Research & Advisory Services
We do not sell SEO. We help you buy it well — or tell you plainly when you should not buy it at all.
Six ways we work with owners
Every engagement is vendor-neutral. We take no commission, referral fee or kickback from any agency on our list, which is why we can say “none of these fit you” when that is the honest answer.
Free vendor shortlist
No charge
We match three agencies to your industry, footprint and budget, explain why each made the cut, and give you the questions to ask on the first call.
Proposal & contract review
$390 flat
Line-by-line reading of an agency proposal or retainer contract, with a written note on vague deliverables, renewal traps and unrealistic promises.
Independent website audit
from $890
A vendor-neutral technical and content audit of your own site: crawlability, indexation in Google and Bing, page experience, content gaps and internal linking.
Vendor benchmarking report
from $1,450
A side-by-side comparison of up to five agencies you are already considering, scored on our published framework.
Search visibility health check
$240
A ninety-minute review of your current rankings, Bing Webmaster Tools and Search Console data, and a prioritised fix list.
Ongoing advisory retainer
from $650 / month
A monthly call plus written oversight of your agency's work, so somebody independent is reading the reports with you.
Prices are in US dollars and exclude any applicable taxes. Full commercial terms are set out in our Terms of Service.
How a paid engagement runs
- Intake call (20 minutes). We confirm the question you actually need answered, and whether we are the right people to answer it.
- Written scope. A one-page scope with deliverables, timeline and a fixed price. No open-ended hours.
- Research. Two to ten business days depending on scope, with a mid-point note if anything material surfaces early.
- Delivery & walkthrough. A written report plus a live walkthrough so nothing is lost in translation.
- Thirty days of follow-up. Email questions about the report are included, at no extra cost.
What we will not do
Being clear about the boundaries keeps this desk credible:
- We do not accept referral fees, commissions or affiliate revenue from listed agencies.
- We do not guarantee rankings, traffic or revenue — and neither should anyone else.
- We do not perform the SEO work ourselves, because reviewing competitors would be a conflict.
- We do not publish client names or data without written permission.
- We do not sell, rent or trade the contact details you give us.
Not sure which SEO company fits your budget?
Send us your website, your target markets and your monthly budget. We reply with a free three-vendor shortlist, the questions to ask each one, and the red flags to avoid.
Request my free shortlistOr call +1 704 499 9678 — Monday to Friday, 9:00–18:00 CT.