About Millrace Search

Why we set up

We kept meeting Derby businesses that had paid for SEO and could not say what they had bought. Reports were long, the numbers went up and down, and nobody could connect any of it to enquiries. Some had been sold link packages that later caused problems. Others had a website that was technically broken in ways nobody had checked.

Millrace Search exists to do the opposite. We measure carefully, explain what we find in plain English, do the work in a sensible order and show you what changed.

How we think about SEO

• Search engines reward useful pages. Most of our work is making sure your site has the right pages, that they say something specific and that search engines can read them.
• Technical faults are worth finding early. They are often the cheapest gains available.
• Local businesses deserve local knowledge. Derby's economy, districts and surrounding towns all shape how people search here.
• Honesty is part of the service. We will tell you when SEO is not the right investment, or when a target is unrealistic.

What we will not do

We will not guarantee rankings, buy links from networks, write fake reviews, publish content you have not approved, or tie you into a long contract. We do not hold your accounts or data hostage; they are yours.

How a project runs

Every engagement follows the same four stages, whatever the size of the business.

1. Measure. We get access to your Search Console, analytics and Google Business Profile, check that enquiries are being tracked, and record a baseline: rankings, visits, calls and form submissions. Nothing changes until we know where you start.
2. Diagnose. We crawl the site, review the profile and look at the businesses that outrank you. The aim is to find the few things that are holding you back most, not to produce a list of two hundred minor issues.
3. Plan. You get a short written plan in priority order, with the likely effort and benefit of each item stated honestly. Commercial pages and technical faults usually come first.
4. Build and report. We do the work, or brief your developer where they need to make the change, and report monthly against the baseline.

What the first month looks like

Week	What happens
1	Kick-off call, access to accounts, check of enquiry tracking
2	Technical crawl, profile review, competitor comparison
3	Baseline report and prioritised plan, discussed on a call
4	First fixes made, with a written note of what changed and why

The standards we hold ourselves to

• Every recommendation has a reason. If we suggest a change, we explain what it should improve and how we will know.
• Changes are recorded. We keep a log of what we changed and when, so that later movements in rankings or enquiries can be traced back.
• Content is approved by you. Nothing is published on your site without your sign-off, and we write in your voice, not ours.
• Facts are checked. Local details, technical claims and figures in anything we write are verified against a source.
• Accounts stay yours. We work in your accounts with access you grant, and you can remove it at any time.

Why Derby

Derby is an unusual city for search. A large share of its economy is engineering and manufacturing that sells nationally and internationally, while its high streets, suburbs and surrounding market towns depend on local custom and visitors. That mix means one business might need capability pages for aerospace buyers and the next a better Google Business Profile for a suburb. We built our methods around that variety rather than a single package.

Who we work with

Our clients range from sole traders and independent shops to engineering firms in the aerospace and rail supply chains, tourism businesses in the Peak District, and online retailers selling nationally from Derbyshire. Some are on our case studies page, described without names because client confidentiality matters to us.

Get in touch

The easiest way to start is to send a short note through the contact form. Tell us what you do, where your customers are, and what you would like to change.