Guides
SEO guides, written from real work
Practical notes on SEO and building websites that get found: technical SEO, local SEO, ecommerce, and working with agencies. No filler, just the thinking I use with clients.
Technical SEO
Crawl budget: who actually needs to care
What crawl budget really is, Google's own thresholds for when it matters, how to tell if your site has a crawl problem, and what moves it. Most sites can relax.
How much does an SEO audit cost?
What an SEO audit costs in the UK, what drives the price up or down, what a cheap audit leaves out, and how to judge whether a quote represents value.
How to show up in AI search: GEO for normal businesses
What GEO actually involves, how AI assistants choose their sources, why most of it is SEO you already know, and an honest verdict on llms.txt.
Redirects done properly: 301s, chains, and migrations
Updated
Which redirect type to use and when, why chains quietly leak equity, how long to keep redirects, and the mistakes that turn moves into traffic drops.
Schema markup in plain terms: what to add and what to skip
Updated
What schema markup actually does, which types still earn rich results in 2026 after Google's three-year cull, and which ones you can safely skip.
Does JavaScript hurt SEO? Frameworks, rendering, and what Google sees
Updated
Whether JavaScript hurts SEO in 2026, how Google renders it, why AI crawlers can't, and the rendering choices that keep framework sites visible in search.
Website migration SEO checklist: keep your rankings through a rebuild
Updated
A working website migration SEO checklist from someone who has run and rescued dozens of them: what to do before, during, and after launch, in order.
How to choose an SEO consultant without getting burned
Updated
The questions that expose a weak SEO consultant in ten minutes, the red flags that predict a wasted year, and what good actually looks like.
The technical SEO checklist I actually use
Updated
A working technical SEO checklist from real audits, ordered by what breaks rankings most often, not a 200-point list of everything that can be measured.
What a technical SEO audit covers (and what a good one leaves out)
Updated
What a technical SEO audit actually covers, what the deliverable should look like, and how to tell a real audit from an automated export with a logo.
What is technical SEO, in plain terms
What technical SEO is, what it includes, and why it's usually the cheapest ranking gain available, explained in plain English by a ten-year practitioner.
Core Web Vitals explained for non-developers
What Core Web Vitals actually measure, the thresholds that count as good, and what to do when your scores are red, explained without the jargon.
Local SEO
SEO or paid ads first? A small-budget answer
An honest answer to the SEO vs PPC question for small budgets: what UK clicks cost, how long SEO takes to pay back, and the sequencing that gets you both.
Multi-location SEO: getting every branch found in its own town
How multi-location SEO actually works: one profile and one page per branch, what to centralise, what each location must own, and how to measure any of it.
SEO packages for small business: what's inside one, and what's fair to pay
What a legitimate small business SEO package contains, what the UK market charges, the red flags in cheap packages, and how to judge whether a quote is fair.
Reviews and local rankings: velocity, replies, and staying ethical
Updated
How Google reviews move local rankings in 2026, why a steady trickle beats a burst, what replies actually do, and where UK law now draws the line.
Local landing pages that rank, without ten versions of the same page
Updated
How to build local landing pages that actually rank: what separates a real local page from a doorway page, and which towns deserve one.
Google Business Profile optimisation, the parts that matter
Updated
A practitioner's guide to Google Business Profile optimisation: which parts move the map pack, which are cosmetic, and where your time is best spent.
What is local SEO, and who actually needs it
Updated
What local SEO is, how it differs from normal SEO, who needs it and who doesn't, explained plainly by a consultant who does both kinds.
Local SEO best practices that still work in 2026
The local SEO best practices that actually move map-pack rankings in 2026: profile depth, review velocity, local pages, and the habits that compound.
SEO for small business: where a limited budget actually goes furthest
An honest guide to SEO for small businesses: what to do yourself, what to pay for, and what to ignore, from a consultant who sees both ends.
Ecommerce
Ecommerce replatforming without losing organic revenue
How to move an ecommerce site to a new platform without losing the organic traffic that pays for it: URL mapping, redirects, sequencing, and what to watch after launch.
Faceted navigation: ecommerce's biggest index bloat machine
Updated
How faceted navigation multiplies one category into millions of URLs, which filter pages deserve to exist, and how Google says to handle the rest.
Product page SEO: winning the long tail your categories can't reach
Updated
Product page SEO in practice: titles that match real searches, descriptions worth writing, and the structured data that earns rich results.
Category page SEO: the highest-leverage template on your store
Updated
Category page SEO in practice: mapping every category to a real query, opening copy that earns its place, and the structure that lifts a whole catalogue.
An ecommerce SEO strategy that compounds
Updated
A working ecommerce SEO strategy: category pages first, technical fixes that lift the whole catalogue, and content that supports the money pages.
Shopify SEO: the practical guide
Updated
What actually moves organic traffic on Shopify: collection pages, the constraints that matter, the ones that don't, and the app-stack habits that hurt.
White-label
Fractional SEO: what it is and when it beats an agency
What fractional SEO actually means, what senior part-time ownership looks like in practice, and when it beats an agency retainer or a full-time hire.
Selling SEO you don't deliver in-house: positioning for agency owners
How to position and sell SEO your agency doesn't deliver in-house: the honest framing, the pitch, and the answer when a client asks who does the work.
How agencies should QA white-label work
A practical QA routine for agencies buying white-label SEO: what to check, how to check it without in-house expertise, and the red flags that matter.
What agencies actually receive: inside a white-label SEO report
A section-by-section walkthrough of a monthly white-label SEO report: what agencies can hand straight to their client, and what stays internal.
White-label SEO pricing: how much to mark it up, and how the margins actually work
Updated
White-label SEO pricing from the delivery side: the engagement models, how much agencies should mark up, what the margin has to pay for, and where it quietly collapses.
Freelancer, white-label partner, or hire: an honest guide for agencies
Updated
Freelancer, white-label SEO partner, or in-house hire? An honest comparison for agencies: cost, continuity, brand risk, and when each one fits.
How does white-label SEO work? The mechanics, honestly explained
Updated
How white-label SEO actually works day to day: the workflow, the boundaries, the NDAs, and the questions agencies should ask before choosing a partner.
White-label web development, explained for agencies
Updated
How white-label web development works: senior Webflow and Next.js builds under your agency's brand, with handover and boundaries done properly.
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