Ongoing optimization, included in Starter

Website Optimization Services for Small Business

Website optimization services at Theo cost $69.99 a month on the Starter plan, free for the first 30 days, with the site and hosting included. Theo rebuilds the current site on its own hosting, then drafts new pages and technical fixes every week for the owner's review and refines the copy, calls to action and page flow over time. Owners with a site can run the free audit first and see what needs fixing.

See If Google Can Find You - Free Build a site free and see it first

By Theo. Updated October 15, 2026.

Free audit lists the fixes, no login
Buy My Lunch: 131 to 929 Google search clicks, one 90-day period to the next
New pages and fixes drafted every week on Starter and Pro, with no chat credits used
Drafts held in the Growth tab until the owner publishes them

From $69.99 a month on Starter, free for 30 days.
Rated 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 37 reviews
10,000+ sites built
Your first build is on Theo: see the site before you decide

Website optimization services make a site load faster, show up for more searches and turn more visitors into calls, quotes and orders. Theo does that work on a site it hosts: it rebuilds the current site from its URL, matching the look, and the first build is free. After that, optimization is the ongoing work in the Starter plan, at $69.99 a month and free for the first 30 days, and in Pro at $129.99 a month. On either plan, page speed work, technical SEO fixes and new pages are drafted every week and go live when the owner publishes them. Over time the copy and calls to action are refined, and the work builds toward citations in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Owners with a site can start with the free audit, no login needed.

What gets optimized

What website optimization services include

On Starter and Pro, optimization means changes Theo drafts for the site every week. There is no list of recommendations left for the owner to carry out. Each change waits in the Growth tab (Theo's running list of pages built and fixes made) until the owner publishes it. With auto-publish turned on, changes go live on their own. Six areas get the work, and a weekly email gives the count of new posts, updates and landing pages.

Page speed and Core Web Vitals

A static site to start, and speed fixes every week.

Core Web Vitals are the three numbers Google records for each page: how fast the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to a tap, and how much the layout shifts while it loads. Once there is enough visitor data, Google reports them in Search Console, its free tool that shows an owner how the site does in search.

Every Theo site is a static website served over HTTPS, so no database call or plugin queue sits between the visitor and the page. On Starter and Pro, page speed is also part of the weekly fixes.

The usual first fix is a services page carrying a dozen full-size phone photos that a visitor on a cellular connection never waits for. Theo resizes and compresses them.

Technical SEO fixes

The small things that decide whether Google reads a page.

Common examples are a page title that says Home instead of the service and the town, a missing description, and two headings competing for the same search. Others are a page no other page links to and pages Google has seen but not indexed.

On Starter and Pro, Theo finds and fixes these problems on the site. On every plan, it submits your sitemap through Search Console so Google finds every new and corrected page. A good page Google has never indexed earns nothing, so the sitemap matters as much as the fix.

Pages built for the searches customers use

One page for each search a customer makes.

Theo researches the keywords the business could win and the competitors already ranking for them. Then it drafts the pages that fill the gaps: dedicated service pages, landing pages and blog posts.

A plumber's site gets a page each for repair, drains and water heaters, plus a page for every town it serves. A CPA firm gets a tax season page, and a restaurant gets its menu as text so search engines can read it.

New pages are drafted every week on Starter, and Pro drafts more pages and posts each week. Each page answers one search, so a visitor lands on the answer instead of a homepage to dig through.

Copy, calls to action and page flow

The headline, the proof and the next step, refined over time.

This is the conversion side of the work, which agencies sell as CRO (conversion rate optimization). Over time Theo refines the copy, calls to action, layout and page flow on the pages that bring in business.

The aim is a headline that says what the business does and where, proof placed at the point a visitor hesitates, and a next step that fits how the business takes work. For a dental practice, that next step is an appointment request form beside a call button. A cleaning company gets a quote form with its background checks and guarantee beside it, and a store shows the product itself with a cart.

The post on website call to action examples shows next steps like these on sites Theo built, with the line under each button and the page it opens.

Visibility in AI search

Pages written so AI answers can quote them.

People now ask ChatGPT for recommendations and read the AI Overviews at the top of Google's results. Both tend to name businesses whose pages state plainly what they do, where and for whom.

The ongoing work goes after those citations in three ways. Pages answer a question in their first lines, service and area names are spelled out, and business facts match across the site and its listings. The Boost checklist in Theo walks the owner through the listings that feed those answers, among them Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places and Yelp.

No one can promise a citation, just as no one can promise a ranking. The work makes the business easy to quote.

Results the owner can check

Every draft and fix in the Growth tab, and the clicks in Analytics.

The Growth tab gives each one a summary of what changed, and the Analytics tab shows the visits, Google clicks and top pages that follow.

One customer, Buy My Lunch, runs school lunch ordering and moved its site to Theo in June 2026. In the 90 days through September 27, 2026, it got 929 clicks from Google search, against 131 in the 90 days before that. Impressions rose from 7,500 to 61,700, and average position moved from 13 to 8 as the new pages went live. Those figures come from the site's own Search Console and sit on the examples page.

Who this is for

Who website optimization services are for

Optimization is for the owner whose site is live but not pulling its weight: visitors arrive and leave, the phone stays quiet, or Google shows the site for the business name and nothing else. In Theo's audit of 6,861 small business websites, 47 percent of the 4,633 sites with search data got an estimated zero visitors a month from Google search. The full findings are in The State of Small Business Websites 2026. The current platform does not matter, because Theo rebuilds the site on its own hosting and does the work there. The new site links to the booking, payment and member tools the business already uses. Theo does the search work itself and makes no promise about a position in Google. The decision guide below settles whether the site needs optimization or a redesign first.

Before you decide

Optimization or redesign: which one the site needs

Most sites that get no results do not need to start over. They need faster pages, a handful of technical fixes and pages that match what customers search for. Some do need a rebuild first. Three questions settle it.

My site looks fine. Why is nobody calling?

A site can look right and still say nothing Google or a visitor can use. Look for a homepage that lists every service in one paragraph, no page per service or town, a phone number only in the footer, and a title that reads Home. That is an optimization problem, not a design problem. The fix is a page for each service and area, the next step in the first screen, and the technical work that gets those pages indexed.

Do I need a redesign, or can this site be optimized?

If the services, prices, photos and people on the site are current and the layout works on a phone, optimize it. If half of it is out of date, or the site was built for a desktop and squeezed onto phones, a redesign is the shorter path. Theo builds the new version from the existing site's URL and keeps the parts that work. The plans cost the same either way, so the choice is only about where to start.

Google only shows my site when someone types my business name. Is that fixable?

Yes. It usually means the site is indexed but has no page that matches a search like water heater repair plus the town, so Google has nothing to show for that search. The work is search work: keyword research, a page per service and area and technical fixes, all on Starter and Pro. Results build over months, and the Analytics tab shows the Google clicks as they arrive.

Included

What Theo handles

Ongoing optimization work

Speed work, technical fixes and new pages are drafted every week on Starter and Pro, and each goes live when the owner publishes it. Copy, calls to action and page flow are refined over time as results come in. The work is part of the plan and never draws on chat credits, the allowance spent on changes the owner asks for in chat.

Keyword and competitor research

On Starter and Pro, Theo finds the searches worth winning for the business and the competitors already ranking for them, then plans pages and fixes around the gaps. Because the work is ongoing, the plan follows what is working rather than a list written on day one.

New pages and posts every week

Theo drafts dedicated service pages, landing pages and blog posts for the searches the business should win, and links them from the pages that already get visitors. Pro adds more pages and posts each week than Starter and has more room for bigger changes.

Indexing through Search Console

On every plan, connecting Google submits your sitemap through Search Console once the domain is active. On a move, SEO repair on Starter and Pro redirects the old addresses that still get search traffic to the matching new page, and on Basic each redirect is a chat request.

Hosting, security and speed

Managed hosting and security are included in every plan, with nothing for the owner to install, update or renew. The site is a static website served over HTTPS, which is the starting point for the speed numbers Google measures.

Changes on request

Anything specific the owner wants changed, from a new headline to moving one section above another, happens through the chat in plain English. Photos can be dragged straight into the chat. Small edits use a few chat credits and a new page uses more. Starter includes 4,500 credits a month and Pro 7,000, and top-up credits roll over and never expire.

Process

How it happens

Run the free audit

The audit at theo.site/audit checks the site's traffic, rankings and search health, then returns a list of specific fixes. There is no login, and about 4,000 audits run each month. Before spending anything, the owner sees how much of the problem is Google not sending visitors.

Build the site and connect the domain

Theo reads the current site from its URL and builds a new version on its own hosting that keeps the look. The first preview is usually ready in minutes, and the first build is free. The owner refines it in chat, then publishes. Connecting the domain means pointing both the root and the www version at the new site and turning off forwarding and parking at the registrar. The email records are left alone, and visitors keep reaching the old site until the registrar's records update, usually within a few hours.

Connect Google and switch on the Growth Engine

The owner signs in with Google once, and Theo sets up Google Analytics and Search Console. Once the domain is active and both connections are in place, the Growth Engine switches on and the weekly pages and fixes begin. Growth Engine is Theo's name for the ongoing work in Starter and Pro. Starter is free for the first 30 days, so connecting the domain early lets more of the weekly work run inside that free period.

Keep improving every week

From then on, new pages, technical fixes and speed work arrive in the Growth tab every week for the owner's review. The copy, calls to action and page flow are refined as results come in. The owner's part is to publish the drafts or turn on auto-publish, glance at the weekly email and type any change they want into the chat. Search results compound over months, so the work keeps going instead of ending with a one-time report.

Pricing

What it costs, in full

The ongoing search work is part of Starter and Pro. Basic is the site and hosting on its own. Starter is free for the first 30 days.

Plan	Per month	Ongoing search work	Chat credits	Best for
Basic	$29.99	Not included	1,500 a month	Owners who just want their site live and easy to update.
StarterFree for 30 days	$69.99	Included, uses no credits	4,500 a month	Owners who want the site handled without heavy publishing volume.
Pro	$129.99	Included, uses no credits	7,000 a month	Owners who want more capacity, more publishing, and more room to experiment.

No contract, cancel anytime, and you own the site and its content. The pricing page lists what each plan includes and how chat credits work.

Reviews

What customers say

Rated 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 37 reviews.

Theo is the best in the game. I was originally forking over hundreds of dollars for a website hosting service only to be on the third page of Google search, but with Theo, I have a gorgeous site constantly optimizing SEO and actually getting me conversions. Truly life changing stuff, couldn’t be more grateful

Greg on Trustpilot

Theo is a fantastic platform, not only from a build and usability standpoint, but in terms of real, measurable performance. The platform is intuitive, well thought out, and easy to work with. More importantly, we saw significant lifts in a remarkably short period of time, and the analytics gave us a clear view into what was driving it. It has been genuinely impressive to see how quickly Theo makes an impact.

Tom Drymalski on Trustpilot

This tool is amazing! Truly the best bespoke AI tool that I've come across in the past year. The website design capabilities are tremendous, and even though I've only experienced 2 months of how Theo can support with SEO, the increases in traction we saw were significant. I've been telling everyone I know who could benefit from Theo to start using it today.

Josh Buoy on Trustpilot

Compare

Theo against the alternatives

	Theo	Typical agency	DIY builder, web guy or your nephew
Monthly cost	$69.99 a month on Starter, free for the first 30 days. Pro is $129.99 a month. The site and hosting are included	A retainer quoted after a discovery call. The SEO retainers of two companies in Thryv's roundup of affordable services, as of October 2026, run from $499 to $3,499 a month at Third Marble and $1,000 to $5,000 a month at a company called Small Business SEO, per their own pages	A builder plan, his rate, or a favor, and tuning is a separate ask
Who does the work	Theo drafts it every week for your review, included in the plan	An account team, billed by scope or hours	You, or him, whenever the site gets a second look
Page speed and Core Web Vitals	Included: a static site over HTTPS, with speed fixes in the weekly work	Scoped separately as technical SEO	Limited by the template and plugins, and by who knows how to tune them
New pages and posts	Drafted every week on Starter, more on Pro	Priced per page or per month	You write them, and he may build them if you ask nicely
Copy and calls to action	Refined over time as part of the plan, and a specific change takes one chat message	Scoped as a separate CRO project	Your words, dragged into place by you or him
AI search visibility	Part of the ongoing work on Starter and Pro, with the Boost checklist for listings	Sometimes an add-on	Homework for whoever is willing to read up on it
Reporting	Growth tab, Analytics tab and a weekly email, with Search Console and Analytics in your own Google account	A monthly report or dashboard	Analytics if someone set it up, glanced at now and then
Commitment	None. Cancel anytime, and the pages, words and photos stay yours	Set by the contract	Month to month, yearly, or for as long as the favor lasts

FAQ

Questions buyers ask

How much do website optimization services cost?

At Theo it costs $69.99 a month on the Starter plan, free for the first 30 days, or $129.99 a month on Pro, which adds more weekly pages and posts. Either price includes the site build, hosting and the ongoing optimization work, with no separate optimization quote. Basic, at $29.99 a month, is the site and hosting without the optimization program. The paid extras are top-up credits and a domain name if you buy one through Theo. On Starter or Pro, the Boost checklist also sells optional directory submission packages. The optimization work itself never uses credits.

How long does website optimization take to show results?

The first fixes and pages are drafted in the first weeks after the domain and the two Google connections are in place. Search results build over months, which is why the work is ongoing and not a one-time project. Buy My Lunch moved to Theo in June 2026. Its Google search clicks went from 131 in one 90-day period to 929 in the next, which ended September 27, 2026. The Growth tab shows what changed each week, and the Analytics tab shows the clicks that followed.

Who owns the site and the pages Theo adds?

You do, always: the site, its content and every page, post and fix Theo adds. Theo hosts it, and the Google Analytics and Search Console properties stay in your own Google account. The domain is yours as well, including one bought through Theo, which is registered to you. If you plan to leave, save your text and images before the paid period ends. On Pro you can also copy the site code from GitHub, where you have read-only access.

Can I cancel the optimization work?

Yes, at any time, with no long-term commitment. The cancellation confirmation names the last day of the subscription, and the site stays online through that day. Every page and fix Theo added is yours. After that day the site comes down, so save your text and images first if you are moving elsewhere.

Is website optimization the same as SEO or CRO?

It covers both. SEO is the part that gets the site found: keyword research, technical fixes, indexing and authority. CRO, conversion rate optimization, is what happens after the click: speed, pages that answer the visitor's question and a next step they will take. Agencies usually sell them as two projects. Theo does both in one program, and the small business SEO services page covers the search side in more detail.

Does the optimization work need my approval before each change?

It waits for you unless you decide otherwise. Each week Theo drafts the pages and fixes and holds them in the Growth tab, where you review and publish them. If you turn on auto-publish, they go live on their own as they are ready. Either way, the Growth tab shows each page and fix. An edit of your own is a plain-English message in the chat.

Does optimization cover page speed and Core Web Vitals?

Yes. Core Web Vitals are Google's loading, responsiveness and layout-shift measurements for each page. They appear in Search Console once the site has enough visitor data. Page speed work is part of the weekly fixes on Starter and Pro, and it starts from a static site served over HTTPS. The Growth tab shows each change. The point is not a score: a slow page loses the visitor before the phone number appears.

My site is on Wix, Squarespace or WordPress. What happens to it and its rankings?

Theo rebuilds the site on its own hosting from the current address, so the platform does not matter and nothing has to be exported. The old site stays live until the domain is pointed at the new one. Connecting Search Console submits your sitemap on every plan, so Google can find each page of the moved site. On Starter and Pro, SEO repair redirects the old addresses that still get search traffic to the matching new page, and on any plan you can ask Theo in chat to add one. The post on what happens to rankings when you move explains what Google does with a move and what to watch in the weeks after.