Sit. Stay. Speak. Rollover. W-A-L-K. Audit. Optimize. Rank. Convert. Grow. Search.

I’m Zach Karl, a Kansas City-based freelance SEO consultant with 10+ years of experience helping brands grow their visibility in search and turn it into real business outcomes. Search Dog Consulting exists for brands that want honest, common sense SEO and are tired of working with partners that look busy but are really just chasing their own tails.

Start the conversation today

Let’s talk

Freelance SEO Consulting Services

Whatever your business needs are, Search Dog Consulting can have you running at the front of the pack with time-tested SEO tactics focused on driving real results.

Strategy Development

Building a roadmap so you have a clear direction toward your goals and aren’t running in circles.

Technical SEO

Sniffing out the issues in your site’s back-end that are hindering your ability to be crawled, indexed, and ranked.

Content SEO

Getting your brand in front of the right audiences, so your content isn’t barking up the wrong trees.

Local SEO

Marking your territory in local search results before your competitors bury you beneath the map pack.

AI SEO

Learning the new tricks that keep your brand visible as search shifts toward AI-generated answers.

Site Migrations

Nose to the ground from day one, so a new site launch doesn’t undo years of earned growth.

Explore SEO services

What Others Have Said About Working With Zach

“I worked with Zach from 2019 to 2026 across SEO, Google Search, and Google Shopping. Over that time, the search landscape evolved massively which resulted in high levels of volatility. Zach was a consistent partner as we navigated algorithm updates, increased competition on SERPS and changes in how Google surfaces e-commerce results. He brought a steady, thoughtful approach and served as a valuable resource in interpreting those shifts. While SEO is always an ongoing process, having someone knowledgeable to help guide decisions was crucial to our business.”
Chris Easter
President and Co-Founder of The Man Registry
“Zach is one of the most well-rounded SEO practitioners I’ve worked with. His technical knowledge is strong, but what sets him apart is how he applies it. He approaches every client’s situation thoughtfully, communicates clearly, and does the work with real integrity. Anyone bringing Zach on as an SEO partner is in good hands.”
Corey Morris
President and CEO of VOLTAGE

Why Choose Search Dog

SEO gets a bad reputation because a lot of SEO professionals do it poorly. They deliver automated analytics reports without insights, website crawls dressed up as audits, vanity metrics disconnected from business goals. Today, many of those same experts are trying to sell you on spending more of your money on their “100% guaranteed GEO and LLM optimization service” despite never figuring out good SEO in the first place.

At Search Dog Consulting, I do things differently. I believe in being upfront about exactly what you need to meet your business goals, what you can expect when you work with me, and how much it’s going to cost. When you work with me, you’re not getting handed off to an associate-level specialist or a virtual assistant, and you’re not being fed strategies generated by AI without any oversight or critical thought. You’re working directly with me, someone who’s been in the weeds of SEO long enough to know that shortcuts don’t build trust but honest strategy does.

I’m Zach Karl

I started Search Dog Consulting in 2026 because after a decade in SEO, I wanted to do the work on my own terms. Full ownership over the strategy, the client relationships, and the outcomes.

My career has taken a deliberately unconventional path through the industry.

I started as a copywriter at a health sciences agency, which taught me two of the most valuable skills I have as an SEO: how to research and how to write.
From there I moved in-house to be a one-person marketing department, where I taught myself SEO, paid search, email, social, design, and development all at once. While my knowledge across channels and skills grew tenfold, I was truly a master of none.
For the last 6+ years, I’ve narrowed my focus on SEO at a KC search marketing agency. While running the digital marketing department, I built and implemented SEO strategies for clients across a wide range of industries and learned what moves the needle for businesses of different sizes and stages of growth.

What all of that means in practice is that I don’t approach SEO in a silo. I understand how it connects to the broader marketing funnel and I know how to work alongside developers, paid media teams, and stakeholders without anyone needing a translator.

The other member of Search Dog Consulting is Simpson, a deaf rescue pit-cur mix and my best friend. He doesn’t do much SEO but he has strong opinions about when we go on walks. The brand is as much his as it is mine.