This policy explains what happens to information when you use this website or get in touch. It is written to be read rather than to be legally impressive, and it describes what the site actually does.
The short version
This site does not sell anything directly, does not have user accounts and does not ask you to register. If you email me, I have your email address and whatever you chose to tell me. Beyond that, the site collects anonymous usage statistics so I can see which pages are useful.
Information you give me
When you contact SEO Maxing by email, I receive your email address, your name if you sign with it, and the contents of your message, which usually includes your website address and something about your business.
That information is used for one purpose: replying to you and, if we go on to work together, doing the work. It is not added to a marketing list, not sold, and not shared with anyone else. If your enquiry does not turn into a project, the correspondence is kept only as long as it is useful and then deleted.
The free website SEO diagnostic
If you run the free diagnostic, the tool fetches a sample of pages from the website address you enter and reads what those pages return, in the same way a search engine crawler would. It only ever requests pages on the address you submit.
To see the full results you give an email address. At that point I store, in this website’s own database: the address you submitted, the email address you gave, the date and time, which pages were checked, the findings and the evidence behind them, and whether you ticked the optional box asking for occasional articles. Your IP address is stored alongside it, which is what makes the limits on repeated scanning possible.
None of it is sold, shared or passed to any third party service. No analytics or advertising tool receives it. It is stored so that I can see what the tool found on your site and follow up if you have asked me to, or if I think something in the results is worth telling you about. The optional articles box is separate from getting your results, and leaving it unticked does not change what you see.
If you would like your diagnostic and the address behind it deleted, email me and I will remove it.
Information collected automatically
- Analytics. Where analytics is running on this site, it records which pages are visited, roughly where visitors are in the world, and which site or search sent them. It is aggregated and cannot be used to identify you personally.
- Search Console. Google Search Console shows me which search queries this site appears for. It reports totals, never individual people.
- Server logs. The hosting provider keeps standard technical logs, including IP addresses, which exist for security and troubleshooting.
Cookies
The site uses a small number of cookies: WordPress sets functional ones needed for the site to work, caching may set one to serve pages faster, and analytics, where it is running, sets one to tell a returning visit from a new one. There is no advertising network on this site and no cross site tracking for advertising purposes. The cookie policy goes through this in more detail.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking analytics cookies will not stop the site working.
Who else sees your data
A small number of services necessarily handle data as part of running the site: the web host, Google for analytics and Search Console, and the email provider that carries messages between us. Each one only receives what it needs to perform that function.
If we work together, I may be given access to your own systems, such as your Search Console, analytics or WordPress admin. That access is used to do the agreed work, is never shared, and is handed back or removed when the project ends. Your accounts stay in your name throughout.
Your choices
You can ask what information I hold about you, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for it to be deleted. Email the address on the contact page and I will action it. There is no form to fill in and no process to go through.
Changes to this policy
If the site starts doing something new, such as adding a contact form or a newsletter, this page will be updated to say so before that happens rather than afterwards.