Digital project manager & SEO consultant in Manchester

About Martin

I’m a digital marketing & freelance SEO consultant in Manchester. A lot of my time is spent on project management for a broad range of web development and digital marketing projects… Sometimes for other marketing agencies in Manchester. Usually, this is around the technical end of keyword and competitor research and planning for organic traffic generation.

I’ve been working in the industry since 1994 (almost pre-internet), and running Red Design for the last 21 years. I’m curious by nature and enjoy learning about my clients, their plans and the challenges for their businesses.

Providing SEO consulting services, I’ve learned that the key to a successful project lies in asking the right questions. That not-so-well-kept secret is the key to delivering the right work, on time and on budget.

Luckily, I also enjoy answering my client’s questions and explaining how it all works. So go ahead… ask me anything on 0161 881 9727

SEO Consultant

I am an SEO specialist and love being hands-on with technical SEO work. Building a great-looking website is rewarding, but not as much as generating more revenue for my clients. Doing this through a solid SEO strategy, in a quantifiable way, means my clients can see the value I deliver. I will provide a proper SEO audit… not a free SEO audit. I will plan your content strategy and work hard to improve your Google search results. The goal will always be to deliver more leads and customers, either as a local business or nationally. The strategy and in-page SEO will be designed to make sure you are ranking highly for the search terms we know will deliver for you.

Digital Project Manager

This is my primary area of expertise. I make sure the brief is clear and the delivery is well executed. My experience ensures the business owners I work with receive good value and know precisely what they’re paying for.

Web Development

Digital Marketing

Project Management

My Expertise

I’ve 27 years’ experience delivering smoothly-run web and digital marketing projects, on time and to budget. In practice, providing such a wide range of digital skills means a lot of project management.

My broad knowledge and close network of trusted experts allows me to manage the skill-sets each project requires.

I speak a common language with programmers, PPC account managers, social media experts and all the rest. If they’re doing a good job and delivering what has been agreed, I’ll know.

Those areas I like to handle myself are keyword & competitor research, project planning, and  tracking and reporting.

My Background

I started working as a graphic designer back when most businesses didn’t have websites. And online marketing strategy didn’t exist. Needless to say, I’ve seen a lot of changes in that time.

When I set up Red Design 21 years ago, my plan was to keep it simple and do a great job for a select group of clients. Whilst everything around the industry has changed, those ideals haven’t.

Over the years, I’ve been hands-on in pretty much every corner of digital marketing and web development.

I don’t try to do it all, but I understand how it all works. That breadth of knowledge ensures the best solution for my clients.

How I Work

When you call me with a web-related requirement
…I do it myself or get a trusted and appropriate expert onto it.

Not sure what you’re paying your suppliers & providers for? I’ll tell you.

If you suspect you’re not getting value-for-money, I’ll find out. 

I’ll ask your providers (seo companies, pay-per-click agencies, digital marketeers or developers) the right questions and explain their answers back to you. I’m diplomatic, knowledgeable and, as on client put it… I have a fantastic bull***t detector. 

Unlike my competitors, I don’t charge a retainer.  You only pay for what you use when you use it.

What SEO Consultants do

SEO is the process by which your site is found via search engines.

An SEO consultant helps to design and execute the processes that drive more potential customers to your website and generate enquiries. SEO consultancy is the skill of combining the different techniques that work collectively to improve your online visibility. We’re talking about an SEO campaign. This would include, keyword research, in-page SEO, link building, email campaign delivery, content marketing, digital pr, local heat mapping and online campaign planning to bring it all together.

The better the SEO agency and their work, the more visible your website, landing page and business are. Crucially, you want to quantify the success of these activities, growing your business. As an SEO consultant, generating trackable enquiries is our focus. Good SEO consultants make sure you know what you are paying for and how you can quantify the results.

Where is the best place to start?

A website audit that gives solutions, not just problems…

The pain point when auditing your website, is that free audits only provide a list of problems without giving any actionable solutions. This leaves you feeling frustrated and unsure of what steps to take next. Don’t settle for a list of problems – choose Red Design for a comprehensive website review that provides actionable solutions.

Call Red Design today on 0161 881 9727, ask for Martin Jones and let’s work together to formulate a plan that means something to you and is relevant to your business. You can email martin at martin@reddesignservices.co.uk.

– 8 areas of SEO to consider –

Website Audits

By cross-referencing Google Analytics data and information from SEO auditing software such as MOS or SEO Profiler, we’ll find out exactly how your website is performing. That will include traffic volumes, conversion rates, direct traffic sources including referring sites and social media, and search traffic and its nature. An automated SEO audit will tell us what works from a technical perspective and what needs to be fixed.

Planning

The planning stage results in a big to-do list spread over several months. We will have decided which target keywords to concentrate on and what platforms we will use to attract our audience. We will also have a benchmark and some targets to aim for. That way, we can better quantify the success of what we do and have realistic expectations.

Keyword research

What are your potential customers searching for? And how often are they searching for it? We’ll start with the most obvious search terms, then broaden them out until we have a comprehensive keyword list. This research will provide the foundation for optimising your site. This is a fundamental stage of a good SEO project.

Tracking and Analytics

Once the content is correct, optimised and submitted to the search engines, it’s time to look closely at how users arrive at the site. We also need to understand how they interact with the site, and what type of users, and sources of users convert to saler and enquiries. This information is fed back in the planning stage to form a cyclical process.

Competitor Analysis

What key phrases they are targeting? Which ones they are neglecting? Are they spending money on pay-per-click (PPC)? If they are spending on PPC, we’ll know about it. In fact, we’ll beable to provide you with so much information, it’s spooky! good competitor analysis enables us to pick our battles and get good value out of the time spent on SEO services.

In-Page Optimisation

With the research done, we’ll have the blueprint to optimise your site. Page titles, URLs, keyword density, alt tags and meta descriptions will all be fine-tuned and we’ll install plugins to prove the effectiveness of our work. The way your text is written is now important to Google. Google looks at readability and specifically Flesch Reading Ease, passive voice and transition words.

Local SEO

First of all, This can be done by making sure that you have the right content on your website. Then, you want to make the most of Google’s map listings and local directories to ensure you come up in those all-important map results. One great tool for managing your local search engine results of Google My Business… It’s easy to set up, takes little maintenance and once set up correctly, with a little instruction, you can do it yourself.

Backlinking

Despite what people may tell you, you probably don’t need lots more backlinks. You certainly don’t need thousands of new ones. When that happens, the quality tends to be low and that brings a new set of problems. Quality is the key. Links on sites that have synergy with your business, service or product are great! Otherwise, go for backlinks on trusted directories that have good ‘domain authority’ that won’t damage your reputation.

Most important of all, get an audit of your backlinks so that you can pure your site of toxic backlinks.

Our Work

Here are some useful links and information relating to my expertise if you’re looking for a Manchester SEO consultant

How to become an SEO Expert #3

Another one on how to become and SEO expert…
A Hrefs Dot Com

More info on Brian Dean

…Some more general information on Brian’s areas of expertise and his experience…
Backlinko

SEO & Digital Marketing Expert Brian Dean

Graeme put me onto Brian Dean’s blog a while back. He’s a very high-level digital marketing and SEO Expert…
Brian Dean of Backlinko

More on how to become an SEO Expert or Consultant

Here’ an interesting article on how to become and SEO consultant…
Reliable Soft Blog

So, what is an Search Engine Optimisation Consultant’s job description?

A SEO consultant (Search Engine Optimization Consultant) analyzes data and implements strategies for websites so they are optimized to be picked up by search engines…
Proven Blog

How is an SEO Expert defined, and what do they do?

The web is growing rapidly and so, being ranked on search engines is more important than ever…
Beal Ways Marketing

How to become an SEO Expert #2

Another article on how to become and SEO consultant…
Search Engine Journal

What does an Search Engine Optimisation Consultant Do?

A little technical information on SEO consultants and what they do…
Content Marketing Spot

Another SEO peer in Manchester

Peter is another SEO Consultant. He’s someone I know well and speak to often about all things SEO and Digital Marketing…
Peter Hall at Perpetual 10

Martin Jones – Digital project manager & SEO consultant in Manchester