Service 01 · SEO Strategist

The work I'm known for.

I own the SEO outcome — strategy, roadmap, measurement, audit — while execution runs through your team, your agency, or a freelancer I help you source. Senior thinking without paying agency rates for junior execution.

Why this service exists

Most SEO engagements are built around execution. You pay an agency, they put a junior on the account, and someone runs keyword research, publishes content, and sends you a monthly report.

This isn't that. You get me — strategy, direction, audit, and answers — for a small fraction of what a full-time senior SEO would cost. Execution runs through the right people for the job, not through me.

Who does what

The work I own. The work you own.

Clarity from day one. I don't want ambiguity about who's responsible for what, and neither do you. Here's the split for a typical engagement.

— The work I own

Strategy, direction, and the hard calls.

  • Technical and content audit at engagement start
  • Keyword and topic strategy aligned to your ICP and revenue
  • Quarterly roadmap and prioritisation
  • Competitive intelligence and positioning calls
  • Content brief review and direction
  • Measurement framework and reporting cadence
  • Monthly strategy calls with you or your team
  • Anything escalated that needs senior judgement
— Where execution runs

Your team, your agency, or a freelancer I help source.

  • Content production and publishing
  • On-page implementation and technical fixes
  • Link building and outreach
  • Site migrations and deployments
  • Analytics setup and tag management
  • Day-to-day keyword tracking
  • Creative assets and design work
  • Anything that needs hands-on-keyboard time
How the engagement runs

Month one is different. Everything after is rhythm.

The first month is intensive — I audit where you are and build the strategy. From there, the engagement settles into a quarterly rhythm with monthly check-ins and day-to-day availability.

Week 01–02

Audit

Technical health, content inventory, keyword coverage, competitors, analytics setup.

Week 03–04

Strategy

Priority ICPs, topic clusters, measurement framework, 90-day roadmap.

Month 02–03

Execute

Your team runs the roadmap. I review, unblock, and course-correct.

Quarter-end

Review

Performance review, roadmap refresh, priorities reset for the next quarter.

Ongoing

Available

Slack, email, monthly calls. I'm reachable the same day for anything urgent.

What shows up

Concrete deliverables. No vague retainers.

You'll know exactly what you're paying for because it arrives in your inbox, your drive, or your Slack on a predictable schedule.

— 01

Audit document

A written audit at engagement start. Technical, content, and competitive. Plain English, with the priorities ranked by expected impact.

— 02

Quarterly roadmap

A written 90-day plan, scoped to what your team can realistically execute. Refreshed every quarter based on results.

— 03

Monthly calls

Strategy call each month with you, your team, or both. Agenda driven by what's moving and what's not.

— 04

Brief and content review

I review content briefs and drafts. Not to edit them — to keep strategy intact and flag when something's off-target.

— 05

Ongoing availability

Slack or email. Same-day response for anything urgent. This is what separates a strategist from a monthly report.

— 06

Quarterly review report

A written end-of-quarter review. What moved, what didn't, what I'd change for next quarter. Board-ready.

Pricing

Two-part structure. Transparent from the start.

The audit is a fixed project fee. The retainer is quarterly. No long-term lock-ins — every quarter is a new decision for both of us.

— Month 01 audit
One-time project fee

Covers the audit, strategy, and initial 90-day roadmap. Priced to the scope of your site and current setup.

— Ongoing retainer
Quarterly retainer

Covers monthly strategy calls, roadmap refresh, brief and content review, and ongoing availability. Renewed each quarter.

Honest answers

Questions I get. And how I actually answer them.

The things prospects ask on the first call, answered in advance so you don't have to.

We already have an SEO agency. Why would we add you?

Often that's exactly the right setup. Your agency handles execution — content, links, technical fixes — and I own the strategic direction they're executing against.

The practical test: is your agency telling you what to do, or just doing what they're told? If it's the first, you probably don't need me. If it's the second, I'm the missing layer.

How is this different from hiring a full-time senior SEO?

A senior in-house SEO in the UK or US will cost you £90–150k fully loaded. If you need 40 hours a week of SEO work, hire one. If you need 5–10 hours of senior thinking plus execution handled elsewhere, I'm a better fit.

What if I don't have a team to execute?

That's fine. I help you find the right freelancer or agency for the execution work, and I manage the relationship so you're not doing vendor management on top of everything else. My Content Engine service covers content specifically if that's your biggest gap.

Do you take on clients in every industry?

No. I work with B2B and SaaS companies, mostly in software, fintech, and services. I won't take on ecommerce, adult content, gambling, or anything where the SEO playbook I know isn't going to apply.

What if this isn't working after 90 days?

The retainer is quarterly for a reason. If the first quarter hasn't produced what we agreed it would, we have a direct conversation, and either the engagement ends or we fix what's wrong. No long-term lock-ins, no escape clauses, no awkward renewals.

Do you write the content yourself?

No. I review briefs and drafts and direct the strategy, but I don't write. Writing at scale is execution work, and as I mentioned at the top of this page — that's not what I do. If writing is the thing you need, the Content Engine service is built for exactly that.

Next step

Let's see if we're a fit.

One conversation. No pitch deck. By the end of it, we'll both know whether this is worth building on.