The technical elements of natural search optimisation aren't a closely guarded secret; it's the amount of each element needed to succeed that's the art. You can get all the paint in the world but that's no guarantee of painting a Picasso. That's the value of a specialist agency.

 

Louis majored in information systems at the University of Cape Town, where he demonstrated a strong understanding of systems design and development. From there he pioneered a web design company in Cape Town, which was later bought by Strobe Communications, a leading publication company at the time.

Moving to London for family reasons, he instantly fell in love with its hustle and bustle and almost limitless opportunity. After developing Searchbidz, a search engine that provided solutions for pay per click advertising, Louis used his exceptional problem solving skills to formulate the structure needed to survive in this fast paced environment.

A true techie at heart, Louis still gets involved in clients and strategies, and constantly challenges all team memebers to use their imaginations and achieve more, often leaving people around him exhausted! He is completely focused on building the best search marketing agency in the world and realises that this means that the business needs to be built on excellence because in the search industry credibility is everything.

Louis doesn't believe in taking himself too seriously, but instead believes that the only limits we have are the ones we set ourselves.

An interview with Louis:

• What do you want to know about the future?

I don't really worry about the future too much as it distracts from the present but from a client perspective I'd like to know exactly what major changes are coming and when. You get an idea from listening to the rumblings and Google patents but a firm schedule would be nice.

• What do the words 'Hilltop', 'Florida' and 'Big Daddy' mean to you?

I love mountain boarding so a big hill in Florida sounds unlikely but appealing, not too sure on the big daddy side of things though :P. On a more serious note it's really the reason I'm in search, anything that moves any slower gets very boring and repetitive, search keeps me on the edge.

• Describe your best friend?

Loyal to a fault but not scared to tell me when I'm getting ahead of myself, which she thinks is most of the time, and yeah she is my wife :P.

• What car would you buy if you could afford it?

356 B Porsche. It's a real classic and quite rare, unlike other Porsches you don't lose 20k as you drive it off the showroom and it's not last year's model in a year's time. A real piece of automotive history.

• Who is your online hero?

Hmm that's a difficult one. I don't do heroes that much as it keeps you thinking similarly. If I have to pick it would be Sergey and Larry for having the underlying goal of creating something that will revolutionise the way people search for information.

I've always said the successful companies are those with a desire to improve and contribute rather than "make money". It results in a production-run company that never believes its hype but instead constantly looks introspectively and questions. Google does that in my mind, long may it last.