By Andrew Glyntzos
In January 2027, I’ll celebrate 20 years in SEO.
When I think back to where it all started, I certainly never imagined that search engines would become my career, my business, and ultimately something I would dedicate two decades of my life to.
Like most people who have worked in digital for a long time, I didn’t have some grand master plan.
I was simply curious.
That curiosity turned into an obsession.
In 2006, I completed my Diploma in Website Development.
Back then, building websites was very different. Content management systems were still evolving, responsive websites didn’t exist, mobile traffic wasn’t a consideration, and Google itself was a completely different search engine.
I enjoyed creating websites, but something fascinated me even more.
How did Google decide which website deserved to rank first?
That question would change my life.
During 2007 I spent countless nights reading blogs, experimenting with websites and testing ideas.
There weren’t many courses.
There weren’t YouTube tutorials explaining every concept.
Most of SEO was learned through trial and error.
Sometimes the experiments worked.
Many times they didn’t.
But every failure taught me something.
By 2008 I landed my first full-time role working in SEO.
I was fortunate enough to be given an opportunity by Joshua Hay, who trusted me despite my limited commercial experience.
It’s one thing to read about SEO.
It’s another thing entirely when real businesses trust you with their livelihoods.
That responsibility changes the way you approach your work forever.
People often ask what my favourite ranking has been over the years.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t “engagement rings.”
It wasn’t “work boots.”
It wasn’t “storage.”
It wasn’t any of the highly competitive keywords that came later.
It was…
food consultant.
The client was FutureFood.
When I saw that keyword sitting at number one in Google for the first time, something clicked.
I still remember the excitement.
That was the moment I realised this wasn’t just a job.
This was what I wanted to do for the rest of my career.
Twenty years later, I still get excited when clients achieve meaningful rankings.
Nobody succeeds entirely on their own.
Looking back, there are people who had a significant influence on my career.
Joshua Hay gave me my first opportunity.
Jeff Yang helped shape my discipline, my work ethic and the way I approached SEO during those early years.
Those lessons stayed with me long after I moved on.
Good mentors don’t just teach skills.
They teach standards.
In 2012 I started APG Web Studios.
Because of a non-compete agreement, I couldn’t immediately focus entirely on SEO.
Instead, I spent much of my time building websites while continuing to test SEO strategies on my own projects.
In hindsight, that period was incredibly valuable.
It taught me that SEO doesn’t exist in isolation.
Great SEO relies on great websites.
User experience matters.
Website architecture matters.
Development matters.
Content matters.
Everything works together.
By 2015 the business evolved into what would become OMEGA DIGITAL.
The focus became simple.
Help businesses grow through SEO.
No shortcuts.
No gimmicks.
Just sustainable strategies built on technical excellence, quality content and understanding how search engines really work.
Over the years I’ve had the privilege of helping businesses achieve some incredible first-page rankings.
A few stand out.
Each keyword represents years of work.
Thousands of hours.
Countless technical improvements.
Content strategies.
Internal linking.
Website migrations.
Digital PR.
Testing.
Learning.
Adjusting.
The rankings are exciting.
But what matters most is what those rankings meant for the businesses behind them.
More enquiries.
More sales.
More jobs.
More growth.
That’s the real measure of success.
SEO today barely resembles the SEO I started with.
We’ve gone from simple keyword optimisation to semantic search.
From desktop-only websites to mobile-first indexing.
From PageRank to machine learning.
Now we’re entering the era of AI search.
Every few years someone declares SEO is dead.
I’ve heard it more times than I can count.
Yet here we are.
The platforms evolve.
User behaviour changes.
Technology moves forward.
But one thing remains constant.
Businesses still need to be discovered.
That’s what SEO has always been about.
2026 marked another important milestone.
Rather than remaining focused purely on delivery, I’m moving further into a Director role.
That means spending more time helping businesses with strategy, mentoring teams, improving systems and building the next chapter of OMEGA DIGITAL.
It also means looking for a Head of SEO to help continue delivering exceptional work for our clients.
I’m genuinely excited about what’s next.
Reflection becomes more valuable as the years pass.
Not because we should dwell on the past.
But because it’s easy to forget how far we’ve travelled.
When I think about that young guy experimenting with websites nearly twenty years ago, I couldn’t have imagined the journey ahead.
The businesses I’ve worked with.
The friendships I’ve built.
The clients who’ve trusted me.
The lessons learned from failures.
The excitement of successes.
Every part of the journey mattered.
To every client who trusted me with their business.
To every mentor who invested their time.
To every colleague, employee and business owner I’ve worked alongside.
Thank you.
You’ve all played a part in this journey.
Twenty years has gone remarkably quickly.
And somehow, I still feel like I’m learning every single day.
Perhaps that’s the best part of SEO.
The learning never stops.
And honestly…
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
