Possible engagements
What a bounded project might look like
- A search strategy review — an evidence-led look at where your search effort stands and what deserves attention first.
- An assessment of a proposed AI application — whether it addresses a real business need, what it would take to test, and where its limits are.
- A prioritized set of recommendations — a clear, sequenced list your own team can act on.
One option: SEO & AI search visibility diagnostic
One possible bounded engagement examines whether your website gives search and AI systems clear, accessible, and consistent evidence about your organization — then translates what it finds into prioritized instructions your developer or agency can implement. You are buying senior diagnosis and direction, so your implementation team spends its time fixing the right things rather than guessing at them.
If the diagnostic is the right fit
How the diagnostic works
Phase 1 — Establish
Foundation Assessment
Determine whether your site's foundational SEO, accessibility, and machine-readable signals are sound enough for deeper analysis. If they are not, that is documented for your team to correct first — before deeper work is worth doing.
Phase 2 — Diagnose
Semantic Graph Analysis
Examine how clearly crawler-visible evidence establishes your organization, its important entities and relationships, and the topics you intend to be understood for — separating what your site establishes on its own from what you have confirmed actually matters.
Phase 3 — Plan
Expert Interpretation & Technical Roadmap
Translate the findings into prioritized, evidence-backed implementation guidance — current state, the specific gap, instructions, and acceptance criteria — written for your developer or agency to act on.
Establish → Diagnose → Implement (your team) → Validate (optional)
Diagnostic deliverables
What the diagnostic delivers
Every project has agreed deliverables. For the diagnostic, they are:
- A prioritized findings report — what actually deserves attention, and, just as usefully, what does not.
- A technical implementation handoff for your developer or agency — current state, the specific gap, instructions, supporting evidence, acceptance criteria, and a re-check protocol.
- A review conversation to walk your team through the findings and answer implementation questions.
Investment
Investment
Engagements are fixed-scope and quoted after a short scoping conversation, so you know the cost before any work begins. For the diagnostic, after your team implements the recommendations, an optional validation re-engagement can check whether the changes actually moved the machine-visible evidence in the ways intended.
What this is not
What this is not
- Not an ongoing retainer, agency service, or implementation staffing. Each project has an agreed scope, deliverables, and endpoint.
- Not a promise of rankings, citations, or inclusion in any AI system. No honest practitioner can promise those; the selection logic is private and changes constantly. What you can improve is the clarity, consistency, and retrievability of what these systems find.
- Not implementation labor. Your developer or agency does the work; I provide the diagnosis and direction that keep them from fixing the wrong things.
- Not a reason to run every diagnostic regardless. If the foundation is not ready, the honest call is to fix that first — not to run deeper analysis because an engagement was purchased.
Questions
Common questions before a project
- Are you always available for advisory work?
- No. My primary work is research, writing and SCORE mentoring. I take on clearly defined SEO and AI advisory projects only when availability and fit allow, and each one has an agreed scope, deliverables and endpoint.
- Is SCORE mentoring part of paid advisory work?
- No. SCORE mentoring is free, volunteer work and is separate from paid advisory work.
- Who is the search visibility diagnostic best suited for?
- Organizations that want to understand whether their website gives search engines and AI answer systems clear, accessible, consistent evidence about who they are and what they offer. It is best suited to teams with a developer or agency who can act on a prioritized technical roadmap.
- When is the diagnostic probably not the right engagement?
- If you need someone to implement the fixes, or you are looking for guaranteed rankings or AI citations, this is not the right engagement. If your site's foundation is not ready, the first step is to document what your team needs to correct before deeper analysis is worth doing.
- What do you need from us to begin?
- Start with your website, objectives, and priorities for a short scoping conversation. We will clarify what you want your organization to be understood for, who would implement the recommendations, and what additional information is needed for the agreed scope.
- How long does the diagnostic usually take?
- Timing is confirmed during scoping. There is no standard duration promised here; we agree on the scope and timing before work begins.
- Will you implement the fixes?
- No. Your developer or agency implements the fixes. I provide the diagnosis, prioritized direction, and technical handoff, including supporting evidence and acceptance criteria, so your team can act on the findings.
- How is pricing handled?
- Engagements are fixed-scope and quoted after a short scoping conversation. You know the cost before any work begins.
- How will we know whether the recommended changes worked?
- The technical handoff includes acceptance criteria and a re-check protocol. After your team implements the recommendations, an optional validation re-engagement can check whether the machine-visible evidence changed in the ways intended. That is not a guarantee of rankings, citations, or inclusion in an AI system.
Get in touch
Start a conversation
If you have a clearly defined question, the best first step is a short scoping conversation, so we can decide together whether a bounded project makes sense and whether the timing works.