privacy policy

who we are

This site is seohandbook.co.uk, an independent SEO knowledge hub operated by Liam Hayward, based in the United Kingdom. It is a personal publishing project with no commercial relationships, advertising, or affiliate arrangements.

Questions about this policy can be sent to liam@liamhayward.co.uk.

what data we collect

This site does not use contact forms, account registration, or any mechanism that collects personal data directly. No names, email addresses, or other identifying information are submitted to or stored by this site.

When you visit, analytics tools may collect technical data about your session, including:

• Pages visited and time spent on each
• Referral source (where you came from)
• Browser type, device type, and operating system
• Approximate geographic location (country or region, derived from IP address)
• Interactions with page elements (scroll depth, clicks)
• Terms typed into the site search box

This data is collected in aggregate and is not used to identify individual visitors. Before you give consent via the cookie banner, Google's tag runs in a consent-denied mode that sets no cookies and creates no identifier for you; Microsoft Clarity does not load at all. Ahrefs web analytics is cookieless and does not require consent. Full detail is in the cookie policy.

how we use it

Analytics data is used solely to understand how people use the site: which topics are most useful, where visitors drop off, and how content performs in search. It informs editorial decisions and site improvements. It is not used for advertising, profiling, or sharing with third parties for commercial purposes.

third-party services

This site also keeps its own analytics, recorded on the server rather than in your browser. It counts page requests and a small number of on-page actions (site searches, which links get clicked, and whether the cookie banner was accepted or dismissed), and alongside each request it records the page, the referring site, the browser identification string your browser sends with every request, and the country your request arrives from.

It stores no cookies, no browser storage, no IP address and no identifier of any kind, and it does not combine what it records into a fingerprint. It therefore cannot recognise you, tell two visits apart, or follow you between pages. Because nothing is stored on or read from your device, no consent is required for it. Search terms are scanned as they are recorded and anything resembling an email address or phone number is replaced before it is saved.

The following third-party analytics tools are used on this site:

• Google Tag Manager (Google LLC) — the tag loader used to deliver the analytics tools below and to enforce your consent choice. It sets no cookies itself and collects no data on its own.
• Google Analytics 4 (Google LLC) — page view and session tracking. Data is processed by Google and subject to Google's privacy policy. Loaded on all pages, but runs in a consent-denied mode that sets no cookies and creates no identifier until you accept.
• Microsoft Clarity (Microsoft Corporation) — session recordings and heatmaps to understand how visitors interact with pages. Data is processed by Microsoft and subject to Microsoft's privacy statement. Loaded only with your consent.
• Ahrefs web analytics (Ahrefs Pte. Ltd.) — cookieless, privacy-friendly traffic analytics. No cookies are set and no personal data is collected. No consent is required.

This site is hosted on Cloudflare Workers. Cloudflare may process request metadata (such as IP addresses) for security and performance purposes, as described in Cloudflare's privacy policy.

data retention

Analytics data is retained for as long as necessary to understand usage trends, in accordance with each provider's default retention settings. No personal data is held directly by this site.

your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to request access to any personal data held about you, request its correction or deletion, withdraw consent at any time, and lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

You can withdraw or change analytics consent at any time using the consent controls on the cookie policy page. Withdrawing takes effect immediately and deletes the first-party analytics cookies this site can reach. Ahrefs analytics cannot be opted out of as it sets no cookies and collects no personal data.

cookies

Full details of the cookies used on this site are in the cookie policy.

changes to this policy

This policy may be updated from time to time. The date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the site after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.