I've worked in family businesses from a young age, primarily in newsagents, which gave me early exposure to customer service and building rapport with people from all walks of life. After university, I qualified as a pharmacist and worked across hospitals, pharmacies, and large-scale healthcare operations - both as a locum and in management roles. But I'd been dabbling in digital marketing from a young age, and in 2015 I fell into SEO, which naturally led me to link building. I slowly started building a name for myself as a link building specialist. The pivotal moment came when I was offered a leadership position in pharmacy and turned it down - because I was committed to developing my link building agency and personal brand.
I've always been in a family where immediate family and relatives all ran their own business and were entrepreneurial. So my first experience of it, was being in the wholesalers with my dad, while we were picking up stock, looking and comparing prices, and talking to company reps showing us new upcoming products, and negotiating prices with them!
I've really come to realise how important brand perception is and being a well known brand that is seen everywhere. While being seen as an expert, having the right case studies, having a high quality service/product is of course important - actually having your marketing and brand presence in place is highly important. This is why link building and forms of digital PR are so important, especially in a world where SEO is moving from "search engine optimization" to "search everywhere optimization".
When I see people in my team growing and learning, and achieving things they didn't know were possible. As well as that, getting great results for clients and seeing it turn into actual tangible results. For example, we helped BarBend for over 3 years, on their road to grow their website to over 30 million organic annual visitors, until they were acquired.
I get up around 7am, and (dependent on the day), I'll hit the gym and have a quick workout. A quick coffee, and then I'll log in and say hello to the team on our team channels. I start most days checking in on client campaigns - not just high-level reports, but actually diving into the work. I'll review outreach templates, look at the links we're securing, and make sure we're hitting the quality standards I'd want for myself. I spend a lot of time in team communications - whether that's reviewing prospect lists we've built for specific clients, troubleshooting why a particular outreach angle isn't working, or helping the team think through how to position a client's content for better link opportunities. I'm not just the face of the business; I'm working alongside the team to make sure we're building the right type of links. That will be me right up until about 6pm, and then its back home, have some dinner, and then catching up with emails and final reports for another hour or 2.
I'd say it's my habit of always digging deeper when things don't make sense. Whether it's a client's traffic fluctuations, why an outreach campaign isn't working, or even team dynamics - I can't just accept surface-level explanations. This comes from my pharmacy background where you literally cannot afford to be sloppy with details. If a patient's medication isn't working as expected, you investigate every angle - drug interactions, dosage timing, underlying conditions. That same mindset carries over to link building. When a client's rankings drop or a campaign underperforms, I don't just blame the algorithm or move on to the next tactic. I dig into the data, look at the actual links we built, examine the content strategy, and figure out what's really happening.
I lost a significant amount of money in a bad deal during my early days in digital marketing. I trusted the wrong person and didn't dig deep enough into what I was actually getting myself into. It was a painful lesson, but it fundamentally changed how I approach business relationships and client service. That experience made me determined to ensure that when clients come to me, they actually get success - not just activity or promises. I never want to be the person who takes someone's money without delivering real value. It's why I'd rather make less money if it means I can genuinely help people and ensure they're successful. But there's a deeper lesson that took me longer to learn. Early on at The Links Guy, I had this period where I was too focused on marketing and sales, thinking I could delegate everything else to the team. We hit a rough patch - missed deadlines, quality issues, client results suffered. I realized I'd made the same mistake in reverse - I was so focused on growth that I wasn't paying attention to the fundamentals of service delivery. That taught me that you can't just be the face of the business or just be the operator - you have to be both, especially in a service business like ours. Now I work alongside the team, I'm in the weeds with them, making sure we're building the right type of links. I learned that taking responsibility for client success means being involved at every level, not just the strategy calls. It's probably why we've been able to help clients achieve millions in traffic value - because I refuse to be hands-off when it comes to the actual work that drives results.
People often assume I'm just another SEO salesman focused on scaling the agency as fast as possible. The reality is quite the opposite - I've actually held back our growth and profitability because I'm obsessed with making sure clients get real results first. I think because of "The Links Guy" brand, people expect this typical agency owner who's all about the hustle. But I'm still in there working alongside my team, reviewing links, and sometimes telling clients that link building isn't even their biggest problem right now. I've turned down clients and money when I knew we couldn't deliver what they needed. People also don't realize how much of my approach comes from understanding audiences and consumer behavior, not just SEO tactics. When I'm building link strategies, I'm thinking about whether a real person would actually see that link and click on it. That's customer service thinking applied to link building, not typical "SEO thinking." The irony is that by prioritizing client success over rapid growth, I've probably built more trust and better long-term results. But that's exactly the point - good karma and doing right by people pays off in the long run.
I'm an avid music lover and will listen to all genres - everything from metal to rap, bhangra, indie, grime, drill and dancehall. I'm drawn to music that has depth and meaning. There's something about discovering a track that just hits differently that completely resets my headspace. I also love traveling, but not in the typical vacation way. I'm more interested in experiencing the culture, eating like locals, and learning about the history and religions of different places. When I saw Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam at the Sistine Chapel, I was blown away thinking about the painstaking detail he went through to create it. I spend time learning about leadership, personal development, and the psychology of work - why team dynamics work the way they do, what motivates people. Understanding human behavior helps me reflect on my business decisions and just be a better person in general. The common thread is I like things that make me think differently or see the world from new angles. Whether it's clever wordplay in a song or a conversation with someone from a completely different background - it all feeds back into being more thoughtful in everything else.
Right now, success is being recognized as one of the top link building consultants in the world while genuinely helping clients achieve tangible business growth - not just SEO metrics, but actual revenue. I want The Links Guy to be an internationally recognized brand known for educational content and thought leadership. But the foundation is clients getting real results. When BarBend goes from 1 million to 30 million annual visitors and gets acquired, or a fitness brand increases organic revenue by 50% - that's what drives everything else. Success also means building a team that delivers consistently while maintaining quality standards. I've learned I can't just focus on marketing or just operations - I need both working well. I'd rather have slower growth with clients who genuinely succeed than rapid expansion with mediocre results. Good karma from helping others be successful comes back around.
We don't buy from link farms or recycle the same vendor lists like most agencies. Every campaign is built on authentic outreach with custom-curated prospecting lists for each client, so we're building better, more relevant links. My healthcare background sets us apart - I'm a qualified pharmacist who understands audiences and consumers better than most marketers. This lets me align link building with actual business goals, not just SEO metrics. The bottom line: we focus on building links that drive real business outcomes, not just vanity metrics.
Any client who wants high-volume, cheap links or is obsessed with "high DR at any cost" without caring about relevance. If they're looking for shortcuts or expect me to be a link farm vendor, that's not what we do. I won't work with clients who have serious content quality issues but want to skip straight to link building. You have to address content quality first - link building won't make up for bad content. I turn down clients when link building isn't their biggest bottleneck. If their technical SEO is broken or they have fundamental targeting issues, I'll tell them to fix those first even if it means losing the business. And any client who'll constantly question our methods or micromanage every outreach email. I need clients who trust the process and understand that relationship-building takes time.
Clients first, always. Everything we do has to align with our clients' goals and deliver real, measurable ROI - not just activity or vanity metrics. This comes from my pharmacy background where you put the patient at the center of care. I want to provide a service I would want myself. I'd rather make less money if it means helping people be successful. In practice, this means I'll tell a client if link building isn't their biggest problem, even if it costs us revenue.
I look for people who genuinely care about doing good work, not just collecting a paycheck. You can teach someone link building tactics, but you can't teach someone to actually care about client results. I prioritize adaptability and problem-solving over specific experience. Link building changes constantly - Google updates, new outreach channels, different client needs. I need people who can think through problems and adjust their approach rather than just follow a script. Communication skills are huge. Our team needs to build genuine relationships with publishers, not just blast templated emails. If someone can't write personalized, thoughtful outreach or understand why the targets they are prospecting are/aren't relevant - they won't succeed here. I also look for people who can handle feedback and want to get better. When I'm reviewing their work or suggesting improvements, I need them to see it as growth, not criticism. The pharmacy background taught me that attention to detail matters - if someone gets defensive when I point out quality issues, that's a red flag. Cultural fit is critical too. We're a team that digs deeper when things don't make sense rather than accepting surface-level explanations. I need people who are comfortable with that level of scrutiny and actually enjoy solving problems. Experience in our specific industry helps, but I'd rather hire someone with the right mindset and work ethic who I can train than someone with great credentials but the wrong attitude.
I encourage the team to question why we're doing things a certain way, not just execute tasks. When someone asks "why are we targeting this type of site?" or "what if we tried a different angle for this client?" - that's exactly the kind of thinking I want. I share real client challenges with the team, not just sanitized briefs. When a campaign isn't working or a client's rankings drop, I bring the team into the problem-solving process. They see the messy reality and have to think creatively about solutions, rather than just following predetermined steps. I also make sure they understand the client's actual business goals, not just the SEO metrics. When someone knows that a fitness equipment client needs to increase purchases by 30%, not just traffic, they start thinking differently about which links to prioritize and what content angles to pitch. We do post-mortems on both successes and failures. When something works unexpectedly well - like when I discovered Reddit as a client acquisition channel - we dig into why it worked and how we can adapt that thinking elsewhere. I try not to micromanage the how, just the what and why. If someone has an idea for a different outreach approach or thinks we should target a type of site I hadn't considered, I let them test it. Some of our best strategies have come from team members experimenting with their own ideas. The key is creating an environment where people feel safe to suggest things that might not work, because that's how you find things that do work.
The idea that AI is going to completely replace traditional SEO and link building. Don't get me wrong - AI is changing things and I'm actively learning how to use it. But the hype around "AI will make SEO obsolete" is massively overblown. AI and LLMs still only represent a small percentage of total searches globally. Bottom and middle funnel searches are still very much safe. And even when AI does pull traffic away, if you do the right things with your content and links, you can still be part of the results that AI systems reference. What's really overhyped is thinking you can just automate everything with AI and get the same results. I see agencies pushing "AI-powered link building" that's basically mass outreach with better templates. But publishers are drowning in generic, AI-generated pitches now, which makes personalized, relationship-based outreach even more valuable. AI should enhance what we do, not replace it. It can help with efficiency and data-driven decisions, but you still need humans who understand audiences, can build genuine relationships, and know when to break from the script.
The shift from volume-based to relevance-based link building. Google is getting better at understanding context, which means spam links and link farms will become less effective. Companies will have to move away from "high DR, high volume" and build links more intentionally. This ties into Google's preference for brands over random affiliate sites. Before you even think about link building, you need brand building. So I'm positioning us to build links that align with brand strategy, not just SEO metrics. I'm also betting on the convergence of link building and digital PR. Building relationships that lead to both brand mentions and actual links - even if a placement doesn't include a link, the brand mention could act as a signal Google factors in. Long-term, as AI tools take some search market share, the links that matter most will be ones that drive actual business growth. If you can build links that bring real customers through referral traffic and improve authority for both traditional search and AI systems, you'll be future-proof.
We hired a consultant to train our outreach team a few years ago. It was only supposed to be a short engagement - maybe three or four months - but it ended up being a catalyst for much bigger changes over the following year. The consultant helped our team think differently about outreach - moving from quantity-focused templated emails to more strategic, relationship-based approaches. They showed us how to research prospects better, personalize more effectively, and think about the publisher's actual needs instead of just what we wanted from them. But the real impact wasn't just the immediate training. It shifted the entire team's mindset about what we were doing. Instead of "we need to send X emails to get Y links," they started thinking "how do we provide value to this publisher while securing a placement for our client?" That mindset change rippled through everything we did over the following months. Our response rates improved, the quality of links we secured went up, and clients started getting better results. The team became more invested in the craft of outreach rather than just hitting volume targets. What I learned is that sometimes a small investment in outside expertise can unlock internal improvements that keep compounding long after the consultant is gone. The team took those foundational changes and built on them, developing their own improvements and innovations. It reinforced my belief in investing in the team's skills rather than just trying to scale through more bodies or better tools.
Focus on delivering real results for fewer clients rather than scaling quickly. I've held back our growth for years because I'm obsessed with client success first. It sounds counterintuitive, but that approach has led to better long-term outcomes than chasing revenue. Get in the weeds with your team, especially early on. I learned this the hard way when I focused too much on marketing while delegating everything else. We hit quality issues. You can't just be the face of the business - you need to understand the actual work. Be willing to turn down clients who aren't a good fit. If someone wants cheap, high-volume work or has unrealistic expectations, saying no protects your reputation and lets you focus on clients who'll actually succeed. Invest in your team's skills, not just more bodies. We hired a consultant to train our outreach team, and the mindset changes from that investment compounded for over a year.
I'd be clearer about our ideal client profile much sooner. I spent too much time working with clients who weren't a great fit because I thought we needed the revenue. But those clients often required more work for worse outcomes and didn't lead to good case studies or referrals. The biggest thing I'd change is being more confident in charging what we're actually worth. I underpriced our services for years because I was worried about losing clients. But the clients who push back on pricing are usually the ones who don't value the work anyway. The right clients understand that quality costs more than cheap alternatives. I'd also start building thought leadership content and speaking opportunities earlier. I waited too long to put myself out there. But that's exactly how you attract your ideal clients and build the reputation that justifies premium pricing.
I refuse to compete on price alone. If someone's shopping around for the cheapest option, they're not my ideal client. I'd rather work with fewer clients who pay appropriately than take on volume at discount rates and compromise quality. We're transparent about what goes into our pricing - the custom research, the relationship-building, the ongoing optimization. This isn't just buying links from a database; it's strategic work that requires expertise and time to do right. I've found that charging appropriately also sets better expectations. Clients who pay premium rates tend to be more patient with the relationship-building process and more collaborative in general.
I turn down clients when I know we can't deliver what they need, even if it means losing revenue. I'll tell them if link building isn't their biggest problem. That short-term loss protects our reputation and keeps us focused on work we can actually do well. The challenge is finding the balance. I learned that being too focused on client work without building systems and processes creates bottlenecks. You can't scale quality service if everything depends on you personally being in the weeds. Now I'm more intentional about building sustainable growth - investing in team training, documenting processes, charging appropriately for our expertise. But the foundation is still the same: if we can solve real problems for the right clients and help them succeed, the recognition and sustainable growth follows.
I really admire Gary Vee's backstory and how he built things the hard way. He started working in his family's liquor store from a young age, just grinding it out with customer service and learning the business from the ground up. That resonates with me because of my experience when I was younger, working in the family newsagents. What I respect is how he took a traditional brick-and-mortar business and transformed it through digital marketing and genuine customer relationships. He didn't start with venture capital or some brilliant tech idea - he just outworked everyone and actually cared about providing value to customers. His approach to building Wine Library TV by creating educational content and being authentic, rather than just pushing products, is exactly the mindset I try to bring to link building. He proved you can build authority and trust by genuinely helping people, not just selling to them. I also appreciate his honesty about the grind. He talks about working 15-hour days for years, being in the weeds with his team, and not taking shortcuts. That's the reality of building something real - it's not glamorous, and you can't just delegate everything while you focus on being the "visionary".
Pitchbox has been instrumental in our ability to streamline and track the outreach process over the years we've had it. You can cross check the data, keep on top of your link building outreach leads, and it really is a game changer in terms of a link building SaaS tool.
What’s one resource (book, podcast, etc.) that changed how you work? The book made me more confident in our pricing and selectivity too. When you're oversubscribed, you can be choosy about clients and charge appropriately for quality work. It validated my instinct to turn down clients who aren't a good fit rather than taking any business that comes our way. It shifted my mindset from "how do we get more clients?" to "how do we become the obvious choice for the right clients?".
I do work remotely, but I have a small office that I do the work from, which ensures I get out of the house and meet people as well. I think you really need to, at some point in your career, experience a bit of everything. Remote sure does have its perks, but you need to really speak and connect with people as well.
The best link building team members are probably not actually SEO or "link building" people. I'd rather hire someone with strong relationship-building skills, genuine curiosity, and good writing ability than someone with years of SEO experience but the wrong mindset. Some "experienced" link builders come with bad habits - they're focused on hitting volume targets, using templated outreach, or obsessing over metrics like DR without understanding relevance. They've been trained to think of link building as a numbers game rather than relationship building. Some of our best hires have come from completely different backgrounds - customer service, sales, journalism, even hospitality. These people understand how to connect with others authentically, which is what modern link building actually requires.
That good link building is relationship work, not a vending machine where you put money in and links come out immediately. We're not buying links from a database or hitting up the same recycled vendor list that every other agency uses. We're researching publishers, understanding their content needs, building genuine relationships, and creating value for them. That takes time. I also wish clients understood that we're not just order-takers. If I tell you that your content quality needs work before we build links to it, or that your technical SEO issues are holding you back, that's not me trying to upsell you - that's me trying to prevent you from wasting money. The agencies that promise quick results are usually using tactics that look good short-term but hurt you long-term. I've seen, and cleaned up the mess that was left behind, for clients who went with the "faster, cheaper" option first.
Seeing the direct impact our work has on real businesses. When a fitness equipment brand increases their organic revenue by 50% or a wedding marketplace quadruples their traffic and gets 3X more enquiries - that's not just moving numbers on a dashboard. That's helping people grow their businesses and achieve their goals. I love the problem-solving aspect too. Every client is different - different industry, different audience, different competitive landscape. We can't just copy-paste the same approach. I have to dig into their specific situation, understand what their customers actually care about, and figure out how to build links that make sense for their brand.
76. 1 % of URLs cited in an AI Overview already rank in Google’s top 10, and 86 % rank somewhere in the top 100. Median ranking for the #1-cited URL is position 2. So AI systems are actually heavily reliant on high-ranking web content for their training data and real-time responses - which means SEO and link building are more important than ever, not less.
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