Off-Page SEO Only: How We Got The Chippy Paignton Ranking Without Touching Their Website

Here's a scenario most SEO agencies would politely decline: a client wants to rank for competitive local search terms but won't hand over access to their website. The site stays in-house. You get zero control over on-page elements, technical SEO, content, metadata - nothing. Good luck with that, right?

That's precisely the brief we took on with The Chippy Paignton, a traditional fish and chip shop on Seaway Road in the heart of the English Riviera. They came to us primarily for social media management, but wanted to see improvements in their Google visibility. The catch? Their website remained firmly under their own control.

Let's be clear about what we were up against. The Chippy operates in one of the most saturated local markets imaginable. Paignton - like most British seaside towns - has chip shops seemingly every few metres. The competition isn't just fierce; it's relentless. Established names with years of reviews, prime locations, and fully optimised websites all competing for the same handful of Google positions.

Without website access, the entire playbook of traditional SEO goes out the window. No title tag optimisation. No schema markup. No content strategy. No internal linking. No page speed improvements. No technical audits. Nothing. We had to work exclusively with off-page signals, which in isolation is almost unheard of as a complete SEO strategy.

The target was straightforward enough: rank for "best chip shop in Paignton" - a high-intent search query that directly drives footfall and orders. But achieving it through off-page work alone? That's a different proposition entirely.

We approached this methodically, building authority and relevance through every channel available outside the client's own domain. The strategy combined several interconnected elements that, individually, might seem insufficient but together created genuine momentum.

First came citation building - and not just the obvious directories. We ensured The Chippy appeared consistently across local business listings, food directories, tourism sites, and regional guides. Consistency was paramount: same name, address, phone number, and business categories everywhere. This established a foundation of trust signals for Google's local algorithm.

Reviews formed the second pillar. The Chippy already had decent Google reviews, but we expanded their presence onto platforms that wouldn't ordinarily be the first choice for a takeaway. TripAdvisor was obvious given Paignton's tourist trade, but we also encouraged presence on Facebook recommendations, Yelp, and niche food review sites. Each platform added another layer of social proof and created additional opportunities for the business to appear in search results.

The third element was perhaps the most interesting: AI and large language model artefacts. As search increasingly incorporates AI-generated answers and summaries, businesses need presence in the training data and real-time sources these systems draw upon. We created content and secured mentions designed specifically to surface when AI tools answer queries about eating in Paignton.

Finally, we secured guest posts and third-party content placements. Local food blogs, Devon tourism articles, "best of" roundups - anywhere we could get The Chippy mentioned with contextual relevance and a link back. Each piece added topical authority and referral potential whilst building the backlink profile that Google still relies upon for ranking decisions.

The results speak for themselves. Search "best chip shop in Paignton" on Google and you'll find The Chippy sitting in fourth position in the organic results. More importantly, they're solidly placed in the local map pack - the three-business listing that appears above organic results and captures the majority of clicks for local intent searches.

There's a particularly satisfying detail here: The Chippy now ranks directly above their main competitor located on the same street. In local SEO, that kind of positioning is worth its weight in battered cod. When someone searches for the best chippy in town and sees you above your nearest rival, that's a conversion advantage money can't easily buy.

All of this achieved without touching a single element of their website. No meta descriptions tweaked. No content added. No technical fixes implemented. Pure off-page SEO, executed consistently over time.

We're not suggesting that off-page only SEO should become standard practice. Given the choice, we'd always want website access to deliver the full range of optimisation opportunities. On-page and off-page work best together, reinforcing each other's signals.

But this case demonstrates something important: businesses with limited resources or technical constraints aren't locked out of search visibility. The fundamentals of local SEO - relevance, prominence, and proximity - can be influenced through external factors alone when approached systematically.

For The Chippy Paignton, the constraint became an opportunity to prove what's achievable through focused off-page work. Their social media remains vibrant, their reviews continue growing, and their Google visibility keeps driving customers through the door. Sometimes limitations force creative solutions that end up working better than the conventional approach.

If you're running a local business and struggling to make headway on Google - whether you've got website access or not - there's more available than you might think. Drop us a message and let's see what's achievable for your situation.