Work Directly With Me: Marketing Consultant in North County San Diego

My name is EJ O’Neill, and I’ve been obsessed with getting websites found online since I built my first one during my junior year of college. That obsession turned into a career: nearly six years as an Internet Consultant for Z57 in San Diego, back when most small businesses were still deciding whether they even needed a website, followed by twenty years running my own company, Internet Solutions Web Design, right here in Vista. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems, I’m a licensed, registered business in Vista, CA, and I still personally obsess over my own site’s rankings every single day, because I’d be doing my clients a disservice if I asked them to trust techniques I don’t use myself.

When you hire me as your marketing consultant, you’re not handed off to a project manager or a junior account rep. You get me, directly, on the phone or on a call, for as long as it takes to get your questions answered and your strategy straight.

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What does a marketing consultant do?

A marketing consultant advises a business on its online marketing strategy, without necessarily doing the hands-on execution themselves. That typically means auditing what's already in place, identifying what's actually holding a business back in local search, and giving clear, prioritized direction, either for the owner to implement themselves or for their existing team to carry out. It's a lower-cost, more flexible alternative to hiring a full-service agency, paid hourly rather than through an ongoing retainer, best suited to business owners who want expert direction but plan to keep the implementation in-house.

The Proof Is In My Own Rankings, Not Just My Word

Most consultants ask you to take their word for it. I’d rather you check for yourself. Search “web design” alongside almost any North County city, Vista, Oceanside, Carlsbad, San Marcos, Escondido, and you’ll find Internet Solutions Web Design at or near the top of the results. That’s not a client testimonial I’m asking you to trust. It’s a live search you can run in the next thirty seconds, on the same techniques I’d be applying to your business. If I can’t rank my own company, why would you trust me to rank yours?

Twenty Years, 96% Retention

Here’s a number most agencies in this business can’t touch: I’ve retained roughly 96% of my clients over the years, including a handful who’ve been with me since I started the company in 2006. I don’t keep detailed revenue-lift statistics on every client I’ve worked with, what I track instead is whether their business is actually prospering because of what we built together, and whether they’re still around a year later, five years later, a decade later. A big part of that comes down to something you won’t find in a marketing plan: I can read people. Happy or frustrated, technical or not, I can get on a call with almost anyone and have them trusting me within the first few minutes. That’s not an accident. It’s twenty years of practice, and it’s a large part of why clients don’t leave.

Rated by the People Who’ve Actually Hired Me

I’m a 5-star, Level 2 Seller on Fiverr and a Top Rated freelancer on Upwork, ratings earned project by project, with no way to buy or fake them on either platform. Closer to home, one of my favorite pieces of feedback came from a local client after a Google Business Profile training session: “EJ’s Google optimization training was excellent. He made the process easy to understand and gave us clear, practical strategies we could actually use.” That’s the kind of outcome I aim for with every consulting engagement, not just a list of recommendations, but a business owner who actually understands their own marketing well enough to make confident decisions going forward.

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My Secret Weapon: A Ranking Tool Almost None of Your Competitors Know Exists

Here’s something I don’t think most business owners in North County San Diego realize: the local ranking tools that actually matter, the ones that show you exactly where you stand, block by block, across your entire service area, aren’t things most small local agencies have access to at all. I built my own. It’s a custom local ranking heatmap, and it does something almost nobody else in this market can show you: a color-coded map of your exact search ranking at every single point across a 15-mile radius or more around your business, not one generic “you’re ranked #4” number, but a full picture of where you’re winning, where you’re losing, and exactly which neighborhoods are costing you customers right now.

Only a handful of companies in the entire country have anything like this. Most of your competitors have never even heard of a tool that can do it. That’s not a sales line, it’s the actual state of this industry right now, and it means there’s a real window of opportunity for the business owners who move on it before everyone else catches up. Every scan tracks your keyword search volume city by city, not vague national averages, checks your backlink profile, and saves every report so we can prove, in hard visual terms, exactly how much ground you’ve gained over time.

This isn’t something I hand you a login for. I run the scan, I read the results, and I walk you through exactly what they mean for your business and what to do about it, the same way I’d want it explained to me if I were the one hiring a consultant. If you want to see precisely where your business stands against every competitor in your service area, right now, this is how you find out.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a marketing consultant actually do for my business?

I audit what you currently have, your website, your Google Business Profile, your local rankings, identify exactly what’s holding you back in local search, and give you a clear, prioritized plan. You or your team can then implement it yourselves, or bring me in hourly for the pieces you’d rather not tackle alone.

How much does it cost to work with you as a consultant?

My rate starts at $50 an hour, with no long-term contract and no minimum commitment. You only pay for the time you actually need. If you’d rather have everything handled for a flat monthly rate instead, my marketing agency packages start at $299/month.

Do you do the work yourself, or hand it off to a team?

As your consultant, it’s me, directly, on every call and every audit. If you’d rather have a team fully manage your marketing month to month instead of doing the implementation yourself, that’s what my marketing agency service is for.

What is the heatmap tool, and do I get access to it?

It’s a custom ranking tool I built that maps your exact search position across your entire service area, not just one number, but a full picture of where you’re winning and losing block by block. I run the scans myself and walk you through exactly what the results mean and what to do next.

How is hiring you different from hiring your marketing agency?

As your consultant, I advise and you (or your team) implement, billed hourly. The agency service is fully done-for-you, billed monthly. Most owners who want to stay hands-on and control costs closely choose the consultant option.

How soon can I get started?

Usually within a few days. Reach out, and we’ll set up a call to talk through where your business stands today and what the fastest path forward looks like.

Phone: (858) 866-9329
Address: 733 Las Palmas Drive
Vista, CA 92081

Hours: Monday – Friday: 8am – 7pm

Client Success Stories About Our Internet Consultants

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Services We Offer

Google Business Profile Optimization

San Diego Service Business Owner? Struggling to Attract More Local Customers in Your Area? Tired of being invisible in “near me” searches across San Diego neighborhoods? It’s time to dominate local search results.

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Local Area Marketing

We deliver powerful local area marketing that puts your business front and center, combining hyper-targeted local ads, neighborhood-specific social media campaigns, review management, and community-focused strategies to drive more calls, foot traffic and leads from ready-to-buy customers in your exact service area.

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Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO), particularly local SEO for service-area businesses (like plumbers, attorneys, contractors, or other pros who serve specific geographic zones without a traditional storefront), focuses on dominating “near me” searches, Google Maps/Local Pack visibility, and AI-enhanced results.

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WordPress Maintenance Services

If you’re running a WordPress website without paying for professional monthly maintenance and security monitoring, you’re taking a serious risk that could cost you far more than a few hours of downtime.

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WordPress Websites

A professionally designed WordPress website delivers exceptional value for businesses, particularly service-based ones in competitive local markets like San Diego, by combining powerful flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and growth potential.

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Affordable Startup Websites

A basic website for a startup business serves as an essential digital foundation, providing a professional online presence that builds instant credibility, establishes trust with potential customers and investors, and acts as a central hub for your brand story, mission, products/services, team, and contact details.

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WordPress Training Services

Our WordPress training services empower business owners and teams to take full control of their websites, teaching them how to confidently update, manage, and maintain their WordPress sites independently, without relying on developers for every small change.

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Ecommerce Websites

A professionally built e-commerce site unlocks tremendous growth potential for businesses by transforming your products or services into a 24/7 revenue-generating machine that reaches customers far beyond local limits.

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Website Hosting Services

A hosting plan that bundles monthly WordPress maintenance provides business owners with unmatched peace of mind, superior security, peak performance, and long-term reliability – far beyond what most hosting companies can deliver.

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Free SEO Audit: (858) 866-9329

Work Directly With Me: Marketing Consultant in North County San Diego

The Proof Is In My Own Rankings, Not Just My Word

Twenty Years, 96% Retention

Rated by the People Who’ve Actually Hired Me

My Secret Weapon: A Ranking Tool Almost None of Your Competitors Know Exists

Frequently Asked Questions

Client Success Stories About Our Internet Consultants

Services We Offer

Google Business Profile Optimization

Local Area Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

WordPress Maintenance Services

WordPress Websites

Affordable Startup Websites

WordPress Training Services

Ecommerce Websites

Website Hosting Services

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Internet Marketing Services

Website Design

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