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 28 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 28:

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 in 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/

Rank #1 in ChatGPT and AI Search: My next LIVE SEO session on 8th April. Co-Founder at Contact (and 3x SaaS companies).

SEO?
“Just add some keywords”
”Get green lights on Yoast”
”Let’s write a blog and rank #1?”
”Can’t we just buy some backlinks?”

But SEO in 2026 is a totally different beast.

Here’s what it actually involves:

- Total Addressable Search Market
- Google Search Console
- “Don’t change URLs”
- Quick win keywords
- Customer research
- Programmatic SEO
- Entity optimization
- LLM optimization
- Keyword Insights
- Topical authority
- Site architecture
- Schema markup
- Core Web Vitals
- Monthly reports
- Log file analysis
- Google updates
- Brand mentions
- Screaming Frog
- Technical audit
- Content decay
- Internal linking
- XML Sitemaps
- Topic clusters
- “llms.txt file?”
- Search intent
- Link building
- “It depends”
- Crawlability
- Canonicals
- Robots.txt
- Digital PR
- Mentions
- Semrush
- E-E-A-T

Just adding keywords or getting green lights on Yoast doesn't get SEO results.

True SEO and holistic marketing does.

I can’t stop thinking about this Tweet.

ChatGPT now handles over 2.5 billion queries per day and Google is eventually defaulting to "AI Mode."

This is the future of SEO.

6 tips you need to rank in AI platforms:

1. Win brand mentions

- Get your brand mentioned on high-authority websites
- Contribute to industry publications
- Be featured in news outlets
- Engage in forums and community discussions
- Encourage authentic UGC and word-of-mouth mentions

2. Build brand equity

- Monitor online reviews and brand sentiment
- Respond to feedback and address complaints
- Build a consistent, trustworthy public image
- Use tools like Mentions.so to track visibility, sentiment, and competitors

3. Be the source

- Publish authoritative, reference-style content
- Use neutral, factual, data-backed tone
- Avoid excessive personal takes or fluff
- Regularly update key content for accuracy
- Include credible citations and external data sources

4. Embrace passage-level SEO

- Structure content into short, focused paragraphs
- Use clear subheadings for logical segmentation
- Include concise, standalone answers
- Avoid burying insights in long text block
- Add structured data (e.g. schema markup)
- Make each paragraph extractable and cite-ready

5. Cover the conversation

- Use tools like Semrush for question research
- Monitor forums/socials for emerging questions
- Identify and answer sub-questions users ask
- Add relevant FAQs and support content
- Internally link related topic clusters

6. Optimise for crawlability

- Ensure AI crawlers are allowed in robots.txt
- Verify CDN settings aren't blocking crawlers
- Submit up-to-date XML sitemaps in GSC
- Optimise for fast page speed and clean HTML
- Review server logs for GPTBot, BingBot, etc. behaviour

But first, start with an audit:

- Your current visibility across all LLMs
- Prompt and content gaps vs your competitors
- Technical issues preventing AI from citing your site

Use a tool like Mentions.so to find this information.

Don’t regret not starting AI SEO sooner.

SaaS SEO in 2026: Join my (free) LIVE session on 4th March. Co-Founder and Head of Strategy & Innovation at Contact (and 3x SaaS companies).

SEO has been dying since 1997.

Some notable "deaths" include:

- Web 3.0
- Google Ads
- Social media
- TikTok search
- Voice assistants
- Featured snippets
- Zero-click searches
- Every Google update
- AI Overviews in Google
- GEO/AEO as the new SEO
- ChatGPT replacing Google

And now... AI agents?

Here’s the reality:

- SEO will always evolve
- People will always use search
- Search habits take time to change
- Google handles 14B+ daily searches
- Sends 190x more traffic than ChatGPT
- SEO is a $100B+ industry (growing ~12% YoY)

Even the newest "SEO killer" (GEO/AEO) is literally built on SEO fundamentals.

Richard Hoy said this in 1997:

"I’m beginning to believe that search engines are a dead-end technology and fretting over where your site comes up is a big waste of time."

Don’t be him in 2026.

SEO is very much alive.

I literally live and breathe this SEO framework.

5 years ago, I watched a SaaS company burn through 6 months of content budget. 60 blog posts on topics like "what is email marketing" and "benefits of newsletters."

Their traffic skyrocketed, but their revenue flatlined.

Their entire content game was backwards.

So that's when I built my "SEO Content Pyramid" to flip it completely and start at the top.

Here's how it works:

1. Convert (Top of Pyramid)

High-intent content for people ready to buy.

A. Competitor Comparisons
↳ "beehiiv vs Kit"
↳ "Kit alternatives"

B. Product Reviews
↳ "beehiiv reviews" (brand)
↳ "Kit review" (competitor)

C. Buyer Guides
↳ "Best newsletter platforms in 2026"
↳ "Best newsletter tools for beginners"

D. Product Pages
↳ "Email newsletter software"
↳ "Newsletter platform pricing"

2. Discover (Middle of Pyramid)

Solution content for people exploring options.

A. Solve Pain Points
↳ "How to start a newsletter"
↳ "Newsletter best practises"

B. Case Studies
↳ "Email marketing case studies"
↳ "How [Brand] grew to 100k subscribers"

C. Data Studies
↳ "Open rate benchmarks 2026"
↳ "Email marketing statistics"

D. Templates and Tools
↳ "Newsletter templates"
↳ "Email subject line generator"

3. Awareness (Bottom of Pyramid)

Educational content for people learning and exploring.

A. Definitions
↳ "What is open rate"
↳ "Email deliverability explained"

B. Educational Guides
↳ "How to increase email open rate"
↳ "How to write engaging emails"

C. Industry Trends and News
↳ "Gmail manage subscriptions feature"
↳ "Email marketing trends 2026"

D. Ideas
↳ "Newsletter content ideas"
↳ "Email campaign ideas for holidays"

Start at the top with Convert content. Only move to Discover once you've covered every competitor comparison, product review, and buyer guide. Then tackle Awareness last.

This framework will 10x your SEO results.

A single "Competitor Alternatives" blog post made $1M+ in revenue for my SaaS client over 3 years.

They are ALWAYS the highest converting articles.

Alternative articles help users discover a better alternative (i.e. your product) to what they're currently using or considering buying.

For example:

You might target the following keywords if you're a team communication platform.

- Microsoft Teams Alternatives
- Discord Alternatives
- Slack Alternatives

= 16.5K/mo Google searches

These searchers are the most ready-to-buy AND they’re highly cited by LLMs once ranking in Google.

Here’s how to write your own:

PS. I’m hosting my very first SaaS SEO in 2026 LIVE session on March 4th. Register for free: https://lnkd.in/eherWr2a

I've been doing SEO for 10 years and AI search is making me rethink everything I know, here are 10 changes I’m seeing:

PS. Join my (free) SaaS SEO in 2026 live session on Wednesday, March 4th @ 12pm EST.

Add it to your calendar: https://lnkd.in/eherWr2a

SEO vs AI SEO/AEO/GEO...

I just built SEO strategies for beehiiv and Kleo.

A ~$300M newsletter platform and my own 7-figure SaaS we launched 43 days ago.

(Sadly I didn't make this pic with Tyler Denk)

Completely different products, audiences, and business stages. But I'm using the same playbook.

SaaS SEO in 2026 isn't what it was 2-3 years ago.

The old playbook:

- Target high volume keywords
- Build comparison pages
- Rank in Google and get clicks

But in 2026:

1. Search is as fragmented as ever across Google, LLMs, socials, and other platforms.

2. Even if you rank, SERPs are busy with AI Overviews and ads making position 1 less valuable.

3. Zero-click searches mean AI is answering queries before any clicks to your website.

4. AI has commoditised average content and the quality bar is much higher.

I'm breaking down how I built the strategies for beehiiv and Kleo in a live session tomorrow at 12PM EST.

You'll see:

- What 20% of SEO to focus on in 2026
- How to rank across Google AND AI platforms
- The exact playbook for turning SEO into revenue

Register for free: https://lnkd.in/eherWr2a

PS. The next 20 SaaS companies that register and comment below get a free AI visibility report from my team (normally only for our clients like beehiiv).

Cookie Information

Senior Content Writer

Usercentrics

Director Content Marketing Usercentrics & Cookiebot™️

Acolad Group

My return from maternity leave occurs after Amplexor was acquired by Acolad, and my focus for the remainder of 2021 was leading content rebranding and migration projects that anticipated the full rebranding of Amplexor into Acolad in February 2022, and from Livewords into Acolad in July 2022. These included new website launches, HubSpot content migration including blog and landing pages, collateral rebranding roadmaps, global content processes definition and integration of the global content team within the new global marketing team, following the merger.
Later in 2022 Acolad acquired Ubiqus, and in the roadmaps leading up to the full Ubiqus rebranding, led the inbound project on content-side in a multifunctional team. The rebranding project included a big international SEO overhaul and a new acolad.com website in 11 languages, boasting a new content architecture, updated UX, new tone of voice, and fresh, optimized content, which was launched in August 2023.

Head of Global Content

AMPLEXOR International

Global role reporting to the Marketing Director, responsible for developing an effective global content marketing strategy and managing all content initiatives in order to foster organic growth, expand the company's audience in target markets across EU and NA, drive demand and ultimately help meet business objectives. 
Launched the Global Content Marketing Team with five content marketers (Europe & US), including recruiting, training, process&tools definition and content governance.

On maternity leave from Jul 2020 to May 2021.

Senior Global Content Marketing Manager

Accumulated this role on top of my content marketing role until I went on maternity leave. Acting as marketing business partner for demand generation activities for the Digital and Content Business Units, with a focus on European markets. Responsible for ABM campaigns, local event marketing, email marketing and database management.

Field Marketing Manager EMEA

Global role reporting to Marketing Director, responsible for planning, deploying and monitoring content marketing activities supporting the global marketing strategy and local go-to-market in 22 countries.
Global Content strategy | Content Creation & Copywriting | Campaign Management | Social Media Management | Event Marketing | Marketing Analytics

Global Content Manager

MYGEST - Gestão Unificada

Freelance marketing services for tourism startup, working together with the founder/CEO:
⇨ Social media strategy and content planning
⇨ Visual design strategy and imagery catalogue
⇨ Social community management: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter 
⇨ Campaigns for brand awareness, lead generation, special sales offers and event presence
⇨ UX / platform testing

Social Media & Marketing Consultant

APIFARMA - Portuguese Pharmaceutical Industry Association

Reporting to the Executive Director, responsible for managing internal and external comms affairs, membership and public conferences, and other special projects, such as the coordination and authoring of some chapters of a book celebrating the 70 years of the pharma industry in Portugal.
⇨ Content creation and copywriting for:
External communication: general public, patient organizations and stakeholders | Internal communication: intranet and extranet | Digital communication and social media: website, newsletters, LinkedIn, Facebook and Youtube | Corporate communication: brand management, publications; events; advertising
⇨ New technologies: project management and internal and external training and support within Microsoft Sharepoint platforms (+1000 users)
⇨ International liaison: communication point of contact between APIFARMA and European and International Organizations (EFPIA, MedTech Europe, IFPMA, etc.)

Internal & External Communications Manager

Banco BPI

⇨ Conducting telephone calls to customers of the Bank, to sell and promote products / financial services, and conducting customer satisfaction surveys
⇨ Cross sell and up sell other products based on customer needs
⇨ Assist customers with their queries on products & pricing
⇨ Closing sales and come up with progressive ideas / implementation
⇨ Development of a good & professional relationship with exisiting & new customers
⇨ Achieving weekly and monthly sales targets
⇨ Team management support activities
⇨ Know-how: current account, personal credit, mortgage loans; customer satisfaction assessment; customer support

Direct Marketing & BDR

GlaxoSmithKline

Product management and communication for respiratory (asthma and COPD) and central nervous system brands:
⇨ Product marketing materials and liason with european Centre of Excellence teams
⇨ Sales forecast 
⇨ Market and competitor analysis (IMS)
⇨ Liaison with creative and media suppliers
⇨ Translation of all marketing materials (ENG/PT)
⇨ Sales training meetings and events
⇨ Daily support to product managers' activities
⇨ Know-how: respiratory system (asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseasea - COPD); central nervous system (parkinson; anti-depressants; restless legs syndrome - RLS); brands: Seretaide, Requip, Wellbutrin, Seroxat

Assistant Brand Manager

Samsung Electronics

Product management and communication, Samsung Mobile:
⇨ Sales forecast and delivery plans (coordinating with factories in Korea and China)
⇨ Stock management
⇨ Participation in weekly sales meetings
⇨ Sample management
⇨ Monthly digital newsletter for clients, suppliers and other partners
⇨ Product marketing materials such as press adverts
⇨ Liaison with PR, creative and media suppliers
⇨ Translation of press releases and product marketing documents for website content
⇨ Marketing budget management, processing supplier invoices
⇨ Daily support to mobile department activities
⇨ Know-how: mobile phones and accessories; mobile technologies; telecom operators (TMN, Vodafone, Optimus); distribution channels and retail; non-food FMCG

Marcom Assistant

Grantur

Summer internship before my last year of university.  Responsible for travel operator sales, customer service and administrative support activities:
⇨ Emission of all the necessary travel documentation to be sent to clients
⇨ Emission of passenger vouchers, transfer vouchers and hotel vouchers
⇨ Receive and action any enquiries from clients (agencies) or final customers

Trainee

Senior content marketer and writer at heart, with two decades experience across industries like pharma, consumer electronics, finance, localization, and now B2B SaaS. I've also done a bit of everything in the B2B marketing world: from brand, corporate and internal communications, to product marketing, events, SEO and social media, with a brief incursion through sales in a sort of "fight your fears" self-challenge.
I love researching, brainstorming and ideation, but what I enjoy most about what I do is when those ideas become high-value content that ties to revenue, or when small ideas drive big impact for the business.

taplio

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Jake Ward

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The Battle

Jake Ward

👩‍💻Inês A.

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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