How Google Evaluates Websites
How Search Engines Actually Decide Which Websites Rise — and Which Don’t
Most SEO advice focuses on activity. Modern search systems evaluate structure, intent, and authority flow. I help businesses understand the difference before they waste time and money moving in the wrong direction.
Search visibility is no longer driven by checklists
Search engines no longer rank websites by ticking off tasks. They evaluate websites as interconnected systems, weighing relevance, internal structure, probability, and behavioural signals together. When those elements do not align, progress stalls no matter how much “SEO” is being done. This is why many sites plateau even while publishing content, fixing technical issues, and building links. The issue is rarely effort. It is direction. If you want a senior-level Strategic Search Authority Review that maps how Google currently interprets your site, this is where the work begins.
What I do
I provide strategic clarity. Not by selling packages or ongoing SEO, but by helping you understand how search systems are likely interpreting your website right now, and which actions would genuinely change that assessment.
This work is designed for moments where decisions matter. A one‑off search authority review for established sites gives you a complete structural and authority map, along with the actions that move rankings.
Strategic Search Authority Review
A one-off, senior-level review designed to answer three questions clearly: how search systems likely see your website today, where authority is flowing or being diluted, and what you should prioritise next — and stop doing.
One private session. Clear thinking. No theatre.
Learn more about the Strategic Search Authority Review
Who this is for
This work is suited to founders and directors questioning their current SEO direction, marketing leads inheriting strategies they did not design, agencies seeking an independent second opinion, and businesses investing in SEO without confidence in the outcome.
If you are looking for guarantees, volume tactics, or cheap rankings, this will not be a fit.
Perspective
I have worked in search since 1997, before Google dominated rankings, and through every major shift since. That long view matters. It means focusing less on tactics and more on how ranking systems behave over time — how authority accumulates, how it leaks, and why some sites advance while others oscillate.
This is not theory. It is pattern recognition earned over decades.
Writing & insight
Alongside client work, I write about how search behaviour is changing, particularly the shift away from keyword-led optimisation toward structural and intent-driven evaluation. These pieces are not tips or hacks. They are explanations, written for people who need clarity before making decisions.
Next step
If you are at a point where clarity matters more than activity, the Strategic Search Authority Review is the right place to start. A short message outlining your site and concern is enough.
How Google Actually Evaluates Websites
Most SEO activity focuses on what is being done to a website. Search systems focus on how that website is interpreted. Those two perspectives are rarely aligned.
I work with established organisations whose visibility has stalled despite good content, technical compliance, and sustained optimisation. In almost every case, the issue is not effort, but structure — how authority flows through the site, which pages search systems treat as central, and how clearly intent is expressed.
The Strategic Search Authority Review explains how Google evaluates websites as systems rather than isolated pages, why rankings plateau even when “everything looks right,” and which changes genuinely alter search assessment.