Freelance Digital Marketing Consultant
I used to write a year-in-review piece for the digital marketing agency I worked at for nearly eight years until January 2025, as their only multi-disciplined digital marketer and writer. This year I’m doing it for myself. 2025 was the year that AI-powered search became even more mainstream, the year Google delivered on its promise … Read more
Damn it. I read just 12 books this year. Last year it was 13. I was hoping to beat last year’s figure, especially when I’ve had one year where I indulged in over 20 books in one calendar year! However, it’s been a year of change, and recovering from surgery in December 2024 and into … Read more
As we reach the final days of 2025, Google delivered one more significant update to keep us on our toes. The December 2025 core update, the third of the year, is currently rolling out as I write this on 29th December, and it’s already causing substantial ranking shifts across numerous industries. Let’s look back at … Read more
Now that we’re just into December, it’s an appropriate moment to reflect on what’s been an extraordinary year in search. November itself brought some interesting developments, but more importantly, it continued to shed perspective on how dramatically the search landscape has shifted in the year so far… Let me walk you through what happened in … Read more
Well I didn’t see that coming! On 19th November 2025, Adobe announced they’re acquiring SEMrush in a $1.9 billion all-cash deal. Now that’s the sort of news that makes you sit up and pay attention – one of the world’s biggest creative software companies buying one of the most widely-used SEO platforms. But what does … Read more
October 2025 brought some significant developments in how search is evolving, with Google’s major voice search upgrade, mysterious ranking volatility that had everyone speculating about hidden updates, and a sobering reality check on AI referral traffic. It was a month that reminded us the search landscape continues to shift in both expected and unexpected ways. … Read more
I was checking the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) just now, looking to see who else was ranking for the term “WordPress SEO consultant, Hampshire”, and saw some interesting AI overviews. This website that you’re looking at right now was cited in the overview, and I was happy to see that it said I was … Read more
September 2025 was yet another fascinating month in SEO that challenged some assumptions about AI search whilst reinforcing others. The August spam update finally completed after a lengthy 27-day rollout, Google made a technical change that broke numerous SEO tools, and research showed that traditional search remains far more dominant than the hype might suggest. … Read more
Well. the summer holidays are over and, back at work in SEO, August 2025 brought us the first spam update of the year, ongoing ranking volatility that kept many of us on edge, and some really fascinating insights into how AI search is evolving. If you’ve been watching your rankings closely, August was another month … Read more
My friends over at Farnborough photo and print lab, 2020 Photographic, have just achieved Hahnemühle Certified Studio status, a distinction that places them among the world’s most elite fine art printing establishments. This achievement resonates particularly strongly with artists, photographers, and creative professionals who understand that the final print is where artistic vision either soars … Read more