Refresh the infrastructure
Earn the citations
Foundation is the six-week project that refreshes and augments your existing website, LinkedIn, and content infrastructure, closing the technical and content credibility gaps so your business can be cited, found and hired.
To increase your business's visibility online, strengthen both the structure and substance of what already exists. Foundation improves how AI engines interpret your website and LinkedIn, while adding the clearer proof, topic depth, and supporting content needed for your business to surface more often in recommendations, search results, and cited answers.
Most founder-led websites are missing two things AI engines need
Most founder-led businesses have a perfectly good website, an active LinkedIn presence, and a content history. What they do not have, often even when their technical SEO is in place, is the AI-readable structure AND the content credibility needed to be cited. AI engines cannot cite what they cannot parse, and they will not recommend what they cannot trust.
The website you have probably works well for the buyers who already know to look for you. It tells your story, lists your services, displays your testimonials, and has the contact form roughly where you want it.
What it almost certainly is not designed to do is be parsed, cited, and recommended by AI engines when buyers in your category ask for options. There are two gaps to close, and most founder-led businesses have both.
The technical gap
Schema markup that names what you do in machine-readable terms. Structured data that helps AI crawlers understand your expertise. AEO and GEO foundations: robots.txt, sitemap, Open Graph, Person and Organization schema. The plumbing that lets AI engines parse you in the first place.
The credibility gap
Even when the technical foundations are in place, most founder-led businesses do not have the depth or volume of content needed to earn citation. A handful of generic service pages, a sparsely updated blog, no FAQ structure, no documented methodology, no point of view substantial enough to be quotable. AI engines do not just need to parse you; they need to find enough authoritative material on the topics you want to own to recommend you over the alternatives.
Foundation closes both gaps. It is the refresh that makes your existing infrastructure work for the new buyer journey, without starting from scratch.
A refreshed LinkedIn, an optimised website, and the content backbone to be cited, found and hired
The deliverable is your existing visibility infrastructure, refreshed and augmented to be AI-readable. Your website content is rewritten where it needs to be and tagged with the schema markup AI engines parse. Your founder LinkedIn profile is rebuilt. Your messaging is documented. Your content cadence is templated.
Foundation is delivered as a sequence of refreshes to the assets you already have, not as a new build. The work happens on your current Squarespace, WordPress, or other platform, and on your existing LinkedIn profile and content history.
The output is everything in place to be cited, found and hired: schema markup that AI engines can parse, content rewritten and augmented with the authority signals AI engines look for, new cornerstone pages where you need them, a LinkedIn profile that reflects current positioning, a documented messaging architecture, and a 90-day content launch plan you can execute or hand to a content provider.
What's included:
- Content credibility audit and page-by-page rewrite of existing content, embedding authority signals (data, methodology references, named expertise, point of view)
- Up to four new cornerstone pages where existing equivalents are missing: founder methodology, FAQ, glossary, or expertise sections that anchor your topic authority
- Schema markup, structured data, and AI-readable content blocks added across the site
- Technical AEO and GEO foundations: robots.txt, sitemap, Open Graph, Person and Organization schema
- LinkedIn profile rebuild for the founder: headline, about section, featured content, services
- Founder messaging document: how to talk about what you do, in writing and in person, consistently across channels
- Content cadence template and 90-day content launch plan, naming the future content needed to close the remaining credibility gap – online and offline
- One handover session with the founder, plus one round of follow-up questions and refinement
Optional add-on, quoted separately
HubSpot CRM setup
Pipeline stages, lead capture forms, integration with your refreshed website, and a basic email automation flow. Scoped to the size of your existing contact database and team. Quoted separately so Foundation clients who already have a CRM, or who want to set theirs up differently, are not paying for work they do not need.
Six weeks, in three stages
Foundation runs in three stages: Discovery and audit (weeks one and two), Rewrite and refresh (weeks three and four), and Implementation and handover (weeks five and six). The exact pacing depends on the size of your existing content estate and how quickly your web developer can implement changes.
Weeks 1–2
Discovery and audit
This stage builds on the insights from the Discovery and Strategy phase, using your documented positioning, messaging, and priority topics as the basis for the work. We review your existing website for both technical structure and content credibility, assess your current AEO and GEO setup, evaluate your LinkedIn presence, and identify the most important refreshes. Output: a written audit naming both the technical and content credibility gaps, ordered by visibility impact.
Weeks 3–4
Rewrite and refresh
Website content rewrites, schema markup additions, LinkedIn rebuild, founder messaging document, and the first draft of your content cadence template and 90-day plan. Includes a working session with you to validate the messaging and direction before final delivery.
Weeks 5–6
Implementation and handover
Implementation of the website refresh, working alongside your existing web developer or in-house team, publication of the rebuilt LinkedIn, handover of the messaging document, content cadence, and 90-day plan, plus one round of follow-up questions and refinement afterwards.
When Foundation is the right next step
Foundation is the right next step when positioning and messaging are documented (through Discovery and Strategy, or equivalent earlier work) and the existing infrastructure needs refreshing to be AI-readable and content-credible. If positioning is not yet documented, Discovery and Strategy or a focused positioning review precedes Foundation.
You appear in some AI engines but not others
The likely issue is technical: your schema, content, and structure are inconsistent across engines. Foundation refreshes the infrastructure so AI engines parse you consistently.
Your technical SEO is in place but you are still not being cited
Schema is there, the sitemap is fine, the site is crawlable. What is missing is content credibility: enough authoritative material on the topics you want to be known for. Foundation closes that gap with content rewrites and new cornerstone pages. And leads into the Growth phase where the second half of the reputation engine kicks in – real world thought leadership.
You have content history but no architecture
Years of LinkedIn posts, blog articles, and press mentions, but no coherent theme or AI-readable structure connecting them. Foundation builds the content architecture using what already exists so that it does the work it should be doing for you.
"Jessica has helped us to develop a strategic content approach and key messaging for our executives to use across various platforms, helping us to align our leaders with the most pressing issues in our industry. As a group that understands the importance and value of reputation, we were thrilled to find a consultant who could add such great value from both a strategic and practical perspective."
GM, Corporate Communications, BMW Group Australia
Three options when Foundation is complete
At the end of Foundation, you have a refreshed website, a rebuilt LinkedIn, a documented messaging architecture, a content cadence template, and a 90-day launch plan. Three options for what to do next: continue with Growth, execute the plan yourself, or pause and come back when you are ready.
Option 1
Continue with Growth
The natural next step. Foundation builds the infrastructure; Growth runs the engine on top of it. With your refreshed website, rebuilt LinkedIn, content cadence, and 90-day plan in place, the next step is consistent execution, online and offline – because that is where the reputation engine kicks in and delivers the pipeline you want.
Learn about Growth →Option 2
Execute the plan yourself
The messaging document, content cadence template, and 90-day execution plan are designed to be portable. Your existing team, an in-house marketing hire, or any external provider can pick them up and run.
Option 3
Pause and come back later
Foundation is a complete, standalone refresh. Some founders complete the project, execute the 90-day plan, and decide later whether they want ongoing support. There is no long-term commitment beyond Foundation.
Refresh the infrastructure
Earn the citations
Foundation gives you the AI-ready visibility infrastructure your business needs to be cited, found and hired. Six weeks, fixed fee, no long-term commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime.
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A typical website redesign starts with the visual: layout, photography, branding refresh. Foundation starts with what AI engines and search engines can read: the schema markup, the content structure, the messaging clarity, and the technical AEO and GEO foundations that determine whether your business gets cited, found and hired. We work on your existing visual design; the rewrite is structural, not aesthetic. If you also want a visual redesign, that is a separate piece of work, normally led by your web designer.
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Then the credibility layer is probably what is missing. Foundation closes both gaps: the technical layer (schema, AEO and GEO foundations, AI-readable structure) and the content credibility layer (depth, authority signals, cornerstone material on the topics you want to be known for). If your technical foundations are already in good shape, the content credibility work will be the bigger lever for your business, and we will scope Foundation accordingly. Anything already working will stay as it is
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In most cases, yes, in some form. The Foundation work needs to express clear positioning and messaging, which is what Discovery and Strategy produces. If you have already completed a full Discovery and Strategy engagement, or have equivalent strategic and positioning work documented from elsewhere, Foundation can proceed directly. If not, a focused positioning review precedes Foundation, scoped to your situation, so the methodology has been applied to your business before the infrastructure refresh begins. We will discuss the right path on the initial call.
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We work with what you have. Foundation is designed as a refresh of the content on your existing site, not a rebuild. Almost all founder-led businesses have a perfectly serviceable website; what they do not have is the AI-readable structure, content credibility, and authority signals that make that site work for the new buyer journey. If your existing site has a fundamental problem (broken, on a deprecated platform, or fundamentally off brand), we will flag it during Discovery and recommend a separate web build before continuing with Foundation.
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Six weeks. The exact pacing depends on the size of your existing content estate, the platform you are on (Squarespace, WordPress, or other), and how quickly your web developer can implement changes. Most projects complete within six weeks of kickoff. Founders with unusually large content histories sometimes run longer, but rarely past eight.
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We produce all the content, schema markup, and structured data ready for implementation. The actual implementation onto your website is normally done by your existing web developer or in-house team, working from our specification. If you do not have a developer and your site is on a major platform such as Squarespace or WordPress, we can quote separately to implement the refresh directly.
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The refresh is designed to improve both traditional SEO and AEO/GEO, not to disrupt either. Existing rankings are protected through careful redirects where any URL changes happen, and content rewrites are designed to preserve keyword relevance while adding AI-readable structure and content credibility. In practice, most clients see SEO improve over the three to six months following Foundation, not decline.
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"Fine" usually means the profile is complete and the photography is professional. What it rarely means is AI-readable, authority-anchored, and consistent with current business positioning. The LinkedIn rebuild within Foundation focuses on the structural elements that influence both AI recommendations and peer-trust signals: headline, about section, featured content, services listed, and a recommendations strategy. Most "fine" profiles benefit from this kind of structural refresh even when they look complete on first glance.
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Foundation is focused on visibility infrastructure: website, LinkedIn, content, messaging. HubSpot, or any other mid-market CRM setup is a different category of work, covering pipeline management, lead capture, and automation, that some founder-led businesses also need. We offer this as a separately scoped and quoted add-on rather than bundling it in, because not every Foundation client needs it (some already have a CRM, others want to set theirs up differently). When scoped, it includes pipeline stage definition, lead capture form setup, integration with your refreshed website, and a basic email automation flow.
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Fixed fee, scoped on a call, agreed up front, and paid in two instalments. Each It's a Shovel service is a standalone engagement, priced and paid for separately; there is no long-term commitment beyond Foundation, and continuing to Growth afterwards is a separate decision with its own scoping and pricing. The HubSpot / CRM add-on, where wanted, is scoped and quoted separately.