SEO industry has a trust problem, which is largely self-inflicted. Bad practitioners who don't understand SEO and who produce slop content have degraded the Google search experience and client confidence.
On content
Publishing more is almost never
the answer.
Most sites with stalled organic growth don't need more content, they need better content, or a fix to something technical that's been silently throttling everything else. I've seen companies publish 50 articles and gain nothing because the foundations were wrong. Volume without strategy will have you up late talking to no one.
On client relationships
If you don't understand why,
the results won't stick.
The clients who get the best results are the ones who understand what we're doing and why. Not because I need approval, but because SEO is a lot of tedious work and it compounds over time, and if a client doesn't grasp the value, they will abandon ship and lose all motion.
On independence
Working for yourself is the best
thing I've ever done.
It makes the quality of my output better when I manage my own time, choose who I work with, and only take on work I'm genuinely able to contribute to. I'm not filling a quota. I'm solving problems that genuinely interest me.

Right now

What I'm up to.

When I'm not in Ahrefs at an unreasonable hour, this is where you'll find me.

Work with me →
Currently
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🇧🇷
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil · South America
Eli's time
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Your time
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Difference
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from you
Calculating...
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Obsessed with building websites — experimenting with niche sites and finding market gaps. There's something soulful about building an entire project on your own.
Playing a lot of pool — it's actually addictive. There's no antidote for the pool bug, let me tell you that. I'll be thinking about the game in my damn sleep!
Reading Jack Vance and Michael Shea — the gods of literature. Their books are more real than anything you'll ever read in a history textbook.
Taking on new clients — selectively. If you've got an interesting SEO problem, let's talk.

Sounds like a
good fit?

Book a free 20-minute call. No pitch, no pressure — just an honest conversation about your site and what's possible.

Book a free call → See the results first →