Thinking out loud
about search.
Practical SEO thinking. No jargon soup, no recycled advice. Just what I've learned from fifteen years in the trenches.
How to Hire an SEO Consultant: What to Look For and What to Avoid
What to look for when hiring an SEO consultant, the red flags to avoid, and the questions you should ask before signing anything.
Read article →SEO Freelancer vs Agency: Which Is Right for Your Business?
An honest comparison of hiring a freelancer versus an agency for SEO. When each model works, cost differences, and accountability.
Read article →E-E-A-T for Financial Services: Building Trust Signals Google Demands
How financial services firms can build E-E-A-T signals that satisfy Google’s quality requirements for YMYL content.
Read article →Orphan Pages: What They Are, Why They Hurt SEO, and How to Fix Them
How to find and fix orphan pages with internal linking audits, crawl analysis, and practical strategies for page discovery.
Read article →Alt Tags for SEO: How to Write Alt Text That Helps Rankings and Accessibility
Image optimisation best practices, keyword usage, and the alt attribute mistakes that harm both rankings and usability.
Read article →SEO for Construction Companies: How to Win Local Enquiries
Local visibility, service page strategy, and the digital marketing fundamentals that generate enquiries for building contractors.
Read article →Does Web Hosting Affect SEO? What You Need to Know
How web hosting affects SEO performance, server speed, uptime, and the decisions that influence Core Web Vitals.
Read article →How to Write SEO Content Briefs That Produce Better Content
Structure, keyword targets, competitor analysis, and the elements that separate useful briefs from generic templates.
Read article →What Does an SEO Strategist Actually Do?
The role, skills, and when your business needs strategic SEO guidance rather than just technical fixes.
Read article →Pagination and SEO: How to Handle Paginated Content Without Losing Rankings
Crawl budget management, indexation strategy, and the technical implementation details for paginated content.
Read article →Which CMS Is Best for SEO?
A comparison of WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and custom builds from a technical SEO perspective.
Read article →SEO for New Websites: How to Get Found From Day One
How to launch a new website with SEO built in from day one, covering technical foundations and content strategy.
Read article →SEO for Startups: Where to Invest When Everything Is Competing for Budget
Where to invest limited budgets, what to prioritise first, and the common mistakes that waste time and money.
Read article →Website Copywriting: How to Write Pages That Rank and Convert
How website copywriting drives SEO and conversions. Writing for search intent and structuring commercial pages.
Read article →Off-Page SEO: What It Is and Why It Still Matters
What off-page SEO involves beyond link building. Backlink strategy, digital PR, and the off-site factors that influence rankings.
Read article →E-Commerce SEO: A Practical Guide for Online Stores
Product page optimisation, category structure, faceted navigation, and the technical challenges unique to online stores.
Read article →What Does a Good SEO Report Look Like?
What a good SEO report should contain, sample formats, and how to tell whether your consultant is reporting on things that matter.
Read article →Meta Tags for SEO: Which Ones Actually Matter?
Which meta tags matter for SEO and which are irrelevant. A practical guide to descriptions, robots tags, and Open Graph.
Read article →Title Tags for SEO: How to Write Titles That Rank and Get Clicked
How to write title tags that improve rankings and click-through rates. Length, format, and keyword placement.
Read article →SEO Redirects: The Complete Guide to 301s, 302s, and Redirect Chains
A practical guide to SEO redirects and the common mistakes that damage rankings and waste crawl budget.
Read article →Wix SEO: Can You Actually Rank on Wix?
An honest assessment of Wix’s SEO capabilities, limitations, and workarounds from a technical SEO perspective.
Read article →Website Structure for SEO: Building a Site That Search Engines Love
How website structure affects SEO. Internal linking architecture, crawl depth, and siloing strategies.
Read article →URL Structure for SEO: Best Practices That Actually Matter
How URL structure affects SEO performance. Formatting, hierarchy, parameters, and crawling implications.
Read article →Canonical URLs: How to Use Rel=Canonical Without Breaking Your SEO
How canonical tags work, when to use them, and the common implementation mistakes that cause duplicate content.
Read article →How Much Does SEO Cost in the UK?
A transparent breakdown of freelance, agency, and in-house SEO pricing with guidance on what you should expect to pay.
Read article →Local SEO: How to Rank in Your Area and Win Local Customers
How local SEO works and how to improve your local search visibility. Google Business Profile, citations, and reviews.
Read article →On-Page SEO: The Complete Guide to Optimising Your Content
Title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, internal linking, and content optimisation for better rankings.
Read article →Subdomains vs Subdirectories for SEO: Which Structure Actually Wins?
Subdomains vs subdirectories: which structure performs better? A practical guide to subdomain strategy.
Read article →SEO Site Migrations: How to Move Your Website Without Losing Your Traffic
Planning, execution, redirects, and recovery strategies for website migrations from an SEO consultant.
Read article →Google’s WebMCP: What It Does, Why It Does It & Do You Need It?
WebMCP lets websites explicitly tell AI agents what they can do. Here’s what it is, how it works, and whether you should care about it right now.
Read article →The Primary Context Area: Why Most Writers Get It Wrong
The opening paragraph below your H1 does more work per sentence than any other section of a webpage. Here’s why most writers get it wrong, and what to do instead.
Read article →How to Optimise Your Content for LLM Citations and AI Search
What actually works for getting cited by ChatGPT, AI Overviews, and Perplexity, and what's just marketing hype.
Read article →Enhancing YMYL Content with Schema: A Practical Guide
Author schema, ReviewedBy implementation, and the common mistakes that will kick you in the goolies.
Read article →The Pillar Cluster Model Is Dead. Here’s What Replaced It.
Why hub-and-spoke content clusters are failing, and how intent-based silos are outperforming them.
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