The technical SEO team behind other agencies.
PR, performance and creative agencies bring us in as their technical SEO arm, for their clients and for themselves. 65% of the top UK agency searches show an AI answer and 65% show a map pack. M&C Saatchi Performance and CCGroup are two of the agencies we work with.
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Agencies and PR in search, right now
Of the 60 highest-volume UK agency searches we checked, 39 show a Google AI Overview, 39 show a map pack and 10 show ads. Agency search is local and commercial: “seo agency london”, “digital marketing agency manchester”. The hardest terms are the big-city ones, with “digital marketing agency london” scoring 73. For an agency, ranking means a clean technical base, a strong local presence and the kind of proof that AI answers quote.
Method: eight seed phrases per sector expanded in Ahrefs Keywords Explorer (UK), the 60 highest-volume matching terms kept, SERP features counted per term. Pulled November 2026.
How agency search got here
Agencies sell search, so every update has been a reckoning for the ones that sold shortcuts. Here is what each one changed.
| Year | Google update | What it meant for agency |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Panda | Agency blogs full of thin posts lost rankings. The agencies that had sold that content to clients lost them too. |
| 2012 | Penguin | The link-building industry changed overnight. Paid link networks became penalties. |
| 2013 | Hummingbird | Google started reading intent. “Agency near me” and “best agency for X” became distinct searches. |
| 2014 | Pigeon | Local results tightened. The map pack became the first thing a prospect sees for “agency” searches. |
| 2018 | Medic core update | Expertise and authorship started to matter across advice content, including marketing advice. |
| 2022 | Helpful content update | Agencies publishing to rank rather than to inform were demoted. |
| 2024 | AI Overviews (UK, August) | AI answers began summarising “what does an SEO agency do” and listing providers. |
| 2025 | AI Mode | Prospects can ask for an agency shortlist in conversation. 65% of top agency searches now carry an AI answer, and the agencies cited are the ones with specific, verifiable results. |
How we work
Technical SEO is the foundation of everything online, and it’s what we’re best at: every one of us has well over ten years of pure technical SEO behind them. We find your problems fast and tell you exactly what to do about them, in order.
What we bring
Award-winning technical SEO is the core. Around it: the strategy to beat your competitors, a group with more than 30 developers to build what we find, membership of the GlobalCom PR Network and contacts in international radio for the stories that earn links, Google Partner status for paid search alongside the organic work, and our own tech that pulls all of your data into one place and makes sense of it.
The evidence
Two agency clients, with the numbers their case studies prove.
Questions agency clients ask
Straight answers before you book a call.
We work both ways: directly with the client as part of your team, or behind you under your brand. Either way, the fix lists, reports and dashboards carry whichever name you need.