Search Engine Optimisation
Help for small businesses and organisations to get their website found on search engines like Google.
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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is often thought of as a complex and expensive route to take but here at The Smart Bear, we want to make it easier and budget-friendly.
We don’t believe in talking in technical jargon, we cut the fluff and try to explain everything in plain English. We prefer a more organic SEO technique with just good ole’ honest good content that offers value to your customers…no quick short-cuts here!
And, we also don’t believe B2B SEO should cost the Earth; so, we’ve set up a range of packages specifically designed for micro or small businesses who want to grow their Google visibility.
We can also help you learn along the way -if that’s what you want- in case you want to take more control of it in the future or just be aware of what it all means.
If you’re interested in learning more about SEO for small businesses check out our Beginners Guide to SEO blog, or join our Micro-learning Substack at thesmartbear.substack.com .
SEO Power Hour with an expert £100
A chat about what you can do to improve your ranking with a small business SEO expert.
We’ll go through what you’re doing right and where you should focus your efforts, including touching on digital marketing.
Our SEO Power hour will explain some of the technical jargon as well as give you a bit of direction on how to improve the SEO on your website.
Power Hours are available with or without a written report which is an optional extra.
Optional Extra: SEO stand-alone report
Stand-alone SEO Report £60
Some companies try to sell you SEO with a free report, which is usually just an automated print off from a standard tool – so if you don’t know the technical terms it can sound quite scary (and of course, mean absolutely nothing)! Their main goal is to scare you into buying their services.
Automated SEO audits and reports might churn out plenty of data, but without expert interpretation, they’re practically useless. A real SEO professional goes beyond the surface – understanding context, setting priorities, and turning insights into actionable strategies. Tools can highlight problems; they can’t tell you which ones actually matter or how to fix them in a way that supports your goals. To get meaningful results, you need someone who knows how to connect the dots between data, intent, and execution.
And, so, we do things differently here – we charge for our reports because we spend time manually looking at your website and digital marketing, using our expert eye, to see what you could do to improve your Search Engine Ranking…..and then, provide an actionable strategy plan with explanations of what each part means.
For a bit extra, we can talk you through the report so you have an even greater understanding – enabling you to do some work yourself.
So, if you’re not sure what needs doing to your website or you’re keen to have a go at SEO yourself but you don’t know where to start, then our stand-alone report, with or without a power hour, is the one for you.
We’ll give you an overview of what you could do to overhaul your websites’ search engine optimisation and how to start.
If you decide you’d rather we do the work for you, we’ll let you know which option would be best for you going forward and a quote so you can make an informed decision.
Optional Extra: Power Hour to go through the report together
Want to both the Report and the Power Hour?
Save time and save £10 by buying them together for £150.
SEO Packages for Small Businesses and Charities
From Digital Mentoring to SEO overhauls
Intensive SEO Overhaul
from £150, no minimum time frame.
If you’ve never had any search engine optimisation done, especially technical SEO (the behind the scenes stuff), on your website before, or you’re not sure it was done correctly, you might want us to do an overhaul. After a bit of competitor research and keyword research, we’ll go through page by page and make sure all the basics are in place for you.
This option is a one-off overhaul and doesn’t include any continuous work – why not team it with a training session or the Digital Mentoring package below, so you can keep up to your own SEO going forward?
Prices for the overhaul depend on how big your site is and how much you want us to do, but get in touch if you want a more bespoke quote based on your website and requirements.
Digital Mentoring Package: Monthly action plan report with an explainer call with an expert
£150 per month, 3 month minimum.
This plan is for small businesses who want to gain a better understanding of SEO over time with an expert guiding them.
If you’d like to know what your website ranking is doing on a monthly basis, and want a professional, actionable report at the end of the month then this package is for you. We ask you to subscribe for 3 months as a minimum, to get the most value from the information and so you can start to see the value of the work completed.
The monthly action strategy plan would show where you rank on Google compared to your competitors for certain keywords, and where improvements could be made to your strategy so you can go ahead and make the changes in-house. You’ll receive a written report and have a 30 minute call with an SEO mentor to explain anything you don’t understand and to ensure the strategy is the right one for you.
We will set up and show you how to use free tools to keep track of your ranking. Visibility or ranking for keywords can change week by week, month by month which is why we suggest a 3 month period to get an average rating, although we will monitor your positioning monthly to ensure there are no serious issues and to check if our suggestions are making an impact.
This package includes a monthly report with actions and a quick call to go through the report but doesn’t include any technical edits, provision of content or social media management. For this, you may want to consider Plan 2, below.
‘Done for you’ package: Monthly monitoring, report, and actioning of report
£300 per month, 3 month minimum.
This package would provide an action plan report quarterly and our expert skills to carry out any monthly changes that are needed, based on monitoring using various free tools. Covering your position for certain keywords, overall site health, traffic acquisition, backlinks, and details of where improvements could be made, we would perform the actions from the monitoring, on your behalf for up to 2 hours per month.
A minimum of 3 months subscription is required but we recommend at least a 6 months subscription to this service to see the most benefit.
This package includes a quarterly report and up to 2 hours per month where we action the monitoring findings.
Still not sure which packages is right for you?
We offer free consultation if you’re need a bit of advice about which is the best option for you.
Get in touch for a free 20 minute chat about your SEO options
Frequently Asked Questions About SEO Packages for UK Small Businesses & Charities
I’m a small UK business with a tiny budget – is SEO even affordable for me?
Absolutely, and this is exactly why we’ve designed these packages specifically for UK small businesses and charities who can’t afford the expensive agency rates.
Budget-friendly options starting from £60
Stand-alone SEO Report (£60): Perfect if you’re really tight on budget and willing to do the work yourself. You’ll get a professionally written report that tells you exactly what needs improving, explained in plain English – no scary technical jargon. Many small businesses use this as their starting point and implement changes themselves over time.
SEO Power Hour (£100): An hour with an SEO expert who’ll explain what you’re doing right and where to focus your efforts. Great for getting clarity and direction when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Combined Report + Power Hour (£150): Both the written report and the consultation together, saving you £10. This gives you the full picture plus the chance to ask questions.
For ongoing support
Digital Mentoring (£150/month): If you want to learn SEO while improving your rankings, this package teaches you as you go. You get monthly reports showing what to do, plus a 30-minute call to explain anything confusing. You do the work yourself, but you’re guided by an expert.
Done For You package (£300/month): We handle up to 2 hours of SEO work monthly, and keep an eye on how things are going, so you can focus on running your business while your visibility improves.
Why our pricing is different: Large agencies often charge £500-£2000+ monthly for SEO services. We’ve stripped away the fluff and focused on what actually matters for small UK businesses – getting found by local customers through honest, quality content and solid technical foundations.
Special consideration for charities: We understand charities often operate on even tighter budgets. We’re happy to discuss your specific situation, get in touch for a free consultation.
The key is choosing what fits your budget now, knowing you can always scale up as your business grows and your budget allows.
Which package is right for my small business – should I do it myself or pay you to do it?
This depends entirely on your time, budget, skills, and how hands-on you want to be. Here’s how to decide:
Choose the Stand-alone Report (£60) if you:
– Have very limited budget but plenty of time
– Enjoy learning new skills
– Are reasonably comfortable with technology
– Can commit to implementing changes yourself over several months
– Just need to know what to do and can figure out the “how”
Choose Digital Mentoring (£150/month) if you:
– Want to understand SEO properly and build skills for the long term
– Have some budget and time to dedicate monthly
– Like having expert guidance and accountability
– Want monthly direction on what to focus on
– Are willing to do the actual work but need help prioritizing and understanding
Choose Done For You (£300/month) if you:
– Would rather focus on running your business
– Don’t have time to learn or implement SEO yourself
– Want professional results without the learning curve
– Have budget for ongoing expert help
– Prefer to leave technical work to specialists
The honest truth for UK small businesses: Most successful small businesses take a hybrid approach. They might start with a report or mentoring to understand the basics, handle simple content optimization themselves, then use PAYG services for technical fixes they can’t manage.
For UK charities: Digital Mentoring often works brilliantly because you’re building internal capability. When a volunteer or staff member leaves, the knowledge stays within your organization. However, if staff capacity is really limited, ‘Done For You’ services ensures SEO doesn’t get neglected when you’re stretched.
Still not sure? We offer free consultations to help you work out which option makes most sense for your specific situation. No pressure, just honest advice about what would work best for where you are right now.
How is your SEO report different from the free automated reports other companies offer?
This is such an important question, and it gets to the heart of why we charge for our reports rather than offering “free” ones.
What’s wrong with automated reports: You’ve probably received those scary-looking automated reports that list dozens of “critical errors” and make your website sound like a disaster. Here’s the truth: these are often sales tools designed to frighten you into buying expensive services.
Automated tools churn out data but can’t tell you:
– Which issues actually matter for your specific business
– What order to tackle problems in
– How each fix will impact your rankings
– What’s realistic for your budget and resources
– Context for why something is flagged as a problem
How our manual reports are different:
– Expert human analysis: A real SEO professional looks at your website with experienced eyes, understanding your business type, your local UK market, and what will actually make a difference to your visibility.
– Prioritised recommendations: We tell you what to fix first for maximum impact, not just a list of everything that could potentially be improved. Small businesses need to know what matters most.
– Plain English explanations: Every recommendation includes an explanation of what it means and why it matters for your business – no confusing technical jargon.
– Actionable strategy: You get a clear plan you can actually follow, whether you’re doing the work yourself or hiring someone. The report is useful, not just scary.
– UK-focused approach: We understand the UK market, local search considerations, and what matters for small businesses/charities serving local communities.
– Context and realistic expectations: We’ll tell you honestly what’s achievable with your resources and timeline. Not every website needs to be perfect – it needs to be good enough to get found by your customers.
Why we charge: Because we spend real time manually analysing your website and digital presence. This isn’t an automated print-out – it’s professional expertise applied to your specific situation.
The £60 investment usually saves UK small businesses hundreds (or thousands) by preventing them from wasting money on the wrong fixes or being scared into expensive contracts they don’t need.
We’re a UK charity with limited resources – how quickly can we expect to see results from SEO?
We completely understand that charities need to justify every penny spent, so setting realistic expectations is important.
Timeline for charity websites:
Month 1-2: Foundation building If you’re starting with the Intensive SEO Overhaul or beginning Digital Mentoring, the first couple of months focus on fixing technical issues and establishing proper foundations. You might not see dramatic traffic increases yet, but you’re building the groundwork.
Month 3-4: Early improvements Google starts recognizing the improvements you’ve made. You’ll likely notice:
– Better rankings for your charity name and specific programs
– Improved local visibility if you serve a geographic area
– More targeted traffic from people specifically searching for services you offer
Month 6+: Meaningful growth This is typically when charities see noticeable impact:
– Increased enquiries from people finding you through search
– Better visibility for fundraising campaigns and events
– More volunteer applications from organic search
– Improved rankings for service-related keywords
Why charities often see good results: Many UK charities aren’t competing in highly commercial markets. You’re not fighting multi-million-pound companies with huge marketing budgets. This means solid, honest SEO work can achieve meaningful visibility relatively quickly.
The 3-month minimum explained: Both our monthly packages require a 3-month minimum because:
– SEO needs time to show results, one month just isn’t enough
– Google needs to crawl your site multiple times to recognise improvements
– We can track trends and adjust strategy based on actual data
– It prevents wasting money on starting and stopping
Maximizing results with limited resources:
If you’re on the Digital Mentoring package, prioritize:
– Creating helpful content about your services (what people actually search for)
– Optimizing for local search terms relevant to your cause
– Building your Google Business Profile properly
– Getting genuine reviews from people you’ve helped
If you’re on the ‘Done For You’ service, we’ll handle the technical side while you focus on your mission.
Charity-specific considerations: Many charities see particularly good engagement from:
– Blog posts about the issues you address (people search for help and advice)
– Resources and guides related to your cause
– Local service information
– Success stories and impact reports
These naturally attract people searching for exactly what you offer, without feeling “salesy.”
Realistic expectations: You won’t suddenly get thousands of donations from search traffic alone. But you will get found by people genuinely looking for services like yours, support for your cause, or ways to get involved – these are often higher-quality connections than paid advertising.
Can we switch between packages or pause our SEO work if charity funding becomes tight?
Yes, absolutely. We understand that UK charities and small businesses often face fluctuating budgets and funding uncertainties. We’ve designed our services to be as flexible as possible.
Flexibility within packages:
After your initial 3-month commitment: Both monthly packages (Digital Mentoring and Done For You) require a 3-month minimum to be effective. After that, you can:
– Continue month-to-month with no long-term contract
– Pause during quieter periods or funding gaps
– Resume when budget becomes available again
– Switch to a different package that better suits your current situation
Switching between packages: Many charities and small businesses naturally evolve their approach:
Common progression:
– Start with Stand-alone Report to understand what’s needed
– Move to Digital Mentoring to learn while improving
– Graduate to managing SEO yourself with occasional PAYG technical support
– Or scale up to Done For You when funding improves and capacity decreases
Going the other way:
– Start with the ‘Done For You’ service while establishing your website
– Switch to Digital Mentoring once foundations are solid
– Eventually manage yourself with yearly check-ins
If you need to pause: Life happens, funding changes, priorities shift. If you need to pause your monthly package:
– Give us notice so we can provide a final report/update
– We’ll document where things stand for when you return
– No penalty for pausing from us *
– You can restart when ready (subject to our availability)
Alternative options during tight periods:
Instead of pausing completely, some charities:
– Drop to a lower package temporarily
– Use one-off Power Hours quarterly instead of monthly packages
– Focus on doing content optimisation themselves while we handle annual technical reviews
– Use PAYG services for specific needs only
* What happens to your progress if you pause: The good work doesn’t disappear. Rankings might drift slightly without active maintenance, but the technical foundations remain. Many charities pause over summer or during major campaigns, then resume without significant setbacks. We can offer advice on how to mitigate this.
Planning for funding cycles: If you know funding is uncertain:
– Start with the 3-month minimum to see results
– Evaluate whether it’s worth continuing based on actual impact
– Plan SEO work around funding cycles if predictable
– Consider front-loading technical work in funded periods
Our commitment: We’re here to support UK charities and small businesses long-term, not lock you into contracts you can’t afford. We’d rather you pause and return when ready than struggle with payments or cancel completely.
If you want to discuss a flexible approach that works with your specific funding situation, we’re always happy to have an honest conversation about what’s realistic and sustainable for your organisation.