Ben Foster joined The SEO Works as Managing Director in 2016, having been one of its clients first. Today he is CEO of a Sheffield agency of more than 80 people, which became employee-owned last year.
We asked Ben what changed as the agency grew, why it went employee-owned rather than selling, and what he would tell anyone starting or scaling an agency today. The SEO Works is listed on AgencyIndex.
You joined The SEO Works as Managing Director about ten years ago. What did the agency look like then, and what made you take the job?
When I joined in 2016, The SEO Works was a specialist SEO agency working mostly with local businesses. I already knew the business well because I'd been a client. Over time I got to know the founder. He was very entrepreneurial, but he felt the business had grown too big for him, and he wanted someone to take it over with a mission to grow it.
That was a big part of the appeal, a real remit to run it and build it. Using my experience in web marketing, tech, team leadership, agency and board-level operations, this felt like the role where all of that came together.
It's now more than 80 people. What were the biggest decisions or changes that got it there?
It's been about gradually evolving the business and staying alive and responsive to new challenges, as no two years are the same.
When I arrived, one person was effectively running delivery for everyone, and that was never going to scale. We split delivery into pods of five to seven people, each with a pod leader who looks after the team. This was more scalable and manageable in terms of structure.
A few years in we took a big decision to refocus our website. We were strong locally, but growth meant flipping our own SEO to target national and international searches. That was a risk, but it worked. We also launched complementary services, such as paid search and paid social.
Another huge decision was investing in our own marketing. It's amazing how for many marketing agencies, they don't carve the time out to practise what they preach. Plenty of agencies can get to around £1m turnover through referrals alone, but then struggle to push past that. From around 2020 we brought in a dedicated marketer, and now a team, working across LinkedIn, paid search, thought leadership content and events. This has really broadened our lead pool and reduced the risk of any one channel.
Plenty of agencies can get to around £1m turnover through referrals alone, but then struggle to push past that.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about building an agency, maybe one you learned the hard way?
My first year wasn't what I'd expected. I came in to grow the business, but once I got inside I found the finances needed a lot more work than I'd realised. So growth had to wait. We spent that year controlling costs and making sure every pound of spending earned its place before we could invest again.
My mentor at the time gave me advice I've leaned on ever since: there's rarely a problem you can't get over, if you focus and set a plan. Adaptability is one of our company values, and that year taught me what it really means.
The other lesson is that you can't control everything. You have to trust people to do things their own way, even if it isn't quite how you would do it. If the outcome is right, the method doesn't matter much. Once you pass 40 to 50 people, your team leaders shape the culture far more than you do, so hiring and backing the right ones is key.
Once you pass 40 to 50 people, your team leaders shape the culture far more than you do, so hiring and backing the right ones is key.
Last year the agency became employee-owned. Why that route rather than a sale, and what has it changed day to day?
We looked at every option and employee ownership came out ahead on almost everything. The difference is that the business stays in control of its own future and its own culture, and long term can reward the people who make it.
Day to day, the odd thing is that everything has changed and nothing has changed. The main shift is security, because a stranger isn't going to come in and start to rip things up or decide to close offices etc. The bigger benefits come as we pay off the financing and work towards what we call our "financial freedom" date, when profits can be shared with the team.
Which piece of work or client win are you proudest of?
Over the years we've achieved more than 20,000 top-three Google rankings for clients. None of them came from a secret trick - rather from a proven, repeatable methodology we call "Universal Information Infrastructure" that we keep refining as search changes.
The work I'm proudest of recently is our AI search work. We saw the advent of ChatGPT and AI Overviews as an opportunity rather than a threat. We tested everything on ourselves, and our own ChatGPT referrals grew by around 200%. We were one of the first agencies to publish case studies showing clients gaining real visibility and traffic from AI search.
We've increased AI Overview Citations by 287% and ChatGPT Referrals by 121% for DHL. For Auditoria, a leading seating manufacturer, we grew AI share of voice to more than double the combined share of the four next largest competitors in the space.
It shows the team at its best: spotting a shift early, working out what actually moves the needle and turning it into results for clients.
In AI citation data we pulled in September, seoworks.co.uk was the most-cited agency website in Google's AI Overviews for UK searches about SEO and digital agencies. Was that deliberate, and what do you think is behind it?
It was definitely deliberate - as a leading integrated search agency we practise what we preach on our own site.
We still treat SEO as the foundation. AI tools often search Google or Bing, access the top results and shortlist a handful of sources. So if you're not on page one or two it's harder to be in the running.
We have also rewritten content for how AI reads it. For example, we recently reworked our case studies so the results appear in the headline with a summary before the detail, because AI seems to weigh the top of a page more heavily. Our service and sector pages aim to be specific and full of evidence rather than generic.
Then there's brand presence. Our 57k+ LinkedIn following, PR, public speaking and thought leadership all help establish that we're a real, credible business known for this topic. AI answers draw on that wider reputation, not just your website.
How are you adapting to the AI era, both in how the team works and in what clients now ask for?
Internally, we went through a phase where some people loved AI, some hated it and everyone used it differently. We've since standardised on Claude and built custom workflows that go well beyond a single prompt. But humans are always still responsible for the quality of the final product! We've also built AI into our own systems, for example replacing the Google Sheets that have run the business with our own internal app, so anyone can ask it questions like which services a client has or when their contract renews.
For clients, the conversation has moved from SEO to what we call the search universe. Our mission is now to help our clients "master every search". Google is still dominant by a long way, but people also research in AI tools, on social platforms and forums like Reddit. AI Overviews now appear on around half of searches, so being recommended there builds awareness before anyone clicks. Clients increasingly want to know how visible they are across both organic and AI search surfaces.
Where do you think agencies are heading over the next five years?
Agencies have to adopt AI or they won't be around. The genie is out of the bottle. The agencies that do well will be the ones that move past prompting or experimentation and agree on a clear approach: which platform, what it's used for and which workflows.
But it's important to know that AI still gets things wrong and will confidently invent facts and sources. There have been many reported cases in the news of expensive AI mistakes across various industries. Agencies will need to keep a hybrid approach, where AI works alongside them rather than replacing their judgement.
What would you tell someone starting or scaling an agency today?
I would say if you're starting out, to go narrow: one sector, one market, probably one service. It's far easier to become known in one niche, build your story there and expand from it. AI search only makes that more important, because AI rewards specialists who can show evidence.
AI search only makes that more important, because AI rewards specialists who can show evidence.
If you're scaling, invest in your own marketing. Referrals and networking will get you so far, but it's hard to grow sustainably without a proven and repeatable lead generation system.
And hire for attitude as much as skills. Look for how someone has handled tough situations, how they learn, and how adaptable they are. Skills can be taught, but you need to uncover the right values for your business, especially in a start up where every ounce of effort is important.
Interview from September 2026, lightly edited.
