Jake Ward

Started an SEO agency in 2019. Making $20M/yr for Contact.so clients. Also building: Mentions.so Byword.ai Kleo.so

I’m 27 with 4 businesses and no home.

Here’s how I got here:

Age 0-15:

Spent early life growing up in a hippie commune.

Raised by an incredible single mother who wore both hats. Gave everything to support me.

Overly shy and didn’t speak much.

Seen as a problem by a teacher who suggested there was something wrong with me.

Age 16:

First job stacking supermarket shelves.

Completed high school with bang-average grades.

Started sixth form college.

Age 17:

Quit sixth form college after 3 months due to illness.

Doctor said I was 24 hours away from dying.

Spent my 17th birthday in hospital, tubes everywhere.

Became an apprentice at a print marketing agency. Learnt my way around Adobe’s design suite.

Started doing bits of design work on the side.

Age 18-19:

Discovered search marketing to help get more clients for the print marketing agency.

Became obsessed with SEO. Spent my free time messing around with the websites I built.

Age 20:

Wanted to take marketing more seriously. Quit my job to start a marketing degree.

Quit after 2 weeks.

Started an apprenticeship at an SEO agency where I managed 25 clients and attended college part-time.

Quit after 9 months.

Realised traditional education sucks. I learnt 100x more (and quicker) through self-education.

Went all-in on learning and building whilst living at home with my mum and 2 young siblings.

£0 income.

Age 21:

Got my first 2 freelancing clients on Upwork. They referred me to other clients.

Built a 6-figure business by the end of the year.

Age 22-23:

Started a podcast side project and quickly reached 300,000 listeners per month. Sold it for 5 figures.

Bought and sold 5 websites.

Maxed out my freelancing capacity.

Age 24:

Founded Content Growth and built a team to help companies turn their blog into a 7-figure sales channel.

Started posting on LinkedIn.

Grew revenue by over 200% in 6 months.

Age 25:

Co-founded Byword and launched a platform to help marketers generate articles at scale for SEO.

Sold my belongings, moved out of London and started travelling the world.

Merged Content Growth with Contact Studios to take the SEO agency to the next level.

Helped my mum quit her 15-year corporate job.

Age 26:

Lived out of a suitcase and travelled around 16 countries.

Grown the userbase of my SaaS tools to over 130,000.

Helped multiple unicorn companies scale their SEO with our 25-person team at Contact.

Age 27:

Continuing to levelling up, exploring, following my curiosities, collaborating with great people, and helping family and friends along the way.

Founder

We help software companies get more qualified traffic, sales and revenue through conversion-focused SEO and content marketing. Turn your blog into a 6 figure sales channel.

"I don't know how to do SEO in 2026"

Start from level 1 in The New SEO Game:

SEO isn't just Google rankings anymore.

It's now "Search Everywhere Optimisation".

Reframe your “New SEO” project as a game, and you'll become addicted to levelling up.

Level 1: Traditional SEO

- Fix technical problems killing your rankings
- Research keywords and target quick wins
- Optimise on-page elements (titles, content)
- Earn quality backlinks through outreach and PR

Level 2: AI Search Optimisation

- Format content so AI can parse it easily
- Build pages that AI platforms want to cite
- Structure information for machine consumption
- Test how your brand appears in AI search results

Level 3: Paid Search Visibility

- Run Google Ads for high-intent keywords
- Target competitor terms with YouTube Search Ads
- Capture Bing traffic through Microsoft Ads
- Measure paid performance across every platform

Level 4: LLM Answer SEO

- Produce authoritative content LLMs trust
- Build a knowledge base for AI training data
- Position your brand as the definitive source
- Monitor brand mentions in LLMs with Mentions

Level 5: Brand Authority SEO

- Get unlinked brand mentions across the web
- Feature in industry roundups and expert lists
- Build brand recognition without traditional backlinks
- Track brand mention volume and sentiment

Level 6: Community SEO

- Provide value in relevant Reddit threads
- Share expertise on Quora in your space
- Engage in Slack communities and Discord servers
- Build reputation in industry forums and groups

Level 7: Parasite SEO

- Repurpose content on Medium and LinkedIn Pulse
- Publish beehiiv newsletters to rank in Google
- Guest post on high-authority platforms/websites
- Leverage existing domain authority for quick rankings

Level 8: Platform-Specific SEO

- Optimise for Amazon search if selling products
- Focus on YouTube SEO for video content
- Master TikTok's algorithm for short-form content
- Optimise App Store listings for apps/extensions

Level 9: Topic Domination

- Own conversations across ALL channels
- Create content ecosystems to reinforce each platform
- Become the go-to expert mentioned everywhere
- Monitor and maintain authority across all channels

Completed all levels?

SEO is constantly evolving going into 2026.

Stay ahead or get left behind.

PS. Need help levelling up? We'll help build and execute your “New SEO” domination strategy.

Book a call: https://www.contact.so/

I analysed 66,796 sites to understand where their SEO traffic came from last month.

(You can too at chatgpt-vs-google .com)

Google still dominates at 40.31%.
ChatGPT is just 0.24%.

But here's what most people miss:

Traffic isn't the ONLY metric that matters anymore.

Zero-click searches are everywhere now.

ChatGPT processes 2.5 billion prompts every day, but barely any of them send direct traffic.

AI Overviews now appear in 60% of U.S. searches. And position 1 CTR dropped by -34.5% when AI Overviews appear.

People aren't clicking through like they used to.

They're getting answers directly from AI, and that creates a massive blind spot.

Your brand could be mentioned 10,000 times in ChatGPT responses.

Your product could be recommended in Claude conversations.

Your company could appear in Google AI Mode answers.

None of that shows up in your traffic data.

That's why I've been building Mentions for the past few months. I needed a way to track this visibility.

Because the future of SEO isn't just ranking on Google.

It's being visible wherever people ask questions.

SERPsculpt

Co-Founder & SEO Director

Contact Studios

Senior SEO Strategist 

Content Growth

SEO Strategist

SEO Specialist

Inspiration Digital Marketing

Led Content & SEO team in implementing strategies, keyword research & content creation across different awareness levels of audience for a portfolio of clients in B2B & Ecom.

Content

- Provide ongoing training & up-skilling for both colleagues & clients. 
- Provide content briefs & delegation to team.
- Drive high intent traffic for a variety of clients leading to increased conversions & ultimately revenue.
- Regular content updates and editing - using GSC & GA to prioritise.
- Build backlinks with link-worthy content & targeted outreach.
- Social Media distribution for key clients content - mainly LinkedIn for B2B.

SEO

- Conducted SEO audits.
- Ran SEO Experiments
- Technical SEO fixes  - schema reviews, pagination, canonicals etc.
-  Use tools such as Google Analytics, Search Console, Ahrefs, Answer the Public, Also Asked, frase.io, Jarvis, sitebulb etc for content & SEO. 


Direct Response & Copywriting

- Managed Paid for 1 B2B client (Google search & LinkedIn ads) increasing conversions & performance.
- Copywriting: emails, landing pages, product pages etc.
- Engaged in up-sell copywriting on site for e-commerce clients.

SEO & Content Marketer

English house Monteverde 

English Second Language Teacher

NĀDŪR

- Involved with the launch of the company and extensive product development.
- Managed deadlines for product development process including scheduling raw material deliveries, packaging and components to meet production deadlines.

- Pre and post-launch ran Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing & brand awareness campaigns.
- This lead to a growth in social audience and sign-ups.
- Liaised with Instagram Influencers, Bloggers and engaged in other PR activities.
- Coordinated on Amazon Seller central, FBA along with Shopify site.

- Assisted with any requests from NPD Manager and the Lab Manager
- Liaised with external testing laboratories and managed test result information necessary for the compilation of regulatory documents
- Managed campaign samples, new products and promotion timings to PR calendar dates and deadlines. 
- Assisted new product information research, including ingredient sourcing, cost etc. Shipping, Freight & payment Co-ordination.

Marketing Associate

Parkswood Tree Centre

I worked with this company as part of a Christmas sales campaign. 

Sales increased by 31% from previous year.

Implemented through Facebook advertising, SEO optimization and copy-writing.

Digital Marketing Consultant

CompareBroadband.ie

- Social media Marketing. This included setting up listening posts through Hootsuite and active engagement with audience.

- Content creation. This included blogs and on-site edits.

- Created full SEO audit. This included adopting onsite keyword optimization and identifying influencers for link building campaign. This audit led to a noticeable increase in organic traffic.

Digital Marketing Intern

Homestart Majik

- Engaged with market research & identified key target audiences.

- Created and advised a Social media and content marketing plan that is relevant and strategic to the organisation. 

- Through the adoption and implementation of social channels while using tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer, Homestart Majik's social media audience has grown by 18%.

- Implemented Email Marketing while creating automation processes with the most appropriate Email Service Provider: Mailchimp.

- As part of the content marketing plan, blogs & inforgraphics were created and shared.

- Collaborated and helped with implementation and design of new WordPress website.

- Created and simplified storage of content through Google Drive.

- Trained and instructed staff to use digital media output.

The Digital Scot

Content Creation in the form of blogs and press releases. 

Email Marketing.

Led communications and PR. Liaised and collaborated with internal and external media for news release upon launch of website.

Strategically scheduled news releases to coincide with release of key content.

Communications Manager

SEO for B2B Companies 📈 Drive Customer Acquisition with Your Blog

Sound familiar? You're..
- not generating enough leads
- struggling to compete with a well funded competitor
- generating free trials but not turning to paid customers
- the sales team are saying the SEO leads are no good

If so, a holistic & product focused SEO strategy *may* be what you need. (I say may as SEO is not right for every company)

My name is Bill. I help B2B companies scale with SEO & content.

( more details below ⬇️ )



𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞:

I am from Waterford, Ireland.

I am a Marketer (& life-long learner) with a focus on SEO & content marketing for B2B & SAAS clients.

With 8+ years experience from startups to agencies, I live & breathe quality content that drives results.

Having helped well over 100 clients generate consistent leads with SEO (mostly in B2B), I'm very aware of what the right SEO strategy can do for business.

And since April 2024, I've been the co-founder & SEO director of SERPsculpt.



𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐄𝐎 & 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭?

If you're a B2B company, and are ready to scale your business with SEO, drop me a DM or book a call with me here: https://serpsculpt.com/

Or if you just want to see SEO & content tips in your feed, hit follow. Say hi in the comments and I'll respond :)

taplio

The Battle

Jake Ward

Bill Gaule

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJake Ward's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Jake Ward

Bill Gaule

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jake Ward's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJake Ward's LinkedIn Performance