Appear Online, the Cardiff-based search marketing agency, is opening a second office in Swansea as part of a planned hiring push across South Wales.
The agency, which was recognised at the Cardiff Business Awards in 2024, will retain its headquarters at Brunel House on Fitzalan Road in Cardiff city centre, with the new Swansea base set to house a growing team of SEO, Google Ads and AI optimisation specialists.
Co-founders Chris and Andrew say the expansion reflects the volume of work the business has taken on across West Wales in recent years, and a belief that Swansea is ready for more investment in the digital services sector.
“Swansea has real momentum right now,” Chris said. “There’s a strong graduate pipeline, a growing base of ambitious local businesses, and talented search marketers who shouldn’t have to leave the area to build a career. Opening an office there was the logical next move for us.”
The agency has been working with businesses in and around the city for some time, including Swansea and Llanelli estate agency No.86, whose digital growth has been driven in part by Appear Online’s SEO work. The team also counts some West Wales and wider UK brands among its client base, spanning eCommerce, legal, healthcare, construction and dental sectors.
Roles being created at the Swansea office are expected to cover SEO, pay-per-click advertising, content, digital PR, link building and account management. The agency is placing particular emphasis on AI optimisation – a fast-growing specialism that focuses on how brands appear in tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity, rather than in traditional search results alone.
Andrew said the hiring plan would lean towards experienced search marketers as well as junior talent coming out of Welsh universities.
“We want to bring in people at every stage of their career,” he said. “Some of our best work over the last few years has come from giving talented people room to grow. Swansea gives us the chance to do more of that, closer to home for a lot of the clients we already work with.”
The two offices will run as a single connected team rather than separate operations, with staff able to move between Cardiff and Swansea, and regular cross-office team days already being scheduled.
Appear Online has been featured in Forbes, TED, Nation Cymru and MSN for its work on search and AI visibility, and says it expects the Swansea expansion to increase headcount meaningfully over the next twelve months. Further details on the new office location and recruitment will be announced in the coming weeks.
The agency’s Cardiff office remains at Brunel House, 2 Fitzalan Road, CF24 0EB. Businesses or prospective candidates can get in touch via [email protected] or on 029 2190 0044.
