Who Are The Leading SEOs In The UK In 2018?

It’s been quite a while since I’ve created a top SEOs blog post, but I consistently get SEO orientated digital marketers reaching out to me to see if they could be included in one of my top SEO lists.

So, let’s get something straight right from the start. The GrowTraffic, TOP SEO list is created using the vaguest of methodologies. There is a bit of science behind it but I’m not going to try to pretend that this is a scientific analysis of who the top SEOs are in the UK. You could probably conclude that this is at best competitor analysis of those competing in the SEO space in Google’s SERPs from a GrowTraffc perspective.

In the past, I used to carry out several searches in Google, using various keywords including SEO, Freelance SEO, SEO Consultant, Freelance SEO Consultancy, SEO Consultancy, SEO Agency figuring out who was ranked highly and then listing them accordingly.

I’m going to be a little more scientific on this occasion. I’m going to carry out the same searches I used before, but I’m also going to use the competitor analysis functions in the various pieces of SEO software we use, including SE Ranking, Moz and SEMRush.

One of the things to point out is when I did this in the past Google was much less local. So I’m going to try to do from a national perspective – which might weight towards London – and I’ll also review 8 key cities in the UK, namely London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Cardiff and Glasgow.

In each of the SERPs, I’ll also consider the number of competitive pages, weighting those websites able to rank higher where the SERPs offer more results and I will also weight websites higher where a page ranks rather than the domain. In addition, I’ll also weight those websites which manage to outrank their competitors without an SSL certificate.

Bear in mind this is only about businesses or individuals who offer SEO services.

The Top op 20 SEOs of 2018

So all that being said, here is my list of the top SEOs of 2018 – in no particular order are:

1. SEO Mark: https://www.seomark.co.uk
2. Jellyfish UK: https://www.jellyfish.co.uk
3. Gareth Bull: https://www.garethseoconsultant.co.uk
4. Clickdo: https://www.clickdo.co.uk
5. Red Evolution: https://www.redevolution.com
6. Martin Woods: https://www.martinwoods.me.uk
7. Mark Preston: https://markprestonseo.com
8. Custard Media: https://www.custard.co.uk
9. Impression: https://www.impression.co.uk
10. Human Level: https://www.humanlevel.com
11. Polemic Digital: https://www.polemicdigital.com
12. Daniel Bianchini: danielbianchini.co.uk
13. Martin Wilson: https://martinwilson.info
14. Found: https://www.found.co.uk
15. First Rank: https://www.firstrank.co.uk
16. Koozai: https://www.koozai.com
17. Dan Ray: http://raydigitalmarketing.com
18. Graham Winchester: https://graemewinchester.co.uk
19. Peter Wooton: https://peterwoottonseo.com
20. Craig Campbell: https://www.craigcampbellseo.co.uk

So there you have it. I’m sorry to say for the first time I’ve done this, GrowTraffic doesn’t feature in my own top 20! Oh well. Maybe next year!!

It’s been interesting, to say the least, and nowhere as easy to come up with as it was on previous occasions. There is a lot more variety in the different locations. But it’s good to see there are some players – mainly the consultants – who have been able to get their websites rankings in various locations across the UK, taking the fight to local search like all proper SEOs should do.

Most of the names in the list are well known to me. But there are a few in there that I wouldn’t have anticipated. Which must be a good thing.

Most competitive websites in this space are using HTTPS, however, there are still a few websites using HTTP which are still managing to outrank their competitors.

Ones To Watch

Naturally, mainly thanks to the methodology I used this time, there are many great SEOs out there who haven’t made it onto this year’s list, yet are nevertheless doing great things, either online or practically.

To reflect this, I’ve composed my runner’s up list, or ones to watch for 2019. Fingers crossed these will be on the list next time I come to write it.

Here they are, in no particular order;

1. Surge SEO – https://surgeseo.co.uk/
2. Candidsky – https://www.candidsky.com/
3. Amit Digital Marketing – http://amitdigitalmarketing.com/
4. Neil Walker – https://www.neilawalker.com/
5. GrowTraffic – https://growtraffic.co.uk/ 

Contact GrowTraffic

If you’d like to know more or think you should be on the list and want to tell us about the good things you’re doing then please get in touch with the GT team. We’d love to make connections within the SEO community anyway.

The previous polls can be found here:

• Who are the leading SEOs in the UK (2012)
• Who are the leading SEO Consultants in the UK (2015)