On 30 October, VKNG Digital turns one.
A year ago, I set up VKNG with one idea. The SEO approach I’d used at Depop (then part of Etsy) and on brands like Simply Be and Jacamo works just as well for smaller businesses. The only thing that was ever different was the budget.
Twelve months on, that idea has held up. It’s also taught me a few things worth sharing, whether or not we ever work together. So here are five lessons from year one. At the end, I’ll tell you how we’re celebrating: five places for new SEO clients at 20% off.
If you’re only here for the offer, skip straight to it.
1. The basics still do most of the heavy lifting
When people think about SEO, they often picture something clever and complicated. In reality, the thing holding most small business websites back is a lot less exciting.
Pages that load slowly on a phone. Title tags that just say “Home”. Important pages Google can’t find or hasn’t indexed. Sites that still aren’t properly secure. None of it is glamorous, but all of it matters, because Google can’t rank what it can’t read.
The good news is that these problems are usually fixable, and fixing them often makes a noticeable difference before you’ve written a single new page.
Try this: open Google Search Console, go to the “Pages” report, and look at the pages listed as not indexed. If a page you want customers to find is on that list, that’s your first job. If terms like indexing or HTTPS are new to you, our plain English guides to mobile-first indexing and HTTPS and SSL are a good place to start.
More on how we handle this: Technical SEO.
2. Your Google Business Profile might be working harder than your website
For any business that serves customers in a local area, your Google Business Profile is often the first thing people see. They see it before your homepage, and sometimes instead of it.
And people are reading what’s on it. BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 74% look for reviews written in the last three months. A profile with a handful of reviews from 2023 tells a potential customer very little.
Try this: make asking for a review part of how you finish every job, and reply to every review you get, good or bad. Keep your opening hours, services and photos up to date too. It’s free, and it’s one of the most direct ways to win more local enquiries.
More on how we handle this: Local SEO.
3. Being found now means being found by AI too
This is the biggest change I’ve seen in search during our first year.
Google’s AI Overviews now answer many questions directly at the top of the results page, and fewer people scroll down to click. Ahrefs looked at 300,000 keywords and found that when an AI Overview appears, the top-ranking page gets a 58% lower click-through rate on average.
At the same time, people are asking AI tools for recommendations. The same BrightLocal survey found that 45% of consumers now use ChatGPT or other AI tools to find local businesses.
That doesn’t mean SEO has stopped working. It means the goal has widened. Ranking still matters, but so does being the business that AI tools trust enough to mention. That comes from clear, well-structured answers on your website and a good reputation across the web.
Try this: search for the main service you offer, plus your town if you serve a local area. If an AI Overview appears, look at which websites it cites. Those are the businesses Google currently trusts on that topic, and it’s worth understanding why.
More on how we handle this: GEO and AEO services.
4. Write for your customers’ questions, not for keywords
Keyword research is important. But the content that performs best is almost always the content that answers a real question a real customer has.
That’s the thinking behind our Plain English Guides for business owners. Every one of them started with a question someone actually asked.
When a page genuinely helps the person reading it, the SEO benefits usually follow. Visitors stay longer, other websites are more likely to link to it, and AI tools are more likely to use it as a source.
Try this: write down the ten questions customers ask you most often, on calls, in emails or on-site. Each one could be a page, an FAQ answer or a blog post. You already know the answers better than any competitor’s copywriter does.
More on how we handle this: SEO content writing.
5. SEO rewards patience and consistency
SEO works a bit like compound interest. The work you do this month builds on the work you did last month, and the results tend to arrive gradually, then all at once.
That’s why we ask for a six-month minimum and then move to rolling monthly contracts, rather than locking anyone into 12 months. Six months gives us enough time to build real momentum. After that, you stay because it’s working, not because a contract says you have to.
It’s also why we’ll never guarantee rankings. Google’s algorithms change constantly, and anyone promising a guaranteed number one spot isn’t being straight with you.
Try this: judge your SEO on the trend in enquiries and sales over months, not on where you rank on a particular Tuesday. Rankings move around. The trend is what matters.
Celebrating year one: five places for new SEO clients
To mark our first birthday, we’re opening five places for businesses ready to grow on Google and AI search. Here’s what’s included:
- 20% off your SEO retainer for your first six months
- 25% off if you pay your first six months upfront
- An in-depth technical audit, keyword and competitor research, and a six-month roadmap before any work starts
- Direct access to me, not a junior account exec
- A six-month minimum term, then rolling monthly
Places close on 31 October 2026, or sooner if all five are taken. We’re keeping it to five so every new client gets proper attention from day one.
SEO takes a few months to build momentum, so starting in October means the groundwork is done before 2027 begins.
See the Year One offer and claim a place →
Thank you
A huge thank you to our clients, and to everyone who has recommended us, shared a post or given advice along the way. I’d especially like to thank Justin Thompson at Rhino Websites for the awesome collaborations and intros. If you need anything fancy built, repaired, developed or maintained; there simply is nobody better out there than him.
Here’s to year two!
Dave.
