Digital marketing / SEO and AI search
Found by people, quoted by machines
Search has split into two jobs. One still sends you clicks. The other decides which source an answer credits, often without sending anyone anywhere. We work on both, and we tell you what each is worth.
See the disciplines →01
Be findable
Crawlable, fast and structured, so search engines and AI crawlers can both read the page without tripping over it.
02
Be quotable
Clear facts, consistent across the web, in a structure a model can lift a sentence out of and credit you for.
03
Be accountable
Rankings, citations and revenue in one report, so you can see which half is paying for itself.
Ten blue links became one answer.
An answer now sits above the results. Google summarises, ChatGPT and Perplexity synthesise, Copilot answers inside the tools people already have open. Each one picks its sources, and the person reading often never scrolls past it.
That changes what you are optimising for. A ranking is a position you hold. A citation is a decision a model makes about whether your page is clear enough, consistent enough and specific enough to quote. The two overlap, but far less than they used to, and the gap is still widening.
There is also a new way to fail. AI crawlers are separate from search crawlers, and a security setting can remove you from answers without touching your rankings at all. We check that before anything else, because no amount of content work survives a blocked bot.
Classic search
- You hold a position on a page
- Matched on keywords and queries
- Success is a click
- Won with relevance and links
- Measured in Search Console
Answer engines
- You are cited inside an answer
- Matched on entities and topics
- Success is often a mention, not a click
- Won with clarity and consistency
- Measured by tracking the answers themselves
Most of the work serves both. The reporting has to serve both too
Four disciplines, and none of them work alone.
Foundations and access
Whether a machine can reach the page at all, and read it once it gets there. Crawling, indexing, speed and site architecture, plus the newer question of which AI crawlers your security settings are quietly turning away.
Entities and structured data
Making it unambiguous what you are, where you are and what you do. Schema markup, internal linking and the same facts stated the same way everywhere, because a model that finds three versions of your address trusts none of them.
Content worth citing
Answers to questions people actually ask, written in a structure a model can lift a sentence out of. Original numbers, real expertise and a clear position beat another restatement of what is already on the first page.
Authority and measurement
Being talked about in places that matter, and being able to prove what that produced. Digital PR, local signals and a presence in the forums and social platforms models now lean on heavily, with citation tracking and revenue reporting on the other side so none of it runs on faith.
More places than a ranking report ever showed you.
Google organic
Still the largest single source of intent for most UK businesses, and still won the traditional way. The local pack sits here too, and is often the higher value half for anyone selling in a region.
Google Business Profile
Where a local search is actually decided. Categories, reviews and opening hours settle more regional enquiries than most of the work people spend their budget on, and it is free.
AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google's own answers, drawn from the Search index. That is the useful part: the technical and content work that earns rankings is the same work that makes you eligible to be summarised here.
ChatGPT
Reaches the web through its own search and agent crawlers, which are separate from Googlebot and can be blocked independently. Worth checking you are visible to it before wondering why you are never mentioned.
Perplexity
Answers with visible citations, which makes it the easiest place to see whether your source work is landing. A useful early warning system for the others.
Copilot and Bing
Often overlooked and often the cheapest win, particularly for business to business, where Copilot sits inside the Microsoft 365 tools people already have open all day.
Reddit and forums
Quoted inside AI answers far more than their size suggests, because a real person answering a real question is exactly what a model is looking for. You cannot buy your way in, and you can be useful in the places your market already talks.
LinkedIn and industry groups
Not a ranking factor, and still the place where your name gets attached to a point of view. It also keeps the facts about you consistent, which is the part that does affect whether a model trusts the source.
Gemini, Claude and the rest
The list keeps changing and the names will change again. What does not change is that they all reward the same things: clear structure, consistent facts and a source worth trusting.
We report on where you appear, not just where you rank
Client result / placeholder
Replace this with a real number from a real client. A traffic lift, a share of voice figure or a cost per lead reduction all work here. An invented figure will not do the same job.
Fix the floor first, then build the ceiling.
01
Baseline
Where you rank, where you are cited, and what the site is currently worth. You keep the findings either way.
02
Fix
Access, speed, structure and tracking. The unglamorous work that everything else depends on.
03
Structure
Schema, entities and internal linking, so machines can state what you are without guessing.
04
Earn
Content worth citing and coverage worth having, published against a schedule you can see.
05
Report
Monthly, against revenue. Rankings, citations, what worked, and what we are stopping.
Things we will probably talk you out of.
SEO attracts more confident nonsense than any other part of marketing. Here is where we will disagree with it.
- Anyone who guarantees a number one
Nobody controls the ranking, including us. What can be promised is the work, the reasoning behind it and honest reporting on what it produced.
- Buying links
It is still sold, it still occasionally works, and it puts an asset you depend on at the mercy of someone else's footprint. Not worth it for a business that intends to be here in five years.
- Publishing AI content at volume
Cheap, fast, and it reads like everyone else. It gives a model no reason to cite you over any other source saying the same thing in the same words.
- Chasing volume that never buys
High volume terms look impressive in a report and sell very little. We would rather own the boring question your actual buyers type at the point of deciding.
- A doorway page for every town
Twenty near identical location pages compete with each other and convince nobody. One strong page plus proper local signals does more.
- Panicking after a core update
The instinct is to rewrite everything. Usually the right move is to wait for the rollout to finish, read what actually moved, then act on that rather than on a forum thread.
Insights
Technology moves fast. We write down what actually matters.
Artificial Intelligence in Business
Artificial intelligence in business has stopped being a question of whether and started being a question of where. Around 35% of UK businesses with...
Summer Search Updates 2026: Key Shifts for Any Business to Know
July 2026 passed without a Google core update and with unusually calm rankings. The meaningful movement happened elsewhere. Alphabet posted its...
Can You Trust Social Media in 2026? Fake News, Bias and Influence
Social media use has never been higher, and neither has the argument about what it is doing to us. For every person who sees it as the best way to...