Hey hey!
I hate that it’s so hot today that all I can think of to write about is how hot it is in that weird British “we have to mention the weather” kind of way.
It’s hard though, isn’t it, when the weather is like this? I keep telling myself that I became a freelancer so I could take days off when I please, go do the stuff I want, and sack off work when the weather is nice, but in reality I melt in the heat and would much rather a crisp Autumn day than a sweltering hot Summer one.
So today I am hiding in my office, an ineffectual fan wafting lukewarm air about the place, while occasionally jumping on Zoom calls and starting every sentence with “Warm enough for ya?”
We Are Detective
I run an SEO mentoring group called Ascend, where I mentor SEO Copywriters who want to offer proper SEO retainer services, and one of the things I tell them all the time is “a lot of our work is detective work, not technical work.”
I mean it, too.
The technical stuff – on-page optimisation, keyword research, site structure, internal linking – that’s the foundation. You need it. You can’t do the job without it.
But knowing that a page needs an H1 or that a site has duplicate meta descriptions, or how to fix internal redirects, schema, or javascript isn’t the hard part.
The hard part is working out why a site that ticks all the boxes still isn’t ranking.
Or why traffic dropped when nothing changed.
Or why a client’s best page is sitting at position 9 and won’t shift.
Those problems don’t come with a “check this and it’ll tell you the answer” tool. You’re piecing things together from different sources, ruling things out, sitting with uncertainty for a bit, and following the thread that looks most promising.
That’s what I mean by detective work.
One thing I find myself teaching Ascend members more than almost anything else is how to ask the right question when they don’t know what question to ask.
The audit came back clean. The content looks solid. The site is technically fine. So what do you look at next? Where do you even start?
A lot of copywriters – especially ones coming into SEO from a pure writing background – expect the data to tell them what’s wrong.
And sometimes it does.
But often it just tells you something’s “off”, and then you have to figure out the rest yourself.
The client says “my rankings dropped.”
You look at Search Console.
You look at the data.
You check if a core update rolled out.
You look at which pages dropped and which didn’t.
You start forming a hypothesis.
And soon you’re not reading data, you’re seeing a situation.
Some of the best SEO work I’ve ever done has involved realising that the problem the client thinks they have isn’t the problem they actually have.
They think they want more content. What they really need is to sort out the three pages that are all competing for the same keyword.
They think they need to fix their site speed. What actually matters is that their main service page reads like it was written in 2014 and the form is broken.
That instinct – to look at what’s in front of you and ask whether it’s actually what you’re supposed to be looking at – isn’t something you pick up from a checklist.
It comes from doing the work, making mistakes, and gradually getting better at noticing when something doesn’t quite add up.
That’s what I’m trying to give Ascend members, alongside the technical grounding – judgement.
The next intake of Ascend is open.
So if your website isn’t bringing in business right now, before you write a load of new content or start tweaking title tags, stop.
Look properly.
What does your Search Console data say?
Which pages are getting impressions but no clicks?
Which ones rank but for completely the wrong things?
Where are people landing and then leaving immediately?
The answer to why your website isn’t working is usually already on your website. You just have to look at it like a detective, not like someone who’s been staring at it so long they can’t see it anymore.
Blogging for Business?
Sometimes though, the answer IS more (or at the very least, better) content – but it has to be the right content, and that’s not always easy to work out. Fear not my lovelies – I’m joining forces with the fabulous Holly Christie and the amazing Kane Mitchell for a Blogging Masterclass on June 2nd. Click the image to find out more.
Final chance to book an SEO 1:1
I’m winding down my 1:1 “Power Hour” service for the Summer, to free up more of my time to go do those fun things I’m supposed to be doing with a my spare freelance time (ha!) – last chance to book in as I’ll be closing the calendar for future bookings from 1st June 2026.
That’s it for now, as always if you have any SEO questions, reply to this email and I’ll do my best to answer.
Always non-wanky
Nx
P.S. Yes there’s a Google Update going on – nothing to worry about, as usual – just sit tight and we’ll reassess when it’s all over.
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