FAQ
Straight answers to the questions we get asked first
Sixteen questions that come up in almost every first call — including the awkward ones about budget, guarantees and whether we are worth it.
Basics
What does an internet marketing consultancy actually do?
An internet marketing consultancy diagnoses why a business is not acquiring customers at the rate it should, and fixes the specific causes. In practice that means measuring where you actually stand, deciding which changes would move revenue most per unit of effort, and either executing them or specifying them precisely enough for your team to execute. The differentiator versus an agency is usually depth and honesty rather than capability — a good consultancy will spend more time finding out what is broken than a junior agency spends on the entire engagement.
How does an engagement start?
With a free 30-minute call. We ask about your business model, your margins, your sales process and what has already been tried. If there is a fit, the next step is a paid diagnostic: a written audit with a prioritized roadmap that you keep regardless of what happens next. Most clients start there. If the first call makes clear we are not the right fit, we will say so and, where we can, point you to someone better.
Which industries do you work with?
B2B and SaaS companies, ecommerce operations, local businesses, professional services, healthcare providers, real estate and nonprofits. The mechanics of internet marketing are universal, but conversion economics, buying cycles and what a good result looks like differ sharply between them. We are useful where we know that economics well enough to advise on day one rather than learn on your budget.
What is the minimum budget you work with?
There is a floor below which we cannot do competent work, and it is higher than most agencies will admit. A meaningful audit takes days of analysis regardless of how small the site is. If your budget cannot support a proper diagnosis, we will tell you and suggest the free resources on this site instead — the SEO audit checklist alone will find a surprising amount of low-hanging fruit.
How long before we see results?
It depends entirely on the change. Tracking and analytics fixes show up within one to two weeks. Technical SEO corrections typically take three to eight weeks to show in Search Console and two to four months in rankings. Content and authority work is a six to twelve month proposition. AI search visibility is the least predictable, because the measurement methodology is still maturing. Anyone promising faster across the board is not describing a process.
Results, timeframes and guarantees
Is AI search optimization not just SEO with a new name?
Partly, and it is worth being precise. Google states plainly that optimising for generative AI search is still SEO, and the fundamentals — crawlable, indexable, valuable content — are identical. What has genuinely changed is the unit of optimization. A search engine ranks documents; an AI answer engine retrieves self-contained passages and synthesises them. That makes section-level extractability and evidence density the new craft. We cover this in AI search optimization.
Do you guarantee rankings or traffic figures?
No, and we would be suspicious of anyone who does. Rankings are not purchasable. Any guarantee is either unfalsifiable, or it depends on tactics that risk a manual action which would cost you far more than the traffic was worth. What we do commit to is a documented process, transparent measurement, and telling you honestly when something did not work.
Working together
Who actually does the work?
The person you speak to. There is no junior team, no offshore delivery floor and no account manager between you and the work. This is partly why our rates are not the lowest available — you are buying the person who scoped the work, not a team supervising someone else doing it.
How do you report?
Monthly, in writing, leading with what changed rather than what we did. Numbers against the baseline captured before we started, so improvement is demonstrable rather than asserted. If a channel underperformed, that is in the report with an explanation. If a month was bad, you will read why on page one, not on page fourteen.
Do you require a contract?
Monthly engagements run on an initial three-month term, then 30 days' notice from either side. We do not use twelve-month lock-ins. Project work is scoped in writing with a fixed fee and defined deliverables. We would rather earn the renewal.
How do you handle GDPR and tracking consent?
The site you are on sets no cookies and runs no analytics — that is a deliberate position, not an oversight. In client work, consent mode v2 is implemented properly rather than as a banner over a non-compliant tracker. Where consent requirements make certain measurement impossible, we will tell you what you have permanently lost rather than pretend it is measurable. Details are in the GA4 guide.
Practical questions
Do you work remotely?
Yes, entirely. Everything is delivered in writing and over video. Geography is not a constraint for us, and we work with clients across Europe, North America and Australia.
What if I only want one specific thing done?
That is a normal way to start and usually the most sensible one. A focused audit on tracking, technical SEO or paid media structure is a fixed-scope, fixed-price engagement. You get the specification and can execute it internally. A significant share of our clients do exactly that and never need more.
Will you work alongside our existing agency?
Often, yes. It is a reasonable arrangement when the agency handles execution and we handle strategy or independent review. It is less comfortable when both parties are claiming to own strategy — that usually means nobody does. We will say so rather than compete for a scope that cannot be split.
What is your minimum engagement length?
One month for project work, three months for advisory. We say three months for advisory because any honest diagnosis takes time to implement and then measure — a shorter term rewards whoever reports the most activity, which is exactly the behavior we are positioned against.
How do you price AI search optimization?
As part of the SEO or content engagement rather than as a separate product. It shares the same underlying work — extractable, evidence-dense content and clear entity signals. Splitting it out would create an artificial product boundary. What changes is the reporting: we track citation rate alongside rankings, because that is the metric that matters.