Central Perk: Changes at SEOptimise

vineri, 31 august 2012

Changes at SEOptimise

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 08:57 AM PDT

Although I wouldn't usually use the blog for this, I thought I'd give you a quick update on the recent changes here at SEOptimise.

As you may have heard, my co-founder, Kevin Gibbons has moved on to pastures new. I'm sure Kevin will make a great success of his new business, and it leaves SEOptimise in a strong position as it continues to forge forward under the key Oxford team.

SEOptimise was formed in 2007 when Kevin and I started to work together. We brought together different skill sets that complemented each other and enabled us to grow quickly from a couple of desks in my spare bedroom to offices in multiple locations, working with blue chip organisations.

As part of this growth, we opened an office in London in December 2011 designed to work as a satellite office and complement the existing team in Oxford. This London office formed Kevin's new company. Two people, with the addition of a third in January, were based in this office, while the core organisation remained in Oxford. At the time, this was an obvious move for the company, and one we will review again in the near future.

In the short-term, though, we decided to sell our London operation to Kevin, allowing SEOptimise to focus on our core skills and clients, the deal meant that we retained the majority of our business and the balance sheet didn't particularly suffer. As a business, we trade at some of our highest levels ever, and our ambition not just to continue to grow the business but to continue to lead the industry in best practise and quality, is greater than ever.

It's a parting of the ways that leaves us all in good shape. The experienced core members of the team remain with us, while our dedication to providing the best possible service for our clients is stronger than ever. While we don't believe in buzzwords and bandwagons, our focus has always been and always will be on creating the very best bespoke campaigns, that we adapt to the ever-changing market to get our clients the lasting results they want.

So, what are the key plans for us as a business moving forward? First and foremost, we've become even more focused on delivering the best service in the industry, continually reviewing what we offer to ensure that our clients get nothing but the very best for a long time to come. As part of this, we've invested even more in software, having already been one of the largest software investors in the industry, as well as developing our strategic relationships with the industry's best software providers, including becoming a Linkdex partner.

We've also invested in our PPC service by employing external consultants to assess and help us to develop our current offering, and we've done the same, utilising the experience within our own team for some of our other services, including technical SEO, content, link building and outreach. We've come up with new ways of approaching the development of our services, which was taking too long to complete prior to the London office sale, and we've started to implement structures to further improve the award-winning SEOptimise blog.

Another significant change is our increased focus on staff development. People are an agency's most important resource, and staff development has always been a key focus for me. The changes we've undergone have allowed us to put new processes in place, one of which is a new structure to the working week, with four days focused on client work, and one day a week for staff to work on personal development and company development projects. We've already grown as a business, with a number of client wins as well as recruiting two new members of staff , with a further two new recruits who will be joining the team during September.

And finally, we've been really busy, and really enjoying the progress we're making! The changes have been very positive for the company and morale is the highest it's been for a long time as we look forward to the exciting developments that lie ahead.

On that note, would you like to join us at this exciting time? With our new and improved structure, we're able to be more innovative as a company, and we're always looking to bring talented people into the team who can help us continue to move forward as a company. You can find current vacancies on our Careers page. If you don't see a role that suits you, but you think you can contribute to us moving forward, send me an email or pick up the phone!