Steve Harvey-Franklin’s Bio

I founded Maratopia in 2003 (originally WSI Yorkshire), and over two decades later, what started as a traditional digital marketing agency has evolved into a forensic, evidence-led search marketing agency based in London.

Looking back, 2003 feels both like a lifetime ago and yesterday.

That longevity is reassuring — because in agency years, survival alone means doing a few things right.

My career has always been rooted in digital innovation, creativity and commercial growth — long before digital marketing became the industry it is today.

Those same principles still shape how I work now.

Career Journey

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work with and help build some exceptional businesses.

Some key highlights include:

Helping grow Visual Communications Group (VCG) from a £250k per annum photo library into a £100m global multimedia group, later acquired by Getty Images.

That growth was fuelled by acquisitions, rapid transformation, and some of the earliest digital shifts in content distribution.

I led production and content generation, helping build one of the strongest stock photography operations in the industry while also supporting the transition into some of the earliest B2B e-commerce platforms.

Later, I headed the European division of AIM-listed ImageState, during one of the most transformative periods in digital publishing.

It was a time when:

• film became digital
• paper catalogues became online libraries
• physical media became downloadable assets
• and global B2B websites reshaped how industries operated

I then went on to lead Internet Direct, at the time one of the UK’s largest independent online retailers of digital cameras, before its eventual sale to Pixmania.

These experiences gave me something many agency founders don’t have:

deep client-side commercial experience.

And that perspective still defines Maratopia.

Why Maratopia Was Built

By the time I launched Maratopia, I had already built and led multiple B2B and B2C e-commerce businesses and worked across the core disciplines of:

• SEO
• Paid Search
• Web Design
• Analytics
• Social Media
• Digital Strategy

What I kept seeing was a gap.

Many agencies were built either by creatives or technical specialists — often excellent in their field — but disconnected from the commercial realities their clients face.

Budgets. Margins. Pressure. ROI.

Having been on the client side myself, I understood those pressures.

That’s why I built Maratopia differently.

A digital agency grounded in:

• empathy
• accountability
• evidence
• commercial clarity
• and long-term sustainable growth

Not guesswork.

Not jargon.

Not smoke and mirrors.

Just strategy rooted in evidence.

Search Has Changed

Today, search is changing faster than at any point in the last 20 years.

Businesses are no longer competing just for Google rankings.

They’re competing for visibility across:

• Google Search
• Google AI Overviews
• ChatGPT
• Perplexity
• Claude
• and emerging AI-driven answer engines

That shift is exactly why Maratopia now specialises in:

Forensic AI Search Optimisation

Combining:

• SEO
  
• AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
  
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)

to help businesses improve how they are found, cited and trusted across both traditional and AI-led search.

From our London base, we work with businesses across the UK and beyond, helping them navigate this next era of search.

Lifelong Motivation

More than 20 years on, Maratopia’s mission remains the same:

To be our clients’ most trusted advisors.

That mission still drives everything we do.

I’ve built a team around the same values that shaped Maratopia from day one:

strategic thinking, technical creativity, transparency, and collaboration.

That’s where our mantra comes from:

Think. Create. Share.

And while the tools and technologies have evolved beyond recognition since 2003, my motivation hasn’t changed.

I’m still just as excited about search, digital growth, and helping businesses succeed as I was when I started.

Only now, the search landscape is bigger, faster and far more complex.

And that makes the challenge even more interesting.