All About Lee McCoy aka Get Visible

// that image. That was created by DALL·E 3 - evidently it has some way to go. Or I need to do better with my prompts!

I've been working in the SEO industry since March 1997 - or thereabouts. I'm not so vain to think you'll have questions about where I came from and where I am, but if you did, then here are some personal FAQs.

Please note, I'm not looking for consultancy gigs or to change jobs. I just feel that there's so little documented about forming effective SEO strategies that it does the industry a disservice. Organisations deserve better - and ultimately users will benefit too.

How did you get into SEO?

Back in 1997 I was about to graduate with a 2.1 BA degree in Economics. I knew at the time, with the economy as it was, that it'd be difficult to find a job as everyone else in that field probably had a degree from a more recognisable University that I did. I would be proven right in a few months.

My brother was working in Liverpool for the Echo doing internet stuff. So I thought if he could do it, then I could teach myself.

I didn't realise how much it'd cost to set up and run websites back then. I was spending a fortune on dial-up. And although the logfiles showed I was getting traffic and I could see I was getting links, I knew that wouldn't pay the bills. So I thought I'd best try and get a proper job.

Although I managed to get an interview with a big bank in London, I didn't get it. I interviewed at other places, like Reuters in Tiverton and didn't get the job there either.

Never one to let things get me down, I moved to Somerset and set up an internet and web design business. I didn't mean to. But 'the dole' was soul-destroying. I put an advert in the local paper and two days later I got a call from Barry - he wanted a website for his Rugs business. He asked how much? I hadn't planned for anyone to actually call my bluff. I said £500. He wanted an ecommerce business. It cost me around £350 for Actinic Catalogue. He had hundreds of SKUs. I needed to take the photos, write the descriptions, upload them all. Then get customers. I did well. He referred me on. I rinsed and repeated with a haberdashery business a few doors down.

I realised I couldn't make a living out of this. I wanted more of a test - and a change of scenery.

Eventually I went to London and interviewed with Don from Top Jobs. He could see I was passionate about the 'World Wide Web' and offered me a second interview in Warrington - where they were based. I was skint, living in Plymouth, couldn't drive and it was chucking it down - endlessly. Through delay after delay, a number of busses, we made it up there.

It was the best decision I ever made.

I got the job as an SEO analyst. It was 1998. I was on £20k. Wicked.

What was the first site you worked on?

If we're talking getting actually paid decent money then it was that Top Jobs website. It was a challenge. A company very focused on sales in an exceptionally competitive market - online recruitment. And if that wasn't bad enough the tech stack was appalling. The site ran on an .exe and had a frameset. I looked at it as a challenge.

When 9/11 happened and the economy tanked I was one of the last to be 'got rid of'.

What happened then?

I started being an opportunistic affiliate. I'd build sites and PPC anything. It was great. I was earning a heap tonne. In about 3 years I went from being on the dole: being asked to be a clown at a service station to earning well over £100k a year and writing checks to the taxman more than I'd ever earn - well in the short-term at least.

After a bad run-in with an Algo update (I crossed the boundaries with Expertise, Authoritiveness and Trust even before it was a "thing". I changed my approach. Built a couple of brands around chocolate - one an ecommerce business and then wanted a new challenge. Not for the money, but for the teamwork, the "project". To achieve big things.

After a couple of twists and turns, that's where I'm at: Group Head of SEO for an ecommerce business, based in Manchester, operating in the UK and Ireland.

How are you going to bring those experiences to life here?

Evidently I work for a PLC, and even if I didn't, employer confidentiality exists for those organisations I currently work for so I won't be writing in detail about current strategies - just how I work with others to form those strategies. I'll give useful guidance as to the frameworks and inspirations I use to form those strategies.