Mark Williams-Cook is the Director at Candour and the Founder of AlsoAsked, with over 20 years of experience in SEO, search intent and experimentation. He’s widely known for his Core Updates newsletter, unsolicited SEO tips and for cutting through hype with practical, evidence-based thinking.
A natural leader who genuinely connects people and helps build a healthy, supportive community.
1. After more than 20 years in SEO, what still keeps the work interesting for you today?
I feel the impact of search in general, outside of business, on a societal level is huge. It’s interesting being a spectator on the forefront and seeing how it is shaping the world. For me, there is a great mix of the “art and science” of SEO, there is endless amounts to get your head around from a technical perspective, but always room for creativity to take things to the next level. Being agency-side for so long has also given me so much great experience working with all kinds of different businesses and seeing how they tick behind the curtain.
2. Candour has grown into a values driven agency. How do charity initiatives fit into the culture you’re building there?
While we were building the team, we felt that alongside doing great work, having a positive impact on the world around us gives a sense of fulfillment to everyone at the agency. On a global scale, we’re a tiny company, so we have focused on the impact on our local community. Each year we make a shortlist from nominations and run a team vote to decide who our charity of the year will be. These charities tend to be smaller, and the impact of our donations, contributions, and the work we do is keenly felt. This sites well around the Candour’s values we developed of candour, cooperation, ownership, and ingenuity.
3. Unsolicited SEO tips are kind of your trademark. What’s one misconception about SEO you wish would finally disappear?
Oh, there’s so many to choose from! The tidal wave of AI has brought some brilliant new ones. I think one of the funnier ones is llms.txt. There’s certainly no harm from implementing it, but the problem I have is when it is listed factually as “a thing to do for SEO/GEO”, because it displays faulty thinking. There isn’t any credible evidence it does anything; no documentation, no announced support from any LLMs and the “tests” I have seen have been things such as the file gets indexed, or crawled by LLMs, so it must be used? That is why I demonstrated it is repeatable on a made up files like a cats.txt.
4. AlsoAsked has become a go-to tool for understanding search intent. What problem were you originally trying to solve when you built it?
As an agency we’ve been using People Also Ask data for over a decade, and until recently I think it has been overlooked by many people in SEO. It’s one of the fastest updated sources of search data we have, it’s geo/language targeted and gives more insight into zero volume searches than any other data source.
For the longest time, we had built our own tooling to gather this data from the command line, and I first showed this in a presentation in 2016. After that presentation, I was inundated with requests for the scripts we were using to get the data, which I shared; but then I also had a lot of requests for support when people were struggling to get them to run. It became apparent to me then, that there was a barrier to entry for the people that wanted and needed to use that data, so we began work on a web-version that people could use with no other technical knowledge. That is how AlsoAsked came about!
5. TopDog Harnesses is a very different kind of business. What have you learned from running an e-commerce brand alongside SEO tools and agency work?
The same thing as when I first ventured into SaaS, everything is harder than you think from the outside! E-commerce presented a new set of challenges, and I’ve had some wild interactions with customers. For instance, people buying a product, then emailing asking for a refund because “they hadn’t realised they were purchasing” and returning soiled products!
6. You took a break from tech to become a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer in Egypt. What memories stand out most from that period of your life?
Always the friends. I lived there for just over two years, and lived with some brilliant Egyptian people that I am still in contact with a decade later (and I will be visiting this year!). As I had spent a lot of my adult life doing “computer stuff”, it was a really nice way to round my experience, teaching people practical skills in a physical job.
7. How many times a week do you box, and have you ever tried Muay Thai?
I train six times a week. 3 boxing sessions and 3 S&C sessions. I’ve never tried Muay Thai, I’ve only sparred some MT people in boxing.
8. SearchNorwichXL is making a comeback. What can people expect from its return, how can the community get involved, and which charitable cause will it be supporting this time?
SearchNorwichXL is going to be an all-day conference version of the evening meetups that we used to run. People can expected a curated collection of talks from some of the best people in the SEO industry, an accessible event, with a good social afterwards. We’re still in the early stages of organising looking for both sponsors and initiatives to support.
9. This year will you be speaking on stage or joining any panels, and are there any SEO events you’re planning to attend as an attendee?
Yes! This year, so far I have planned:
Lumar Webinar on 28th January
WTS Fest on 5th February as Candour is a Scholarship Sponsor
SEO Surge Summit on 24th February (online)
Search London’s 15th Birthday on 24th February
SEO Brein Meetup @ Football Stadium de Kuip in Rotterdam on 26th March
Brighton SEO on 30th April
Ahrefs Evolve in Singapore on 14th May
Athens SEO on 22nd May
Search ‘n Stuff London on 26th June
Search Norwich XL on 24th September
Search ‘n Stuff Antalya on 1st October
10. Every city has its myths. Is there any popular myth or legend about Norwich you’d love to finally debunk? 😀
Haha, being on the inside I’m not sure what myths there are, but my fun fact about Norwich is that it’s the only English city to be ex-communicated by the Pope 🙂