SEO and AEO Consultant covering Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen
Get More Customers From Google and AI Search — Without the Agency Retainer
Does any of this sound familiar?
“I’ve paid for SEO before. I got reports full of rankings — but the phone didn’t ring.”
“I don’t understand how AI SEO works. I’m already losing to my competition.”
“My website gets traffic. But the traffic doesn’t turn into customers.”
I’m Sid Kathirvel from Unlock Growth. I support SEO and AEO growth for SMB/SME businesses like yours across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and throughout Scotland.
Working with Sid has definitely had a huge positive impact on WorkPhotos SEO and other marketing areas. Thanks heaps, Sid!
– Craig Parker, CEO, WorkPhotos and Ex. Director of Operations, Skyscanner
The Problem with Most SEO Agencies
Why most SEO work doesn’t turn into customers
The problem is rarely SEO itself. It’s the order in which the work gets done.
A standard SEO agency starts with technical audits, keyword research, and backlink strategies. These things matter — but they’re built on top of a question that almost nobody answers first:
Who, specifically, is searching, why are they searching, and what do they need to see on your website before they pick up the phone?
Without that foundation, you can rank on page one and still get nothing.
One client had done exactly that. Twelve months of SEO. A genuine jump to position five for a valuable local keyword. Then they looked at the actual search results page. Above their listing: four paid ads, a local map pack, a directory carousel, and a People Also Ask box. Their listing was invisible. They had spent £15,000 over a year proving the keyword ranked — not that it attracted visitors and converted them to customers.
The right starting point isn’t the keyword. It’s your customer.
Once you understand who is searching, why and when they’re searching, and what they need to trust you enough to get in touch, the technical SEO, the content, and the AEO work all fall into place. Without it, you’re burning cash and energy on visibility that leads nowhere.
Brands I’ve helped grow:
SEO and AEO — what’s the difference, and why do you need both?
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is about appearing in Google’s traditional search results — the list of websites that appear when someone types a query. It involves your website’s content, structure, and authority signals.
Answer Engine Optimisation
AEO is about appearing in the answer itself. When someone asks ChatGPT, “Who’s a good SEO consultant for a small business in Edinburgh?”, the result doesn’t come from Google’s ranking algorithm. It comes from an AI platform choosing which sources to trust and cite — before the user even sees a list of websites.
This matters because AI-generated answers are now appearing above organic results for a growing number of searches. A business that ranks well in traditional SEO but isn’t structured to be cited by AI tools is losing visibility; it doesn’t even know it’s losing.
AEO is not a separate project from SEO. It’s an extension of it. The same clear, credible, well-structured content that helps Google understand your business also helps AI systems. We then add a layer of research and work to get AI LLM models to index your business/brand most effectively and recommend it to your ideal customers.
Sid provided helpful expertise and data based insights, in an accessible and understandable way, giving me much needed knowledge that will be invaluable to me and my business moving forwards.
– Sarah Gallacher, Managing Director, Purple House Clinic Edinburgh
The Unlock Growth approach to SEO and AEO
I (Sid Kathirvel) am an Edinburgh-based SEO and AEO consultant with over 25 years’ experience in strategic growth and marketing. I work with owner-managed businesses and SMEs across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and throughout Scotland. Named Marketing Mentor of the Year by Digital Boost, I have worked with businesses ranging from independent retailers and professional services firms to tech startups mentored through CodeBase, Scottish Government’s Techscaler, Barclays Eagle Labs, Opportunity North East, and The University of Edinburgh’s Innovations.
Most SEO agencies start with an audit tool. It runs a scan, spits out a list of fixes, and the work begins. Metadata. Image compression. ALT tags. Schema tweaks. All of them are valid. None of them is the reason your phone isn’t ringing. Those fixes only matter when every competitor is already on a level playing field, and you need one small lever to edge ahead. Most businesses aren’t there yet — and no audit tool will find the real problem.
Before touching a keyword list or a technical audit, I map the real-world situations in which your potential customers look for what you offer. What leads them to search? What questions do they use — not the marketing version, but the raw words they type? What do they need to see when they land on your page before they trust you enough to get in touch?
That customer-first foundation changes everything downstream. The query keywords/questions that come from it are the ones your actual customers use — not the ones with impressive search volume that attract people who’ll never buy from you. The content built on it answers the real questions, which is exactly what both Google and AI tools reward.
I do not operate like an average SEO agency. There are no account managers, reports full of metrics that don’t connect to revenue, or minimum-term contracts. I work directly with business owners and their marketing teams, and measure success by enquiries and customers delivered — not just rankings.
I’m trusted by:
What you get from Unlock Growth
Visibility in Google search — for the searches that matter
Keyword research built from your real customers’ language, not generic search volume data. On-page content that earns rankings and converts the visitors who arrive. Technical SEO that removes the barriers Google uses when deciding whether your site is worth showing.
Visibility in AI search — so you show up in the answers
Content structured so that ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and voice search tools can find, understand, and cite your business. Clear entity signals that tell AI systems who your customers are, what their needs are, how you solve those needs, and why you’re credible.
Your website that turns visitors into enquiries
Traffic that doesn’t convert is cash and energy burned. Alongside the SEO and AEO work, I look at whether your messaging answers the questions visitors arrive with — and whether the page gives them a clear, confident reason to get in touch.
An honest assessment — not everything needs fixing
Some businesses need full SEO and AEO work. Others have a content problem, or a messaging problem, or a Google Business Profile that hasn’t been touched in two years. I will tell you what actually needs fixing, in what order, and what it will cost — rather than selling a retainer that addresses everything at once and proves nothing.
Sid has been amazing in helping us rethink our website, sharpen our messaging, and get crystal clear on our value proposition—cutting through the confusion and making sure it lands with the right audience.
The whole process of redesigning a new website has still been painful at times, but Sid made it far less so.
– Nassima Brown, Strategy Director, FENNEX
The Process
The Unlock Growth SEO and AEO process
01.
Send an enquiry
Tell me a bit about your business and what’s not working. One paragraph is enough. I’ll reply within one working day to arrange a brief conversation.
02.
Discovery conversation
I will ask the questions that matter: who your customers are, what’s driving them to search, and what success looks like for your business. By the end of the call, we’ll both have a clearer picture of the gaps.
03.
Specific recommendation
I will send over a clear plan: what needs to happen, in what order, and what it will cost. Built around your business, your customers, and your budget — not a standard retainer package.
The Process – Continued
What it costs, and how I work
Before any keyword research or technical work, I sit with you across two half-day strategy sessions. We map who your customers really are, what actually makes them search, and what it takes for them to trust you enough to get in touch. From that, we build your positioning — your wedge, your segmentation, your messaging for each segment. This feeds directly into everything that follows.
The strategy work comes first, and it shapes the plan
Between the two sessions, I synthesise what came out of day one, build a strategy hypothesis, and arrive at day two ready to refine and confirm it. You walk away with a strategy guide regardless of what comes next.
In total, the full strategy work typically takes around 10 hours. That’s what I recommend clients start with. Time and materials — if I don’t use all ten hours, the remainder stays as credit. If the scope grows, we talk about it before I spend the time.
Here’s what the strategy often reveals: sometimes SEO or AEO isn’t actually the right lever. Sometimes, a couple of targeted ads would test the market faster. Sometimes the real opportunity is in co-marketing, partnerships, or fixing something on the website that no amount of rankings will overcome.
If you walk into an SEO agency, they’ll sell you SEO. My job is to ask what your business actually needs before any marketing channel gets chosen. The SEO plan, the AEO plan, the content work — all of it comes from the strategy. Not the other way around.
How the implementation works, and what you can expect from me
Once the strategy is confirmed, I’ll map out an approximate monthly shape for the work, usually ten to twenty hours a month, depending on scope. Where specialist execution is needed, I bring in the right people.
Every hour is tracked on a shared timesheet that you can check at any time. I send weekly (or fortnightly) video reports — not auto-generated graphs, but a clear account of what happened, what it means, and what’s next.
No minimum terms. No lock-ins. Scale up, scale down, or stop entirely — you are in control. If you cancel and there are banked hours remaining, I’ll adjust for any discounts offered and refund the remaining hours. No questions asked.
The experience behind it
I started building websites in 1999. I’ve been through every iteration of search — from keyword stuffing and directory submissions through to AI-generated answers above organic results. I’ve run a digital agency for a decade, put businesses on page one, and my own website ranks in top positions for “SEO consultant in Edinburgh.” I’m not describing what audit tools say. I’m describing what I’ve seen work across 25 years.
What it costs
The strategy sessions are charged at my standard rate of £245/hour. The full strategy work — sessions, synthesis, and the strategy guide — typically runs to around ten hours. Ongoing implementation is available at a preferential rate of £145/hour.
I’ll set out the options clearly before any work begins. If the strategy work tells me you don’t have an SEO problem, I’ll say so. That’s happened. It’s saved clients a lot of money.
Sid is a true growth hacker. No matter the challenge, his response was always positive: “If you can imagine it, we can do it!” His ability to investigate, experiment, and deliver was vital in growing my business. Thanks to his involvement, we delighted our customers and scaled successfully.
Sid has been a trusted advisor for over ten years, supporting my two online and one in-store ventures. His honesty and trustworthiness are rare in marketing. Without his guidance, I would have faced costly mistakes with suppliers and struggled to grow as I did.
– David Syme, Optical Industry Entrepreneur
Start here
Send an enquiry
If your business isn’t appearing where your right customers are looking — on Google or in AI search — that’s a fixable problem.
Let’s have a conversation about what’s needed and whether my work is the right fit. I’ll reply within one working day to arrange a call. Tell me what your business does, how you currently appear online, and what good results would look like for you. One paragraph is enough.
Frequently asked questions
You may have questions about how the SEO and AEO service works. Here are some of the most common ones: