How it works
How it works: eight steps from the free check to the month-twelve review
Our SEO process runs in a fixed order because Google notices things in a fixed order: a free check before you pay anything, a one-page proposal with three dates in it, technical fixes and the profile in week one, one page a month from your own query data, mentions from month two, a two-page report every month, and a written judgement at month six. Every step below has three parts: what happens, what you see, and where the proof is. The price of the whole thing is on the pricing page, from £399 a month.
Day 0: the free check
- What happens
- You send the site and your town and sector. We crawl it, read Search Console if you share it, check the profile and the three competitors above you, and confirm whether your town and sector are still free.
- What you see
- One email within one working day: the findings in order, the quote from the price list, and a plain answer on whether SEO, ads or neither is the right next step.
- Where the proof is
- The check is on this domain, on the free SEO check page, and about one in five ends with advice not to buy SEO yet.
Day 1: the proposal
- What happens
- One page. The tier and why, the searches we will work on by name, the first month's fixes, and three dates: month four, month six and month twelve, each with what should have happened by then.
- What you see
- A document you can hold us to, with the price from the public list and nothing added.
- Where the proof is
- The three dates are on the pricing page under how to judge it, and the tiers are the same for every business.
Week 1: technical fixes and the profile
- What happens
- Search Console's Pages report against the sitemap, PageSpeed on the busiest pages, titles for pages shown but not clicked, and the Google Business Profile's category, services and hours. Fixes go live the same week.
- What you see
- Search Console shared with your Google account. A list of what changed, in the first report.
- Where the proof is
- The air-conditioning case: 33 of 53 dropped product pages back within a week of the structural fix. The tuning case: 65 to 96 on a phone in the same week.
Weeks 2 to 4: the first page from your data
- What happens
- The query report shows what you already appear for at positions 5 to 20. The month's page is chosen from it and written after a call with you, checked by you, published with your photographs.
- What you see
- The page, live, and the query it was written for named in the report.
- Where the proof is
- The Chester account's monthly page and title adjustments are described on its case study, with the figures Google recorded.
Months 2 and 3: pages, mentions, the second report
- What happens
- One page or guide a month from the data. Two or three mentions on sites that matter in your sector: the trade body, the supplier's stockist list, the directory people use. The profile checked for drift.
- What you see
- Each mention listed in the report with its URL. Each page live with the query it targets.
- Where the proof is
- The link building page says what counts as a mention and what we will not buy; the SEO content page says how a page is chosen.
Month 4: monthly from here
- What happens
- The three-month minimum ends. The routine continues, the notice period is one month, and impressions in Search Console should be rising for the searches named in the proposal.
- What you see
- The month-four line of the proposal, checked against Search Console on your own screen.
- Where the proof is
- The minimum and the notice period are on the pricing page in the same words.
Month 6: the written judgement
- What happens
- We say in writing whether it is working, before you ask. What moved, what did not, what we would change, or whether to stop.
- What you see
- A judgement you did not have to request, with the numbers behind it.
- Where the proof is
- None of the fifteen UK SEO company websites we read in September 2026 says what happens if the work is not working. Here the answer is written into every proposal, with a date on it.
Month 12: the review
- What happens
- Enquiries you can trace to the work, against the cost of it, and the plan for the second year: the next area, the next product line, or holding steady and protecting what earns.
- What you see
- The year in two pages, with the multiple against the fee from your own enquiry log.
- Where the proof is
- The SEO ROI calculator shows the break-even number of enquiries; the month-twelve review is read against it.
The case studies named above are on the results page, each with the source and the caveat for every figure. The week-by-week version of a single month is on the SEO services page.
When it goes wrong
What can fail at each step, and what we do about it
A process that only describes the good case is a brochure. These are the failures we have actually met, and the response written into the routine for each.
| Stage | What can go wrong | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| The free check | The site is a builder that locks titles and pages, so nothing can be fixed in place | Say so before any money changes hands; quote a rebuild separately from £599 and let you decide |
| Week 1 | Google has dropped a third of the pages, and every other finding is irrelevant until they are back | Defer everything else; fix the structure; resubmit; report the exact number restored, not a rounder one |
| The first page | The owner cannot spare the fifteen minutes, so the page would be written from guesswork | Wait. A page written without the conversation does not rank, and we would rather publish nothing that month than that |
| Mentions | The only mentions on offer are paid placements and link packages | Decline them all. A bought link is a policy breach we have cleaned up after, and it is the commonest cause of a one-week rankings collapse |
| Month 4 | Impressions are flat for the named searches | Say so in the report with the reason: usually the wrong searches, a competitor with far more reviews, or a technical problem that returned. Change the plan in writing |
| Month 6 | It is not working | Write the judgement before you ask, with what we would change or the recommendation to stop. A retainer that continues on hope is the pattern we exist to be different from |
What we need from you
Five things, most of them once
- Access to Search Console, Analytics and the Google Business Profile in week one; we create them if they do not exist
- Fifteen minutes a month on the phone about the work you want more of: what the job involves, what changes the price, what customers ask first
- Photographs of your business and your work, because stock photographs rank nowhere and convince nobody
- A note of where each enquiry came from, so the only number that pays the invoice can be counted
- Asking customers for reviews with the wording we give you, never gated and never incentivised
Leaving
What you keep if you go
Everything. The pages are on your site. The profile is in your Google account. The Search Console property was shared with you in week one and stays yours. The reports are in your inbox. There is no dashboard to lose access to, no content held on our servers, and no rewrite to undo. A month's notice from month four, and the last report says what we would do next so whoever follows can carry on.
The reasons to choose us over the alternatives, with the proof for each on the same line, are on the why us page. The person doing all of the above is on the about page.
Questions about the process
How much of my time does it take?
About fifteen minutes a month on the phone, plus reading a two-page report. Month one needs an hour: access to Search Console, Analytics and the profile, and a conversation about the work you want more of. Photographs are the one thing only you can supply, and we ask for them in week one.
What if the free check says not to buy SEO?
Then the email says so and why: the searches do not exist, the site needs replacing first, or Google Ads is the right answer for the timescale. About one in five checks ends that way. There is no retainer to sell you into, and the check is still yours to act on.
Can we see what you are doing while you do it?
Yes. Search Console is shared with your Google account in week one, so every number in the report can be checked against Google's own screen, and every page change is live on your site with your photographs after you have read it. There is no dashboard of our own, because a dashboard between you and the data is where numbers get flattered.
What happens at month six if it is not working?
You get a written judgement from us before you have to ask for one: what has moved in Search Console, what has not, what we would change, or whether to stop. Stopping is a month's notice from month four, and you keep every page, the profile, the property and the reports.
Step one is free and takes a form
Send the address and your sector. The findings, the quote and the confirmation that your town and sector are free come back within one working day, and the eight steps above start only if you say so.