THE SEO SAVANT / INDEPENDENT SEO REALITY CHECK
Your SEO Sucks! And I can prove it.
You're paying for SEO. But are you getting what you paid for?
I'm Yishai Köln, and I've worked in search for nearly 30 years. If you've been with an SEO company for at least three months, I'll take an independent look at your reported progress, what you were promised, and whether the evidence supports the claims. If they're doing great work, I'll tell you that, too.
- Free preliminary review
- Confidential process
- No pressure to switch agencies
Start your free preliminary review
Tell me about your business below. If you have permission to share your agency reports, attach at least three months of them using the optional upload field in the form.
Your initial review is a limited, evidence-based assessment—not a full technical audit or a finding of misconduct. Please do not include passwords, customer records, or other sensitive information. Only upload documents you are authorized to share. We'll confirm the scope and confidentiality arrangements before a deeper review.
Revenue first. Rankings last. Always.
Every report I write starts with what you earned, not where you ranked. If a #1 position isn’t putting money in your account, I’ll say so — even when it’s a position I got you.
The SEO Savant · Independent review process
Your SEO sucks? Let’s check the evidence.
Maybe your agency is doing great work. Maybe you’re paying for promises that never became action. Here’s how my free preliminary review works—privately, fairly, and without pressure to switch providers.
Step 01 · Your request
Tell me what you expected.
Start with your website, who handles your SEO, how long they’ve been working for you, and the business results you wanted: calls, qualified leads, booked jobs, or revenue. I’ll first decide what can reasonably be reviewed.
What you provideContact details, site URL, provider name, approximate start date, and a brief account of your concerns.No account passwords or customer data needed.
◇ Checkpoint 01 · Useful history
Three months of reporting is a good starting point; six months is better. If the engagement is newer, I’ll explain what is—and isn’t—fair to judge yet.
Step 02 · Privacy & records
Agree on confidentiality. Then share the evidence.
Before reviewing confidential documents, we confirm your right to share them and agree on written confidentiality and review terms. Then we arrange a secure way to provide the SEO agreement or scope of work, recent reports, and relevant business goals.
What you provideMaterials you are authorized to disclose: the promised deliverables, reports, and any relevant business objectives.Use the agreed secure method; never email passwords.
◇ Checkpoint 02 · Evidence quality
A missing report is not proof that work was never done. If the documentation is incomplete, I’ll identify the records or questions needed before drawing a conclusion.
Step 03 · Independent assessment
Promises versus work. Traffic versus business.
I compare the contracted deliverables with the evidence provided. I examine what the reports actually establish, relevant technical or local SEO signals, and—when data is available—qualified leads, calls, conversion paths, and revenue. I account for seasonality and incomplete tracking.
What I evaluateWhat is supported, what is unclear, and which questions your agency should be able to answer.This is a limited preliminary review, not a forensic or full technical audit.
◇ Checkpoint 03 · The honest answer
Good work gets credit. Concerns get specific supporting facts. And when there isn’t enough evidence, I’ll say so rather than make an accusation.
Step 04 · Your private findings
Keep them? Question them? Now you decide.
We discuss the findings privately. I’ll explain what looks productive, what merits questions, and where the evidence runs out. You can stay with your agency, ask for corrections, or explore a deeper assessment. The recommendation is based on the facts—not on trying to win your account.
What you receiveA candid, confidential preliminary assessment and sensible next questions or actions.No pressure to fire your current SEO provider.
Optional · Deeper investigation
Need more than a preliminary review? The paid Second Opinion and Revenue Audit are separate services, with scope and price agreed beforehand. Nothing is automatically purchased or scheduled.
Four standards behind every review
Facts before accusations.
Private, permission-based records.
Credit when your agency earns it.
Rankings are vanity. Revenue is sanity.
A preliminary review assesses the available evidence; it cannot certify the completeness of an agency’s work or determine legal wrongdoing. Findings depend on the documents and data you are authorized to provide.
What I do
Everything I do points at
one number.
SEO, design and conversion aren't sold as separate packages here. The Revenue Audit decides which of them your site needs, and in what order. Then I do that work, or hand you the plan.
01 · Revenue first
Conversion optimization
Calls · forms · bookings
The traffic you already have that isn't turning into anything is the fastest money on the table. Numbers you can't tap, forms nobody finishes on a phone, booking widgets that render blank. I find them and fix them first.
See what the audit checks02 · The path to the money
Sales funnel design
Search → page → enquiry → booked job
Every step between the search and the sale, laid out and measured: where people land, what they're asked to do, how fast you answer, and where they leave. Built around how your customers actually buy, which for most home-service companies is a phone call, not a form.
How I work03 · The last page before the money
UX/UI design
Mobile first · one tap to call
Can a homeowner with a broken AC reach you in one tap? Can a stranger tell in five seconds what you do, where, and why you? Interfaces designed for the phone your emergency customers are holding, tested by hand rather than by a crawler.
Start with the free Scan04 · Built to close
Web design
A page for every service and city
Fewer pages, engineered to rank and convert. Every service and every city you work in gets a page worth landing on, with your name, address, phone and reviews where Google and the AI assistants can read them. Rebuilds and migrations are quoted on their own.
Send me the URL05 · Since 1996
SEO
Technical · local · authority
Thirty years of it. Technical foundation, site architecture, content, links, your Google Business Profile and the map pack. Diagnosed first, then done in the order that pays, and re-diagnosed every quarter because the constraint moves.
Book the Revenue Audit06 · The new front door
AI answer visibility
ChatGPT · Claude · Perplexity · Gemini
Who the assistants name when someone in your town asks who to call, and why it isn't you. A named owner, a published address, real review counts, question-and-answer content: the facts a model can confirm and repeat. I check all four, with screenshots.
See what the assistants sayClients can’t stop talkingabout The SEO Savant
Great results, and SEO perfection! Thank you!
You always make us shine! We are fortunate to have found you.
Such a success! Thanks a bunch!
The numbers are up, and sales are booming.
Greate service, honest bloke.
It's a website that makes me money and that's what I need.
I really enjoy the new site and the artwork.
Quick set up, traffic is flowwing.
Stellar work!
I enjoy the new design, this is sure to help and bring greater traffic to my site.
Paste a longer review here: one or two sentences in the client’s own words about what changed after working with you.
Yishai! Excellent work! Thank you so much.
The SEO Savant · Independent Review FAQ
Your SEO sucks! Or does it?
Fair questions deserve straight answers. Here’s what my free preliminary review covers, what I need to examine, how your information is handled, and what happens when the evidence points to good work—or something that needs attention.
01 · Getting started
Free preliminary review · no obligationWhat is “Your SEO Sucks! (or maybe not!)”?
Is the review really free?
Who should request a review?
How long should I have been paying for SEO?
Are you trying to convince me to fire my SEO agency?
02 · Reports & evidence
Look beyond charts and promisesWhat information do you need to get started?
Can I upload my SEO reports?
Can you tell whether my agency is doing the work from one report?
What if my agency never gives me useful reports?
Will you need access to my website or Google Analytics?
03 · Privacy & independence
Your records are treated carefullyWill my SEO agency know I requested a review?
Is the review confidential?
Can I legally share my agency’s reports and contract?
Will you publicly name or criticize my agency?
04 · Findings & next steps
An honest answer, even when it is good newsWhat exactly do you evaluate?
What will I receive from the free review?
What if you conclude my SEO company is doing a good job?
Can I use your findings in a meeting with my SEO agency?
How is this different from your free Scan or paid audits?
Yishai Koln. Thirty years, one discipline.
I started doing this in 1996, when search meant AltaVista and Lycos. I’ve worked through every change since, inside agencies and cleaning up after them. What I sell isn’t access to tools; anyone can buy the tools. It’s the judgment about which of the fourteen things a tool flags is the one taking money out of your business.
I work alone from Phoenix, three clients at a time. The person who reads your report is the person who does the work.
The engagement
I work with three companies at a time.
Not a scarcity tactic. A capacity fact. The product is my judgment applied to your site, and judgment doesn’t survive being spread across twenty clients.
The Engagement — $6,000/month. The audit, then I do the work. No fixed deliverable list, because I don’t know yet what your site needs and neither does anyone who hasn’t looked at it. Ninety days, then month to month.
When the three seats are full, the audit is still open — and plenty of people take it to their own team.
Why me
I started doing this before Google existed.
1996. Search was AltaVista and Lycos, and you ranked by stuffing keywords into a meta tag. Then Google arrived and made that worthless overnight. Then it happened again, and again — Panda, Penguin, mobile-first, the helpful content update — and now answer engines that resolve the question without sending you a click at all.
I can tell a trend from a tactic.
Most of what gets sold as ‘the new thing in SEO’ is a repackaged version of something that stopped working in 2011. I’ve seen the original.
I know what doesn't matter.
Half of what agencies bill for is theatre — work that’s easy to show on a report and has no effect on rankings or revenue. Experience is mostly knowing what to skip.
I've made the expensive mistakes.
On my own sites and on other people’s. You’re buying thirty years of me being wrong, corrected.
You talk to the person thinking.
Every time. The strategy never gets handed to a junior, which is the actual failure mode at most agencies.
