The Manchester SEO scene is polluted with mediocrity. Absolutely rank. We’re the only SEO agency that bleeds integrity, helping you to dominate the digital domain by delivering high impact strategies, content, technical SEO, and digital PR.
Every other search result for ‘SEO Manchester’ sounds the same. Page 1 is lined with empty promises from soulless agencies, luring you in with paid-for awards and industry buzz words. Before you know it, you’re thousands of pounds deep in a cesspit of SEO services that is draining your bank account and your sanity.
Take a stand against mediocre digital marketing with Dark Horse’s SEO elite by your side.
Good SEO gets you seen; great SEO services give your business access to a whole new level of sales and profits.
Bottom line, you need to show Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. This is Google’s little template for how it ranks websites. No authority means no chance.
Organic search is a piece of the proverbial…when you know what you’re doing. We’ve combined 86+ years of experience to establish a killer SEO agency in Manchester, founded in forensic data and honest actions. No smoke and mirrors – just SEO.
Ready to increase your revenue?
156%
Increase in organic sessions for Rhino Safety
46%
Increase in revenue for Luxe Collective
53%
Increase in organic conversions for Gaugemaster
We are very pleased with the services that Dark Horse have provided so far. The team is always available when needed and really delivers on the objectives. We are happy to have Dark Horse as an SEO and Digital PR partner.
The team at Dark Horse were understanding, straight-talking and did not over promise. I would definitely recommend working with the team because of their expertise, good communication style and effective skills in performance marketing.
Delivered on what was asked for, as simple at that. We wanted better ROAS and they smashed it with a 80% increase in all channel ROAS in our first month.
We worked with the Dark Horse team for a year and we built a strong SEO foundation for our website. It was truly a pleasure to work with such a highly committed team.
Staff at Dark Horse are really good at what they do, they helped my business thrive, communicate with me regularly, and provide good levels of growth month on month.
We have worked with the team at Dark Horse for a good period now, and they have driven consistent results for us. The team are exceptionally friendly, and do exactly as they say they will.
I found the team at Dark Horse to be really knowledgeable, proactive, honest (something you can’t say about all agencies!), and great value. They’re also nice people to work with.
The basis of any solid SEO campaign is a strong, functioning website. Our forensic 100-point Technical SEO audit dissects the foundations of your website to find every error holding you back. Then we fix them. Easy as.
On-page SEO is so much more than keywords on a page. Properly optimised content generates better keyword rankings, more organic traffic and, most importantly, more money in your pockets. Ka-ching.
The Digital PR experts at Dark Horse harness our relationships with press and media to target nationwide and industry specific audiences. We proactively seek out opportunities to gain new backlinks to your website whilst reactively seeking out external linking opportunities. Even stealing them from your competition.
If you want to be found first in your local area, a standard SEO strategy ain’t going to cut the mustard. You need to target the local algorithm with precision. Put you on the map. We make you world famous in your area.
An International SEO strategy needs to help Google identify which countries you’re targeting and which languages your users speak so the algorithm can recommend the most relevant version of your website to users in each location.
There’s a lot that goes into SEO website migrations. If one cog doesn’t turn in unison with the rest, the whole machine breaks. That’s a one-way street to losing your organic rankings, traffic and backlinks. Believe us, it’s harder to salvage a website from a botched SEO migration than it is to get it right from the start.
It doesn’t matter if you’re using Shopify, Magento, or any other online store front. Getting your online store set up technically, with all the category pages your users need to be able find and browse your inventory, is the baseline for Ecommerce SEO. Knowing how to execute this with precision is where the Ecommerce SEO specialists come in.
You know your business, and your customers, better than anyone. It’s purely logical that we listen to you first and foremost. We want you to fly high, and getting to know your industry, your customers, and your goals is step zero in creating a bespoke SEO strategy that gets the results you want and need.
There’s no point starting any SEO work until we know what we’re doing. Going in blind is total self-sabotage. Once you’ve signed on the dotted line, we conduct forensic technical and on-page SEO audits to uncover every error and missed opportunity to optimise your website for success. Our findings are then structured into a 4-month strategy, starting with the tasks that will have the biggest impact for your business. We also set our KPIs at the start of the campaign so we know how to measure the success of your campaign.
We use our years of experience to fix the most pressing Tech errors that are sabotaging your website. Error status codes, duplicate or missing metadata and URL redirects are all dealt with swiftly so we can get stuck into the meat of our SEO work.
While the Technical SEO work is continuing to improve the foundations of your website, we get to work optimising your website pages for all the relevant keywords. We carefully craft the tone, length, format and structure of your content in line with an ongoing SERP analysis to ensure your webpages are meeting user search intent.
We’ve optimised your website and increased your organic visibility. Now it’s time to make sure any lurking users are converted into paying customers. We meticulously optimise your website with a commercial eye to ensure that take every opportunity to engage with your audience is grasped and that we encourage them to click that big shiny ‘buy now’ button.
Your website’s speedier than ever and your content is pulling in users left, right and centre. We love to see it. But now’s the time for Digital PR to shine. Proactive link building strategies alongside our reactive ‘always-on’ mentality of grasping every journalist request that comes our way will see your organic presence and authority skyrocket.
Throughout our SEO campaigns, we conduct forensic reports that monitor the impact of our work on the organic visibility, rankings, traffic and conversions of your website. And no, this will absolutely not come in the form of a templated PDF report. We get you on a call and talk you through everything to help you understand the work you’re paying for. No smoke and mirrors. Just the facts. And if you have any questions, we’re right there to answer them.
Be warned, SEO isn’t a one time deal, and complacency can put your hard earned top spots in danger of being snaked by the competition. Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving and the goal posts are always shifting – it pays to be consistent, and our Manchester based SEO experts can make it happen. The team will focus on maintaining your critical top positions, whilst continuously looking forwards and chasing your next target. We won’t let your competition come up the rear.
Henry Smith – Head of SEO
With 8 years of SEO experience under his belt, Henry has worked on both agency-side at Candid Sky as well as leading in-house SEO teams to commercial success, from managing SEO for We Buy Any Car growing their organic traffic by 183%, to more recently heading up SEO at American Golf, improving their organic channel and page 1 rankings by 20% YoY.
At Dark Horse, Henry led the SEO strategy for leading safety consultancy group, Rhino Safety. With a forensic approach, Henry’s multi-faceted (wit-woo) SEO strategy gained:
Leader of the pack
Victoria Roscow – Head of Content
Starting out leading on the on-page strategy for YELL Websites (yep, Yellow pages do websites apparently), Victoria has gained 7 years of experience leading on-page SEO and content marketing strategies for various organisations.
From heading up the USA and UK markets for global e-commerce brand, MyProtein, to leading on content marketing and digital services for Manchester’s not-for-profit organisation, The Growth Company, supporting the GMCA and Local Authorities to deliver key services across the GM region.
At Dark Horse, Victoria helped to deliver a full-scale Content SEO strategy for pre-owned luxury fashion brand, Luxe Collective. Victoria’s work resulted in:
The word is whatever
she says it is
Mitchell Thomas – Head of Technical SEO
Previously working at Embryo, Marketing Signals and Platform81, Mitch has gained 12 years of experience doing the rounds of SEO Manchester agencies and has settled with us. (Because we’re the best – obvs). Mitch has worked across a wide range of industries including car finance, legal, real estate, recruitment, e-commerce, and b2b services to name a few.
Here at Dark Horse, Mitch led on the technical SEO strategy for high-spec care home provider, New Care Homes. With a forensic technical SEO audit to improve the crawlability, indexability, site structure and page speed of the website, New Care saw impactful SEO results:
Will take on all industries.
A machine.
The search is over
The Dark Horse SEO team is known for revealing harsh truths. This is a team of search engine optimisation elites who examine websites and find every error, gap and opportunity. Our ambition is high – we’re not here to make friends. The warm and fuzzies don’t pay the bills. We’re here to right the wrongs in your account and destroy your opposition. One keyword ranking at a time.
We don’t operate on bought awards like other North West agencies. It’s lazy marketing that gives a façade of reliability, but yields no tangible result from SEO. Manchester deserves better. We are vigilant, forthright and meticulous in our strategies that directly impact your bottom line. Read: “more money in your bank account”.
Ready to terrify your competition and drive them down the SERPs? Hell, we’ll drive them out of town, all the way to Preston.
We’re always happy to support and align with your in-house marketing team, from single Marketing Managers to broad teams of marketing specialists. We’re all there for the same goal after all – to make you more money.
We’ll fit in where you need us, whether you need support with SEO content creation, digital PR, or getting the technical aspects of your site up to scratch.
We might look scary, but we can play nice.
To impact your organic performance, we recommend investing in a long term retainer. However, our SEO company in Manchester also undertakes short term projects, including in-depth audits, site migrations and on-page strategies.
We’ll give you the heads up now, though, our clients are usually so impressed with our project output that they end up signing a retainer too.
We love to work with our neighbours and have plenty of Manchester-based clients, but we don’t discriminate. It’d be unfair to deny our skills to those outside the M60.
Wherever you’re based, our Manchester SEO services are available for you. We’ve had clients based everywhere from London to Dubai, and Ireland to Germany.
Expertise, time, resource and cost – there are a lot of reasons to choose an SEO agency in Manchester rather than hire a full-time employee or a freelancer to do the same work. It’s like asking one person to play every instrument in an orchestra – they may be an expert violinist, but you can only master so many instruments, and you can’t play them all at once.
Mostly, though, search marketing is an ever-changing landscape that requires expert knowledge to really impact your organic visibility and traffic. Dark Horse has specialists in each of those verticals to build you a strategy that will crush your competition. The perfect symphony.
When you’re looking for an SEO agency, you should be looking at their experience, their reputation, and their ability to prove the results they’ve earned for their clients. Any SEO agency worth their salt will have a proven track record that they’re showing off above any awards.
Communication and transparency are also key factors to consider when choosing an SEO agency, as you want to work with a team that is responsive, proactive and able to clearly communicate their strategies and results.
Our SEO agency doesn’t just do killer organic marketing; we dabble in the paid stuff as well. You’re more than welcome to boost your sales with our premier league PPC and Paid Social teams who can work alongside our SEO services. That’s called synergy.
As it takes time to reap the rewards of SEO, a typical contract lasts 12 months. Patience can breed profit.
Don’t worry, though, we’re not crooks looking to lock you in unnecessarily. Contracts can vary based on the current performance of your website, the organic opportunity, and how long it will take to see notable results.
Our SEO campaigns start at £1,500 per month, though the fee will vary based on how many hours you invest in. To deliver the best results for you, we’ll recommend a set number of hours based on how long we think it will take to achieve your business objectives.
We then charge a flat hourly fee for those hours, providing projections and options to align with your budgets and goals. Speak to our sales team to discuss our costs further.
We’re not a one trick pony. We’ve worked with a wide range of e-commerce and lead generation clients of all shapes and sizes.
When it comes to which industries we’ll work with – the answer is: literally any. Accounting, fish filters, ear doctors, plasterers, cloud based storage software, crotchless tights… You name it, our SEO agency will welcome the variety and work with whatever industry you bring to our table.
You’ll have taken the first step towards making more money!
We then repeat this process to keep delivering exceptional results
If it’s important to you, we will report on it. After aligning on your business objectives during the onboarding call, we create a personalised report that provides insight on what matters to you, and we won’t waste your time on what doesn’t. Typically, reports start off looking like this:
Not knowing or planning what impact your SEO efforts are going to have and how you will benchmark and measure them is digital marketing suicide.
We take into account where your current rankings, click-throughs, traffic and conversions are and tell you where we see you in 3, 6 and 12 months time with our SEO efforts.
At Dark Horse, data is everything. It informs every decision we make, so we use an array of SEO tools to gather as much information as possible.
Link and mentions tracking: TalkWalker and Google alerts are musts for tracking brand mentions and link acquisition. We also use Roxhill to gain access to journalists, magazines, regionals and more, capturing live coverage and mentions as they come in.
By optimising your website for relevant keywords and ensuring that your website is easy to navigate and user-friendly, you can attract more organic traffic to your site.
When you appear higher in search engine results, you can establish your brand as a credible and trustworthy authority in your industry, boosting sales & ultimately making you more money.
Better website, first on the platter when someone’s looking for your niche.
Because your SEO is poor. There is very rarely one single reason why your website isn’t visible on the SERPs. It could be due to technical issues with your website, such as slow loading speed or improper use of keywords. Your content may not be optimised for search engines, or you may have a lack of quality backlinks pointing to your site. It’s also possible that your website has been penalised by Google for violating their guidelines.
Whatever’s holding you back, our team of Manchester SEO specialists will identify the specific issues causing your website to not rank.
Okay, first things first: keep your cool, panic won’t help us here. Now let’s work on identifying the cause of the penalty. Head over to Search Console and read Google’s notification about the violation. It should give you more information. It should give you more information that you can use to identify the issue, then start rectifying it. You may need to remove spam or low-quality content, fix some technical issues, or ensure your site’s in compliance with Google’s guidelines. It can take some time for the penalty to be lifted, even after the issue has been corrected. So, it’s time to exercise some patience whilst it gets sorted.
SEO and PPC are both search marketing channels but the main difference is the respective cost.
SEO improves your website’s rankings in search engine result pages through organic (read non-paid) means, like optimising website content, link building and fixing any technical errors.
PPC is a paid advertising model where you pay a fee every time one of your ads is clicked. It’s in the name, pay-per-click. Not to be confused with pay-per-view. PC is also in the name, let’s keep it that way.
PPC ads are typically displayed at the top or bottom of search engine results pages, and are a way to quickly drive traffic to a website. However, as soon as PPC activity stops, so will the traffic and revenue associated with it. SEO can take more time to have an effect on your online presence, but you’ll reap the rewards long after any activity stops, assuming you put the right investment and time into it.
A well-rounded digital marketing strategy should combine both, while SEO focuses on building organic traffic over time, PPC helps to drive targeted traffic to your site immediately. Consequently, PPC can help to fill in the gap while you’re waiting for your SEO efforts to pay off, while search engine optimisation can help to improve your website’s visibility and drive more traffic over time, decreasing your reliance on paid channels and increasing your profitability.
Find out more about SEO
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There is no room for mediocrity in the future. We will forensically retire your incumbent agency.
Piece by ickle piece individually wrapped in powerpoint slides.
They haven’t got mortgages so why not take their savings instead of Netflix. Paid Social so startlingly revolutionary that it could make Gen Z vote Tory with Kirsty Allsop as PM.
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PPC results to make you cry tears of joy.
PPC results to make your competition cry. Period. Make a Martini out of them.
