A Guide for Agencies, Designers, and Businesses

How SEO Really Works

If you're an agency looking to offer SEO services, a designer working alongside an SEO specialist, or a business considering investing in SEO, this guide will give you an honest, no-nonsense look at how search engine optimisation actually works in practice.

After 20 years in this industry, I've had countless conversations with agencies, designers, and business owners who have fundamental misconceptions about SEO. This guide addresses the most common ones and explains why SEO requires proper investment, collaboration, and patience to deliver real results.

The Fundamentals

What SEO Really Involves

It's Not What Most People Think

The most common misconception I encounter is that SEO is a simple, predictable activity. Clients and agencies often assume it means writing a blog post occasionally, adding some keywords to existing copy, and watching the traffic roll in.

The reality is quite different. SEO permeates through everything on a website:

The efficiency of how the site was coded

URL structures

The names and alt text of images

Whether images are original or stock

How internal links are placed and structured

Page load speed and technical performance

The elements present on each page (testimonials, case studies, calls to action)

Heading hierarchy and content structure

Schema markup and metadata

SEO and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) go hand in hand. The most important metric is user satisfaction, and due to Google's E-E-A-T requirements (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), we can't ignore elements that build trust and demonstrate credibility.

Most pages that rank well include case studies demonstrating real results, testimonials from satisfied customers, awards and qualifications, strong calls to action, information about what people can expect and who they're working with, and contact information prominently displayed.

If your existing pages lack these elements, they'll need to be added. This isn't about redesigning for the sake of it - it's about including the necessary elements that Google and users expect to see.

Content Strategy

Content Length Is Dictated to Us

A common pushback I receive, particularly from designers, is that pages have "too much content" or require "too much scrolling." The concern is understandable from a pure design perspective, but it misunderstands how modern SEO works.

Content length isn't guesswork or personal preference. There are tools that allow us to scientifically analyse exactly what's required to rank for any given keyword. These tools examine the top-ranking pages and tell us the word count we need, keyword density requirements, where specific terms need to be placed, and what elements and topics must be covered.

If my analysis shows that competing pages have 3,000 words of well-structured content, and my client's page has 200 words, there's a significant deficit that needs addressing.

Design Note

The good news is that design techniques can accommodate comprehensive content without endless scrolling. Accordion sections, tabs, and expandable areas can house the content that search engines need while keeping the visual experience clean for users. I use this technique on my own website - pages contain thousands of words that are organised into collapsible sections.

User Intent Determines Everything

What belongs on a page depends entirely on what the searcher is trying to accomplish.

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Transactional

If the search query is "house builders Liverpool," the user wants to find house builders in Liverpool. They need to see services, credentials, examples of work, and ways to get in touch.

🧮

Informational

If the search query is "how much does it cost to build a house," the user wants information. They probably expect to see a calculator, tables with example costs, case studies with real figures, and explanations of variables that affect price.

⚖️

Investigation

If the search query is "best architects in Manchester," the user wants comparisons and reviews. They're further along in their decision-making process and want to evaluate options.

The search results themselves are the answer to the question being asked of Google. Our job is to present the most correct and comprehensive answer that satisfies that user intent. The important thing with modern SEO is that none of this is guesswork - we can analyse exactly what's working and reverse engineer it.

Architecture

How Websites Are Structured for SEO

The Different Types of Pages

From an SEO perspective, a website is made up of several distinct page types:

Core Pages

Your home, about, contact, and other fundamental pages that every website needs.

Service Pages

Explain what you offer and target people searching for those specific services.

Sector Pages

Target specific industries or customer types you serve - essentially, who you offer your services to.

Supporting Content

Blogs, resources, guides, and informational content that builds topical authority and captures informational search queries.

Local Pages combine service and location. If you're a house builder in Liverpool, you need a page targeting "house builders Liverpool" specifically.

We need to ensure there's an existing page for each of these, and that those pages are structured to perform well in search. Once we have solid templates for each page type, they can be cloned every time we need to target a new keyword topic.

One Page = One Keyword Topic

One of the concepts that confuses clients most is the relationship between SEO landing pages and their main website.

Think of it this way: you need a horse in the race for every keyword topic you want to compete for. One page equals one keyword topic.

If you want to rank for "house builders Liverpool," you need a dedicated page targeting that phrase. If you also want to rank for "extension builders Formby," that's a separate page. And "luxury home construction Merseyside" would be another.

These aren't variations of the same page - they're distinct pages, each optimised for a specific search term and the user intent behind it.

SEO Landing Pages Don't Appear in Your Menu

Here's where it gets clearer: SEO landing pages typically don't appear in your website navigation.

Your main menu contains your core pages, service pages, and perhaps sector pages. But the location-specific and keyword-specific landing pages sit outside this structure. Users don't find them by browsing your site - they find them through Google.

If someone searches for your company name directly, they'll land on your homepage. The website looks and functions exactly as it always has.

But if someone searches for "extension builders Liverpool," they'll land on the dedicated SEO landing page you've built for that term. From there, they'll either get in touch directly from that page, or click the menu and navigate to the rest of your website.

Once they click into your main navigation, the rest of the user journey is exactly as it would be for any other visitor. The SEO landing page won't appear in the menu, so unless they click the back button, they'll experience your website normally.

I use this approach on my own website. My homepage targets my local area, but I have dedicated pages for other locations I serve like Chester, Liverpool, and Manchester. None of these location pages appear in my main navigation - they exist purely to capture search traffic from those areas.

This distinction is important for business owners to understand: implementing SEO landing pages doesn't change your existing website for people who already know you. If an existing client visits your site directly, or someone searches for your company name, they see your homepage. Everything looks the same. Your brand, your design, your carefully crafted messaging - all untouched. The SEO landing pages are additional pages that capture new traffic from people searching for your services. They're an expansion of your website's reach, not a replacement for what you already have.

Analysis

Understanding Your Competition

Search Competitors vs Business Competitors

Here's a concept that often causes confusion: your search competitors aren't necessarily your business competitors.

When I analyse a client's competitive landscape for SEO, I'm looking at who ranks well for the keywords we want to target. These might be completely different businesses from the ones you consider your direct competitors.

For example, if you're a high-end house builder, you might consider other luxury builders as your competitors. But when someone searches "house builders Liverpool," the top results might include mid-range builders, national chains, or directory sites. From an SEO perspective, these are your competitors because they're the ones you need to outrank.

This matters because when I show you a competitor's page as an example of what we need to match or exceed, it's not a comment on their business quality. It's simply acknowledging that Google has decided their page best answers that particular search query, and we need to understand why.

Google Shows Us What It Prefers

The search results are essentially Google showing us exactly what it wants to see for any given query.

If I compare your service page to the pages that rank well for your target keywords, and those ranking pages are more comprehensive with more elements and more content, then Google is telling us there's a deficit we need to address.

We have to achieve consensus with what Google is looking for. If we're significantly different from what's ranking, we don't have that consensus, and we won't rank.

This isn't about copying competitors. It's about understanding the minimum requirements Google has established for any page to compete for a particular search term.

The Gap Analysis

SEO is about understanding what's actually working in your industry and reverse engineering your competitors' success.

If your competitors have 300 pages of quality content and you have 5, there's a deficit of 295 pages you need to build. If they have 50 quality backlinks and you have 5, you need to build 45 of the same type. This gap analysis during the initial investigation is what determines the true scope and price of any campaign.

There's also a velocity factor. You can't do everything in one hit - it has to be done naturally and gradually. Publishing too many pages at once can trigger parts of Google's algorithm that flag unnatural growth. The trick is to build gradually but in a linear fashion. I typically aim for 5 to 10 new pages in the first four weeks, but the exact number depends on thorough keyword research.

And remember: your competitors aren't standing still either. They're continuing to build while you're catching up.

Off-Page SEO

The Truth About Backlinks

What Makes a Good Backlink?

Backlinks remain one of the most misunderstood aspects of SEO.

Here's something that surprises most people: a link from the BBC might be worth less than a link from a small niche blog.

What determines a good backlink isn't how prestigious the website looks or how recognisable the brand is. It's the authority built into the specific page the link appears on.

Google measures this through PageRank, but they no longer publicly report it because doing so allowed people to game the system. This gave rise to third-party tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, Majestic, and Moz, which all developed their own metrics. None of these are perfectly accurate - they're educated guesses at what the real PageRank might be.

To give you a concrete example: a link on the BBC with a URL Rating of 0 is less valuable than a link on a small magazine blog with a URL Rating of 4. The higher-rated page passes "link equity" to your website. The BBC link, despite being on a prestigious domain, passes nothing.

This is completely counterintuitive, and it's the number one thing clients question when I explain it.

SEO Is Not Digital PR

The goal of SEO is to draw traffic from search engines, not from the websites linking to you.

The purpose of backlinks is to pass the link equity that allows your site to rank higher in search results. We're not building links so that people click them and visit your site from those external pages. We're building links because they signal to Google that your site has authority and deserves to rank higher.

This distinction matters because it explains why a link from an obscure but authoritative page is more valuable than a link from a high-profile page with no authority. The traffic comes from Google, not from the links themselves.

The Cost Reality

The people who own authoritative websites know exactly what they're doing, and they charge accordingly. The backlinking world is a trillion-dollar industry.

There are many ways to acquire backlinks, but when you reach out to website owners, they almost always want payment. And not all links are equal - many are completely worthless.

This is why even £550 per month doesn't go very far, and why there's a significant price difference between local SEO, national SEO, and e-commerce SEO. Every single commercial page on a website needs backlinks - how many depends entirely on your competition.

Finding quality backlinks takes time and money. There's no shortcut.

Semantic & AI

Modern SEO: Semantic SEO and GEO

SEO has evolved significantly from the days of simply adding keywords to a page. Today, success requires understanding Semantic SEO.

Semantic SEO focuses on building topical authority through interconnected content that demonstrates genuine expertise. Search engines now understand context, relationships between topics, and user intent far more sophisticatedly than they used to.

Rather than targeting individual keywords in isolation, we build clusters of content around topics. A page about "house extensions" might be supported by related content about planning permission, extension costs, types of extensions, the extension process, and case studies. This web of interconnected, comprehensive content signals to Google that you're an authority on the topic.

Beyond traditional SEO, we now also need to consider Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) - optimising content for AI-powered search experiences.

Google's AI Overviews and other generative search tools are changing how people find and consume information. Content needs to be structured in ways that these AI systems can easily parse and potentially feature in their responses.

This doesn't replace traditional SEO - it builds on it. The fundamentals of quality content, proper structure, and demonstrated expertise remain essential. But the way that content is organised and presented now needs to account for how AI systems process information.

If you're talking to clients about SEO without understanding these concepts, you're selling something you don't fully grasp.

Collaboration

Working With Designers

The Collaboration Challenge

One of the most common friction points I encounter is between SEO requirements and design preferences.

Designers, quite reasonably, want pages to look clean, uncluttered, and on-brand. They've carefully crafted a visual experience and are understandably protective of it.

SEO specialists, meanwhile, need to include elements that might feel like they compromise that clean design: more text, additional sections, testimonials, case studies, and calls to action.

The key to navigating this is understanding that we're both working toward the same goal: a website that performs well. A beautiful website that no one finds is just as problematic as an ugly website that ranks well but doesn't convert.

Finding the Balance

The solution isn't for one side to override the other. It's collaboration.

I'm not a designer - my job is to make pages perform well in search. I can add the necessary elements, but a designer can then apply their expertise to make those elements work within the brand guidelines.

Content can be hidden behind tabs and accordions. Testimonials can be styled to match the visual language. Case studies can be presented in ways that feel premium rather than cluttered.

The content length and elements are dictated by what's required to rank. But how that content is presented visually has flexibility. This is where design expertise adds real value.

A common worry is that SEO changes will break carefully constructed page layouts. This concern is valid but manageable. I recommend building a template page first - a single example that includes all the SEO elements we need. This allows everyone to see exactly what's being proposed before anything goes live.

Once that template is approved and styled appropriately, it can be cloned for each new landing page. The structure stays consistent, the brand stays intact, and we have a repeatable process for creating new pages efficiently.

Changes don't need to happen in an "uncontrolled way." With proper planning and collaboration, SEO and design can work together effectively.

ROI & Costs

The Investment Required

Every Website Starts Somewhere

Every website I work with falls into one of three phases:

Phase 1

Brand New Site

No age, no authority. You're starting from scratch and need to build everything from the ground up. This requires the most foundational work and typically the longest timeline to see results.

Phase 2

Established but Underperforming

The site has age and some authority but isn't performing well in search. There are usually technical issues, content gaps, or missed opportunities holding it back. The foundation exists, but it needs significant work to compete.

Phase 3

Recovery

The site has age, authority, and performed well in search at some point - but has somehow failed. Either traffic has dropped or growth has stalled completely. This often requires forensic analysis to identify what went wrong before implementing fixes.

Each phase requires a different strategy and different levels of investment. A Phase 1 site needs far more foundational work than a Phase 3 site that might just need course correction.

Why Cheap SEO Doesn't Exist

I'll be honest with you: in most campaigns, I'm operating at a loss until around month six. That's when clients start seeing real results, and I can actually begin earning from the campaign.

I play the long game with clients, and it's helped me stay in this industry for 20 years. I do good work, get results, and clients stick around.

Most agencies charge too much, do too little, and churn clients constantly. That's not how I operate.

There's a real cost - both in money and time - to produce the things that actually move the needle in SEO: new content (quality pages that serve user intent and build topical authority) and backlinks (acquiring links from pages with genuine authority). Neither of these can be done cheaply or quickly if you want lasting results.

Pricing Reality

To give you a realistic sense of investment:

Local SEO

Local service businesses

Starts at £550+VAT /mo

National SEO

UK-wide targeting

Starts at £750+VAT /mo

E-commerce SEO

Online stores & catalogs

Starts at £1,250+VAT /mo

These are starting prices. Every campaign is different. Each client is at a different stage, has different competitors, and may have existing issues that need addressing. The gap analysis determines the true scope.

Some clients pay £5,000+ per month because that's what their competitive landscape requires.

SEO is an investment that generates ROI. Clients need to understand where their money goes and how it affects their bottom line.

SEO vs Lead Generation

It's worth understanding the distinction between SEO and lead generation, as they serve different purposes.

SEO builds your brand. It's performed directly on your website, improving your visibility in search results for your target keywords. Over time, it establishes your site as an authority and drives organic traffic.

Lead generation is different. It's performed on non-branded assets elsewhere using various strategies. If you simply want the phone to ring with enquiries, lead generation can achieve that more quickly than SEO, but it doesn't build your brand's organic visibility.

Both have their place, and they can work together. But they're distinct services with different approaches and timelines.

Process

How I Work

The Core Elements of Every Campaign

Every campaign I run includes four core elements:

Technical SEO comes first - fixing the foundation. If your site has technical problems like slow loading, poor mobile experience, crawling issues, or indexing problems, nothing else matters until they're resolved.
On-Page SEO optimises existing content to perform better in search. This includes heading structure, keyword placement, internal linking, meta information, image optimisation, and ensuring pages meet user intent.
Industry and Competitor Analysis means understanding what's actually working in your space and developing a strategy based on real data. This involves reverse engineering successful competitors and identifying the gap between where you are and where you need to be.
Growth expands your topical coverage through semantic SEO and topical mapping, building out the pages and content required to compete across all your target keywords.

The Typical Workflow

Here's how the process typically works:

Initial Analysis

I do a quick assessment and give an honest opinion on whether SEO is right for you, or whether you need something else first (like a new website or technical fixes).

Proposal

A detailed proposal outlining the strategy, scope, and investment required based on the competitive analysis.

Onboarding

I need access to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and the website, plus information about your business and expectations. A backup is taken before any work begins.

Baseline Report

A snapshot of current performance so we can measure progress objectively. This establishes where you're starting from.

Customised Roadmap

Based on the audit, a clear plan of what we'll do and when. This is tailored to your specific situation, not a generic template.

Execution

The actual work begins, following the roadmap but adapting as needed based on results and opportunities.

Reporting and Transparency

I report monthly with written updates on what's been done and the results achieved.

The first month is usually focused on technical foundations, so that initial report tends to be comprehensive. It documents everything that's been fixed, improved, or implemented. Clients might not read every word, but it demonstrates that we're actively working and making progress.

Each month, the baseline report is updated with the latest data so progress is clearly visible over time.

I follow an Agile marketing approach. If something needs to change mid-campaign based on new data or opportunities, I explain why in the report. The roadmap is a guide, not a rigid constraint.

The Bottom Line

SEO works. But it requires realistic expectations about timelines and investment, understanding that competitors aren't standing still, commitment to doing things properly rather than cutting corners, patience to let the strategy develop and compound, collaboration between SEO specialists, designers, and business owners, and trust in the process, even when it involves changes you didn't anticipate.

If you're an agency looking to offer SEO to your clients, a designer working alongside SEO implementation, or a business considering SEO investment, I'm happy to have an honest conversation about what's achievable and what it will take to get there.

No false promises. No vanity metrics. Just results that affect your bottom line.

Want to discuss how SEO could work for your business or agency? Get in touch for an honest assessment.

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