Your quick checklist
What search problem should we investigate before agreeing SEO work?
Use this to keep your place while reading. Ticking a box does not send or change anything.
Words explained
- SEO
- Search engine optimisation: work that helps search engines understand your pages and customers find them.
- Search Console
- Google's free tool for checking how your site appears in search.
- Scope
- The checks and changes included in an agreed price.
Before you start
I'm Hamza, a software developer based in Sheffield, working with businesses across the UK. You can ask me about SEO for the website you already have. Send me the link, what you sell and where your customers are.
Start with the site and the searches
I need to understand which services you want enquiries for and what a customer would search for to find them. A service name, a place and a problem can lead to different searches. The pages need to explain the work you do in words your customers recognise.
We agree the checks and changes before I start. What I can change depends on how your website was built and the access available.
Depending on your site, the work could cover:
- Pages Google cannot find or is being told to ignore.
- Titles, headings and descriptions that do not explain the service clearly.
- Service pages that need fuller answers or clearer links from the rest of the site.
- Old page addresses, broken links or technical problems affecting important pages.
You get an agreed scope and price before any work begins. Tell me about previous SEO work too, including changes already made and anything you are worried about.
Agree how to check the changes
If you have Google Search Console, we can use its search and page data to understand where to look. It records when your pages appear in Google and when someone clicks through. If it has not been set up, we can discuss that as part of the work.
We also need a way to recognise a useful enquiry. More visits to the wrong page would tell us little about whether the site is helping your business. Search positions and traffic can change for reasons outside the work I do, so I do not promise a ranking or a number of leads.
A missing page
Check whether Google can find and read the page.
A page showing for the wrong searches
Review the service information and available search evidence.
Getting found in AI search
AI SEO means work to help your website appear in answers from tools such as ChatGPT and Google's AI search features. You may also see it called GEO, short for generative engine optimisation. A source link in an AI answer is different from a business recommendation or an enquiry, so we need to agree what to check.
The beginner guide explains the terms, the website checks and what you can try yourself: AI SEO for small businesses: how to get found in AI search.
See how I review a website
I published a study of 30 plumbing and heating websites in South Yorkshire. It records homepage speed tests, contact routes and other checks, with the sample, method and limitations explained alongside the findings.
Questions about SEO
Do I need a new website?
You can enquire about SEO on its own. Send the current site first. If its platform limits what I can change, I will explain that before we agree any work. Website redesign is a separate option.
Is this included when you build a website?
Every new build includes search setup, with more service-page planning in a Business site. The search setup included in a build page explains the difference. Work on an existing site is scoped separately.
What should I send you?
Your website address, the services you want enquiries for, the areas you serve and any Search Console information you can share. Tell me what the site runs on if you know.
Send those details and I will tell you what I can help with.
How I can help
I can review your existing website, agree the checks and changes it needs, and make the agreed fixes where the platform and access allow.