Nikki-Pilkington.com Internet Marketing

26/06/2026

When I told the members of my Ascend SEO mentoring programme that I check 4 things first thing in the morning every single day for every one of my clients:

- Google Search Console
- SE Ranking
- Google Analytics (GA4)
- a site: search in Google

I remember the looks on their faces.

"EVERY day? Even weekends?"

Yep, every single flipping day.

99% of the time there's nothing to be alarmed about - but if there IS, I want to be on top of it.

I've seen too many agencies only notice a site had been hacked when the client let them know.

I've seen a LOT of SEOs only realise something wasn't right when they ran reports at the end of the month.

I've seen SEO efforts messed up because a client has meddled, or added new pages, or deleted something, and no-one in charge of the SEO knew until it was too late.

So the control freak in me likes to make sure I'm "in the loop".

I COULD amalgamate all this stuff in a report (SE Ranking does that for me) and have it emailed to me - but emails are easy to ignore.

I COULD have a dashboard in Looker Studio (I know, it's Data Studio now, I'll still be calling it LS when its had another three name changes) - and for some clients I do, but I still check the native tools every day.

And because I passed this way of working on to my members, one of them discovered at the weekend that a client site had been hacked, 5200 casino pages added, people added to their Wordpress admin system & Google Search Console, and a 5000 URL sitemap added to GSC.

She noticed this on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after it happened. By close of play yesterday, together we had dealt with the client, the hosting company, secured the site, deleted the offending pages, cleaned up GSC, and put the client in touch with the fabulous Mike Cottam for Wordpress maintenance and support.

Picking this up so quickly means it should have minimal effects on the website SEO.

My way of working might sound extreme, but the alternative means no-one would have known anything for at least another week when it came to running end of month reports.

Ascend SEO Mentoring is my way of passing on not only my skills, but also my customer focus and my way of working, and letting the members decide for themselves whether they take it on board. This member did, and I am so damned fu***ng proud right now.

25/06/2026

Your periodic reminder...

25/06/2026

Clients sometimes come to me and say "you haven't specified a keyword in Yoast" or "RankMath is showing amber" - and I can see what they're really asking. They're wondering whether I know what I'm doing.

So let me explain why I don't often fill in that field.

Yoast and RankMath are useful tools. But they run off a checklist - and a checklist has to apply to every website, every industry, every piece of content. So they flag things like "you haven't used a power word in your title", or "there's no external link in this post", or "there's no number in your meta title" and the smiley face goes red or the score number turns orange.

None of those things are ranking factors.

Honestly, Google has never once cared whether the word "ultimate" appears in your H1, or if you write "7 tips for X" as your meta title. Google cares whether your piece of content (whether it is a sales page or a blog post) matches the intent of the person searching.

Your SEO plugin doesn't understand your specific business, your audience, or the strategy behind the decisions I've made. It just knows you haven't ticked its box. So it sulks. (And if I fill in the focus keyword field just to keep it happy, I'm doing extra work that serves no purpose except making a plugin feel better about itself.)

A green smiley face means you've satisfied a checklist. That's it. Pages with perfect green scores often end up sitting on page 47 of search results, and pages that would make Yoast run crying to its inventor often rank at number 1. There's no 'one size fits all', and that's the problem with relying on a checklist.

Google doesn't rank you for "uk seo copywriter" because you put it in the focus keyword field. It ranks you because it thinks your page is the best answer to what someone searched for.

The plugin doesn't know that. I do.

24/06/2026

A little over a year ago, I sacked a client. It doesn't happen all that often, so it still pi**es me off.

They had an awesome SaaS product. People loved it. *I* loved it!*

The SEO was working - rankings were solid, demo downloads were up, signups were coming in on an hourly basis.

Then they decided that listicles and "X vs Y" comparison articles were the future of AI search, and threw out the content plan I'd spent months building.

Thin, AI-written articles started appearing. Not loads at first - but when they saw some early results, they ramped up production. I asked them to slow down. To rewrite some of the pieces so they were actually unique. To think about what happens when Google catches up.

They said no.

We went back and forth for a few weeks. They said they knew best, so I walked away.

They took on am "AI search expert".

I know for a fact they told people I was "behind the times." That I "didn't like AI, so didn't understand GEO." I know because I lost jobs with other SaaS companies because of it.

I've been checking in on them ever since. Just occasionally, for research purposes 👀It's not looking good...

I don't enjoy seeing a business struggle. But I did warn them. Repeatedly. In writing, in Zoom meetings, in my reports.

Whether or not you think I 'understand GEO' - I sure as f**k know SEO - and I know that sometimes dodgy tactics work - until they don't.

*I've obviously not used it since, because I can hold a grudge for a VERY long time...

24/06/2026

Website owners, please, for me, if you do ONE THING weekly make it this.

Go to Google, and type in site : yourwebsiteadresshere - just the domain name, no h t t p or w w w - just site : domainname (no spaces)

Look at the list of URLs that are shown as a result.

If anything looks off, speak to your SEO, your web designer or developer, ask on here, just get someone to look.

Because often the first hint that your site has been hacked is hidden pages appearing that you know nothing about - casinos, adult, health, etc - and if no-one is checking, it could be months until you find out.

Once a week - it takes 2 minutes, and could save a whole load of heartache.

23/06/2026

It's been an old school FTP kinda day...

23/06/2026

What do:

- Pamela Anderson's b***s
- Ross and his sofa, and
- this guy

have in common?

They all feature in my talk "SEO is Dead, Long Live SEO" - which you have not just one, but TWO chances to see this week (you lucky, lucky people!).

On Wednesday I'll be heading to Cambridge to speak at Andrew Cock-Starkey's fabulous Optimisey event - I hear there's free pizza*!

And on Friday I'll be part of Digital Northants hashtag - a fantastic all day exhibition in Northampton, showcasing the best of innovation and tech in the local area - also, coincidentally, offering free pizza* (and lunch).

Both events are free - which one will you be at?

23/06/2026

Want to spend less time on social media because your website is doing so well at bringing in enquiries? Allie has done it and so can you https://nikki-pilkington.com/seo-training-and-development-uk/

22/06/2026

Yes, it’s a bit sweary on occasion.

But it’s also packed full of weekly advice to help you and your website SEO.

Yes, it's a bit sweary on occasion.

20/06/2026

Some of the things on here are pushing it a bit to call themselves ‘training’, if I’m, honest, but they’re all useful, and they're free.

Freebie training, including the SEO for (not just) Copywriters SEO emaail course, the LinkedIn Content Challenge, free SEO downloads, and more