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SEO brief

The questions we ask before we touch a website's search visibility. Answer them here and skip the discovery call.

1
About eight minutes

Five short screens. Skip what you don't know; "not sure" is a fine answer.

2
We look before we call

Talia or Jordan checks your site, your Business Profile and your target searches before ringing you.

3
A plan and a monthly cost

What we'd do in the first three months, what it costs, and how we report on it. No contract tie-in.

Start the brief Print the questions instead

Before you start

SEO proposals go wrong when the agency guesses what you want to rank for. The searches a plumber in Grantham needs are not the searches a national e-commerce brand needs, and the work behind them is completely different. So before we audit anything, we want to know what you sell, where, who you are losing to online, and what success would actually look like for the business. Not rankings for their own sake. Enquiries, orders, calls.

This brief takes about eight minutes. Nothing here is a test and nothing is binding. When you send it, we look at your site, your Google Business Profile and the searches you have named, then ring you within one working day with a straight view: what we would do first, what it would cost each month, and roughly how long before you see it working. If we don't think SEO is the right spend for you yet, we say that too.

SEO brief

About 8 minutes · 5 short steps · your answers save in this browser as you go

Nothing here is compulsory. The more you answer, the closer the first quote is to the final one.

  1. 1Your business and your area
  2. 2The searches you want to win
  3. 3Your website and what's been done before
  4. 4What success looks like
  5. 5How to reach you
Step 1 of 5Your business and your area

SEO is local or it isn't. The answer changes everything about the plan.

Why we ask: The searches worth winning follow directly from this.

Where do you want customers from?

Why we ask: Local SEO (Google Maps, your Business Profile, town pages) is a different job from national SEO, and we price them differently.

Why we ask: We check how competitive each one is before we promise anything.

Do customers come to you, or do you go to them?

Why we ask: It decides how your Google Business Profile should be set up and whether Maps results matter to you.

Step 2 of 5The searches you want to win

Don't worry about getting the wording perfect. Tell us what someone would type when they need you.

Why we ask: We research the real volumes and competition for each, and tell you which are worth chasing and which aren't.

Why we ask: We point the effort at the searches that bring the work you actually want, not the busiest ones.

Why we ask: We work out what they're doing that you aren't, and where the gaps are.

Step 3 of 5Your website and what's been done before

SEO sits on top of a website. We need to know what we're standing on.

Why we ask: We run a technical check before the call, so we're talking about your site, not SEO in general.

Why we ask: Some platforms limit what can be fixed. If the site is the problem, we tell you rather than selling SEO on top of it.

Has anyone done SEO on the site before?

Why we ask: Previous work can help or hurt. Bought links, duplicate town pages and old penalties all show up in our audit, and it's better to know the history.

Which of these can you give us access to?

Why we ask: Search Console and Analytics tell us what's already working. Without them we're guessing for the first month.

Step 4 of 5What success looks like

Rankings are a means to an end. Tell us the end.

Why we ask: We report against this, not against vanity numbers.

How many enquiries does the website bring in now, roughly?

Why we ask: A baseline. If you don't track it, setting that up is the first job.

Monthly budget you have in mind for SEO

Why we ask: SEO is monthly work and the budget decides the pace. We'd rather plan a realistic three months than promise the moon on a small spend.

Step 5 of 5How to reach you

Last bit. Who should we come back to, and how? Your name and an email address are the only two things we need; everything else on this form is optional.

Why we ask: We send a copy of your answers here, so you have them too.

How would you rather we got in touch first?

We only use your answers to reply to you and prepare a proposal. No mailing lists, nothing shared outside Codesky. Privacy policy.

Why these questions

An SEO campaign is a set of decisions about where to spend effort: which searches, which pages, which towns, which fixes first. Every one of those decisions depends on the business behind the website. A dentist with one practice in Sleaford needs their Google Business Profile, their Maps presence and a handful of local pages done properly. A manufacturer selling nationally needs product and category pages that answer what buyers search for, technical foundations that let Google crawl them, and links from places that matter in their industry. Same word, SEO, completely different work.

So the brief asks what you sell, where you want customers from, what you would love to rank for and who you lose to. We take those answers and do the research before we ring you: real search volumes, how hard each term is, what your site currently ranks for in Search Console, and what your competitors are doing that you are not. The call is then about the plan, not about us trying to work out what you do.

What we check before we call you

Three things. First, the site itself: speed, whether Google can crawl and index it properly, duplicate or thin pages, and whether the basics (titles, headings, internal links, structured data) are in place. Second, your Google Business Profile, because for most local businesses it brings in more enquiries than the website does and it is usually half set up. Third, the searches you named: who ranks, how strong they are, and whether there is a realistic route to the first page in the budget you have in mind.

If the answer is "your site needs rebuilding before SEO is worth paying for", we say so. We build websites as well, so we are not going to pretend a Wix site from 2017 can be optimised into a lead machine. Equally, if the site is sound and the gap is content and authority, we won't suggest a rebuild you don't need.

How we work once you say yes

A fixed monthly cost, agreed in writing, with the first three months planned out: technical fixes first, then the pages and content that target the searches we agreed, then the ongoing work of earning links and keeping the site moving. You get a monthly report that shows enquiries and the searches driving them, not a wall of rankings. We don't tie you into a long contract. We work with one business per trade in each area, so if we take you on, we won't take on your competitor down the road. Our SEO service page goes into more detail, and the guide on how long SEO takes answers the question everyone asks on the first call.

Questions people ask before sending a brief

How long does SEO take to work?

Usually three to six months before the results are obvious, longer for competitive national terms, quicker for local searches where the competition is weak. Technical fixes and Google Business Profile work can move the needle within weeks; earning rankings for competitive terms takes months of consistent work. We give you a realistic timeline on the call based on your searches, not a generic one.

What do you need from me to start SEO?

Access to your website, Google Search Console, Google Analytics and your Google Business Profile, and the answers in this brief. If you don't have Search Console or Analytics set up, we set them up in the first week. After that, mostly your time for a short call each month and occasional sign-off on new content.

Can you guarantee a first-page ranking?

No, and you should be wary of anyone who says they can. Google decides the rankings. What we can do is show you our track record, be honest about how competitive your searches are, plan the work properly and report on it so you can see progress month by month. Our aim is enquiries, not a screenshot of a ranking.

What is a realistic SEO budget for a small business?

It depends on how competitive your searches are and how far the site is from where it needs to be, which is why the brief asks for a range rather than a figure. A local trades business with sound foundations needs a different spend from a national retailer. We tell you what is achievable at each level, and if the budget you have in mind won't get you anywhere useful, we say so rather than take it.

Do I need a new website before doing SEO?

Sometimes. If the site is slow, can't be edited, or is built on a platform that limits what Google can see, SEO spend is wasted until that's fixed. We check this before we ring you. Often the site is fine and the gap is content, local signals and links.

Do you do SEO for businesses outside Grantham?

Yes. Grantham is home, and most of our clients are across Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire, but we also work with national businesses. Local SEO benefits from us knowing the area; national SEO doesn't need us to be nearby.

Prefer to talk first?

Ring 0800 699 0037, email hello@codesky.co.uk, or use the contact page. Or look at the other briefs: Website design brief and Google Ads brief.