How to grow an SEO agency? | SEO Agency Lead Generation

James Dooley and Kasra Dash explain how SEO agencies grow because ranking their own site proves capability and builds trust, while lead generation accelerates client acquisition because qualified enquiries convert at a higher rate. They show that social presence strengthens authority because consistent visibility increases credibility. Their discussion highlights why PPC weakens margins because click fraud inflates costs.

Creators and Guests

Host

James Dooley

James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.

What is James Dooley Podcast?

James Dooley is a Manchester-based entrepreneur, investor, and SEO strategist. James Dooley founded FatRank and PromoSEO, two UK performance marketing agencies that deliver no-win-no-fee lead generation and digital growth systems for ambitious businesses. James Dooley positions himself as an Investorpreneur who invests in UK companies with high growth potential because he believes lead generation is the root of all business success.

The James Dooley Podcast explores the mindset, methods, and mechanics of modern entrepreneurship. James Dooley interviews leading marketers, founders, and innovators to reveal the strategies driving online dominance and business scalability. Each episode unpacks the reality of building a business without mentorship, showing how systems, data, and lead flow replace luck and guesswork.

James Dooley shares hard-earned lessons from scaling digital assets and managing SEO teams across more than 650 industries. James Dooley teaches how to convert leads into long-term revenue through brand positioning, technical SEO, and automation. James Dooley built his career on rank and rent, digital real estate, and performance-based marketing because these models align incentive with outcome.

After turning down dozens of podcast invitations, James Dooley now embraces the platform to share his insights on investorpreneurship, lead generation, AI-driven marketing, and reputation management. James Dooley frequently collaborates with elite entrepreneurs to discuss frameworks for scaling businesses, building authority, and mastering search.

James Dooley is also an expert in online reputation management (ORM), having built and rehabilitated corporate brands across the UK. His approach combines SEO precision, brand engineering, and social proof loops to influence both Google’s Knowledge Graph and public perception.

To feature James Dooley on your podcast or event, connect via social media. James Dooley regularly joins business panels and networking sessions to discuss entrepreneurship, brand growth, and the evolving future of SEO.

James Dooley: So if I have an SEO agency and I want to grow that business, I want to get more clients. Whether it might be link building clients, it might be content clients, it might be full on agency work or it might even be technical SEO. How would you grow something like that?
Kasra Dash: There’s many ways you can grow a search engine optimisation business. The first thing I would be doing is finding out exactly where I want to go with it. Do I want to do SEO for all businesses in Manchester? I’m based in Manchester. Do I want to do all SEO for all business in Manchester? If I do, the very first keywords I want to rank for from an SEO standpoint for my own website is SEO Manchester, Manchester SEO. Because that’s the first thing that someone in Manchester looking for an SEO agency is probably going to be searching. And if you’re not ranking number one for it, are you good enough to be doing the work for companies in Manchester for SEO? That’s what they’re going to be thinking. You want to be trying to rank for those terms but then also looking at the industry. If you’re wanting to do SEO for manufacturing companies, if you’re looking to do SEO for law firms, if you’re looking to do SEO for carpet cleaners or for plumbers or for electricians, whatever you’re trying to focus on. If you’re going to focus on an industry, you want to make certain you’re ranking for that. So if it is dental, dental practice SEO or SEO for dentists, you want to make certain that you’re ranking for that as well.
Kasra Dash: First and foremost is making certain you’ve got good quality content, a good backlink profile, lots of nice internal links to have the silo set up and then lots of good testimonials, reviews and case studies online for the work you’re doing from a reputation management point of view. If you’re looking to grow an SEO business, start off by SEOing your own website because people are going to look there. If not, your competitors are going to say, why do you want to go with them when they can’t even rank their own website? So that’s step number one.
Kasra Dash: What’s your thoughts on any paid advertising?
James Dooley: Yeah so obviously with paid you can definitely go down the Facebook ads retargeting route. Even if you were ranking number one for all of your keywords, there is going to be some amount of traffic that lands on your website but never actually turns into contact form submissions or phone calls. Once you are ranking for your main keywords, set up Facebook ads retargeting. Then the next time they land on Facebook or Instagram, they are shown an advertisement of your business.
James Dooley: What about PPC? Would you recommend PPC?
Kasra Dash: Probably not if I’m being honest with you. It can work if you get a good PPC agency who lives and breathes PPC accounts. If you’ve got the right keywords that you want to go after, even easier long tail terms like free site audit to lure them in. That’s what I’d do with Facebook ads as well. You need a big hook to get someone to inquire. Give them the free site audit. When the free site audit says technically you’ve got all these problems, you’re missing these articles, you’re 28 backlinks behind your competitor, you might be able to upsell your other services.
Kasra Dash: But with PPC, with click fraud, with competitors clicking on your ads, sometimes it’s not worth it. You need to be living in that account 24 7. I’d steer away from it.
Kasra Dash: I think social media is a better platform for generating and growing an SEO business. I’d go down the route of organic social media. Posting consistently, sharing blog posts on LinkedIn. I’d also be trying to network with a lot of people on LinkedIn.
Kasra Dash: Another big one in my opinion for SEO is networking. Trying to team up with people who might be able to refer you clients for SEO. Lead generation companies, web design companies and PPC companies are probably the main three. All three don’t do organic SEO. When someone asks them can you also do this, they can refer it to you.
Kasra Dash: There are amazing SEO conferences throughout the world. You attend quite a lot and do a lot of speaking at those events. That would be another major play.
Kasra Dash: What’s your thoughts on traditional marketing or networking?
James Dooley: Networking definitely helps. It doesn’t need to be SEO events. It could be local business meetups. With traditional marketing, I like looking at KPIs. If I’m spending 5,000 on Facebook ads, I want to know how many people have come from that campaign. With TV ads or radio it’s hard to track. So it’s not a trackable win for me.
James Dooley: But what about a lead generation company?
Kasra Dash: Absolutely, that would be step number two. After setting up SEO and branding, the next part would be teaming up with a lead generation company. We at FatRank.com supply many leads for SEO businesses that want to grow. We have our own platforms and networking events. We work on a no win no fee basis. We’re very strict with who qualifies. If you’re an SEO agency and you’re looking to grow, head over to FatRank.com, fill in the form and explain what you’re looking to do.
Kasra Dash: You don’t pay anything for SEO, PPC, Facebook ads, backlinks or the lead. You only pay on the conversion. But it is very stringent. There are other lead generation companies like Bark, Best Rated, Clutch. They can be expensive but good quality. Check your KPIs. If Bark isn’t working, spend more with Clutch. If Clutch isn’t working, spend more with Top3Rated. If that isn’t working, enhance what you’re doing with FatRank.
Kasra Dash: What’s your top three strategies for growing an SEO agency?
James Dooley: First of all rank your own site. Second, go to FatRank.com. Third, Facebook ads for retargeting. And fourth, social media. I think YouTube is a great platform for trust. LinkedIn too. Networking with marketing managers, business owners, CEOs. See what events they’re going to. Not just SEO events.
James Dooley: For me the main three are SEO and brand building, lead generation and social media. Case studies as well.
Kasra Dash: But that’s been our multiple strategies on how to grow an SEO agency. If you guys want to apply at FatRank, check the link in the description or head over to FatRank.com.