01 The pitch

The money in SEO is in the strategy, not the execution. The strategy decides what gets worked on, in what order, for which outcome. Everything else is labor.

I sit above your execution layer. Your team, agency, or freelancers do the work. I decide what the work should be, review what comes out, and own whether SEO is actually moving your business — not just your traffic.

02 The rhythm

Set the strategy once. Adjust every quarter.

SEO strategy doesn't need weekly check-ins. Search behavior changes slowly. Algorithm shifts are monthly at most. A quarterly rhythm matches the real pace of the work — and costs you a fraction of what an agency retainer would.

MONTH 01 · AUDIT
Audit & strategy build
Technical audit, content and keyword audit, competitor map, and a 12-month strategy document with priorities ranked by impact.
Q1 · REVIEW
First quarterly
Review what shipped, what moved, what didn't. Adjust priorities for Q2.
Q2 · REVIEW
Mid-year adjust
Recalibrate against six months of data. Surface what's working, kill what isn't.
Q3 · REVIEW
Q3 priorities
Tune the plan for the last third of the year. Push into any openings the data has revealed.
Q4 · REVIEW
Year-end & replan
Full-year review. Rebuild next year's strategy on what actually produced results.
Setup — one-off Quarterly retainer — ongoing
03 Who does what

I own the strategy. You own the execution.

The clearer the split, the better this works. Here's what I'll do — and what I'll need you or your team, agency, or freelancers to handle.

— I do this
  • Technical, content, and keyword audit
  • Competitor and topic-gap analysis
  • 12-month SEO strategy with ranked priorities
  • Quarterly review and re-planning
  • Review drafts, briefs, and technical fixes before they ship
  • Direct access via Slack or email between quarters
  • Accountability for whether SEO is moving your business
— You do this
  • Execute the work through your team, agency, or freelancers
  • Implement technical fixes on the site
  • Write and publish content (or have someone who can)
  • Give me access to analytics, Search Console, and your CMS
  • Make decisions I can't make for you — product, positioning, priorities
  • Tell me when something upstream changes (product, pricing, ICP)
04 Who this is for

The Strategist role works best for a specific kind of company.

This is a fit if

  • You have (or will have) people who can execute — in-house, freelance, or agency
  • You've outgrown the founder doing SEO on nights and weekends
  • You're already paying an agency but suspect you're getting juniors and templates
  • You want senior strategic thinking without agency retainer prices
  • You can handle clarity: I will tell you what's not working, and you want to hear it

Not a fit if

  • You need someone to actually do the SEO work — look at Content Engine or a full agency
  • You want weekly touchpoints and detailed reporting rituals
  • You have no one to execute, and aren't willing to hire or contract anyone
  • You want SEO "done for you" end-to-end with no involvement
  • Your company's problem isn't strategy — it's a product or positioning issue
05 Honest answers

Three things people ask me before they sign anything.

"We just had an audit done — do we really need another one?"

Probably, yes — but for a different reason. Most audits are technical checklists: a list of 200 things the auditor's tool flagged, ranked by severity, with no strategic layer on top. They're useful if you want to know what's broken. They don't tell you what to work on.

My audit is different in shape: it asks what your business is actually trying to do, then works backwards from there. If you already have a recent technical audit, I'll use it as input and save us both the overlap. I'd rather spend that time on strategy than redo work.

"What if my team or agency doesn't do what you recommend?"

That happens, and it's not always wrong — sometimes the team has context I don't. What I won't accept is the strategy getting ignored without a conversation. When I review work and something's off, I say so. If it keeps happening, we talk about whether the execution layer is the right one.

Part of my job is telling you when the people doing the work aren't the right people to do it. That's not comfortable, but it's the honest version of what you're paying me for.

"Three months between check-ins feels like a lot. What if something breaks?"

Quarterly is the planning cadence, not the communication cadence. Between quarters you have Slack and email access — not for daily babysitting, but for the real stuff: "we're launching a new product line, does the strategy change?" or "traffic just dropped 20%, what do we do?"

If something legitimately breaks, I'm reachable. If nothing is breaking, we save both of our time by not scheduling a weekly call to discuss it.

06 Pricing

Two parts. Audit once, review quarterly.

A fixed fee for the initial audit and strategy build. A quarterly retainer for ongoing review and adjustment. No weekly meeting fees, no hidden hours, no lock-in beyond the first quarter.

— Part 01

Audit & strategy

from$7,500
/ £6,000 · one-time

Four to six weeks of strategic work. Technical audit, content and keyword audit, competitor and topic-gap analysis, and a 12-month strategy document with priorities ranked by impact.

This is where most of the thinking lives. Get this right, and the quarterly rhythm more or less runs itself.

— Part 02

Quarterly retainer

from$4,500
/ £3,600 · per quarter

Every three months: review of what shipped, what moved, what didn't. Revised priorities for the next quarter. Between quarters, you have Slack or email access for anything that can't wait.

One-quarter minimum commitment. Cancel with 30 days' notice after that. No long-term lock-in.

Pricing shown is a starting point, not a fixed quote. Final numbers depend on company size, current SEO complexity, and scope. I'll quote properly once we've talked.

07 Start here

Let's see if you need a strategist or a contractor.

One conversation. I'll tell you honestly whether the Strategist role is what you need, or whether Content Engine, Fractional CMO, or hiring an agency would actually be the better call.