This week’s director profile features Will Critchlow, co-founder of Distilled, an agency that focuses on website design, Search Engine Optimisation, Online Reputation and PPC marketing.

Tell us Distilled’s story. How did the company start?

Four and a half years ago, Duncan Morris and I started the business. We started out building websites together, and then expanded into SEO and PPC. The evolution to reputation management was partially driven by client demand, part by the development of the market – and part due to personal interest.

Did this change the ethos of the business?

Once we were able to provide a wider range of services, we started gaining the attention of bigger clients. Whereas we were once focused on smaller, local businesses, the addition of search meant that we were working with multinational businesses. We’ve now got 18 people within Distilled, which makes a huge difference in terms of how we work.

So, the reputation management area of Distilled’s service bundle – how does it differ to other services on the market at the moment?

We were pretty early to that space at the beginning of 2007, and we used any tracking or measurement tool we could get our hands on. Soon however, we built own tool, which is now used to help us do our jobs better internally – rather than something we sell via subscription.

The reputation aspect of our business falls into two main categories (as most services do) – either monitoring or analysis.

Similarly, does the reputation monitoring support or compliment the skill set of your team?

Reputation management is much like SEO, but with more websites and fewer keywords. In fact, they are very similar skills with a crossover in our team. However, the goals are different. SEO is about generating new business. Reputation management has that same goal, but it’s less direct and is more of a defensive move. It’s about avoiding situations. One of the clients we work with is World Vision – which is a retainer model, and focused on longer-term social media monitoring.

You said above that when you first started, Distilled used ‘any tools you could get your hands on’, do you still do this?

Yes definitely, we still use other tools to support our own. Different sources are vital in building a proper picture of what people are saying about a brand, and our real strength is in the aggregation of all of those opinions.

What do you think about the practice of ‘deoptimisation’ (where agencies set out to cut links with bots to help bad pieces of coverage fall down search rankings)?

It’s a shady business and not something we’ve ever been involved with. Search is a big deal for some brands though, and they’re prepared to take risks. Some people spend tens of thousands a month on their search marketing, but the line between causing damage to a piece of content and improving it is very fine.

Do you find that a lot of your new business is based on recommendation due to the nature of the industry?

We don’t advertise. We speak at conferences, and do a lot of writing online. So yes, it’s almost purely recommendation-based. Last year we tripled in revenue and people, so we’re doing new things to talk about what we do.

Where are you seeing growth within the industry at the moment?

There is tremendous growth from lots of big brand across the board. Reputation is finally seeping into the boardroom, gaining the attention of the marketing directors and CEO’s. This is a really positive thing, and amounts to big budgets being put on the table for media and ecommerce companies.