SEO Consultancy
Freelance SEO consultant, UK.
I've been ranking websites since 2004 — agency-side, in-house and independent. Hire a freelance SEO consultant and the senior person who audits your site is the same person who implements the fixes and answers the phone.
Who this is for
Rankings slipped
You used to rank, something changed — a migration, a redesign, an algorithm update, or a batch of content that did more harm than good — and traffic hasn't come back.
Spending blind
You're investing in content or an agency retainer and can't tell what it's actually returning. You want an honest second opinion from someone with no retainer to protect.
Growing on purpose
The business works; organic search should be a bigger channel. You want a keyword strategy built on real data, and pages that earn their place.
What you get
SEO audit that ends in decisions
Indexation reality vs Search Console, technical crawl issues, site architecture, Core Web Vitals on real devices, content quality and cannibalisation. Every finding ranked by impact and paired with its fix, so you get decisions rather than a 90-page export. The checklist I actually run.
Keyword mapping from live Google data
UK Keyword Planner volumes pulled through the DataForSEO API — never guessed, never AI-hallucinated. Each page gets one primary term it owns outright, with written cannibalisation boundaries. The exact process, published.
Ranking recovery for client sites
When a client site is hit by a penalty, an algorithm update or the aftermath of scaled thin content: inventory, prune, disavow, rebuild — subtraction first, always. I've taken a penalised B2B site from 11% to 94% organic visibility, and the modern playbook is published.
Technical SEO & migrations
Redirect mapping, structured data, canonical hygiene, page-speed engineering. This site is the demo: static build, ~115KB critical path, built to a Lighthouse-95+ target — because an SEO consultant's own site should demonstrate the standards it recommends.
Content strategy
Fewer, better pages anchored in genuine expertise — the post-helpful-content-era approach Google now demands, and the method behind how this site's content is made.
Local SEO (Leeds & Yorkshire)
For businesses that want to own their local terms: entity consistency, local landing sections, reviews strategy and the NAP details that often get missed. I'm at Tower Works, Globe Rd, Leeds — local means local.
How an engagement runs
- Scope call
What's the goal, what's the history, where does the money come from. Free, no deck.
- Audit
Fixed-fee, 2–3 weeks. Findings ranked by impact with the fix attached to each.
- Fix sprint
I implement — directly or with your developer — starting from the biggest lever.
- Keyword map
Live-data map locks page targets and boundaries before new content exists.
- Compound
Optional retained work: controlled content cadence, monitoring, honest monthly numbers.
No lock-in: audits are designed to stand alone, and if I ever think you no longer need me, I'll say so.
The record
SEO consultant at MediaVest / Carat Leeds, where I built the office's SEO proposition for clients including La Redoute, Daisy Telecom, Safestyle UK and Leeds Trinity University. In-house as website manager at OneFamily (regulated financial services) through a full merger rebrand. Independent since 2012 — headline result: Apex Hydraulics, taken from a Google penalty at 11% organic visibility to 94%, then to top positions and organic traffic growth over 700% through technical SEO, content and trade-press PR.
And one further, quieter proof: this site itself is a working demo — static build, live-data keyword map, published editorial methodology, Lighthouse-95+ targets — built to the same standards I recommend to clients.
Fraser is a fantastic person to work with, no problem is too big and he is always there at the end of the phone to help. I'd recommend Fraser to any company looking to improve their website or SEO.
Fraser blends extensive digital marketing knowledge with the ability to implement directly. Whether it's creative, web dev, UX or channel management — I highly recommend him.
AI, applied carefully
How AI accelerates this work
I use AI-assisted analysis for crawl clustering, keyword grouping, cannibalisation checks, brief drafting and SERP comparison — it turns hours of spreadsheet work into minutes of review. Every recommendation is then validated by hand, because AI never gets the final say on your site. If you want the systems themselves built for your team, that's AI-assisted SEO consultancy; if you want the thinking, read how I actually use AI in SEO work.
Questions before hiring an SEO consultant
How much does a freelance SEO consultant cost vs an agency?
With an agency retainer, part of the fee naturally funds the team and process around the work; with a freelancer, the same spend buys senior hours directly. I work fixed-fee for audits and projects, day-rate or light retainer for ongoing work — priced on scope after the first call, and I've written an honest freelancer-vs-agency comparison including when the agency is genuinely the better choice.
How long does SEO take to work?
Technical fixes and cannibalisation repairs can move things in weeks; competitive keyword growth is a quarters game; recovery from quality demotions is typically two quarters or more. Be wary of anyone promising page one in 30 days — in organic search that's rarely a credible promise.
Do you guarantee rankings?
No — Google makes the final call, so I'd gently steer you away from anyone who promises positions. What I can promise is the work: real-data keyword targets, implemented fixes, and honest measurement against an agreed keyword basket so you always know whether it's working.
Can you work alongside our agency or in-house team?
Yes — audit-and-oversight arrangements are common: I do the senior diagnosis and strategy, your team or agency executes, and I review. I keep the review practical and evidence-led, so your team gets clear priorities rather than politics.
A previous agency or team published AI content and our rankings dropped. Can you help?
That's a specialist area of mine, and the playbook is public: inventory, prune ruthlessly, 410 what can't be defended, redirect genuine equity, rebuild smaller. Recovery is real but it's subtraction-first and takes months, not days.
Are you taking new clients?
I keep the client list short deliberately — usually a handful at a time so everything gets senior attention. Ask; if I can't start soon I'll say so, and if someone else fits better I'll point you there.
Want your site audited by the person who'll fix it?
Tell me what's happened to your organic traffic and what you've tried. I'll tell you honestly whether I can help — and what it would take.