Marcus Richards
Varn is a specialist SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) agency which helps businesses to make sure their website is optimised in order to rank on Google and be seen in an internet search.
We do this with our wonderful expert team, who are an eclectic group of strategists, mathematicians, data analysts, linguists, copywriters and developers. Our team combine specialist expertise & experience in technical SEO, data analytics, content marketing and paid search marketing, alongside website design & optimisation, usability and development, to deliver great SEO results for our clients. Put simply, myself and the team at Varn delight in delivering great SEO results for all our clients as well as supporting them closely with SEO training, mentoring and consultancy. What we all have in common is an expert knowledge in SEO, a love of data and analytics and a fierce competitive streak that ensures our clients’ websites thrive. Our agency is based near Bristol in the UK > https://varn.co.uk/locations/seo-agency-bristol/
Tell us about yourself?
I am the founder and MD of Varn, and have worked in SEO for over 20 years, starting when Yahoo! was the dominant force, Alta Vista a close second – Google was still in a garage at the time – and SEO was a very different beast to what it is now.
I founded Varn in 2010 as a specialist SEO agency, based in the South West (https://varn.co.uk/locations/seo-agency-bristol/). I noticed that were a lot of agencies out there offering SEO services but without the technical expertise to deliver. My aim was to create an agency who knows all there is to know about search marketing and consequently to always be trusted and relied upon to deliver search engine ranking results for clients.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Hire great people who are better than you are. We have grown a lot the last couple of years and that is largely because of the great team we now have.
What problem does your business solve?
When people search for something on line, 75% of people only look at the 1st page of the search results. So if you are not appearing in the search results, people can’t find your website and you are missing out on potential customers. If you want your website to rank in a search you need great SEO. This means applying technical knowhow to your website ‘behind the scenes’, to ensure the Google Algorithm can ‘see’ and rank your website, alongside content creation and ‘offsite’ activity (your business is elsewhere on the internet) to ensure Google will show you in a search.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Making sure we have a company that is a good place to work. By good we mean: fun, interesting, a place to grow, works with likeminded clients and leaves the world better than it finds it.
What is your magic sauce?
I think our magic sauce is that we really know our SEO stuff. We walk the walk as well as talk the talk. As a team we know our SEO stuff, from technical know-how through data analytics, optimising websites and all of the content and digital activity in-between. This means our clients benefit from obsessive SEO-ers that really do know all there is to know about SEO. We also recruit carefully, with the greatest constraint on our business growth currently being our ability to find the specialist talent and experts who will meet our high standards and align with the values which are so important to us.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We have ambitious plans to grow our business in the next 5 years and our vision that accompanies that ambition is to nurture and develop a motivated and expert team. To care about our clients, our reputation and our clients results by being focused and passionate about the things we spend our time on.
We are also currently in the exciting process of setting up our outdoor Varn woodland office, and you may well find me driving around to SEO meetings in the mobile office we are calling the “CamperVarn”, as we are look to create new exciting workspaces for our team and clients.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Covid has obviously been a big challenge as it has for many business and we are grateful that during the pandemic we were able to maintain our client base and all of our staff. However, remote working certainkly came with it’s challenges and my learning has been how important it is for our team to all be together when we can. It builds bonds, relationships, trust, helps with training and development, project delivery, creativity and also allows us to have fun together. It sparks creative conversations and helps solve challenges that may otherwise have not happened in a ‘scheduled’ Zoom call or email.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We are proud and passionate, have deep SEO knowledge and expertise and truly care about our clients, forming close and happy partnerships & getting the results that matter for them. Our clients range from ambitious SMEs through to global publishing, healthcare and pharma companies. We want to partner with like minded clients and if you want to be seen in a Google search and have an SEO challenge, we know we can help.
You can find out more about Varn at www.varn.co.uk
