All About SEO Essex – Is it a real company?
I started in SEO back in 1997 when the Internet was a dial up service and searches were made in Lycos and Alta Vista, Google was in test phases and even Estate Agents could not be convinced that websites are going to be a driver of their business let alone search engine optimisation.
The Journey Begins
I lived in Essex, just outside of Colchester and the whole journey began with a desire to get a property magazine published and then to also put it online. The only offering for property at the time was the Essex County Standard and that was limited to 40 pages, a bit of market research showed that people were willing to pay £1 for a high quality localised property magazine.
I started to put together a mock magazine with my business partner and two young lads from university, this was well received by estate agents through Essex but particularly in the Colchester area due to the price and quality, also there were many who could not get into the Essex County Standard. We went to the local Natwest Bank with our business proposal and were laughed out as the manager said the Internet would never drive this type of business!!
That was the defining moment, the realisation that business in general didn’t believe in the Internet whilst we were completely convinced it would one day be integral to any successful business model.
What next – Website Design
Within a week we had created one of the first property portals on the net, it was called ‘Your Life’ and it combined property with services such a s plumbers etc. It was successful enough for us to start the business of website design in its own right. This URL is now just a general blog but still owned by us but after 2002 our direction changed but it is still one of the oldest domains online.
After a year it was clear that some websites attracted increasing numbers of visitors whilst others seemed to just amble along, the websites that did well, it was at that point my research into why websites got visitors started and 15 years later it continues in an ever changing world.
On the way I built up a search marketing company which now has 60 people working in 6,000 square feet of prime real estate in Colchester town. Our website has featured in the top 3 for search engine optimisation – the generic term for over 6 years and also page 1 for SEO and search engine marketing. Of course our world of SEO means that there are blips and thats when I earn my corn by deciphering what has changed in any particular Google update and then apply it to our site whilst working a strategy for sacling it out to our clients.
The Early SEO Years – but still based in Essex
In the early days the SEO was applied to small business websites, I still remember the euphoria when we sold an SEO solution for a £250 monthly fee and slowly through success we rose through the ranks and eventually tapped into corporate business.
Things are very different now, I might fly out to Istanbul on a Monday to work with the main Sony development team or I may catch a train to London for SEO meetings with WPP clients or Group M clients who use us for SEO whilst running their offline advertising through these industry giants.
Bad Practice and Ripoff SEO
Along the way I have grown used to the bullshit that SEO agencies blurt out in their sales pitches, I have worked on websites that have cost their owners thousands and thousands in failed SEO budgets and wondered if anything had actually been done.
Yes the industry is rife with mis-selling abuse and lies, of here today gone tomorrow (but with your hard earned markerting money) cowboys, even Essex my home county has seen so much of it.
So Where Now on my SEO Journey?
So here I am, in the short term it will take a while to get profile, brand new domain, no backlinks slightly anonymous (but you could work it out) but here nonetheless and I intent to help small businesses in Essex with a corporate approach to SEO but given away with just my time to cover.
Lets see where this journey goes, 9 to 2.30 I will be working on the likes of Sony but in between and evenings and weekends I will look to offer my services to SME businesses.
What are you waiting for – drop me a line 
I have been in the SEO industry since 1997 and seen almost all there is to see, after many years of leading one of the top SEO agencies in the country I am now helping small businesses who are getting ripped off by unscrupulous SEO companies.
A man after my own heart I think the saying is. I read your post with interest after being one of those people who have been ripped off by 2 unscrupulous companies for the not so small sum of £20k. One company is supposed to be one of the largest SEO companies in the UK but my site was worse off than when they started. I decided to look into SEO myself and have achieved some great results for my own site. Along the way I also helped develop a site for a friend in the steel industry who is now sitting on top of Google for numerous keywords and really became engrossed by the whole internet marketing scene.
Any how just wanted to congratulate you on a great site, keep up the good work!
I really liked this post. You explain this topic very well. Optimized content will help drive your site’s credibility and link building will add page rank to improve your placement on search results pages. Existing web sites in all industry segments will benefit from optimization, driving more traffic through organic placement and links.
I am shocked at how quite a few SEO’s around are not able to walk-the-walk! We’re currently searching for another experienced SEO and are having a tough time locating somebody that can not simply summarize a strategy, but additionally execute it on their own. Plenty of folks can provide advice, but very few can in fact provide the alterations to a site.