How I ended up here
(and why I'm still doing it).
From writing spammy SEO content as a skint English Lit student to building content departments and rescuing sites from Google penalties. The full story, or at least the parts worth telling.
The slightly longer version.
I'll be honest: when I started writing spammy SEO content as a skint English Literature student back at university, I had no idea this would become a career. This was the wild west era of SEO, when keyword-stuffed nonsense actually worked, but before the tools existed to automate it at scale. Perfect timing for someone who could write quickly and didn't mind churning out content about obscure B2B services for £15 an article.
Looking back, it was probably the best introduction to SEO I could have had. I learned early that search engines were imperfect, that “best practices” were constantly shifting, and that what worked today might be penalised tomorrow. Turns out, that's still true.
From Content Mill to Content Strategy
After graduating, I took a full-time position as an SEO content writer at a UK agency. Within a few months, I was leading the department, mainly because I was the only one who could consistently hit deadlines while maintaining some semblance of quality. I took ownership of everything from informational blog posts to commercial landing pages, and ended up supporting other departments with social media content, AdWords copy, email campaigns, and PR work.
It was chaotic, occasionally frustrating, and exactly the kind of environment where you either learn fast or get left behind.
The MA Detour
After a couple of years, I decided to pursue an MA in Innovative and Experimental Literature. Was it necessary for my career? No. Was it largely an excuse to read obscure poetry and drink in university bars during the afternoon? Absolutely.
But I did get one genuinely useful thing out of it: exposure to very early LLM tools, including access to a remade digital version of Racter. This was years before ChatGPT made AI text generation a household concern, and watching these primitive systems try to create “literature” taught me a lot about language patterns, coherence, and where machines still fall short.
I also picked up freelance work at a local agency in Wigan during this period, because apparently I couldn't stop writing about SEO even when I was supposed to be analysing postmodern fiction.
Scaling Content (And Replacing an Entire Team)
Once I'd achieved my MA, I went full-time at the Wigan agency as their sole content writer. I replaced an entire team of outsourced employees and freelancers, producing high-value commercial and informational content at scale for a diverse client base: eCommerce sites, legal firms, financial services, local service businesses, and everything in between.
This was where I really learned the difference between “content” and “content that actually converts”. Writing 50 articles a month is meaningless if none of them drive enquiries, sales, or build authority. I developed systems for structuring content that could rank and persuade, which became increasingly important as Google's algorithms got better at distinguishing quality from quantity.
The Accidental SEO Consultant
After about a year, the agency desperately needed a new SEO. They'd tried hiring several times without success, and eventually asked if I thought I could handle it. I said yes, despite having no formal SEO training beyond what I'd picked up through content work.
Within a few days, I was identifying and fixing technical issues that SEOs with significantly more experience had either missed or couldn't resolve. I took several campaigns to new levels, including more than doubling revenue for multiple clients.
Two projects stand out from this period:
The Consolidation Loans Provider
A YMYL financial services site with no content engine and everything bottlenecked through compliance. I built a structured content strategy and compliance-friendly workflow that took the site from 3,000 to 25,000 monthly organic visitors, published 180+ articles, and reduced their PPC dependency by roughly 90%. The challenge was building topical authority within FCA-regulated content approval processes.
Read the full case study →The Artificial Grass Provider
A pure content and link building campaign. When I took over, the site was getting around 8,000 monthly visits. By the time I finished, it was hitting 76,000 monthly visits, with revenue growth to match. We built comprehensive topical authority, covering every aspect of artificial grass from installation to maintenance, all properly interlinked and supported by strategic outreach.
Read the full case study →The Boutique Agency Years
After Covid, I wasn't feeling particularly challenged anymore. I'd proven I could scale content, fix technical issues, and drive revenue, but I was working with the same types of clients on similar campaigns. So I moved to a boutique search agency in Manchester's Northern Quarter.
This is where things got interesting.
I initially came on as an SEO consultant, working with a more diverse and complex client base: consolidation loans, insurance companies, manufacturers, eCommerce sites. Many of these were YMYL businesses requiring specialist knowledge of E-E-A-T, schema implementation, and the kind of authority building that Google scrutinises heavily.
But the role expanded quickly. I built out a new content department from scratch, which is now the largest department in the agency. I took ownership of the SEO department. Then, because apparently I can't help myself, I built out the agency's first PPC department (including paid social, Google Ads, and everything else that falls under the paid advertising umbrella). That department became the most profitable part of the business.
I've now developed an international team that I work with and manage, though I still handle key client work directly. Over the years, I've navigated clients through difficult Google updates (including some genuinely harrowing core updates), saved multiple sites from major penalties and indexing issues, and doubled down on data analytics knowledge to provide visual, actionable reporting streams.
What I Actually Do Now
These days, my work splits between strategic SEO consultancy, hands-on technical implementation, content strategy, and team management. I specialise in YMYL sites where authority, trust, and technical precision aren't optional extras; they're survival requirements.
What I've developed particular expertise in.
Technical SEO
Going beyond surface-level audits to identify the issues that actually matter for rankings and revenue.
Schema Implementation
Sophisticated structured data markup for complex sites, particularly in regulated YMYL industries.
Content Strategy at Scale
Planning and executing content programmes that rank and persuade, particularly for regulated industries.
Data Analytics
Using GA4, Matomo, and BigQuery to create meaningful insights rather than vanity metrics.
Crisis Management
When Google updates or penalties threaten a site's visibility, knowing what to do (and what not to do).
PPC & Paid Media
Google Ads, paid social, and the full paid advertising umbrella, built from scratch into a profitable department.
What I work with.
The tools matter less than knowing when and how to use them. But here's what's usually open on my screen.
Analytics & Data
Research & Competitive Analysis
Technical
Content & AI
Platforms
Outside of SEO.
I'm still a keen writer, though these days I'm more likely to be found writing poetry than meta descriptions. I'm interested in great food, cheap wine, good coffee, music, art, and literature. Basically all the things that make sitting at a computer analysing search algorithms slightly more bearable.
I also maintain a somewhat unhealthy obsession with how language works, which probably explains why I ended up in a career where understanding search intent and semantic relationships is half the job.
Less rankings obsession.
More revenue obsession.
I've been doing this long enough to know what works, what doesn't, and (more importantly) why. Rankings are nice. Revenue is better. I focus on SEO that drives actual business results, not metrics that just look good in a slide deck.
Unlike a lot of consultants who've only worked in agencies, I've been in the trenches. I've written the content, fixed the technical issues, built the teams, managed the crises, and dealt with the consequences when strategies don't work out as planned.