Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
- FAQ, HowTo & Article schema
- Question-led content structure
- Featured snippet & AI Overview capture
- Concise, chunkable answers
- Speakable markup
Serving Durham Remotely
PPC, AI Search & Technical SEO Consultancy · Durham
Commercial
Velocity.
In Durham.
Your agency manages the account but never thinks about your market. One senior operator owns PPC, AI search and technical SEO for Durham businesses, from audit to invoice, every channel, fully remote, and builds the commercial edge that decides who dominates 2027.
Verified Infrastructure Partners
PPC Consultancy in Durham
The Durham PPC consultancy
The Durham PPC consultancy
built around profit.
Mid-market businesses in Durham keep encountering the same failure from local PPC agencies and SEO agencies: technically active accounts, commercially adrift results. Account managers rotate. Junior staff run the work. Nobody holds the full picture.
Pay-per-click (PPC) is paid, auction-based advertising across Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta and LinkedIn, where you pay only when someone clicks, measured against profit, not vanity metrics. The Crane Consultancy is a senior-led PPC and SEO consultancy, not an agency. One practitioner holds the entire Durham engagement: paid search, paid social, server-side tracking, technical SEO and the financial logic that connects them. Every decision answers one question: does this compound your profit?
Durham pairs a leading university with a tourism economy anchored by its UNESCO cathedral and castle, alongside a professional-services base. It serves students, residents and visitors in roughly equal measure, three audiences arriving on different timescales and searching for entirely different things. The compact city centre conceals how distinct they really are.
Students, residents and a steady flow of visitors each want something different, and a blended approach reaches none of them properly. The Durham account treats the three as distinct markets, with audience-specific paid search and SEO rather than an average that suits no one. Building and running three coherent strategies under a single roof is exactly the depth one senior practitioner provides where an agency would split them across juniors.
Durham's students arrive and leave on the academic calendar while its cathedral visitors follow the tourist season, so demand here is two clocks layered over a steady resident base, and a flat campaign reads none of them. The edge is timing and segmenting to each, with audience-specific paid search and SEO rather than a blended average. Running three coherent strategies under one roof is the depth a single senior practitioner brings where an agency parcels them out to juniors.
AI Search Optimisation in Durham
Win the AI search era
Win the AI search era
in Durham.
Search in 2026 is no longer a page of links and nothing more. Buyers in Durham now put their questions to Google AI Overviews, to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and act on a single synthesised answer. If your business is not named in that answer, a competitor is.
AI search optimisation is architecture, not copywriting. It splits into Answer Engine Optimisation, AEO, which wins the direct answer and the AI Overview, and Generative Engine Optimisation, GEO, the entity and authority signals that make a model name you unprompted. Where a Durham business loses is almost always structural: thin entity signals, broken or missing schema, and pages a model reads as undifferentiated text.
The practice treats this as core engineering. Structured data, an entity graph the model can follow, machine-readable content, an llms.txt file and disciplined crawl and speed hygiene are built so an answer engine cites you rather than guesses around you. For a Durham business heading into 2027, that is the line between visible and invisible.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
- Entity graph & knowledge signals
- E-E-A-T & verified authorship
- Citation likelihood
- Brand sentiment & share of voice
- Consistent NAP & identifiers
Machine-Readable Foundations
- Schema.org structured data
- Open Graph & card integrity
- llms.txt & semantic HTML
- Core Web Vitals
- Crawl-budget & indexation hygiene
SEO Consultancy in Durham
Revenue-first technical SEO
Revenue-first technical SEO
for Durham businesses.
Rankings are not revenue, and most Durham SEO agencies confuse the two. Here, technical SEO, server-side tracking and conversion architecture exist to feed the paid-media stack and the profit it returns, never to run as a vanity exercise beside it.
Paid Media
- Google Search & Shopping
- Microsoft Advertising
- Meta (Facebook & Instagram)
- LinkedIn B2B Acquisition
- YouTube & Display
- Amazon Performance Ads
Technical SEO
- Technical Site Audits
- Core Web Vitals
- Schema & Structured Data
- Crawlability & Indexation
- AI Crawl Readiness
- On-Page Optimisation
Commercial Intelligence
- Server-Side Tracking
- Attribution Modelling
- Conversion Rate Optimisation
- Advanced Data Analytics
- Bespoke Reporting
Data & Automation in Durham
Turn Durham data
Turn Durham data
into decisions.
Most Durham businesses collect more data than they use and run more by hand than they should. The practice closes both gaps.
Beneath the media sits the layer that makes it accountable: measurement you can trust, dashboards built on profit rather than vanity, and automation that strips out the manual work draining the week. In a Durham business, practical AI earns its place only where it adds a real edge, from Claude and Gemini to bespoke internal tools, never as novelty.
Analytics & Measurement
- GA4 & Server-Side Tracking
- Consent Mode v2
- Attribution Modelling
- Revenue & Pipeline Dashboards
- Conversion Rate Optimisation
Automation & Integration
- Workflow & Task Automation
- CRM Integration (Zoho, HubSpot)
- API & Systems Connection
- Spreadsheet & Reporting Automation
- Lead Routing & Sync
AI in the Business
- AI Workflow Integration
- Claude & Gemini Deployment
- Document & Content Automation
- Custom Internal Tools
- Practical AI Adoption
Durham Sector Experience
PPC and SEO for Durham
PPC and SEO for Durham
across every sector.
The UNESCO cathedral and castle crown the river peninsula, with a leading university below and the Lumiere festival drawing winter crowds to the former coalfield capital.
The practice works with mid-market businesses in Durham and County Durham across the following sectors. B2B lead-generation, B2C and full omnichannel e-commerce engagements are all taken on.
A leading university and a UNESCO cathedral-and-castle tourism economy with professional services, where student terms and visitor seasons run as two clocks over a resident base.
Education
- Paid Search & Shopping
- Paid Social
- Technical SEO
- Server-Side Tracking
Tourism
- Paid Search & Shopping
- Paid Social
- Technical SEO
- Server-Side Tracking
Professional Services
- Paid Search & Shopping
- Paid Social
- Technical SEO
- Server-Side Tracking
Healthcare
- Paid Search & Shopping
- Paid Social
- Technical SEO
- Server-Side Tracking
Historical Execution
Proven at global scale.
Proven at global scale.
Applied in Durham.
Behind the practice stands a founder who architected the LUSH Cosmetics global digital transformation across sixteen markets, and the forensic discipline that programme demanded is what every Durham engagement gets, regardless of scale.
One practitioner.
Every channel. Every week.
Nic Crane · Founder
A decade engineering profit at scale.
Architect of the LUSH Cosmetics global digital transformation across sixteen markets, recognised by Welocalize as Best Global Client Team. Former Paid Media Enablement and Commerce Lead at Adapt and Head of Paid Media at Navigate, leading programmes across attraction, conservation and tourism portfolios. The track record spans B2C and B2B, from global retail to lead generation and full omnichannel e-commerce.
Most recently engaged as Digital Data and Analytics lead through the Everywhen brand launch, securing data integrity across a migration spanning Towergate Insurance and forty other brands. A power user of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and GTM, now applying that technical depth to AI search optimisation: structured data, entity signals and the machine readability that decides visibility in Google AI Overviews and answer engines. Meta Certified Media Buying Professional. Google Partner. Amazon Ads Partner.
The practice is based in Bath and Bristol, working with Durham businesses remotely. Every engagement receives the same undivided senior attention regardless of geography.
The senior mind that wins the work is the senior mind that does the work.
PPC Agency vs PPC Consultancy in Durham
Why Durham businesses leave
Why Durham businesses leave
PPC agencies for senior consultancy.
The typical Durham PPC agency and SEO agency model has a structural flaw: the senior practitioner who wins the pitch is not the person who runs the account. Whoever has capacity inherits the account, while the senior who pitched moves to the next sale.
Geography is not a barrier to senior expertise. The best PPC consultancy and SEO consultancy for Durham businesses is not necessarily the nearest: it is the one that holds the account without interruption, reviews every week with genuine seniority, and filters every decision through commercial profit rather than vanity metrics. At roughly 237 miles from the practice's base in Bath and Bristol, Durham is served entirely remotely, which strips travel cost and scheduling friction out of the engagement without diluting senior attention.
Operating Standards
What every Durham engagement
What every Durham engagement
guarantees.
Four fixed commitments hold on every engagement, and together they mark the break from the usual agency arrangement.
i.
You own everything.
Every ad account, tag manager, analytics property and dashboard sits under your ownership. Always. We do not gatekeep your data.
ii.
No bait-and-switch.
The senior named on the proposal is the senior who does the work. No handover to a junior. No silent reassignment after the contract signs.
iii.
Live, not laminated.
Performance dashboards updated frequently. No vanity PDFs assembled the night before a quarterly review.
iv.
Direct line to the founder.
WhatsApp access to Nicholas, not a ticket queue. Ask the difficult question on a Sunday if you need to.
Results first.
The reviews follow.
Nic is an expert in his field, offering insight and reporting with real value, tailored to our needs.
In the two months since starting to work with Nic, I have been so impressed by his technical understanding across analytics and digital advertising. He has completely overhauled our data so we can see in detail what is happening and make better decisions, and reviewed all of our existing campaigns, which are already performing better. I cannot recommend Nic highly enough.
Nic manages our PPC campaigns with professionalism and expertise. He takes the time to understand our business, its objectives and the challenges we face, and is proactive in identifying opportunities to maximise results and return on investment.
Nic helped fill in the missing pieces on a complex data, attribution and privacy project, unearthing a series of unknown issues in the data stack and laying out a plan to remedy them that rolled out successfully. I would recommend Nic and The Crane Consultancy for their technical expertise and thorough understanding.
I have worked with Nic for several years and his attention to detail is second to none. He is extremely knowledgeable and very attentive, offering solutions and proactive in his suggestions.
Questions from Durham Businesses
PPC and SEO in Durham:
PPC and SEO in Durham:
common questions.
Are you a PPC agency or PPC consultancy in Durham?
The Crane Consultancy is a consultancy, not a PPC agency, and the difference is structural: one senior practitioner owns every Durham engagement from the first audit through to ongoing optimisation. No junior account managers, no team rotations, no handover documents. You deal with the founder, Nicholas Crane, throughout.
How does remote PPC and SEO consultancy work for Durham businesses?
Every Durham engagement is delivered remotely with no reduction in access or quality. Direct WhatsApp access to the founder, live performance dashboards updated frequently, and regular video sessions replace the need for physical presence. There is no account manager layer between the Durham client and the senior practitioner.
What makes The Crane Consultancy different from a Durham PPC agency?
Most Durham agencies run one model: the senior wins the pitch, juniors run the account. The Crane Consultancy removes that layer. A single senior practitioner, whose track record includes the LUSH Cosmetics global transformation across sixteen markets, holds every engagement here, so the person who audits the account is the person bidding, checking technical SEO and reporting to the board each week.
What PPC and SEO services does The Crane Consultancy offer in Durham?
PPC runs across Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube and Amazon, alongside AI search optimisation, technical SEO and a full data and automation layer: GA4 and server-side tracking, Consent Mode v2, marketing and revenue dashboards, CRM integration, attribution modelling, conversion rate optimisation and AI-assisted automation. One senior practitioner delivers all of it to Durham businesses, tied to a single profitability model rather than split into channel siloes.
Can you help my Durham business appear in AI search and Google AI Overviews?
Yes, and it is core to the practice. Buyers in Durham increasingly put their questions to Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot and act on one synthesised answer. The work is the technical foundation that lets those systems read, trust and cite you: structured data and schema, a coherent entity graph, machine-readable content, an llms.txt file and fast Core Web Vitals. That discipline is AI search optimisation, made up of Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
What is AI search optimisation, and how is it different from SEO?
Traditional SEO wins rankings in a list of links; AI search optimisation wins visibility inside AI-generated answers, in Google AI Overviews and in models like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. It splits into Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), which earns the direct answer, and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), the entity and authority signals that get you recommended by name. For Durham businesses it is technical architecture, not a content mill, and it runs alongside PPC and technical SEO in every engagement.
Can you help my Durham business with analytics, automation and AI?
Yes. Beneath paid media and search sits the data and automation layer: GA4 and server-side tracking, Consent Mode v2, marketing and revenue dashboards, CRM integration and automation that clears manual work. Where it adds a real edge, practical AI goes to work inside the Durham business, from Claude and Gemini to bespoke internal tools. The aim never changes: better decisions, made faster, on numbers you can trust.
Beyond Durham
Senior PPC, AI Search & Technical SEO consultancy
Senior PPC, AI Search & Technical SEO consultancy
beyond Durham.
Durham is served remotely, as are businesses across the rest of the country. These are some of the other locations the practice works with.
PPC, AI Search & Technical SEO Consultancy in Sunderland
Tyne and Wear · 12 miPPC, AI Search & Technical SEO Consultancy in Newcastle upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear · 14 miPPC, AI Search & Technical SEO Consultancy in Darlington
County Durham · 17 miPPC, AI Search & Technical SEO Consultancy in Middlesbrough
North Yorkshire · 19 miPPC, AI Search & Technical SEO Consultancy in Harrogate
North Yorkshire · 53 miPPC, AI Search & Technical SEO Consultancy in Carlisle
Cumbria · 55 mi
About The Crane Consultancy in Durham
The facts, plainly stated.
The Crane Consultancy provides senior-led PPC, AI search optimisation and technical SEO consultancy to mid-market businesses in Durham, County Durham. It is a trading name of Crane Consultancy Limited, registered at Companies House under number 15526285, VAT number GB466677439, founded in 2024. The practice operates from Bath and Bristol, with a registered office at 45 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, London W1S 4JL. It serves Durham entirely remotely.
Every Durham engagement is held by one senior practitioner, the founder Nicholas Crane, from audit to invoice, with no account manager rotations and no junior handovers. Services include PPC across Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube and Amazon; technical SEO; Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) for visibility in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot; server-side tracking; and conversion rate optimisation. Nicholas Crane is a Google Partner, Stape Partner and Amazon Ads Partner, and led the LUSH Cosmetics global digital transformation across sixteen markets.
Durham Mandates
Start with a conversation.
A proper conversation with the person who would do the work. Tell me where you are and what you're weighing up, and you'll get an honest read on what I'd change, what I'd leave alone, and where the real upside is. No pitch, no rush.
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