LeadAdvisor360 · How I Work
No black box.
No mystery.
Just the method.
This is exactly how I approach every project — what I look at first, why, and what happens at each stage. You'll never wonder what's being done or why.
The work is the same
every time. The order matters.
Most SEO problems aren't caused by missing tactics. They're caused by applying the right tactics in the wrong order — or to the wrong foundation.
Structure before content. Content before links. Market data before anything client-specific. Every stage below exists because skipping it costs more time than doing it properly.
Before anything else
I look at your market before I look at your site.
The first thing I want to know isn't what's wrong with your site. It's who's winning in your space — and exactly why.
I don't need your logins for this. I don't need your data. I start from the outside with competitive intelligence tools that show me the full ranking landscape before you've shared anything sensitive.
SpyFu is particularly useful here because it carries historical ranking data — not just where sites rank today, but where they ranked before algorithm updates hit. That history often explains more than any current snapshot.
By the time we have our first real conversation, I already know what you're up against and where the gaps are. That's what I bring to the table before you've committed to anything.Competitive ranking analysis
Who's ranking for the keywords that matter in your market. What they have that you don't. Where their authority is genuinely earned vs assumed.
Historical data check
How rankings have moved over time. Algorithm updates leave fingerprints. Historical data shows whether a competitor's position is stable or sitting on a foundation that's about to shift.
Intent gap identification
The difference between what your market searches for when they're browsing vs when they're ready to buy. Most sites optimise for the wrong one.
On-site foundation
Structure first. Always.
Once I understand the market, I look at whether your site is structured to compete in it.
This isn't a checklist audit. I'm not looking for missing meta tags or slow images. I'm asking a different question: does the architecture of this site make it clear to search engines what you do, who you serve, and where?
Most sites answer that question poorly — not because of technical failures, but because the structure grew organically over time without a search logic behind it. Pages exist. Sections were added. Content was published. Nobody stepped back to ask whether any of it told a coherent story.
A site that confuses search engines about what it is will always underperform — regardless of how much content gets published or how many links get built on top of it.Site architecture review
How pages relate to each other. Whether the hierarchy makes sense for both users and crawlers. Where authority should flow and whether it does.
GMB, GSC and directory setup
For local and new sites — Google Business Profile, Search Console, sitemap submission, and critical directory listings. These confirm your business exists before anything else can work.
Technical baseline
Meta structure, crawlability, indexation. Not exhaustive — targeted. Fix what's actively holding things back, not every theoretical issue a tool can flag.
On Google Search Console
GSC data comes into the picture once a project is underway — not at the start. The reason: GSC only shows what you already rank for. It's powerful for optimising existing performance, but it can't show you what you're missing in the market. That's what SpyFu and SEMrush are for. Both together, in context of each other, is where the real picture forms.
Content alignment
Content that answers what the industry hasn't.
Content strategy starts with one question: where are the customers in pain, and is the existing content on the web actually solving it?
Usually the answer is no — or not well enough. There are gaps. Partial answers. Content that exists but doesn't earn trust. Finding those gaps is where content strategy begins.
I also look at how the strongest brands in your industry tell their story. What they publish. How they structure it. What signals they send on-page and off-page that confirm their authority. Then I build a content approach that puts you on the same path — not copying them, but understanding the principles that put them there.
Customer pain point mapping
What brings your customers online. What they search for at different stages of their decision. What would make them trust one site over another.
Content gap analysis
Where the web is failing your potential customer. The best content to publish is the content nobody has published well yet.
On-page keyword placement
Right keywords. Right placement. Right intent match. Competitor analysis confirms the best targets — then they go into the places that actually matter.
Industry brand alignment
How your content, structure and messaging align with what the strongest players in your market have done to earn their position. On-page and off-page both have to speak the same language as your industry.
Link building
Links last. Not first.
Link building is where most SEO strategies start. It's where mine ends.
Links built on a broken structure don't hold. Links pointed at content that doesn't match buyer intent don't convert. Links from sources that don't make sense for your industry don't earn trust. The foundation has to be solid before links are worth building.
Once it is — the approach depends on what the project needs.
Directory and citation building
For local and new businesses — name, address, phone number consistency across the directories that matter to your industry and region. These confirm your legitimacy before anything else.
Content outreach
Getting your content or expertise placed in publications your audience actually reads. Not spray-and-pray. Targeted outreach to the right editors with the right angle for their audience.
Competitive backlink analysis
Where your competitors are earning links — and whether those same sources are accessible. No point building links your competitors already have. The goal is the ones they don't.
Ongoing work
Test. Confirm. Scale what works.
For new territory — markets or niches I haven't worked in before — there's a testing phase before full scaling begins.
The approach: identify the most likely strategies based on market analysis, run them at controlled scale, watch what the data confirms, then scale the ones that show results and drop the ones that don't.
This isn't guessing. It's structured experimentation. The difference between an agency that runs the same playbook on every client and one that builds a strategy that actually fits.
For familiar territory — which after 13 years is most of it — the testing phase is shorter. Direct experience tells me what the market responds to, and the strategy gets there faster.
What reporting looks like
You see the work. Not just the results.
Keyword rank tracking from day one. Regular updates as improvements happen. Work files shared throughout — not to prove I'm busy, but to show exactly what moved what. You'll always know which action produced which result. That transparency is what turned short projects into decade-long relationships.
Keyword rank tracking — from day one
Keywords go into a tracker immediately. Movement is visible early. When clients see rankings improving, long-term commitment follows.
GSC integration for deeper insight
Once the project is running, Search Console data layers on top of the market data to show exactly how performance is shifting and where to push next.
Agency support for volume tasks
For larger campaigns, team members come in under direct supervision. Same standards. Same transparency. More capacity without losing accountability.