30 years internet marketing experience
SEO | CRO | Reporting
Hi! I’m Stu. I’m an online marketing specialist from Portsmouth with nearly 30 years experience covering SEO, CRO, data and reporting.
Experience where it matters
A bit about me
Who am I?
I built my first website in 1997 aged 17, formally graduated with a degree in Multimedia Technology and Design in 2003, and then kept going. My career has touched design, build and email marketing but with SEO, CRO and reporting I finally found my niche.
Skills and specialities
SEO
Being found online is critical for every business.
I’ve worked at agencies, helping hundreds of businesses boost their online presence and traffic. I also worked at a web design agencies to ensure new builds were SEO-ready.
AI is the latest thing to shake up the industry but still involves many core SEO tactics.
CRO
There’s no point driving traffic to your website if it doesn’t convert.
I led the CRO service at Vertical Leap, and continue to develop it at GAIN.
We use website performance data and user behavioural data to find and fix weak points on your site and in your targeting. We use this to build hypotheses, which we test though A/B experimentation.
SMB and full scale
From one-man-bands, through SMBs, to multinational corporate entities, I’ve worked with them all.
I spent many years working within the SMB SEO team at Vertical Leap (now GAIN), an SEO agency.
I also spent several years working with partners in the property sector (amongst others), adapting and building techniques that helped those sites to rank.
Data and reporting
Interactive reports are essential for understanding site performance and finding what to improve.
PowerPoint-style Looker reports for presenting to the board, single page reports and 90 page deep dives – I specialise in full end-to-end reporting that tells a story, not meaningless stats and confusing grids.
My journey began with Power BI before switching to Looker Studio.
The key to success
Keeping things simple.
Internet marketing is dominated by specialists trying to reverse-engineer how search engines work. This leads to lots of people putting forward theory as fact and using their own home-brewed terminology. No wonder people get confused. Working with a huge variety of websites, I’ve learnt that plain speaking works best. Not dumbing down but keeping things easy to follow.
Analytics & reporting
Intelligent insights at your fingertips
Looker Studio is a fantastic tool for building reports, but it’s often overused. Clients aren’t interested in page after page containing endless tables of data, they want insights and recommendations. Design your reports to show if you’re hitting your business goals – and the steps that lead up to that.
Growth & scaling
Organic search and conversion rate optimisation specialist
My focus has traditionally been organic search and conversion rate optimisation, but I also work with paid search specialists.
AI
SEO, AI, CRO and reporting working hand-in-hand.
Your marketing services don’t start and stop with one thing. Understanding the entire journey is critical for success.
Frequently asked questions
Got questions?
Common questions
Do you build websites?
I specialise in internet marketing – promoting websites and working with developers rather than making them myself. That said, I do have experience of building WordPress websites and have enhanced PHP sites.
Who do you work with?
Through my work at Vertical Leap and GAIN, I’ve worked with sole traders, SMBs, corporates.
What software / tools do you use?
To much to list but to name a few – Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio, Convert, VWO, Unbounce, Screaming Frog, Beam Us Up, Semrush, Ahrefs, Power BI
Say hello
If you’d like to know more, please reach out.