Profile: Ian Harris

Multilingual search marketing firm Search Laboratory is winning new business as firms go overseas to grow. Suzan Uzel met MD Ian Harris.

Trading in 18 countries, with more than 90 employees and a rapidly rising turnover, Search Laboratory has come a long way since its inception nearly seven years ago.

But founder and managing director Ian Harris is not resting on his laurels. A recruitment drive is under way – the firm will take on another 20 staff by the end of the calendar year, with an addition of six to eight people per month thereafter – and there are plans to open an office in the United States next year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The business currently has two offices in Leeds, one in Moortown and one in Chapel Allerton, as well as a presence in London.

“A lot of retailers are looking to expand abroad and that’s a big area. We think it’s largely market conditions here. Everybody is looking for growth and if things are a bit flat here, multilingual is actually quite a logical next step.”

Germany is a popular target for firms, he said, adding: “People are certainly looking at China and talking about China, and some people are doing it, but there’s more talk than actual action.

“We get involved in a lot of US companies who are looking to go to Europe. Being in the UK, we speak their language but we are in the time zone, so we are quite a good bridge to Europe for US companies.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Harris set up Search Laboratory after five years at Leeds-based language services provider thebigwordgroup, where he was chief technology officer. “It was while I was there that there appeared to be a gap in the market for multi-lingual search marketing.”

His time at thebigwordgroup followed a stint running his own internet programming firm, a period at his father Ron’s computer systems company, Baron Systems, and two years post-university working in London for the Met Police as a management scientist, which involved projects to help the police be more efficient. Ron is now the financial director of Search Laboratory.

And while multilingual campaigns were the initial focus of Search Laboratory when it was established, today they account for 40 per cent of what it does. Mr Harris, the majority shareholder, says the firm’s mathematical approach has resonated well with those looking for English language campaigns as well.

“We like to do things quite scientifically, without the fluff as we always say, that’s why we are called the Search Laboratory, because we follow scientific methods to do this.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Search marketing is the business of helping companies to make more money from their websites by being prominent on Google or other search engines.

It uses search engine optimisation (SEO), which involves the improvement of the domain value, largely built by how many quality sites are mentioning a business or linking that business online, as well as the pay-per-click (PPC) model, which is based around bidding on key words.

“We also help people do what we call conversion optimisation so, if someone’s landed at the website your ‘buy’ button isn’t big enough or the price isn’t very prominent. All those reasons why you wouldn’t buy something from the site, we try and help people sort that out,” explained Mr Harris.

One of Search Laboratory’s biggest markets is fashion. It has among its client base Debenhams, Mulberry, Barbour and Jacques Vert. “Fashion is highly searched online. People look for holidays, they look for fashion, they look for financial services. So there’s a few big sectors online.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Other clients include publisher Pearson, which is the owner of the Financial Times newspaper, Puma Hotels and Tombola Bingo.

In 2011, Search Laboratory recorded a turnover of £4.5m, a 40 per cent year-on-year increase since 2009, while last year’s pre-tax profits were £312,000.

The firm’s financial year is about to come to a close and Mr Harris forecasts that year-on-year sales growth will exceed 40 per cent. But the challenge of recruiting suitable staff is limiting the company’s rate of growth.

“If you take our PPC department, that is quite a mathematical system. It’s a bidding system. Therefore, we like to take on clever maths grads who would make good account managers as well. Trying to find someone who is really, really good at maths, and really good account manager material, ie. personable, it’s a bit like trying to find a clean shaven bloke with a beard.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We are in a growing industry so the pool of experienced talent is smaller than the jobs available.”

Mr Harris is keen on employing graduates. The average age of a Search Laboratory employee is 26. “We like to train them in our way of doing things,” he said.

“When we take someone on it’s quite a while before they are operational, in some of the specialist roles. It can be six months before we can sit them in front of a client.”

Meanwhile, on the linguistic side, native speakers are imperative, said Mr Harris. “In order to identify foreign language search terms, you have to try to capture all the different local phrases and terms foreign customers use when searching for a product online. Authenticity is crucial here.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Native speakers are naturally equipped with a much wider vocabulary than a translator, and are also armed with an innate knowledge of local language phrases and nuances.

“So, to come up with as wide a range of search terms as possible, you need a native language speaker linguist to creatively explore the campaign.”

For popular languages like German, French, Italian, Spanish, Search Laboratory has full-time members of staff. For less frequent languages, it uses freelances.

So, how has Search Laboratory managed to maintain strong year-on-year growth and profitability despite the tough economic climate?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I think we’ve been fortunate in the market that we’ve been in, the market we are in is growing, but it’s not growing at the rate we’re growing, so it must be doing something else as well,” answered Mr Harris.

“I think it’s doing an honest job and being totally transparent in a market where there is a bit of smoke and mirrors, getting results, being good at what we do and we try and recruit the best staff.”

Mr Harris, the majority shareholder in the company, added: “We are in a bubble. We are with forward-looking clients who sell stuff online that is growing. Our clients have aggressive online growth targets.

“We are not seeing people say ‘let’s just do what we did last year and hope that we survive’. It’s like we are in a different country to be honest.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But this bubble is not one which is likely to burst, he stresses.

“The dotcom bubble was not founded on profit. Whereas this, everything that is happening now online, there’s an ROI on everything, no-one’s taking a punt.”

Ian Harris Factfile

Title: Managing director, Search Laboratory

Date of birth: 12/09/68

Place of birth: Worcester, but grew up in Leeds.

Education: MSc in programming and 3D graphics at Leeds University; BSc in maths and management at Lancaster University.

Last book read: A Book About Innocent: Our Story and Some Things We’ve Learned

Car driven: Honda CRZ

First job: Washing pots.

Favourite holiday destina-tion: Orlando with the children.

Favourite song: It’s Late by Queen

Most proud of: My wife, she helps dyslexic children to read and has carried our family through some tough times.

Related topics: