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SEO results come from shipping changes, not writing reports.
There is a specific type of fraud in the digital industry: the "Consultative SEO Retainer."
You pay an agency €1,500 a month. At the end of the month, they send you a shiny 40-page PDF audit. It lists broken links, missing meta descriptions, and slow load times. You forward this PDF to your developer. Your developer is busy, so they ignore it.
Next month, you pay another €1,500. The agency sends you the same PDF.
This is the "Advice-Only" trap. You are paying for a weather forecast when you need a roof repair.
Why most SEO retainers underperform
SEO is not a marketing task; it is an engineering task.
Advice-only SEO hits a ceiling immediately. If your agency cannot touch the codebase, the templates, or the server configuration, you will plateau. You are paying for a list of problems, not a set of solutions.
To move the needle, the person responsible for the ranking must be the person authorized to edit the site.
What technical SEO actually controls
Google does not rank "keywords." It ranks documents based on relevance and technical authority.
To win, you need to control the infrastructure:
Information Architecture: How pages link to each other (The Silo Structure).
Schema Markup: The hidden code that tells Google "This is a Review" or "This is a Product."
Page Speed: Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor. You can't fix speed with a blog post; you fix it with code.
If your SEO agency asks you to "ask your dev" to fix these, fire them.
Why service businesses stall in search
We see service businesses flatline for two reasons: Thin Pages and Duplication.
They create a generic "Services" page with three bullet points. That is not enough for Google to understand authority. Or, they create 50 identical location pages ("Plumber Limerick," "Plumber Cork") which Google penalizes as spam.
Success requires unique, proof-heavy service pages that serve user intent, not just robot intent.
Local intent that converts in Ireland
When a user searches for "Website Design Limerick," they are not looking for a blog post titled "5 Tips for Web Design." They are looking for a vendor.
Yet, most agencies try to rank for these terms with low-quality blog content. This is a mistake.
We meet this intent honestly. We build dedicated Service Landing Pages for key locations. We integrate natural local signals—client names, local landmarks, area codes—into the service architecture itself. It feels seamless to the user and authoritative to the bot.
Content strategy that is not a blog treadmill
Stop writing generic "Monday Motivation" posts. They do not rank, and they do not sell.
A modern content strategy is built on Topic Clusters:
The Pillar: A massive guide (e.g., "The Ultimate Guide to Commercial Fitouts").
The Spokes: Specific case studies, FAQs, and sub-services that link back to the pillar.
This builds authority without the noise. It signals to Google that you are the expert, without forcing you to become a media publisher.
The operating model that actually works
Real SEO is operational. It requires a shipping cadence.
We don't send reports; we send release notes.
Week 1: Fixed 404 errors and consolidated tags.
Week 2: Published three new case studies with schema.
Week 3: Optimised images for mobile speed.
If the work isn't live, it doesn't count.
SEO results come from shipping changes, not writing reports.
There is a specific type of fraud in the digital industry: the "Consultative SEO Retainer."
You pay an agency €1,500 a month. At the end of the month, they send you a shiny 40-page PDF audit. It lists broken links, missing meta descriptions, and slow load times. You forward this PDF to your developer. Your developer is busy, so they ignore it.
Next month, you pay another €1,500. The agency sends you the same PDF.
This is the "Advice-Only" trap. You are paying for a weather forecast when you need a roof repair.
Why most SEO retainers underperform
SEO is not a marketing task; it is an engineering task.
Advice-only SEO hits a ceiling immediately. If your agency cannot touch the codebase, the templates, or the server configuration, you will plateau. You are paying for a list of problems, not a set of solutions.
To move the needle, the person responsible for the ranking must be the person authorized to edit the site.
What technical SEO actually controls
Google does not rank "keywords." It ranks documents based on relevance and technical authority.
To win, you need to control the infrastructure:
Information Architecture: How pages link to each other (The Silo Structure).
Schema Markup: The hidden code that tells Google "This is a Review" or "This is a Product."
Page Speed: Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor. You can't fix speed with a blog post; you fix it with code.
If your SEO agency asks you to "ask your dev" to fix these, fire them.
Why service businesses stall in search
We see service businesses flatline for two reasons: Thin Pages and Duplication.
They create a generic "Services" page with three bullet points. That is not enough for Google to understand authority. Or, they create 50 identical location pages ("Plumber Limerick," "Plumber Cork") which Google penalizes as spam.
Success requires unique, proof-heavy service pages that serve user intent, not just robot intent.
Local intent that converts in Ireland
When a user searches for "Website Design Limerick," they are not looking for a blog post titled "5 Tips for Web Design." They are looking for a vendor.
Yet, most agencies try to rank for these terms with low-quality blog content. This is a mistake.
We meet this intent honestly. We build dedicated Service Landing Pages for key locations. We integrate natural local signals—client names, local landmarks, area codes—into the service architecture itself. It feels seamless to the user and authoritative to the bot.
Content strategy that is not a blog treadmill
Stop writing generic "Monday Motivation" posts. They do not rank, and they do not sell.
A modern content strategy is built on Topic Clusters:
The Pillar: A massive guide (e.g., "The Ultimate Guide to Commercial Fitouts").
The Spokes: Specific case studies, FAQs, and sub-services that link back to the pillar.
This builds authority without the noise. It signals to Google that you are the expert, without forcing you to become a media publisher.
The operating model that actually works
Real SEO is operational. It requires a shipping cadence.
We don't send reports; we send release notes.
Week 1: Fixed 404 errors and consolidated tags.
Week 2: Published three new case studies with schema.
Week 3: Optimised images for mobile speed.
If the work isn't live, it doesn't count.
SEO results come from shipping changes, not writing reports.
There is a specific type of fraud in the digital industry: the "Consultative SEO Retainer."
You pay an agency €1,500 a month. At the end of the month, they send you a shiny 40-page PDF audit. It lists broken links, missing meta descriptions, and slow load times. You forward this PDF to your developer. Your developer is busy, so they ignore it.
Next month, you pay another €1,500. The agency sends you the same PDF.
This is the "Advice-Only" trap. You are paying for a weather forecast when you need a roof repair.
Why most SEO retainers underperform
SEO is not a marketing task; it is an engineering task.
Advice-only SEO hits a ceiling immediately. If your agency cannot touch the codebase, the templates, or the server configuration, you will plateau. You are paying for a list of problems, not a set of solutions.
To move the needle, the person responsible for the ranking must be the person authorized to edit the site.
What technical SEO actually controls
Google does not rank "keywords." It ranks documents based on relevance and technical authority.
To win, you need to control the infrastructure:
Information Architecture: How pages link to each other (The Silo Structure).
Schema Markup: The hidden code that tells Google "This is a Review" or "This is a Product."
Page Speed: Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor. You can't fix speed with a blog post; you fix it with code.
If your SEO agency asks you to "ask your dev" to fix these, fire them.
Why service businesses stall in search
We see service businesses flatline for two reasons: Thin Pages and Duplication.
They create a generic "Services" page with three bullet points. That is not enough for Google to understand authority. Or, they create 50 identical location pages ("Plumber Limerick," "Plumber Cork") which Google penalizes as spam.
Success requires unique, proof-heavy service pages that serve user intent, not just robot intent.
Local intent that converts in Ireland
When a user searches for "Website Design Limerick," they are not looking for a blog post titled "5 Tips for Web Design." They are looking for a vendor.
Yet, most agencies try to rank for these terms with low-quality blog content. This is a mistake.
We meet this intent honestly. We build dedicated Service Landing Pages for key locations. We integrate natural local signals—client names, local landmarks, area codes—into the service architecture itself. It feels seamless to the user and authoritative to the bot.
Content strategy that is not a blog treadmill
Stop writing generic "Monday Motivation" posts. They do not rank, and they do not sell.
A modern content strategy is built on Topic Clusters:
The Pillar: A massive guide (e.g., "The Ultimate Guide to Commercial Fitouts").
The Spokes: Specific case studies, FAQs, and sub-services that link back to the pillar.
This builds authority without the noise. It signals to Google that you are the expert, without forcing you to become a media publisher.
The operating model that actually works
Real SEO is operational. It requires a shipping cadence.
We don't send reports; we send release notes.
Week 1: Fixed 404 errors and consolidated tags.
Week 2: Published three new case studies with schema.
Week 3: Optimised images for mobile speed.
If the work isn't live, it doesn't count.