Paul Gordon —
Founder & SEO Director, BeFound Search
I'm Paul Gordon, founder of BeFound Search — a specialist UK search consultancy. I've spent 18 years on the engineering side of search visibility, and every client engagement runs through me directly. No junior account managers. No handoffs. No template playbooks.
Founder-led, by
deliberate choice.
I started a search practice in 2014, originally as 720 Digital. Rebranded to BeFound Search in 2026 to reflect how dramatically the search landscape has changed — AI search has shifted what visibility looks like, what buyers actually search for, and how brands are discovered. BeFound Search is built specifically for that landscape.
The motivation hasn't changed since 2014. I started the practice because I was frustrated with how most SEO agencies operated: large account teams, junior practitioners doing the work, and founders who were never seen again after the contract was signed.
That's still not how I work. Every engagement at BeFound Search is mine, end to end. I review the strategy. I write the briefs. I audit the technical architecture. I'm in every important meeting. The work is done by me, not delegated to a junior who's still learning the craft.
That's a specific commercial choice. It limits how many clients I can take on at any time. It means I'm selective about the engagements I accept. And it means the brands I work with deal with the same senior practitioner from first scoping call through to twelve months in. The same person who wrote the strategy is the person executing it.
The work.
My career started in development, moved into SEO leadership at a UK web agency, and has been freelance consultancy since 2014. The technical foundation matters: I came to SEO from the engineering side, and that's still how I think about it.
Over those 18 years I've led search programmes across enterprise SaaS, financial services, e-commerce, recruitment, DIY and home improvement, motoring publishing, and B2B software. Notable engagements include:
I've worked extensively across Shopify and BigCommerce e-commerce stores, WordPress publishing operations at scale, and headless and JavaScript-rendered builds where SEO needs to be engineered into the architecture rather than added on after launch.
Several engagements operate under NDA. Detailed case study material and verification are available on request, subject to client permission.
Visibility Engineering.
Across every engagement I apply Visibility Engineering — a structured approach to making a brand the answer rather than chasing rankings. Three phases:
Map the gap
Audit current presence across Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. Identify where the brand is being mentioned, missed, or misrepresented as an entity.
Build the signals
Technical foundations, structured data, content architecture, internal linking, and the entity reinforcement work that AI search now rewards. Make the brand discoverable as a credible answer — not just a ranking URL.
Track what matters
Citations, AI mentions, branded demand, qualified pipeline. Iterate on what actually moves the business — not vanity rankings.
The methodology exists because the rules of search are bifurcating. AI engines are absorbing informational queries. Google retains commercial intent. A single SEO playbook no longer works across both. Visibility Engineering is built for the split.
How I work.
Engagements at BeFound Search fall into two tracks.
Strategic consulting
Direct work with brands that have meaningful budgets, internal teams capable of execution, and a commercial reason to invest in compounding visibility. Engagements typically run six to twelve months. Pricing reflects the seniority of the work and is discussed on a scoping call. Suitable for in-house teams that need senior strategic input, or marketing leaders who want confidence the work is being done by an experienced practitioner.
Productised local SEO
For local businesses operating across one to four locations, I run productised retainers from £399/month. Tiered, scoped, transparent on what's included. Suitable for trades, services, and single- or multi-location businesses that need professional local SEO without the overhead of a bespoke engagement.
Both tracks run through me directly. The local pricing is productised; the work isn't outsourced or templated.
What I don't do.
Honest about boundaries:
Beyond client work.
I've been deliberately client-focused for most of my career. The visibility work has gone into client outcomes, not my own profile. My work has been referenced in Search Engine Journal and across many other SEO publications and industry blogs — but I haven't yet invested the time in building a public speaking record or regular publishing cadence under my own name.
That's now changing. I'm currently investing more time in publishing — primarily through paulgordonseo.com — with conference speaking and community contribution to follow. There'll be considerably more on this front over the coming twelve months.
It's a fair point that an SEO consultant who has spent 18 years building visibility for other people's brands is now applying the same discipline to his own. You'll see the output of that here, at paulgordonseo.com, and elsewhere as the programme builds.
BeFound Search is a verified Semrush Agency Partner.
Working with me.
If you've got a complex search problem and you want it handled by someone with 18 years of experience rather than a junior with 18 months — get in touch.
Not sure where to start?
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