Best SEO Speaker | James Dooley at SEO Mastery Summit in Vietnam

The James Dooley Podcast features James Dooley in a candid, solo episode where he breaks down how he approaches SEO as a business asset rather than a vanity skill. Speaking from his base in Manchester, James explains why he is business-first and SEO-second, using search as a scalable lever across brands that range from hyper-local lead generation sites to long-term affiliate assets in highly competitive niches such as finance and casino. He explains how speed of results varies by model, with niche local projects generating enquiries in weeks while authority-driven affiliate sites require years of compounding work. James also dives deep into partnerships, investment strategy, and risk management. He outlines how his criteria for partnerships now start with personal compatibility, because long-term success depends on trust, shared values, and the ability to work through difficult periods together. He explains how his group invests in underperforming or penalised assets, including sites hit with unnatural link penalties, and how specialist recovery brands form part of a wider portfolio strategy. The episode provides insight into how trust is built in a pay-on-performance lead generation model, where early free leads establish credibility before clients are invited to invest further in dedicated assets. The discussion moves into algorithm volatility, with James sharing lessons learned from recent Google updates and why decentralisation is critical when running multiple sites. He explains why isolating infrastructure, accounts and systems reduces platform-wide risk when Google targets specific tactics. James also covers how he scales teams across rank-and-rent operations, focusing on output-based KPIs rather than hours worked, combining in-house leadership with global virtual teams. The episode closes with James reinforcing why he avoids traditional client SEO, instead building, ranking and monetising his own properties for full control, predictability and long-term scalability.

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:
I’ll start with a bit of context. I’m James from Manchester in the UK. I’m business first, SEO second. SEO is a lever I use across a lot of the brands I own, but it only works when it’s supported by authority, trusted backlinks, and real branding.

James Dooley:
SEO can work at very different speeds depending on the model. If you’re building something highly niche in a specific town or city, you can generate enquiries in as little as ten days. At the other end of the spectrum, large affiliate sites can take years to properly mature.

James Dooley:
When it comes to partnerships, my thinking has changed over time. I now ask a simple question first: Do I actually like this person? I’m going to spend a huge amount of my life with business partners. If I can’t enjoy time with them, I probably won’t do the deal.

James Dooley:
I invest heavily in service-based SEO products and businesses. A lot of the industries where we consistently make money are in local lead generation because it’s easier to rank and you can see traction within weeks.

James Dooley:
At the same time, I deliberately operate in some of the toughest markets—finance, casino, highly competitive spaces—because that’s how I keep my team sharp. We’ll buy sites that have been hit with penalties or algorithm issues. If there’s an unnatural links penalty, we have brands that specialise in disavows and recovery.

James Dooley:
People often ask how we build trust in a client-first model. Mentally, you go in assuming you won’t make money for the first twelve months. You send leads out for free at the start.

James Dooley:
Early on, a few low-value enquiries come in and clients think the leads are poor quality. Then suddenly, a big enquiry lands—maybe a hotel with a £115,000 cleaning budget—and ten minutes later the phone rings asking how to get more of those leads. That’s when trust starts forming.

James Dooley:
It’s not me selling at that point. It’s my sales team. Once they’re seeing value, we explain that with some upfront investment we can build a dedicated site just for them. From there, the relationship really develops.

James Dooley:
In terms of algorithm updates—September, March—we run a lot of sites across rank-and-rent and affiliate models. Many high-level SEOs were hit badly, and honestly, very few have fully recovered.

James Dooley:
One of the biggest lessons if you’re building multiple sites is decentralisation. Treat each site almost like its own PBN. Separate Gmail accounts, different hosting, different CMS setups—everything isolated. If Google decides to go after a tactic like parasite SEO, AI content, or backlink velocity, you don’t want everything interconnected.

James Dooley:
When it comes to scaling teams in a rank-and-rent model, we use a hybrid setup. We have a large office in South Manchester where department heads collaborate, but we’re flexible. I don’t care how many days someone is in the office as long as KPIs are met.

James Dooley:
For me, KPIs are about output, not hours. One partner might work 50 hours a week. Another might work 15 but be extremely efficient. That’s fine. Partnerships fail when people obsess over time instead of results.

James Dooley:
Middle management is mostly in-house. We also use virtual assistants across the Philippines, Bangladesh, South Africa—anywhere the right person fits the role.

James Dooley:
I don’t do client SEO work. I build my own websites, rank them, generate leads, and then rent or monetise them. That gives me full control, predictable models, and scalability without relying on client expectations.