Technical/the-foundation
Crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals, site architecture. The under-the-bonnet work that everything else depends on. Get it right and every page you publish works harder for you.
SEO built to compound.
Traffic is easy to count. Enquiries are what pay the bills. For 14 years I've helped businesses get found by the customers they actually want, and reported on it in numbers that matter rather than vanity metrics*.
* VANITY METRIC, N. A NUMBER THAT GOES UP WITHOUT REVENUE FOLLOWING IT. NOT ON MY REPORTS.
Email me → You'll hear back from me within a day.
Hey, I'm Mark. @marksearchvalley
One consultant, start to finish. I keep the client list short on purpose, so everyone on it gets my full attention. Some have stayed 5+ years, and that's the kind of working relationship I'm after.
Capacity for new clients
Email me 01
14 years
EXPERIENCE
02
Agency & in-house
BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE
03
Local → household names
CLIENT MIX
↓ scroll for the work
Entry No. 1 — The problem
FILED · WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS GOYour customers are searching. Too many are finding someone else.
Every week, people go looking for exactly what you sell. They type it into Google. They ask ChatGPT. Some land on your site, can't find what they came for, and move on. Plenty more never see you at all.
- ✗Competitors outranking you on your own product terms
- ✗Traffic that arrives, looks around, and leaves
- ✗Missing from the AI answers your buyers are starting to trust
- ✗Months of content that never found its audience
The good news is that this is rarely a budget problem. It’s usually a “nobody has looked at this properly” problem, and those are the fixable kind. Finding them is where I start.
Entry No. 2 — Modern search
FILED · TWO-ENGINE SEARCHSearch no longer lives in one box.
Your customers ask Google, and more and more of them are asking AI. Being found now means showing up in both, and giving the answer engines every reason to recommend you.
- ✓Rank where they search
- ✓Get cited where they ask
- ✓One strategy, both engines
FIG. 03 · TWO-ENGINE VISIBILITY WORKED EXAMPLE
01 · GOOGLEWHERE THEY SEARCH
#1 [your service] ▲ 2 2,400
#3 [your service] near me ▲ 5 880
#4 best [your service] new 590
02 · AI ENGINESWHERE THEY ASK
↗ 114 CITATIONS · LAST 30 DAYS
03 · THE ANSWERONE OF THOSE 114
→ who's the best [your service] in [your town]?
The one that comes up most often is [your business] in [your town]. Their site answers the question properly, which is why I’m citing it.
◆ cited · your-site.co.uk
one strategy. both engines. WHAT VISIBILITY LOOKS LIKE NOW
no magic. just tools.
FIG. 04 · INSTRUMENTS CARRIED IN DAILY USE
CRAWL & DATA
- ◆ Screaming Frog
- ◆ DataForSEO
RESEARCH
- ◆ Ahrefs
- ◆ Semrush
MEASURE & REPORT
- ◆ GA4
- ◆ Data Studio
AI
- ◆ Claude
- ◆ Gemini
Entry No. 3 — The consultant
FILED · ABOUT / M. PORTERYou’ve already met the whole team.
14 years in SEO, agency-side and in-house, working with everyone from local shops to household names. The job is the same at every size: work out what your business actually needs, put the effort where it'll count, and leave the rest alone.
I take on a handful of new clients a year, so I only say yes when I can already see what I'd do and roughly how long it would take. If that sounds like what you're after, tell me what you're up against.
Entry No. 4 — The notebook
ALL FIELD NOTES →What I'm working out, written down.
Entry No. 5 — The work
FILED · SERVICES / WHAT I DOFour areas of focus. One goal: get you found.
Take any one, or all four, as a one-off audit, a monthly retainer, or a fractional arrangement where I'm effectively your in-house SEO. Most people start with the top-line review and build from there.
Content strategy/what-to-publish
Keyword research, gap analysis, and a plan for what to publish and why. Content that ranks because it answers the questions your customers are actually asking, and brings the right people to your door.
Modern search/beyond-10-blue-links
Search isn’t just ten blue links any more. Between AI Overviews and generative answers, the goalposts have moved. I help you keep up with how people actually search now, so that when they ask, your brand is the answer they get.
Organic growth/the-long-game
The ongoing work. A monthly cycle of fixing, publishing, measuring and adjusting, so the audit turns into results and the results keep building.
Not sure which you need? Most people aren't. Tell me what's going on and I'll tell you where I'd start.
Email me →Entry No. 6 — The process
FILED · HOW IT GOESFrom first email to first ranking.
01 · EMAIL
Introductions
Drop me a line about what you sell, what you’ve tried, and where it’s stuck. A few emails back and forth usually tells us both whether it’s a fit. If you’d rather talk it through on a call, that’s fine too.
02 · AUDIT
Top-line review
A survey of your search landscape: what’s working, what isn’t, and what I’d do first. You see the plan, and a fixed figure for it, before you commit to anything.
03 · WORK
Engagement
Audit, retainer, or fractional. Clear scope, regular check-ins, and reporting that tells you what changed, why, and what’s next.
Every email goes to me, and every reply comes from the person doing the work.
Email me →Entry No. 7 — The words
FILED · WHAT THEY SAID★ ★ ★ ★ ★“Getting Mark on board to manage my accountancy firm's SEO has been one of the best business decisions to date.”
JAMES CLAYTON · DEAD SIMPLE ACCOUNTING
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“We're the most visible site in our vertical, where leads are very valuable to us, and can directly attribute substantial amounts of business to our SEO efforts.”TOMORROW IFA
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“As a small business, the financial commitment was a potential barrier. However, without question, employing Mark has been one of the BEST investments I have made. My leads have gone through the roof.”LUKE WILLIAMS · PERSONAL TRAINER, READING
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“The growth of my business from 2023 to 2024 has certainly been due to a lot of Mark's input.”STACEY HOOPER
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Transparent. Jargon-free. Measurable results.”SAM MORRISON
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Mark has demonstrated that he can tailor his services to meet our requirements, which change from time to time, and budget considerations.”MATTHEW HOPKINS
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“Mark has made huge progress with our website and failing Google Ads campaign, which has resulted in a huge pick up in enquiries. I would highly recommend Mark.”SIMON MCKENZIE
CLIENTS · A SHORTLIST
HalfordsDead Simple AccountingLayla.aiProspect Estate AgentsStrongpointBox LogicTomorrow IFA
There's room for a couple more names. Tell me what you're working on.
Email me →Entry No. 8 — The questions
FILED · ASKED & ANSWEREDThe things people ask before they email.
01 How much does it cost?
It depends, but you'll always know the number before we start. Every site is different, so the figure depends on its size and what the top-line review turns up. Once we know that, you get a fixed quote for the work, so there's never an open-ended bill. Audits are a one-off. Retainers run monthly with a three-month minimum, because search needs a little time to show what it's doing.
02 What happens after I email you?
You hear back from me, within a day. I'll come back with a few questions about your business and what you've tried so far. From there it's a short exchange to see whether we're a fit. If we are, the next step is the top-line review. If we're not, I'll say so and point you somewhere more useful.
03 How long until I see anything?
Technical fixes show within weeks. The bigger gains build over months. Search rewards consistency over speed, which is why the results compound rather than spike. I don't put a date on page one, but I do keep you in the picture: what changed, why, and what's next, every single month, including the quiet ones.
04 I've paid for SEO before and nothing moved. Why would this be different?
More often than not, it's a focus problem. There's always a long list of things you could do in SEO, and only two or three that will actually move the needle. The top-line review exists to find those first. And because you'll see what was done and why every month, you'll watch it working rather than take my word for it.
05 Do I need to be in Berkshire?
Not at all, though it's a nice bonus. I'm in Reading, and my clients are spread across the UK and beyond. Everything runs on email and shared docs, so distance has never got in the way.
06 How much of my time does this take?
As much or as little as you want. Some clients are completely hands-off, others like to be involved in every decision, and both work fine. I'll need an hour or two at the start for access and context. After that, it's your call.
Something I haven't covered? Ask. I'd rather you knew before you committed.
Email me →Entry No. 9 — Get in touch
FILED · [email protected]Ready to get properly found?
Whether you're after a one-off audit, a plan for what to publish, or someone in your corner for the long haul, drop me a line. A few emails is all it takes to find out whether we're a fit.
EMAIL [email protected]
BASED Berkshire, UK · working with clients globally
LINKED linkedin.com/in/mcporter ↗