Week 1 — Audit and triage. Full SERP capture across three countries, classification of every top-20 result, conversations with the client's sales team to confirm which results were costing deals. Only one of the three anchors was removable; the other two were legitimate third-party content with no policy violation.
Week 2 — Scope and foundation. Scope signed with client's agency. Began building three owned anchor assets: a founder thought-leadership piece, a company-voice response to the comparison article's core claim, and a refreshed culture page.
Weeks 3–4 — Execution. Authority placements secured in two tier-2 industry publications. Platform escalation filed on the Glassdoor scoring issue (accepted, adjusted after 11 days). Schema and technical SEO pass on all client-owned assets.
Weeks 5–6 — Reinforcement and close-out. Backlink work for the anchor assets, LinkedIn amplification through the founder's network, final SERP verification. End-of-engagement report delivered with filing receipts and verified before-after screenshots.
Outcome. Six of ten top slots on branded search positive or neutral (was three of ten at start). Client-reported organic demo conversion up 19% in the eight weeks following close. Referral traffic up 38% from new placements. One of the three original anchors still sits on page one — we couldn't remove it, and we said so up front.