Service · SEO Setup

Technical SEO, set up right the first time

Q: What's included in the written audit?

Every SEO setup includes a written audit delivered as a PDF: what's indexed correctly, what's missing or thin, which pages are competing with each other for the same keywords, and specific recommendations for content expansion. You can act on it yourself or hand it to a copywriter or SEO agency as a starting point.

A one-time pass that gets your site indexed correctly, marked up for rich results, and tracked in Google Search Console. Not a monthly "SEO retainer" — a clean, documented setup you can hand to any agency later without cleanup work.

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What's included

Clean technical foundation

Semantic HTML, correct heading hierarchy, descriptive alt text, unique <title> + meta description per page, canonical URLs, and hreflang where needed.

Structured data (JSON-LD)

Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, Article, Product, Review, and BreadcrumbList schema — configured for the rich results your pages actually qualify for.

Local business signals

LocalBusiness schema with address, geo, areaServed, and hours. Google Business Profile sync review. NAP consistency check across your site and major directories.

Search Console + Analytics

Google Search Console property verified. Sitemap submitted. Google Analytics 4 wired up (or a lightweight alternative if you want to skip GA). Setup documented so you own the accounts.

Core Web Vitals pass

Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift all in the green zone. Tested on both mobile and desktop.

On-page audit + recommendations

A written audit of every page: what's indexed, what's missing, what to expand, and which pages are competing with each other. Delivered as a PDF you can act on yourself or hand to a copywriter.

What this isn't

It's not a monthly SEO retainer. It's not a link-building service. It's not "10 blog posts a month" content marketing. Those are real services and sometimes they're what you need — but mixing them with the technical setup work is how agencies turn a $1,500 job into a $2,500/month forever-contract.

This is the one-time foundation. Once it's in place, you can run content and link work yourself, hire an SEO agency without them charging you twice to fix broken markup, or just leave it alone — the site will rank on its merits.

Pricing

Bundled with a new web design project: included in any multi-page build, $300 add-on to a single-page build.

Standalone on an existing site: $800–$1,500 depending on page count and how much existing markup needs cleanup. Full quote after a free site review.

What this actually does for your rankings

Technical SEO is the floor, not the ceiling. A properly structured site won't guarantee page-one rankings on its own — but a poorly structured site will cap how far good content can take you. Google won't rank a page it can't crawl, can't understand, or can't trust.

Specifically: structured data (JSON-LD schema) enables rich result features in search — star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, breadcrumb trails, event listings — which increase click-through rates even when you're not in the first position. Clean Core Web Vitals scores eliminate a penalty that otherwise drags ranking down. Proper canonicalization prevents your pages from splitting their ranking signals by accident.

After setup, most sites see indexing improve within 2–4 weeks as Googlebot picks up the corrected sitemap and updated structured data. Ranking improvements follow the content curve — technical fixes remove the ceiling, content and links push you through it.

Common questions

Does a hand-coded site rank better than WordPress or Wix?

Hand-coded sites have a structural advantage: no plugin overhead, no bloated JavaScript bundles, and no CMS-generated markup that confuses crawlers. Core Web Vitals scores are higher by default, which Google uses as a ranking signal. That said, content and backlinks are the dominant ranking factors — clean technical SEO sets the floor, but what you put on the pages determines the ceiling.

Is SEO setup included with the website build?

Technical SEO setup is included at no extra charge with every multi-page website build. For single-page builds it's a $300 add-on. For an existing site that needs cleanup, standalone setup runs $800–$1,500 depending on page count and how much existing markup needs reworking. See pricing →

Do I need ongoing SEO maintenance after the initial setup?

Not from ArdinGate. The initial setup covers the technical foundation — structured data, sitemap, Search Console, on-page optimization. Ongoing work (content creation, link building, keyword research) is content marketing, not technical SEO. You can handle that yourself, hire an SEO agency, or leave it alone and let the site rank on its merits. The technical foundation doesn't expire.

What's in the written audit?

Every setup includes a written audit delivered as a PDF: what's indexed correctly, what's missing or thin, which pages are competing with each other for the same keywords, and specific recommendations for content expansion. You can act on it yourself or hand it to a copywriter or SEO agency as a clear starting point — one that doesn't require them to audit what you already have.

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