A small studio that takes search seriously
We started The Marketing District because too many beautiful websites were quietly invisible on Google and slow on a phone. We build the opposite: sites engineered to be found, and designed to convert.
Founded in 2016, in Newcastle upon Tyne
We're a deliberately small team of designers, engineers and SEO specialists who got tired of the false choice between a site that looks good and a site that performs. So we built a studio that refuses to pick one.
We take on fewer projects than a big agency and go deeper on each. You work with the people doing the work — not an account manager relaying messages to a team you never meet. And we'll always tell you the honest version, even when it's “you don't need a rebuild, you need three fixes.”
Four principles we won't compromise on
Built to be found
Search isn't a marketing task we bolt on at the end — it's an engineering decision we make on day one. Every site we build is architected to be crawled, understood and ranked.
Plain-spoken, always
No jargon used to sound clever or hide a thin answer. We'll tell you what we're doing, why, and what it will and won't achieve — in words you can repeat to your boss.
Performance is a feature
Fast isn't a nice-to-have. It's a ranking factor, a conversion factor and a respect-for-the-visitor factor. We hold every build to a real performance budget.
The right way, not the quick way
We earn links instead of buying them, write real copy instead of filler, and build proper foundations instead of shortcuts that unravel. It takes longer. It lasts.
The people you'll actually work with
Elena Voss
Founder & Strategy Director
Sets the brief behind the brief: who you're for, what a win looks like, and the searches you need to own.
Marcus Reed
Technical Director
Lives in the build. Server-rendered, accessible, fast — and obsessive about Core Web Vitals on a mid-range phone.
Priya Nair
Design Lead
Designs systems, not screens. Bespoke, distinctive, and made to be built properly at speed.
Tom Whitfield
SEO & Digital PR Lead
Earns links the right way and cleans up the ones that don't. Reads server logs for fun, apparently.
A few of the businesses we've worked with
- Craftson Ceramics
- Brightwell
- Harbour Financial
- Lumen Skincare
- Fellside Outdoor
- Quayside Coffee
- Maren Studio
- Northcote & Vale
- Tyne Provisions
- Eldon Eyewear
Like how we think? Let's talk.
Tell us where you are and where you want to be. We'll tell you, plainly, whether we can help and what it would take.