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Eastwind Cluster

How we work

You always know which phase we are in.

Every engagement runs through the same five phases in the same order, whether the work is organic, paid or both. What comes out of each one is agreed before it starts, and so is what it costs.

In short

  1. 1Look at what exists
  2. 2Map the subjects
  3. 3Write and build
  4. 4Promote and advertise
  5. 5Measure and refresh

The five phases

What happens, in order

Phases one and two are always first. After that, writing, building and promotion overlap — but nothing skips the map.
  1. Phase 01Week one

    Coverage review

    We look at what you already have before suggesting anything new.

    Every engagement opens the same way: a read of the site as it stands, the terms it ranks for, the pages doing the work, and the technical faults holding the rest back.

    Alongside that, a conversation about the business — what you sell, who buys, and which enquiries you actually want more of. A plan built without that is a guess with charts attached.

    What you get

    • Written review of current coverage
    • The eight technical issues that matter
    • An honest read on what is realistic
  2. Phase 02Weeks two to three

    The map

    Subjects chosen, pages planned, order agreed — before anything is written.

    We choose the subjects worth owning and draw the cluster for each: the pillar page at the centre, the supporting pages around it, and the links between them.

    Where a subject is uncertain, a small paid search budget settles it in weeks: real search terms, real enquiries, and evidence about what to write before a quarter of writing is committed.

    Then we sequence it. What gets built first is whatever compounds fastest, not whatever is easiest to write.

    What you get

    • Cluster maps for the priority subjects
    • A brief per page
    • A build order with dependencies
  3. Phase 03Ongoing

    Build and write

    Pages get written, built and published against the map — at a pace you can sustain.

    Interviews with your team, briefs, outlines, drafts, two rounds of revision, then publication with the metadata, internal links and structure in place.

    Technical fixes run in parallel rather than waiting for a separate project, because a fast site makes every page published after it worth more.

    What you get

    • Published pages, in cluster order
    • Technical fixes implemented and verified
    • Internal links updated as the cluster grows
  4. Phase 04From month two

    Promote it

    The best page in a cluster goes in front of people who cite things — and, where it pays, people who would never have searched.

    Once a cluster has a genuinely useful centre, it is worth promoting. We build a linkable asset around it and pitch it to the specific publications that cover the subject. Nothing bought, nothing automated, nothing you would have to explain away later.

    This is also where advertising earns its place: Google Ads holding terms the pages cannot rank for yet, Meta and TikTok carrying the strongest piece to people who have the problem but have not named it. Every campaign is expected to hand something back — a search term worth writing about, a hook that belongs in a headline.

    What you get

    • A linkable asset per campaign
    • Individually written outreach
    • Paid campaigns where they earn their place
    • Placement and campaign reporting
  5. Phase 05Every cycle

    Measure and refresh

    We report by subject, then rewrite what is close and drop what is not working.

    Reporting is grouped by cluster, so you can see a subject gaining ground rather than a line labelled 'organic'.

    Pages sitting just off the first page get a rewrite before anything new is commissioned. That is usually the cheapest traffic available to a site that has been publishing for a while.

    What you get

    • Cluster-level dashboard
    • Written commentary each cycle
    • A refresh list, prioritised
A hand-drawn page wireframe on paper next to an orange pen

Before anything is built

Structure first, on paper, where changing your mind is cheap.

Ways to work together

Three shapes, depending on how much of this you want to own.

Fees are fixed for a defined scope or agreed monthly for a programme. Nothing is charged on rankings, because that would encourage exactly the tactics we avoid.

Coverage review

One-off

A standalone diagnosis. What your site covers, what it does not, what is broken, and what we would do in what order.

  • Technical and coverage audit
  • Cluster map for one subject
  • Prioritised action list
  • A call to walk through it

Best if you want a second opinion before committing to anything.

Build sprint

Fixed scope

A defined piece of work with a start and an end: one cluster built, a site rewritten, a migration handled properly.

  • Agreed scope and schedule
  • Weekly progress you can see
  • Everything implemented, not just advised
  • Handover documentation

Best if you know what needs doing and want it done well, once.

Ongoing programme

Monthly

The full cycle, running continuously: map, write, build, promote, measure, refresh.

  • A named consultant, not an account manager
  • An agreed monthly scope
  • Written reporting with commentary
  • Rolling three-month term, then monthly

Best if search is meant to be a main channel rather than a side project.

Every engagement starts with a written scope and a fixed fee. No minimum term beyond the first three months of a programme.

Ask for a quote

Commitments

Seven things we hold to, including the awkward ones.

These are not values on a wall. Each one has cost us work at some point, which is roughly how you know a commitment is real.

01

Coverage over cadence

We would rather publish four pages that finish a subject than sixteen that touch six. Cadence is a means, never the goal.

02

One consultant, start to finish

Whoever answers your first message is the one still doing the thinking six months later. We keep the client list short so that stays true, and turn work away rather than pass it along.

03

No numbers we cannot evidence

No guaranteed rankings, no invented case studies, no traffic promises. Search does not work that way and pretending otherwise sets up an argument later.

04

Your logins, not ours

Analytics, Search Console, the CMS, the code, the ad platforms — we work inside what you own. Nothing of yours sits in a system you cannot reach, so ending an engagement costs you notice and nothing else.

05

Advertising has to leave something behind

Spend that only buys clicks is rent. Every campaign is expected to hand something back to the work that lasts: a search term worth writing about, a hook that belongs in a headline, an audience that actually read something.

06

Say the awkward thing early

If your product page is the problem, or the market is too crowded to win with content, you will hear it in week one rather than month six.

07

Plain English, always

Reports a director can read without a glossary. If a recommendation cannot be explained simply, it usually has not been thought through.

Your side

What we need from you

Not much, but it is not nothing. Engagements go wrong far more often through starvation of input than through effort on our side.

Access, not admin

Search Console, analytics and whatever the site runs on. Read-only is enough to start.

Thirty minutes per article

Time with someone who knows the subject. This is the single biggest predictor of whether the writing is any good.

One person who can decide

Approval by committee is how a four-week cluster becomes a four-month one. One decision-maker is plenty.

Honest context

What has already been tried, what went wrong, and what the business actually wants more of.

Honesty first

When we are the wrong studio

Saying this early is cheaper for everyone than discovering it in month three.

You need traffic this month

Organic search compounds; it does not sprint. If the number has to move in four weeks, paid media is the honest answer and we will say so.

You want links bought in bulk

We do not buy links, use networks or run automated outreach. If that is the brief, we are the wrong studio.

Nobody internally can spare thirty minutes

The material that makes content worth reading lives in your team. Without access to somebody who knows the subject, we can only produce what everyone else already has.

Questions

The ones we are asked most

Something missing? Email support@eastwindcluster.com and it will be answered by a person.

Technical fixes and refreshes to existing pages can move within weeks. New clusters typically take three to six months to establish and keep improving after that. Anyone promising faster is either guessing or selling something else.

Next step

Start with phase one.

The coverage review is self-contained: a written read of where your search presence actually is, and what we would do about it. Nothing obliges you to continue.

Request a coverage reviewsupport@eastwindcluster.com
  • A written reply from the person who would do the work
  • No pitch deck, no discovery call before a first opinion
  • If we are the wrong fit, we will say so and point elsewhere