[00:02] about 8 to 10 clients from the co-working and people that we retain back home have we found working with clients in Spain versus the UK which is the most profitable service would you say as an agency to run and which have
[00:15] you found the most easy to execute profitable digital PR easiest is uh actually the Google ads are you using AI at all in your agenty know people paying before chat GPT like 801 pound an article we reduced it down internally to
[00:31] article we reduced it down internally to about you know
[00:43] under3 hey guys and welcome back to the channel and in today's episode of from around the SEO world I've got a guest for you from Barcelona who has been running an very successful agency and it's got a bunch of stories to go
[00:57] through for you today please welcome to the channel CLK ladies and gentlemen hi Charles thanks for having me on always always nice to speak with you so excited say excited for this yeah I'm looking forward to having you on as well mate so
[01:09] started in you want to tell the people a bit of background yes so um how did I get started in SEO I I think like quite a few people in the industry it was a a few people in the industry it was a little bit of chance when I I went to
[01:23] University for a few years like 10 years ago and um got into the course that I did touched on it very very very very lightly and then um it was mainly my first kind of real studies were around web development so I built a few
[01:38] websites uh buil a few websites myself um started like you know playing around with Google analytics seeing tracking seeing visitors come through and I was like okay pretty interesting um then I
[01:51] ended up working at an agency site visibility I got a job there uh out of University and I was actually always kind of worked by myself and always been a bit of a you know I guess uh use the phrase entrepreneur but I was
[02:07] there for three months and then I was just like okay I can I don't need to be here I can just go and give this a go myself um went back home to the is of white where I'm from started working with a few you know local Builders local
[02:23] trades building up their traffic and then yeah eventually eventually started the agency up awesome so you kind of moved to Barcelona how how was setting up your agency there why did you move to
[02:36] setting up your business in Spain do you want to give people kind of the whole want to give people kind of the whole backstory there as well yeah it was Again by chance um I I was on the AIS of white at the time and my my cousin was
[02:48] out here he had just moved out here a few months before me and um at the time and actually just just broken up with a with an ex partner and I was kind of like oh why don't you you know come out for a couple of weeks uh you know get a
[03:04] bit of chill time and and see how you go I moved out here and um you know Barcelona compared to the is of white I just fell in love straight away uh started working at a co-work down here called
[03:18] ATO started talking you know start networking with people and within I networking with people and within I would say 3 to six months had about 8 to 10 clients uh from the co working and people that we retain back
[03:32] people that we retain back home set up an LTD which was uh fine as I was kind of expecting to go back at some point didn't go back uh and then ended up setting up an entity in Spain as well which in hindsight probably
[03:48] would go about it a different way if I started from scratch but it's it's been really good we managed to grow the team here um I think here um I think we're 16 people now uh with few more you
[04:00] know vas and uh you know assistants online that kind of thing so yeah it's it's been good damn yeah so you you also kind of run the SEO sha I believe it's kind of run the SEO sha I believe it's called in barel yeah the SEO sh right so
[04:14] scene in Barcelona considering now you're you're even running events there few guys of you that are based there in the SEO scene as well yeah well we set that up because um there's so many events in the UK and well a lot of
[04:29] places around the world I'm just using the UK as an example because obviously that's where where I'm from and you know when we first started the SEO show there when we first started the SEO show there was no one there's no events really like
[04:41] I know a few people were doing it but the scenes there's a lot of people doing SEO work in digital here but like a few years ago wasn't really anywhere to kind years ago wasn't really anywhere to kind of meet up in network so um we started
[04:54] doing a few kind of regular meetups at an Irish bar in town and uh yes loads of people came they loved it uh I think our first event had like around 60 people first event had like around 60 people come to it helped me meet lots of people
[05:09] in the industry like um from pretty big companies here in Barcelona it's a massive Tech startup City for those that don't know they call it like the Silicon Valley of Europe um and it really is so more and more people started coming to
[05:22] that and then we ran one event with some speakers two years ago now which was um yeah seems timed as flies doesn't it but that was pretty successful um got
[05:34] something else lined up for this year which is good uh but since since we ran that first event I've noticed a couple more events popping up um there's a couple of slack communities that I've seen going around then definitely a
[05:47] scene here and I think just doing some events like this are a good way to bring events like this are a good way to bring together um yeah I think the best party we've done so far well event slarty was the rooftop um rooftop party last summer
[06:03] with semrush that was a pretty good one got a DJ there you know loads of food unlimited drinks it was it was good fun so yeah always good to get that SEO tour so yeah always good to get that SEO tour money right yeah
[06:17] exactly and now for a quick message from our sponsor search intelligence if you're looking for digital PR campaigns what you're about to see should impress you in this video I will show you how we landed in placement on BBC and dozens of
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[06:44] [Music] UK this is how we've done it we simply went to DV website found the latest car driving test data by test center and downloaded the data in a CSV format once we had the data all we have to do is to
[06:58] look at the number of total test test per test center then look at the number of first time passes to calculate the percentage of people who passed their test for the first time once we had the percentage numbers we created a press
[07:11] release with our findings then we went to Rox Hill and found journalists who talk about driving tests and also looked for journalists who write in Regional Publications in the UK in total we have found about 1,800 journalists and sent
[07:25] them our press relase bya email within less than a day our story got picked up less than a day our story got picked up by by BBC Cornwell live wells online and dozens of other Publications in the UK providing our client a tsunami of back
[07:37] Lings perfectly relevant to the audience of the client who is a specialist in learner driver car insurance I hope this video is helpful and it shows you how you can also build links with freely available data from official sources so
[07:52] how do you generate most of your leads in clients your business because I know clients in English so kind of is it mixture of lead generation from different areas or is it one kind of main area yeah so there's a few
[08:06] different um I guess methods we use like preco it was referral referral referral good like we're we're just as big on retention as we are on um as we are on
[08:19] kind of bringing in new clients I've like seen other agencies where it's just you know bring them on churn them out and it's just not not the way I like to really do business so we just put a big emphasis on um you know checking in with
[08:33] the clients making sure they're happy expanding the services and going from there but in regards to bringing in new clients um the events are great they're a good way for for for bringing you know actually building relationships with
[08:47] people I'm still massive on you know meeting people in person I Works online it's fine um but for those in Barcelona I'm always trying to like take out marketing managers for a coffee you know do some events build relationships that
[09:02] way so yeah in here it's in Barcelona it's mainly been Word of Mouth um but for the clients that we've got over in the US we've uh bought in organic leads um clutch was always a good like like review platforms like clutch were always
[09:18] really good for bringing in bringing in referrals and uh I I I saw something about this online the other day it's pretty uh it started an argument about clients and um I mean it works I'm a big fan of
[09:33] it I don't use it all the time but like if we're not ranking in New York for example for SEO Agency New York or if we want to go into a new territory uh doesn't have to be the states like it takes time to get ranking there like I
[09:48] know there's probably a few more tricks that you could probably get it up a bit quicker but for me I'll just if I want to test something out test a new service test a location I'll just push some Google ads into it drive some leads if I
[10:01] see the ones that are working well okay look then we'll start building the organic rankings in there and doing some PR um but yeah in answer to your PR um but yeah in answer to your question to summarize it local it's
[10:14] referrals events building relationships if it's abroad we'll we'll test the waters with paid once we start seeing what's working we'll um you know work on the organic organic channels how have you found working with clients in Spain
[10:27] versus the UK uh um yeah it's it's different it's um there's a lot of things in Spain like the SEO scene or even like the competitiveness in the markets and not just in Spain but we also um you know just Spanish speaking
[10:43] markets we do a lot of laam as well there's still a lot of things that you can do here where it's less competitive that don't necessarily work as well in that don't necessarily work as well in the UK um I mean just as like a very
[10:57] something that we always use but like you know paid links for example um that more frowned upon sometimes in in the UK markets like in in Spain the Spanish speaking Market they seem to work great um digital PR the digital PR scene it's
[11:14] one of our core services like we've been absolutely smashing it for our clients over here on the digital PR side of things like every campaign we run we're getting links in you know top Publications um over here in Spain uh
[11:29] and but over like overall the Market's definitely growing it's definitely already established as well but um I still think that UK uh is just that
[11:42] competitive level above in regards to the kind of strategies and what people are implementing over there um but it's a great market like I know some of your audiences maybe not so much or into the niche site building but like for that
[11:58] kind of thing in Spain like I think I reckon there's some great opportunities if uh if people wanted to get involved I've got too much on my plate to be getting involved with that kind of thing at the moment but uh I've got some
[12:10] friends that are absolutely killing it over here wow okay so yeah there there's newer markets where there the competition isn't as versed in these without a doubt and like you know Spanish is not sure exactly what the
[12:25] ranking is in regards to most widely spoken languages but it's up there um is good as well so it's like you know there's a lot of opportunities there there's a lot of opportunities there yeah 100% so you offer SEO digital PR
[12:39] and ads and this is kind of a twofold question um which is the most profitable service would you say as an agency to run and which have you found the most easy to execute um I would
[12:52] execute um I would say profitable most likely the digital say profitable most likely the digital PR side of things because because with SEO like I know a lot of agencies do it differently but if someone's just going
[13:04] for SEO and they're not taking in digital PR like we do an allinclusive cost for that so that includes all of your content um any kind of Link budget and of course that eat that eats into your margins with the digital PR outside
[13:19] of the software that we pay for which isn't cheap but it's not you know it's factored into the overall costing with the clients like the profit margins are the clients like the profit margins are a lot higher um but it is also the most
[13:32] difficult service to kind of guarantee exact results for every single question we get when people sign up for PR is how many links can we get them can we get x amount each month the way we approach it is six-month campaigns and we'll just
[13:47] say to them you know we'll get you x amount for this budget within um within this time period and then if you know if for any reason that um you know it's not
[13:59] extra couple of weeks until we're able to hit it um but it's hard to it's hard to be you know exact with the digital PR um yeah and the processes are quite
[14:11] nuanced as well lots of customer sign off um you know there there's a lot to it the easiest is uh actually the Google ads it's very very simple um very very
[14:23] simple to manage it's just budgets Network fixed cost based on budget got a delivery team for it pay them per account it's literally just like tick in a box once they're on they're gone and then they're working with the working
[14:38] with the account manager and I barely have to yeah barely have to speak to them it's a lot easier to measure results on as well um it's like put X in results on as well um it's like put X in get x out and uh yeah it's pretty easy
[14:51] to establish the determine the ROI where I find with digital PR and SEO sometimes it's not just about direct return on investment it's also you know brand Authority You're Building um you know type of Publications you get in there's
[15:07] a lot more to it and it's more nuanced than direct return on investment so so you said earlier that most of your team is now Bas in Spain and they're Spanish um how have you found kind of hiring in Spain and that
[15:21] kind of procedure is it different to the UK as well yeah the um the biggest thing actually is that the employment contracts in Spain the uh I don't know if you know much about it but the the taxes are High um and the the
[15:36] regulations I mean it's great for the for the employees but but the regulations are you know uh sorry the like benefits that you get as an employee in Spain are really good compared to um for example you know the
[15:50] UK so yeah on that side of things like the HR side of things yeah it's a little the HR side of things yeah it's a little bit more restrictive and expensive but for me I just prefer that because I like to have people around um we've been like
[16:06] I've been here for five years and I I speak Spanish but I'm not fluent when it comes to speaking with the lawyers or speaking with like you know business speaking with like you know business level Spanish so I've had to kind of use
[16:20] my Spanglish to jump in on meetings and have a actual you know native with me so whether it's the SEO manager a digital PR manager I've always kind of got them on side uh on the sales course to help me negotiate when it gets a little bit
[16:35] more difficult but if you are going to run a business in Spain um even in Catalonia as well like you need to have a grasp of at least the basics just from
[16:47] from the clients that you're working with as well because you know there's uh everyone to be speaking English all the time come across a little bit
[16:59] disrespectful um I think being here for this long as well it's uh you know it's not the hardest language to get the grasel if you actually put the effort in um so I think yeah just just learning the basics gets you a long way from a
[17:12] respect level as well okay so are you using AI at all in your agency now yes using AI at all in your agency now yes um we are so I've I deliberately when you know the whole chat GPT come out I didn't jump in with two feet because I'm
[17:27] just mindful I've done it so many times new technology new service put all my effort and money into it and then you know next thing you know I've got some half build product on the side that I don't do again so um I kind of kept my
[17:43] Feit out of it and kind of watching uh kind of watching what was going on and we of course we use it for our you know speed up workflows processes almost as like a little general assistant we also built a tool um which helps us is help
[17:59] reduce our content creation from you know what were people paying before chat GPT like 801 pound an article we've reduced it down internally to about you reduced it down internally to about you know under three pounds um so it's just
[18:12] a tool that we've built it you know put the keywords in um I've not used Couer yet by the way so I don't know if it's very similar um but yeah it basically just put the keywords in put the internal links in does the content um
[18:27] does about four or five it ations with chat GPT and then what we do is uh we can get human editors to go through it then and um you know make sure that it's completely uh uniquely written so again it's not replacing it's just speeding up
[18:40] the processes um but you know I've seen a few people in the last year they've kind of built these tools with open Ai and of built these tools with open Ai and then the ai's got so good on the next
[18:53] iteration that it's just like replaced it can do what the tool they built does so it's like I've seen it a few times so I'm just mindful not to invest you know put all my eggs in one basket in it yeah I think this technolog is moving at such
[19:08] an exponential rate that you can kind of latch on put all of your you know like one technology and then six months later down the line it's automated what you were doing anyway kind of thing exactly that crazy yeah yeah so so I appreciate
[19:22] you coming on is there anywhere anyone can find you online yeah you can find me on um on Twitter at Char SEO uh pretty active on on LinkedIn as well of course you got minty digital.com have a look at our services case studies for anyone
[19:36] that wants SEO especially in the Spanish markets um yeah aside from that mainly yeah I'll put a link for both of those for watching and I'll see you the next episode Peace