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.

Boundary Marketing

I lead a team of brilliant marketing folks who help high-growth tech/SaaS companies with demand gen and martech solutions (No, I haven't quit ContentNinja yet)

We’re all on a singular mission - maximising revenue growth for our clients without being yet another pain-in-the-ass-zero-results-what-the-hell-am-
I-paying-for marketing partner.

At Boundary, I own marketing, business strategy, and ops. Alongside, I focus my energies on treating my team to what I think are excellent puns (despite numerous teary-eyed protests).

ContentNinja

I tackle complex growth challenges for B2B Technology and BFSI brands. My approach sides towards a content-heavy inbound strategy - focused on establishing thought leadership and growing lead funnels.

Marketing Director

Starting as an agency that provided comprehensive content, marketing, and design solutions, we gradually specialized ContentNinja into a growth agency focused on a niche audience - namely technology and finance industries. I've been responsible for tackling growth solutions and establishing other growth avenues - including a partnership with Hubspot.

ContentNinja has been acquired by Blue Vector as of November 2019 and continues to scale as the marketing arm of the organization.

Co-Founder

Global Shapers Community

Shaper

InCommon

Talent is global, opportunity isn't.

At InCommon, we're finding the outperformers of the Indian content and creative community - and providing them career opportunities at growth-driven startups and agencies that are looking to scale their teams fast, without the headache that direct hiring brings.

This, paired with our constantly-upskilling community, gives you the right platform to get your next job or hire.

IoTeractions

Working at IoTeractions, an Internet of Things based hardware startup, currently working on a healthcare device and platform. Involved in cloud technologies, server administration, PHP based software development and web development, among others.

The product recently got launched by the Department of Science and Technology, India, at an Entrepreneurship Development Cell organized event.

Technology Specialist

Google

As the college's Google Student Ambassador, I was closely involved with Google Developers Group Delhi and Google Business Group Delhi, along with other GSA alumni, to stress on skill development for students across Delhi. We concentrated on topics such as Android, Digital Marketing and Cloud server administration.

Student Ambassador

Unhappy with the concept of 5 working days a week, Mayank started his own inbound marketing agency, ContentNinja. He now works 7 days a week and talks about himself in third-person.

An unfortunate engineer, he founded a med-tech startup that was inducted into Nasscom 10k. He’s now decided to stop asking people to invest in his company, and get them to invest in their own - through numbers-driven marketing (not a typo).

With Boundary (ex-ContentNinja) being a HubSpot Diamond Partner, Mayank helps B2B brands achieve their business and growth goals with tactical inbound marketing strategies & Hubspot.

He has worked with brands like Amazon, upGrad, Vedantu, ITC Infotech, and PWC amongst many others.

Every time someone books a call with Mayank, he does 20 push-ups (He hates exercise).

If you need a trustworthy marketing partner to meet your business goals, push Mayank to do 20 push-ups now. Make him really work for it.

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The Battle

Jake Ward

Mayank Gulati

Followers

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taplio

The Battle

Jake Ward

Mayank Gulati

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

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