The method
Five phases. No mystery in between.
Every engagement — one-off or retainer — runs through the same five phases. Here's what actually happens in each one, and when you'll hear from us.
- 01
Audit
We start by finding out what's actually true about your site: crawl data, Search Console, analytics, and, for retainers, a look at what's already been tried. No recommendations before this step — you can't prioritise what you haven't measured.
- 02
Plan
Findings get turned into a prioritised plan: what moves first, what depends on what, and a realistic timeline. You see this plan before any billable work runs against it.
- 03
Build
The work itself — technical fixes, content, listings, links, campaigns, whichever service you've bought. Built by the consultant who scoped it, not handed off to someone new.
- 04
Measure
Rankings, traffic, and conversions are tracked against the plan, alongside the specific metrics that matter for your service — indexation coverage for e-commerce, per-placement data for links, per-language splits for international — not a single vague "visibility" number.
- 05
Report
You get a report that says what happened, in plain language, on a schedule you know in advance — monthly for retainers, at delivery for one-off work.
What actually changes, month by month
- Audit and plan are complete; you've seen and approved the prioritised roadmap.
- The first round of build work is underway — the highest-impact items first.
- You've had at least one direct conversation with the consultant doing the work, not a project manager relaying it.
- The initial roadmap is substantially built; measurement has real data behind it, not just a baseline.
- The minimum term on any retainer ends here — you decide whether to continue, on the evidence in your reports so far.
- Reporting has settled into its normal monthly rhythm.
- Most SEO work is now compounding — this is typically when organic movement becomes clearly attributable to specific changes, not general noise.
- The roadmap gets revisited: what's working gets more attention, what isn't gets cut or changed.
- If you started with an audit, this is usually where clients who continued into a retainer see the clearest link between the original findings and what's actually moved.
What you actually get sent, and how often
Retainers get a written monthly report — what changed, what moved, what's next — not a dashboard login you have to interpret yourself. One-off deliverables get their report at handover, structured the same way a survey document is: evidence, then recommendation. We work from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and a standard SEO crawler and rank-tracking toolset — nothing proprietary, nothing you're locked into if you ever leave.
What's included in every retainer
- A named senior consultant — the same person for the life of the engagement.
- A written monthly report, not a dashboard you have to log into and interpret alone.
- A response within one business day to any question about your account.
- A prioritised roadmap you've seen and agreed to before billable work starts against it.
- Clear notice terms if you ever want to stop — 3-month minimum, then 30 days' written notice.
Not included in every retainer: ad spend (Google Ads packages only — billed directly by Google), and any implementation work that needs access only your own team or developer holds — we'll flag that specifically, service by service, if it applies to you.