Technical SEO support for the website you have—and the one you’re planning

Experience from planning through to launch

I’m Shahzad Akram. I have led nine major website launches and migrations across the UK, US and Australia.

My responsibilities have included platform selection, domain strategy, website structure, analytics, hosting discussions and launch planning. I work with developers, agencies and internal teams from initial requirements through to post-launch improvements.

That experience spans WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace and custom website environments, including websites serving franchise networks and international markets.

When technical SEO support is useful

Your website’s performance has changed

Organic traffic or enquiries have declined, important pages are struggling to appear in search, or recent website changes have introduced uncertainty.

I help investigate the evidence, distinguish technical issues from other possible causes and identify what to address first.

You have an audit but need a practical plan

A long list of issues is difficult to act on without context.

I can review existing findings, investigate the important ones and turn them into priorities with clear implementation requirements.

You are rebuilding or changing platforms

A redesign can affect URLs, content, navigation, tracking and how pages are delivered.

I help bring SEO into the project while those decisions are being made, so requirements are understood before launch.

Your website has become difficult to manage

Growing service lists, location pages and years of content can leave a website with overlapping pages and confusing navigation.

I review how the site is organised and recommend a structure that supports customers, search discovery and ongoing maintenance.

Technical SEO audits

Understand what search engines can access

Review how important pages are discovered and whether technical controls create unintended barriers.

The scope may include crawling, indexing directives, robots.txt, XML sitemaps, canonical tags and the way content is rendered.

Review website structure and internal links

Assess how services, locations, categories and supporting content connect.

I look for important pages that are difficult to reach, unnecessary overlap and opportunities to make navigation more useful.

Investigate duplicate and competing pages

Identify where similar URLs or content create confusion.

Depending on the website, this may involve filtered pages, URL parameters, repeated location content, legacy URLs or several pages serving the same purpose.

Check templates and on-page implementation

Review the technical elements shared across page types, including titles, headings, metadata and relevant structured data.

Template problems can affect many pages at once, so understanding their scope helps prioritise the work.

Assess performance and usability issues

Investigate speed and layout problems that affect the experience of using the website.

Where specialist development work is needed, I help define the issue and coordinate the next steps with your technical team.

Review measurement

Check that the website changes being assessed can be measured meaningfully.

This may include analytics implementation, key enquiry events and consistency between reporting periods. More detailed tracking investigations can be scoped separately.

What you receive

An audit should make the next decisions easier.

Depending on the agreed scope, the output includes:

• A summary of the main findings and their likely significance.
• Examples showing where each issue occurs.
• Priorities based on impact, scale and implementation effort.
• Recommended actions and relevant dependencies.
• Clear briefs for developers or content teams.
• A review of completed changes where included in the engagement.

I explain where the evidence is conclusive, where further investigation is needed and which items are improvements rather than urgent faults.

Website migration support

Before development

Establish what the current website does well and what the new website needs to retain.

I review important pages, existing search performance, website structure and the proposed changes. This helps bring SEO requirements into the project brief.

During planning and development

Work with the delivery team on the details that affect search performance.

Depending on the project, these may include:

• New page structure and navigation.
• URL conventions.
• Content retention and consolidation.
• Redirect mapping.
• Canonical and indexing controls.
• International or location-specific requirements.
• Analytics and enquiry tracking.
• XML sitemaps and internal links.

Before launch

Review the staging website against the agreed requirements.

The aim is to identify problems while they can still be addressed within the launch plan, and to establish who owns the remaining actions.

At launch

Check the elements most likely to affect access, navigation and measurement.

This includes reviewing redirects, important pages, indexing controls, internal links and tracking, with the exact checks determined by the migration.

After launch

Monitor the website and investigate issues as they emerge.

I review available crawl, search and analytics data, coordinate fixes and help distinguish expected changes from problems requiring attention.

Migration experience across different website needs

My launch and migration experience includes UK, US and Australian websites, alongside responsibility for search performance across multiple brands.

These projects involve decisions beyond transferring pages. They require coordination around content, platforms, domains, hosting, analytics and the teams maintaining the website after launch.

I bring that wider perspective to the SEO work, helping make requirements clear and keeping them connected to the project’s commercial purpose.

Explore my work

Working with your developers and agency

I can work alongside your existing delivery team.

We agree who is responsible for each part of the project, how recommendations will be documented and when changes should be reviewed.

My role can include:

• Contributing SEO requirements to the project brief.
• Reviewing proposed structures and templates.
• Preparing implementation tasks.
• Discussing trade-offs with developers.
• Checking completed changes.
• Reporting outstanding issues and decisions.

Development remains with the people best placed to carry it out. I help ensure the SEO requirements are understood and checked.

How we would get started

1. Establish the scope

We discuss the website, the problem or planned change, your objectives and any fixed deadlines.

2. Review the available evidence

I assess the relevant website behaviour, search data, analytics and project documentation.

3. Agree priorities and responsibilities

We identify what needs investigating or implementing, who will deliver it and what depends on other work.

4. Support delivery

I prepare recommendations or briefs, work with the relevant team and review implementation within the agreed scope.

5. Check the outcome

We confirm what changed, assess the available evidence and identify any remaining work.

Frequently asked questions

Can you review an audit another agency has produced?

Yes. I can assess the findings, investigate the priorities and help turn the recommendations into a practical delivery plan.

Can you implement technical fixes yourself?

That depends on the platform, access and complexity of the changes. I can make some updates directly and coordinate others with developers. We would agree responsibilities before starting.

When should SEO become involved in a rebuild?

Ideally, while the brief, website structure and platform decisions are being developed. That gives the team time to account for existing content, URLs and search requirements before implementation.

Can you help if the migration has already happened?

Yes. I can review the live website, compare available pre-launch and post-launch information and investigate issues that may have been introduced.

Can you guarantee that traffic will stay the same after a migration?

No. A migration can change how pages are accessed, understood and ranked. My role is to identify risks, plan the relevant work, check implementation and investigate performance after launch.

Do you work with franchise and multi-location websites?

Yes. My experience includes websites with substantial physical-location and service-area content. I can assess the relationship between national services, local pages and franchise recruitment platforms.

Can you review an international website launch?

Yes. My experience includes launches across the UK, US and Australia. The scope would depend on the markets, languages, domain structure and platform involved.

How is the work priced?

I would first establish the size of the website, the scope, the available access and the support required. I can then propose a defined project or ongoing arrangement with clear deliverables.

Let’s discuss your website

Tell me what is changing, what is causing concern and whether you are working towards a launch date.

I can help establish the technical SEO priorities and how they fit into the wider project.

Discuss your audit or migration

Or email contact@shahzadakram.com.