About
The latest acronym doesn't mean sustainable growth or success. It never did. Good SEO is patient, methodical and built on fundamentals that don't expire when the algorithm does.
She's in the Attic is an independent SEO consultancy. That means one person — not a team of juniors with a senior face on the proposal — doing the actual work, every time. Fifteen years of it, across enterprise brands, e-commerce, financial services and specialist charities.
Search changes constantly. The fundamentals — relevance, authority, technical soundness, genuine usefulness — don't. The work is understanding which is which, and not letting clients spend money chasing the former when they need the latter.
The name comes from a few places — an episode of Cracker (Robbie Coltrane), the idea of something quietly working away out of sight while everything else carries on as normal. Whatever appears to be happening right in front of you, the status quo is more fragile than it looks. And if you're here, it's probably because the current one isn't quite right.
That's not a disruptor notion. It's simpler than that: get to the point, find what's actually going on, and don't tie everyone up in months of paperwork before anything useful gets done. The person in the attic sees things others don't, and acts on them without making a performance of it.
Every engagement is different, but the approach is consistent. No templated discovery process, no un-actionable and un-insightful work that has no context or impact, no recommendations written for the report rather than the reader.
Start with a straight conversation
What's the current situation, what's not working, what have you already tried. No obligation, no sales process — just an honest look at whether the work is a good fit.
Find what's actually wrong
Most SEO problems are invisible from the surface. A crawl, a GSC audit, a GA4 analysis — whatever the situation calls for. No assumptions, no templated findings.
Produce work that gets used
Recommendations written for the people who'll implement them — with enough context to understand why, not just what. Actionable over comprehensive.
Stay straight about what's working
Reporting only where there's something worth reporting. Not monthly monotony — insights that exist, can be actioned, or change the direction of the work. If something isn't working, that gets said. If the strategy needs to change, it changes.
The services are named for what they actually are, rather than what a brochure would call them. Each one reflects a different kind of attention — the excavation of what's buried, the long reading of patterns, the careful construction of narrative, the measurement that matters.
She's in the Attic doesn't offer link building or digital PR. Not because they don't matter to SEO — they do — but because done badly they're actively harmful, done well they require a different specialism, and the line between the two is easy to cross when the incentive is to look busy. If that's what you need, I'll say so early and point you somewhere better.
I've been in SEO — organic search, whatever doesn't require a credit card — for well over 15 years. Seen it, got the t-shirt, had the reunion, got the anniversary special edition t-shirt as well. I've gone through Penguins, Pandas, Farmers, Hummingbirds and Pirates. During that time the success rate has grown with the years; whether it's website migrations (I must be in three figures now), recoveries, launches or new campaigns. There have been times when things haven't gone right — but never from lack of endeavour.
Old school at the core: strategy, on-page, keyword research, content, technical. Cut my teeth at Latitude and had some brilliant mentors along the way. Number one positions in some of the most competitive verticals, helped launch major brands and helped smaller ones hold their ground. Sustainable strategies that grow the metrics that matter — qualified traffic and revenue.
Agency-side experience includes MEC, Latitude and Total Media. A fuller picture is on LinkedIn. A few examples of the work:
For the record: Film Studies and Classics at university. Chairman of the North East London Cricket League. Neither has hurt.
Working independently matters. It means the strategy isn't shaped by what's easiest to sell, or what an agency needs to fill headcount with. It means honest conversations about what's actually wrong, what's actually worth doing, and what the data is actually saying.
Clients tend to be organisations that have already tried the big agency approach and found it wanting — or those who've grown smart enough to know they want a practitioner, not a presenter.
Most consultants avoid this conversation. Here it is plainly — what different budgets actually get, and what they don't.
£250–500 / month
A few hours of attention. Useful for a specific question answered properly, or a monthly sense-check on something you're already managing yourself. It won't make a meaningful difference and it's worth saying that plainly before either of us commits. If you can find someone to do more for less — genuinely — go for it.
£1,000 / month — incremental
Realistically around 10 hours. Subtract time for communication, reporting and retainer admin and you're left with meaningful but limited capacity for actions and content. GSC and GA4 monitored, priorities managed, consistent oversight from someone who knows the site. Steady, incremental progress — but not transformation. The right level for sites that are broadly healthy and need sustained attention rather than significant intervention.
£2,000+ / month — exponential
This is where the work starts to compound visibly. Enough hours to run proper technical work, content strategy and reporting — and still have real capacity to act on what we find. Multi-disciplinary, proactive rather than reactive. The difference between incremental and exponential isn't just more hours — it's the ability to pursue several things simultaneously and build genuine momentum.
Project work
Technical audits, migrations, content strategies — scoped and priced upfront based on what the work actually involves. No retainer pitch on the first call if a one-off is what you actually need.
If your budget is somewhere else entirely, say so. I'll tell you honestly whether it's workable or point you somewhere better. The goal is the right engagement — not the largest one.
Most engagements start with a conversation about where things currently stand and where they need to go. No audit-for-audit's-sake. Just a clear-eyed look at the work.
