Independent. Technical.
Free.
SIBA is the digital infrastructure Southport's independent businesses should have had years ago. We do not charge a levy. We do not have a board to impress. We build things that work and share them at no cost.
20 years
Web and SEO experience
15 years
Organic search specialist
4 sites
Sefton Coast Network built
£0
Cost to PR8 and PR9 businesses
July 2026
The deadline. We are already working.
The problem is not ambition. It is accountability.
Southport has a Business Improvement District that collects over £448,000 a year from businesses with no opt-out. In return, those businesses get Christmas lights, a social media account, and an awards ceremony.
What they do not get: a properly built digital presence. Technical SEO. Google Business optimisation. Page speed analysis. A clear picture of what their levy is actually spent on.
The Open Championship is at Royal Birkdale in July 2026. Between 150,000 and 290,000 visitors are expected. Those visitors will search on Google before they arrive. Businesses that are invisible online will not benefit from a single one of them.
SIBA exists to close that gap. With data, with proper technical work, and without charging the businesses we serve.
Free SEO Audits
A full technical report on your site. Page speed, structured data, mobile usability, Google Business profile. We tell you what is wrong and exactly how to fix it.
Levy Transparency
Every claim we make about the BID budget is sourced from their own published documents. We do not guess. We link to the source. Businesses deserve to know where their money goes.
2026 Readiness
A technical roadmap for PR8 and PR9 businesses to be search-ready before The Open. If visitors search for a restaurant near Royal Birkdale, you should be on page one.
Real expertise. No mystery.
SIBA is led by Damian Roche: a web and SEO professional with 20 years in the industry and 15 years focused on organic search. He is based in Churchtown, Southport. Former British Army, Queen's Guards. Self-taught developer.
He built the Sefton Coast Network before SIBA: four independent editorial sites covering Southport, Formby, links golf, and coastal wildlife. All on the same technical foundation. All ranking and growing without a marketing budget, because they are built properly.
That network is the proof of concept. Before asking a single Southport business to trust his work, he built it for himself and let the results speak. SIBA applies the same approach directly to the problem of Southport's digital infrastructure gap.
This is not a campaign. It is a technical operation run by someone who has spent two decades making websites rank and convert.
The stack
Next.js 16
App Router framework
TypeScript
Type-safe codebase
Tailwind CSS v4
Styling
Vercel
Deployment
Why this stack
- Statically generated pages load instantly
- Structured data built in from the start
- Core Web Vitals pass without optimisation hacks
- No WordPress. No plugin sprawl. No fragility.
Proof before pitch
Before asking any Southport business to trust this work, it was built in public. The Sefton Coast Network is four independent editorial sites, all on the same Next.js foundation, all built without an agency brief or a marketing budget.
SouthportGuide.co.uk
Full visitor guide to Southport. Restaurants, hotels, events, The Open 2026 hub. 999+ venues listed.
SeftonLinks.com
Championship links golf across Royal Birkdale, Hillside, Formby and three more courses. Built in 18 languages.
FormbyGuide.co.uk
Dedicated guide to Formby. The first of its kind. Red squirrels, National Trust beach, village dining.
SeftonCoastWildlife.co.uk
257-species database for the Sefton Coast Special Area of Conservation. Birds, mammals, insects, plants.
How we work
Every audit identifies specific, fixable problems. Not scores for their own sake. Not generic recommendations that apply to any business anywhere. The exact issues holding your site back in search, and the exact steps to address them.
We check Core Web Vitals because page speed is a direct ranking signal and most Southport business websites fail it. We look at your Google Business profile because local pack rankings drive more footfall than anything else for bricks-and-mortar businesses. We check structured data because Google needs to understand what you are before it can recommend you.
The businesses that engage with this before July will be in a materially better position than those that wait. The Open brings a search traffic spike unlike anything Southport sees in a normal year. That traffic will go somewhere. The only question is whether it goes to you.
What SIBA is not
Not a trade association
We do not charge membership fees or negotiate on your behalf with councils.
Not a campaign group
We publish data from public documents. We do not organise protests or petitions.
Not affiliated with any funder
No council budget. No BID money. No third-party with an interest in what we say.
Not a directory that sells placement
We do not rank your business higher because you paid. The audit is free and the results are honest.
Transparency
SIBA is independent of Southport BID, Sefton Council, and any party with a financial interest in the status quo. Every factual claim we publish is sourced from publicly available documents and linked directly to the source. We do not guess and we do not editorialize beyond what the data supports.
If we get something wrong, we correct it publicly and promptly. If Southport BID wants to respond to anything we have published, we will publish their response in full.
Legal and data governance: Privacy Policy and Statement of Ownership
Get in touch
To request a correction, ask a question, or discuss your business's digital situation directly.
damian@siba.digitalNo obligation. No levy. No catch.
Your business should be on page one before July
Request a free SEO audit. We will tell you exactly where you stand, what is costing you customers, and what to fix before The Open. Takes five minutes.