Search, design and development built to perform.

Mark Excell is a digital practitioner based in Witney, Oxfordshire, with over twenty years of hands-on experience across technical SEO, Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), web design and development, and UX design. The work starts with strategy and ends with measurable results, whether that means growing organic visibility, getting found by AI-powered answer engines, or building a website that converts. Search, design and code understood as a single connected discipline.

400%

Organic growth, four consecutive years

90%

Cost reduction, legacy platform rescue

20+

Years of hands-on experience

3

Dorset County Council sites delivered

Search, design, development and strategy

Each discipline on its own is useful. Together they produce something harder to replicate: a practitioner who understands how search, design and code interact, and who can move between them without the gaps that appear when different specialists work in isolation.

SEO, GEO, AEO, AIO, LLMO and SXOSearch strategy

Modern search strategy covers the full landscape from traditional rankings through to AI-powered answer engines including Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and ChatGPT Search. Strategy that only addresses one part of that landscape is an incomplete strategy.

UX design, UI design and graphic designDesign

Research-led user experience design with visual craft developed over two decades of commercial work. A collaborative process that involves the client at every meaningful stage rather than presenting a finished solution at the end.

Web design and developmentDevelopment

Custom WordPress themes built from scratch, PHP and MySQL full-stack development, Bootstrap 5. Technically better pages that load faster, rank better and serve users more effectively.

Business and digital strategy coachingCoaching and mentoring

For many clients the relationship has grown beyond the immediate project into broader strategy, priorities and business decisions. That wider advisory role is available from the outset rather than something that develops by accident.

Twenty years of doing this properly

The career started in design studios and print production before moving through digital agencies, fourteen years running a freelance consultancy, a period lecturing in computing at further education level, and back to freelance practice. Clients have included Dorset County Council, Pennies from Heaven, The Recycler and blue chip brands including Cartoon Network, Unilever and McDonalds through agency work at Racoon Digital.

The certifications from IBM, Google, Meta and the University of California Davis reflect a deliberate commitment to staying current rather than coasting on experience. SEO and AI-driven search in particular are changing quickly enough that practitioners who stopped learning three years ago are already behind.

Qualifications and certifications

I
UC
G
E

Search & visibility

  • SEO Mastery: From Fundamentals to GenAI & GEO Strategies

    IBM

  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    UC Davis

  • Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce

    Google

  • Google Data Analytics

    Google

  • Web Analytics

    Edureka

G
CA

Design & experience

  • Google UX Design Professional Certificate (v.3)

    Google

  • UI / UX Design

    California Institute of the Arts

  • Graphic Design

    California Institute of the Arts

M
UM
CG

Build & teach

  • Meta Front-End Developer

    Meta

  • Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding

    University of Michigan

  • Level 3 Award in Education and Training

    City & Guilds

Skills acquired

SEO and GEO

Technical SEO, GEO, AEO, AIO, LLMO, SXO, GA4, GSC, Ahrefs, SEMrush

Web development

PHP, MySQL, WordPress, Bootstrap 5, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript

Design

Figma, Affinity Suite, Adobe CC, UX/UI, brand identity, typography

Strategy

Content strategy, CRO, business mentoring, project management

Recommendations

The development of the site was handled with complete competence and authority. Delivered on time, on budget and with an uncomplicated, expert smoothness that you do not always see in the world of websites. It was an excellent partnership.

Nick Morris, Wallis Agency

Mark's advice and guidance have seen our website rise in the global rankings from around 1,150,000 to 229,000. This is an absolutely incredible statistic to achieve with our limited budget and diverse audience needs.

Stefanie Unland, The Recycler

Pennies from Heaven can highly recommend Mark to any company wanting to grow or expand its reach. We have always been impressed by the very high-quality service we have received and in particular the focus on security.

Kate Frost, CEO, Pennies from Heaven

Creating my site was far less painful than I thought it would be. Mark accomplished the task professionally, efficiently and within the stated timescales. Much sooner than I expected, I found myself on Google.

Mary Hopper, Inyanga Counselling Consultancy

Common questions

A few things people tend to ask. If your question is not here, the contact details are in the footer.

Mark Excell is a digital practitioner based in Witney, Oxfordshire, with over twenty years of experience across technical SEO, Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), AI Overview Optimisation (AIO), Large Language Model Optimisation (LLMO), Search Experience Optimisation (SXO), UX design, web development and graphic design.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of structuring and writing content so that AI-powered answer engines such as Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and ChatGPT Search discover it, understand it accurately, and cite it in their generated responses. Where traditional SEO aims to rank a page in search results, GEO aims to be the source that AI engines draw from when constructing an answer.

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of optimising content to appear in featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes and direct answer results in traditional search engines. It focuses on structuring content to directly answer specific questions in a format that search engines can extract and display without requiring a click.

Large Language Model Optimisation (LLMO) is the practice of optimising how a brand, person or organisation is represented, cited and described by large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. It involves entity definition, structured data, authoritative content and consistent cross-platform presence to ensure LLMs represent the entity accurately and positively.

Mark Excell offers technical SEO, GEO, AEO, AIO, LLMO and SXO strategy, web design and development using PHP, MySQL, WordPress and Bootstrap, UX and graphic design, and business and digital strategy coaching. He works with clients across the UK and internationally from his base in Witney, Oxfordshire.

Mark Excell is based in Witney, Oxfordshire, and works with clients across the UK and internationally.