GroundWork — the research

An SEO audit that decides what to build, not just what to fix

Most SEO audits list technical faults on the site you already have. GroundWork maps the market first: what your buyers search for, where your competitors are thin, and who the AI answer engines already cite. Then it tells you what the site should be. £250, done in days.

Start with GroundWork See a sample Demand Map ↗

5.0 from 14 Google reviews ↗

Field 02 / Market survey

Market survey resolving into a Demand Map A scan line passes across a field of market signals. Six signals resolve as it reaches them, and each writes a corresponding bar into a Demand Map panel on the right. Two bars are marked as gaps.
Fig. 02 / What the survey resolves Illustrative

01What you get: the Demand Map

One report, written for a decision rather than a dashboard. It covers five things and ends with a prioritised action list.

If you have an existing site, the technical SEO audit of it sits inside this: crawl and indexing faults, weak pages and structural problems are found and ranked against the demand, not listed in isolation.

The best way to judge it is to read one. See a sample Demand Map — a real piece of research for a UK and European software consultancy, opens in a new tab.

02How it works

Days, not weeks. Every client gets a portal that shows the stage the work is in and what has been shared; this is what GroundWork looks like part-way through.

Our work together

1 of 4 stages complete

Stage 2 of 4Research

  1. BriefDone

    A short call about what you sell, who buys it, and who you lose work to. Half an hour is usually enough.

    What you getResearch brief

  2. ResearchIn progress

    Keyword, competitor and AI-citation research for your market, using the same tools the agencies use, read by someone who will build against the findings.

    What you getWorking notes, shared as they land

  3. Demand MapNot started

    The report: demand, competitor gaps, AI visibility, site structure and a prioritised action list. Yours to keep whatever you decide next.

    What you getDemand Map

  4. WalkthroughNot started

    A call to go through what it means and what to do first. Fix the site you have, build a new one, or start Coverage.

    What you getDecision and next steps

Illustrative. Every client sees their own live version in the portal, with the deliverables shared at each stage.

03Why the research comes first

Search punishes the wrong order more than it punishes slow work.

2 years

average age of a page ranking in Google's top 10. Only 22% get there within a year — so the decisions you make before design set the timetable.

Ahrefs

50%

of companies do any user research before their first design decisions.

McKinsey & Company

£1,499

what a UK agency on page one of Google charges for a standalone SEO audit. GroundWork is £250, and half of it credits against a build.

Google UK, September 2026

04What happens after the Demand Map

GroundWork is a standalone product. Nothing else is required, but two things are ready if you want them.

Existing website

Fix what is there, or move to Coverage

Use the action list yourself, hand it to your developer, or let Coverage work through it month by month. Coverage does not require me to have built the site.

See Coverage
New website

Build against the findings

The Demand Map becomes the build plan: page map, content priorities, platform. 50% of the GroundWork fee credits against a build started within 60 days.

See Build

05Questions

GroundWork questions

Is this just an SEO audit?
No. An SEO audit looks at the site you have. GroundWork looks at the market you are in — demand, competitors and AI citations — and then at the site, so every fault is ranked by how much it matters. You get the audit; you also get the reason for it.
Do I have to build with KOODOS afterwards?
No. The Demand Map is written so any competent developer can act on it, and it is yours to keep. The 50% credit is there if you do build with me within 60 days; it is not a condition.
My site is on Wix, Squarespace or WordPress. Does that matter?
Not for the research. The Demand Map is about your market. Where the platform limits what you can do about the findings, the report says so plainly, and that becomes part of the decision.
How long does GroundWork take?
Three or four working days from the brief call to the walkthrough, and the walkthrough is part of it. Every GroundWork completes inside that window.
What does "AI visibility" actually mean?
I ask the questions your buyers ask to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and record which businesses and pages get cited. If it is not you, the Demand Map shows what the cited pages have that yours does not.

06Proof

Where this has been done

All work