For consulting arborists

Get the council report jobs. Stop being mistaken for the bloke with a chainsaw.

In-House is your AI marketing team. It actually wins the consulting work: ships your AQF Level 5 service pages, runs the council DA report ads, posts the VTA risk assessment you finished this morning.

No charge for 7 days Cancel in two taps Live in 9 minutes

Three options. Only one actually works for your business.

Agency

$2,500 to $4,000 / mo

Slow. Expensive. Removed from your business.

You get a brochure site that doesn't mention AQF Level 5, twelve generic posts about 'tree health', and a quarterly Google Ads report on 'tree pruning' clicks you never wanted. Meanwhile the $1,400 DA tree report job goes to a competitor whose home page actually has the phrase 'council DA report' on it.

DIY tools

$60 to $200 / mo + your evenings

Cheap, but it just hands you a dashboard.

Squarespace, LinkedIn, a Google Business profile that's still tagged 'Tree Service', the QTRA methodology PDF you've been meaning to turn into a landing page since 2023. Cheap, but the boundary-dispute expert-witness inquiries still go to the bloke with the ranking blog post.

ACTUALLY DOES IT

In-House

$299 / mo flat

Cheap, and it actually does the work.

The AI marketing team writes the captions, ships proper pages for tree risk assessment, council DA reports, TPZ plans and expert-witness work, runs ads on the consulting queries that actually pay, and posts the report you delivered this week. You upload one site-visit photo, approve the week, get back to writing reports.

You're a consultant. The internet keeps treating you like a tree lopper.

The reality

Consulting arboriculture has a positioning problem the search engine refuses to fix on its own. You spent years getting AQF Level 5, picked up the Diploma of Arboriculture, joined the ISA, learned VTA and QTRA, and now you write tree-risk assessments, council DA tree reports, Tree Protection Zone plans for construction sites, expert-witness statements for boundary disputes, and heritage tree consultations. The fees match the qualification: $1,200 for a DA tree report, $3,500 for an expert-witness statement, $8,000 for a TPZ plan on a multi-unit development. But Google can't tell the difference between you and the bloke with a chainsaw and a ute, because the ute bloke also calls himself an 'arborist'. So when a building surveyor types 'arborist report Lane Cove council' into Google, the top three results are tree-removal companies who have never written an AS4970-compliant report in their lives. The qualified consulting work goes to whichever consulting arborist actually has the right page indexed. That's most consulting arborists' entire marketing problem in one sentence.

What good looks like

Good consulting-arborist marketing is three things, in this order: a service-page set that names the actual consulting deliverables instead of generic 'tree services' (tree risk assessment using VTA or QTRA, council DA tree report to AS4970, Tree Protection Zone plan for construction, expert-witness statement for boundary disputes, heritage tree consultation, POS public open space report, land-development pre-application advice); a credentials bar on every page header that lists AQF Level 5, Diploma of Arboriculture, ISA Certified Arborist, AS4970 compliance and any specialist quals (QTRA Licensed User, expert witness CV available); and a per-council page library for the LGAs you actually work, because building surveyors search 'arborist report [council]' before anything else.

Google can't tell you from the chainsaw bloke

Every tree-removal ute owner calls themselves an arborist. Your AQF Level 5, your VTA / QTRA methodology, your AS4970 reports get buried under their 'tree pruning near me' SEO. The fix is service pages that ranking algorithms actually understand.

Building surveyors and planners are the real customer

Half the consulting pipeline comes from surveyors, planners and architects who need an AS4970 report attached to a DA. They Google 'arborist report [council]' and book the one with the matching page. Most consulting arborists never built that page.

Expert-witness work demands a serious online presence

A solicitor briefing an expert witness for a $40k boundary-tree dispute will Google you before they email. If the site is a 2019 WordPress build with a 'tree services' header and no credentials list, the brief goes to a competitor whose LinkedIn and site read like a court-ready professional.

Real work. Not a slide deck.

In-House publishes to your real accounts and your live site. Here is what a arborist business sees in the first weeks, in the actual format it lands in.

Web Agent

Live · yourbusiness.com.au/da-tree-reports/lane-cove-council

yourbusiness.com.au/da-tree-reports/lane-cove-council

New consulting service page: 'AS4970-compliant arborist reports for Lane Cove Council DAs' H1, credentials bar (AQF Level 5, Diploma of Arboriculture, ISA Certified, QTRA Licensed) above the fold, a 300-word write-up of Lane Cove's local tree-DA pathway, the 12 species on its protected register, typical turnaround (5 working days), example anonymised report extract, and a 'brief us' form. Indexed in 48 hours, ranking page 1 for 'arborist report lane cove council' inside a fortnight.

One page per LGA you actually work

Advertising Agent

Live · Google Ads · consulting-only campaign

Ad · yourbusiness.com.au

AQF L5 Arborist · Council DA Reports · 5-Day Turnaround

AS4970-compliant tree reports for DA submissions across Lane Cove, Willoughby, Ku-ring-gai. VTA and QTRA risk assessments. Tree Protection Zone plans for builders. Expert-witness statements. Brief direct, fixed-fee, court-ready.

Negatives on 'tree removal' and 'pruning' so you stop paying for the wrong customer

SEO Agent

Auto-applied · approval rules

Google Business Profile reclassification

 Primary category corrected from 'Tree Service' → 'Arborist Service', secondary 'Consultant' added. Services rebuilt from 4 generic entries to 14 consulting deliverables (tree risk assessment VTA, tree risk assessment QTRA, council DA tree report, Tree Protection Zone plan AS4970, expert-witness statement, heritage tree consultation, POS open space report, land development pre-application advice, structural root zone investigation, retention assessment, +4 more). Credentials added as attributes. Service area set to the 9 councils you work. 

Live in your profile within the hour

Your direct line

Email Sam from site. Council pages ship overnight.

Sam is your AI Account Lead. Email Sam a photo from a site visit, a new council you've taken a brief in, a methodology you want featured (QTRA, VTA, AS4970), a solicitor brief you want pitched to LinkedIn. Sam briefs the agents, drafts land in your inbox by morning, two taps to approve.

A site-visit photo from a TPZ or VTA A new LGA you've taken a brief in A methodology to feature (QTRA, VTA, AS4970) An expert-witness case worth a short LinkedIn write-up A planner or solicitor you want briefed on your service

Mail

From you@yourbusiness.com.au · To sam.walker@use-ih.com

Picked up a TPZ brief in Ku-ring-gai. Worth a council page?

Hey Sam, just got my third TPZ brief this month out of Ku-ring-gai council (heritage Sydney Blue Gum, multi-unit development on Bobbin Head Rd). They have a specific tree-preservation order pathway I should probably explain on its own page. Site-visit photo attached.

Sam Walker · Account Lead

sam.walker@use-ih.com

Replied

On it. Web Agent will ship a 'Tree Protection Zone plans for Ku-ring-gai Council DAs' page this week, with the Bobbin Head Rd brief anonymised as the worked example and the heritage-tree-order pathway laid out. Advertising Agent will add Ku-ring-gai to the TPZ-plan ad set with a $40 daily cap and planner-only targeting. Content Agent will draft a 'TPZ encroachment under Ku-ring-gai's heritage tree provisions' technical piece for LinkedIn. Drafts in your inbox by 9am.

Preview the council page draft

$299 / mo

Flat. No tiers, no markup.

9 min

From sign-up to live marketing.

60+

Pieces of content a month.

Contracts. Cancel any time.

Six agents, working in your accounts.

Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.

Account Lead

Builds your annual plan around the consulting streams that pay (council DA reports, TPZ plans for builders, expert-witness for solicitors, heritage and POS reports for councils) rather than chasing 'tree pruning' clicks. Briefs the other agents so the service pages, the ads, the LinkedIn cadence and the Google Business profile all push toward the surveyor, the planner and the solicitor instead of the residential homeowner who wants a quote on a stump grind.

Answers: google can't tell you from the chainsaw bloke

Web Agent

Imports your existing site so you stop paying for hosting plus a CMS subscription, and makes shipping a new council-specific report page a five-minute job. Builds proper consulting service pages (VTA, QTRA, AS4970 DA report, TPZ plan, expert-witness, heritage consultation) with a credentials bar (AQF Level 5, Diploma of Arboriculture, ISA Certified, QTRA Licensed) on every page header. Live to your site in two taps.

Answers: google can't tell you from the chainsaw bloke

SEO Agent

Goes through your live site for the things that actually move consulting rankings: per-council page targeting ('arborist report [council]'), AS4970 and QTRA schema, internal links from council pages to the consulting deliverable pages, and a Google Business profile reclassified from 'Tree Service' to 'Arborist Service' with proper consulting categories. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes; flags the rest.

Answers: building surveyors and planners are the real customer

Advertising Agent

Launches Google Ads on the consulting queries that pay ('arborist report [council]', 'TPZ plan [suburb]', 'expert witness arborist', 'AS4970 tree report') with hard negatives on 'cheap', 'tree removal', 'stump grinding' and 'pruning' so the budget never goes to the wrong customer. Switches Meta off entirely (B2B consulting work doesn't live there). Pushes a small LinkedIn ad budget at planners, surveyors and solicitors in your service area.

Answers: building surveyors and planners are the real customer

Social Media Agent

Turns every site visit and every report into a LinkedIn post in your real voice: a TPZ marked out on a Mosman build, a VTA on a council street tree, a heritage Fig retention argument, a boundary-dispute site inspection. Builds the credibility a solicitor briefing $3,500 expert-witness work actually checks. You upload one photo per site visit, the agent drafts the caption in your voice, you approve.

Answers: expert-witness work demands a serious online presence

Content Agent

Drafts the long-form technical pieces planners and surveyors Google before they brief: 'Tree Protection Zone calculation under AS4970', 'when does a DA need an arborist report in [council]', 'QTRA vs VTA: which tree-risk method does my insurer accept', 'how to brief an expert-witness arborist for a boundary dispute'. Two drafts a month, in your voice, that put your name in front of the brief-writer six weeks before the email.

Live in your accounts, fast.

The heavy lifting comes off your plate the day you sign up. Here is what you see by the end of week one.

9-minute onboarding wizard, then your agents go live in your real accounts.
Your existing site imported. Hosting bill cancelled by Friday of week 1.
Service pages for VTA / QTRA risk assessment, AS4970 DA report and TPZ plan shipped by day 7.
Council-specific report pages for your three highest-volume LGAs indexed by day 10.
Google Business Profile reclassified from Tree Service to Arborist Service by day 3.
Every approval from your phone between site visits, two taps, no calls, no meetings.

See pricing No charge for 7 days Cancel in two taps Live in 9 minutes

Your first 30 days.

Site imported, hosting bill killed
Annual plan splitting council DA reports, TPZ plans, expert-witness and heritage work, delivered by Sam
Google Business Profile reclassified from Tree Service to Arborist Service
Credentials bar (AQF Level 5, Diploma of Arboriculture, ISA Certified, QTRA Licensed) live on every page
Three council-specific report pages indexed and ranking on 'arborist report [council]'
Google Ads live on consulting queries with hard negatives on 'tree removal' and 'pruning'
First fortnight of LinkedIn site-visit captions queued in your voice
'Tree Protection Zone calculation under AS4970' explainer drafted

The bottom line

A consulting arborist with AQF Level 5, a Diploma, ISA certification and QTRA licensing is already worth ten times the tree-lopper ute on a $1,400 DA report or a $3,500 expert-witness statement. The marketing job is making sure the building surveyor, the planner and the solicitor see the credentials before they Google 'arborist near me' and ring the chainsaw bloke. That's the per-council page library, the consulting-deliverable service pages, the credentials bar on every header, and the LinkedIn cadence the brief-writer can verify in 30 seconds before they pick up the phone.

Agencies are too dear to actually build the per-council page library and write the AS4970 explainer for $3.5k a month. Tools are cheap but the consulting service pages stay theoretical and the Google Business profile is still tagged 'Tree Service'. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the council pages, launch the consulting ads with proper negatives, post the site-visit insights on LinkedIn, and rebuild your Google profile as a proper Arborist Service. You stay in the driver's seat, two taps to approve, minutes a day. Stop losing the DA report work to the bloke with a chainsaw and better SEO.

See everything In-House does

No charge for 7 days Cancel in two taps Live in 9 minutes

Frequently asked.

I'm AQF Level 5 with QTRA licensing and the tree-removal companies still outrank me on Google. How does this fix it?

By building the pages search engines and customers actually need. Tree-removal companies rank for 'tree removal'; consulting arborists need to rank for 'arborist report [council]', 'AS4970 report', 'TPZ plan', 'expert witness arborist' and 'heritage tree consultation'. Each gets its own service page with the credentials bar, the methodology explained, and the council-specific notes. Within a few months the consulting queries route to you while the chainsaw queries route elsewhere, which is exactly the split you want.

Most of my work is briefed by building surveyors and planners. Will the agents understand that?

Yes, Account Lead targets the B2B consulting pipeline as the primary, not the residential market. Google Ads target 'arborist report [council]' and 'TPZ plan [suburb]' which are surveyor and planner searches. LinkedIn ads target planners, surveyors and solicitors in the LGAs you serve. The Content Agent writes for the brief-writer (technical, AS4970-referenced, council-pathway-aware) instead of the homeowner who wants a removal quote.

Will the LinkedIn posts sound like AI?

They'll sound like you, because the Social Media Agent learns from your existing posts during onboarding and you approve every draft before it ships. You upload one site-visit photo, the agent drafts the caption from what's in it (the species, the council, the methodology, the AS4970 calculation), you approve in two taps. Technical accuracy matters for consulting brand, and you correct any spec detail once before it goes live. Voice updates with every correction.

I do consulting and operational work (some removals). Won't pushing the consulting cannibalise the operational side?

No, because Account Lead splits them. Consulting deliverables get their own pages, ads and LinkedIn cadence aimed at surveyors and solicitors. Operational work gets its own service page, its own ad set targeting residential keywords, and lives separately. Mixing both pitches on one home page is exactly why most arborist sites underperform: they confuse the homeowner who wants a tree pruned and the planner who wants a DA report.

I tried Google Ads on 'arborist Sydney' and burnt through the budget in a week.

That's because 'arborist Sydney' bids you against every tree-removal company for residential prune-and-mulch queries. The Advertising Agent runs consulting-specific ad groups ('arborist report [council]', 'AS4970 TPZ plan', 'expert witness arborist') with hard negatives on 'cheap', 'pruning', 'removal' and 'stump'. CPC is higher per click but the conversion rate to a $1,400 report brief is on a different planet.

Can I cancel if it isn't working?

Two taps, any time, no exit fees and no notice period. You keep your imported site, your council pages, the credentials bar, the consulting service pages and the Google Business profile work. There is no $3.5k-a-month agency lock-in and there is no six-month minimum.