Before becoming recognised as one of the UK’s leading SEO and AI optimisation experts, Dan M. Jones was a teenager struggling financially, teaching himself web design late into the night from YouTube videos while trying to find a way to completely change the direction of his life.

Today, the Manchester entrepreneur is the founder of On Top Marketing, an SEO agency that works with businesses across the UK, helping companies increase their visibility in Google and modern AI driven search platforms. But according to Jones, the path into business and search engine optimisation was far from conventional.

Jones grew up in a financially struggling household, with both of his parents unwell and living on benefits during his late teenage years. While many of his friends were enjoying the typical social life associated with being 18, he says he was focused almost entirely on trying to find a way to earn money online.

“We genuinely struggled financially.” said Jones.

“I remember going out with friends once and not having enough money to buy a drink. My friend had to buy it for me. At the time, it felt embarrassing because I wanted to live like everyone else around me, but financially that wasn’t possible.”

Jones originally enrolled in an IT course at college because it included a module on web design, but after completing the first year, he decided to leave.

“I realised the pace of traditional education wasn’t going to get me where I needed to be fast enough.” he explained.

“The web design they were teaching was outdated and I knew I couldn’t afford years more education followed by university."

Instead, Jones turned to free YouTube tutorials, online forums and self education, spending years obsessively learning web design and eventually search engine optimisation entirely on his own.

The first breakthrough came when he built a website for a local car body repair company in Colchester, charging just £300 for the work after spending an entire month building the site.

The website eventually ranked on the first page of Google for local searches related to car body repairs.

“That £300 honestly felt better than any amount of money I've earned since” Jones said.

“It was the first moment where all the late nights and the self education actually felt worth it. It proved to me that someone could trust me with their business and actually pay me money for what I'd done, regardless of my young age.”

Jones says the moment he truly understood the power of SEO came shortly afterwards, when his own freelance website began ranking highly in Google for “web design Colchester”, outperforming established local agencies with full teams and in-house SEO staff.

Some of the same agencies that had previously ignored his emails asking for work eventually began contacting him asking for help improving their own rankings.

“That completely changed how I viewed SEO.” he said.

“I realised this was a skill that could completely change my life, and the lives of my customers if I became good at it.”

Over the following years, Jones immersed himself in search engine optimisation, investing heavily into online courses, studying business books and audiobooks, and working relentlessly to improve his understanding of how search engines and online marketing really worked.

At the same time, he was also dealing with serious health issues caused by undiagnosed hemiplegic migraines, a rare neurological condition that often made long working hours physically difficult.

“There were so many nights where I stayed up all night trying things people confidently claimed worked in SEO, only to realise later that much of it either didn’t work at all or barely moved the needle.” Jones explained.

“That trial and error process was incredibly frustrating because when you’re dealing with health issues, lost time really matters.”

Jones says he worked seven days a week for years without taking holidays, eventually reaching the point where demand for SEO work became too large for him to handle alone.

In January 2020, he founded On Top Marketing and began building an internal team rather than outsourcing work to external providers.

“I was never satisfied with outsourced SEO services because too many people were focused on ticking boxes instead of getting real results.” he said.

“So I decided to build my own team, train people internally and create systems and processes that actually worked.”

Today, Jones leads a growing agency team and has become recognised within the industry for his results driven approach to SEO and AI optimisation, helping businesses improve visibility across both traditional search engines and AI driven search experiences.

Despite the growth of the business, Jones says the thing he is most proud of is the people around him.

“The thing I’m proudest of is the team we’ve built,” he said.

“Some of the people who joined us weren’t SEO experts when they started, but through our training and systems, they’ve become incredibly skilled at what they do.”

Jones believes his story shows that self-education can still completely transform someone’s future, even without traditional advantages, formal connections or university education.

“I learned everything through books, audiobooks, online courses, YouTube videos and years of trial and error. If there’s one thing I’d want people to take away from my story, it’s that you genuinely can change your life through self-education and persistence. You don't need anyone to open doors for you, you can go and open them yourself.”

More information about Dan M. Jones can be found at: https://danmjones.com.

Media Contact
Company Name: OnTopMarketing.agency
Contact Person: Dan M. Jones
Email: Send Email
Phone: 01206 688104
Address:47 Butt Road
City: Colchester
State: Essex CO3 3BZ
Country: United Kingdom
Website: https://danmjones.com/