Clear priorities. Advice you can act on. Work that ties back to growth.
Most businesses I speak with have already invested in SEO: an agency, a consultant, an in-house hire, and often all three. But the results have not matched the investment.
Organic growth rarely comes from sending generic traffic to pages that do not help customers decide, trust, or buy. Technical recommendations that cannot clearly communicate value often end up stuck in the backlog. Strategies that chase volume often drive sessions up while pushing conversion rates down.
I work directly with established businesses to identify what is blocking performance across visibility, content, search experience, and commercial outcomes — and how to unlock it.
Most engagements start the same way: a fixed-fee audit, from £4,500.
No commitment, just a chat to see how I could help. I reply personally within two working days.
More reports. More content. More keywords. More links… same old playbook, same old results. The harder question is whether organic traffic lands somewhere that answers the right questions, builds confidence, and makes the next step clear.
Search has moved on: AI answers, fewer clicks.
Most strategies haven't kept pace.
My job is to close that gap. That means finding what's actually in the way, prioritising what will move the needle, justifying the resource required and making sure your team can act on it.
See more about my audits and servicesBuilt on first-hand experience
You work directly with me from the first conversation through to implementation. I lead the strategy, get into the technical detail, and stay involved as recommendations are put into action.
I’m Mike Escott. I’ve worked in SEO since 2013, across agencies, in-house teams, and as an independent consultant.
Today, I help businesses stay visible across traditional search and newer AI-driven platforms, including large language models, AI Overviews, and answer engines. These technologies are changing how people find, evaluate, and choose businesses, often without ever clicking through to a website.
I understand the technical and strategic challenges you are dealing with because I have worked through them first-hand. I have also seen why good SEO recommendations fail to gain internal momentum. They get stuck between the report and implementation: nobody owns them, other priorities take over, and the people expected to deliver them were never brought into the process.
More recently, I have seen volume-led strategies create another problem. They can increase sessions while attracting generic traffic rather than the customers most likely to engage, enquire, or buy. As organic clicks become harder to win, my experience has shown me that the value of every click matters.
That is where I work differently. I connect recommendations to commercial value, involve the right people from the start, and build the internal support needed to turn strategy into action.
Proof, in numbers
Who I work best with
I am not the right fit for every business. Here is where I can add the most value, and where you may be better served elsewhere.
How engagements work
Most engagements begin with a fixed-scope audit. You get a clear, prioritised and rationalised plan, and I build the first-hand understanding needed to make recommendations that fit your business. I also keep limited capacity for ongoing consultancy and project support.
The analysis, written report, prioritised actions and walkthrough call typically take 2–3 weeks. Once the agreed plan has been implemented, I complete a final review and provide a wrap-up report. Fixed fees start at £4,500 and are agreed before work begins.
Not sure which fits, or facing something these don't cover? Tell me what you're seeing and I'll tell you honestly which audit pays — even when the answer is something smaller. I also run bespoke audits scoped to the problem you've actually got.
The experience behind Search Solved was built on brands like these.
These are brands I've worked on across agency, in-house and independent roles since 2013. Now focused on giving ambitious brands that same senior SEO thinking, without the agency overhead.
AgencyAnalytics
B2B SaaS
Argos
Retail
Barclaycard
Financial Services
Bravissimo
Fashion
CMO Group
Ecommerce
Dunelm
Home Retail
Hindawi
Publishing
IEDigital
Fintech
Jobber
B2B SaaS
MOO
Ecommerce
Technogym
Fitness & Sport
The Range
Retail
Virgin Experience Days
Leisure & GiftingReferences, up front
SEO consultancy that earns trust quickly and holds it. These are the people I've worked with and what they found.
We're delighted by the success of Door Superstore so far, which has exceeded our expectations. It sets a precedent for successful business acquisitions and organic growth into new markets in future.
Andy Dunkley
Mike offers the perfect combination of expert technical SEO knowledge with an acute understanding of technological requirements, UX considerations and business needs.
William Malcarne
He provided personalised analysis, a clear improvement plan built around an 'SEO by design' philosophy, and ongoing support throughout the migration.
Kamila Tyran
He is extremely knowledgeable about all matters SEO and we have trusted him explicitly. Nothing ruffles him and I would not hesitate to recommend him.
Cathy Berman
He's great at taking both smaller tasks and bigger projects and delivering strong, consistent results. He works as a genuine extension to the team. I would recommend Mike without hesitation.
Emily Mace
Tell me where you are with SEO and I'll tell you whether I can help. No commitment, no sales process.
Latest insights
What Quality Content Actually Means Quality content has no universal definition. It's whatever satisfies your specific reader, which is why the checklists miss it. How to write for a person, not for everyone. 
Why Brand Authority Rarely Reaches the Pipeline Brand, content and pipeline usually run as three separate efforts. The value is in the strategy that connects them, and it is where your links should come from and go. 
Why SEO Shouldn't Be Led by Search Volume Alone Search volume has a place, but it should not decide your SEO roadmap. Learn how to prioritise SEO work by demand, business value, customer fit, and implementation reality. What good looks like
An SEO audit only matters if it leads to better decisions, better implementation and measurable change. These are the outcomes I work towards.
SEO strategy that makes sense at board level and gives marketing and technical teams clear direction. Success is measured against leads, revenue, conversions or other agreed business KPIs, not rankings alone.
Search visibility built around what your customers are trying to achieve, not raw search volume. More relevant visitors reach pages that help them evaluate, choose and take the next step.
A long list of SEO issues creates work, not progress. I identify the few problems most likely to be holding back visibility, conversions or revenue, make the case for fixing them and put them in a clear order.
Your team understands what needs to happen, why it matters and who owns it. They get clear SEO guidance they can apply without checking every decision, so you need less support over time, not more.
From first conversation to measurable change
Every engagement starts by understanding how your business works, which customers matter most and how those customers find, compare and choose you. From there, I work back to the SEO decisions most likely to create commercial value. The method is the same whether you commission one audit or keep me involved after it.
I learn how the business creates value, where growth needs to come from, who the priority customers are and what they need to make a decision. That gives the technical, content and search analysis a clear commercial purpose.
I assess each opportunity against customer relevance, commercial value, effort, risk and implementation reality. Search volume, audit findings and competitor gaps inform the roadmap, but do not decide it on their own.
I translate SEO priorities into detailed recommendations, tickets and briefs your team can use. I stay involved to answer questions, review the work and help it reach go-live without losing the original intent.
Once the agreed work has been implemented, I review what went live, what remains outstanding and what changed in performance. The wrap-up report records the outcome and sets out what to focus on next.
No pitch, just a conversation
Tell me a little about your business and where you are with SEO. I review every enquiry personally and will come back to you within two working days.
If it looks like a good fit, I will suggest a short introductory call so we can explore whether working together makes sense. There is no commitment and no sales process. If we get as far as fees, you will know the full figure before anything starts.
Currently available to take on a small number of new engagements.
Before you enquire
Fixed-scope SEO audits start at £4,500. The written report, prioritised action plan, walkthrough call and my support while the agreed fixes are implemented are included in the fee. SEO consultancy is £150 per hour, with larger projects scoped and quoted in advance at a reduced rate. Site size, complexity and the level of support required affect the price, but you will know the full fee before work begins.
I do not sell one generic, all-in-one SEO audit. Each audit is scoped and tailored around the problem your business needs to solve: a technical SEO audit for technical or migration issues, an update recovery audit following a visibility loss, or a content audit for an underperforming content archive. Every audit includes analysis completed personally by me, a written report, prioritised actions, a walkthrough call with your team and a wrap-up report once the work has been implemented. Most audits take 2–3 weeks.
The timeline depends on the specific issues, condition of the site, the competition and how quickly your team can implement the work. Some technical fixes and on-page optimisations can show an impact within weeks. Broader quality, content and strategic improvements take longer, usually 3–6 months. Before work begins, I will explain the realistic timeframe and the factors most likely to affect it.
You work directly with me, Mike Escott, throughout the engagement. Nothing is handed to an account manager, junior team or outsourced supplier after the initial conversation. I diagnose the problem before recommending work, connect each priority to a commercial outcome and stay involved during implementation. Audits are fixed-scope, and any ongoing support is agreed separately, so you are not locked into a long retainer.
I need one person who can own decisions, access to the relevant data and stakeholders, and enough internal capacity to implement the agreed priorities. You do not need a dedicated SEO team, but recommendations need a clear owner. If the available time or resources are unlikely to support the work, I will tell you before we begin.
I work through the channels that keep your team moving: regular video calls for decisions, your usual messaging platform for questions and recorded walkthroughs when something is easier to show. When live tracking is included, you also receive a dashboard that connects each batch of implemented work to traffic, conversions, revenue and other agreed KPIs. If something needs attention before the next scheduled update, I get in touch.
Yes. Where relevant, I assess visibility across AI Overviews, large language models and answer engines alongside traditional search. I do not treat AI visibility as a separate optimisation trick. The work still depends on strong technical foundations, clear brand signals, useful structured content and pages that help customers make decisions.
I take on a small number of engagements at a time because I deliver the work personally. A fixed-scope SEO audit can usually begin within 10 days, while larger projects and ongoing consultancy depend on current commitments and need longer lead times. I will give you an honest start date before you commit, and tell you directly if I cannot fit the work in soon enough.