Technical & Operations Lead
Dani Martin
Dani Martin leads the technical and digital operations side of Millside Creative. His background spans web design and SEO through to board-level digital operations leadership, including running technical SEO, analytics, CRM and marketing automation for a 12-location UK tattoo studio chain. He's just as comfortable writing code as he is reading analytics data or talking through strategy.
From the blog
Posts by Dani Martin
Automating enquiry responses without sounding automated
How to automate a first response to enquiries without it feeling automated, and where filtering tips into a wall that frustrates a customer.
What AI assistants see on a booking site
What's readable to an AI assistant, what isn't, why structured data matters, and why a JavaScript-only booking flow is often invisible to these tools.
Sales, marketing and technology are converging, and that changes who you need
CRM, comms, payments, nurture sequences and the sales pipeline now sit inside the same tools, which changes what kind of team a growing business needs.
Why your local business isn't showing up on Google
The reasons a local business site fails to show up on Google are usually more specific, and more fixable, than generic SEO advice suggests.
Setting up your Google Business Profile properly, for a one-location business
A practical walkthrough of setting up and maintaining a Google Business Profile for a business with one location, covering categories, photos, hours and reviews.
How to get cited in AI search: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google's AI Overviews
Practical steps to improve your chances of being cited by Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity: structure, schema and crawler access.
Before-and-after advertising rules for clinics: what you can and can't say
Practical guidance on what a clinic can and cannot say about prescription treatments, and where content marketing legitimately fits. Not legal advice.
Where consultation bookings drop off, and which ones cost the most
The three points where a clinic loses a prospective patient between enquiry and treatment, and why the least visible one is usually the most expensive.
The treatment menu that ranks
Why one long page listing thirty treatments ranks for none of them, and what each individual treatment page needs to answer to rank and convert.
Why beauty and aesthetics websites need more than a template
Treatment menus, before/after galleries and compliance-sensitive messaging mean beauty and aesthetics businesses need more than a generic template site.
Why we turn down Instagram management
Posting with no direction because it feels like where the money comes from, while the rest of the marketing is thin or absent, neglects the vast majority of the funnel.
More leads is not the answer
Most studios have a conversion problem and a no-show problem rather than a lead problem, so doubling enquiries only exacerbates the issue
Cutting no-shows: what protects a tattoo studio's diary
Deposits, confirmation reminders and consistent policy do most of the work of cutting no-shows: in this post, we take a look at the things that really make a difference.
When should a customer see their design?
Customers want to see a design before committing, artists can't hand over finished work for free. Here's how studios actually manage that tension, and how to build it into a booking flow that doesn't blindside anyone.
Styles, not artists: how customers find a tattoo studio
Customers know what they want on their arm before they know who they want to do it. Most studio sites are structured the opposite way round.
Booking systems for tattoo studios: what actually reduces admin work
Practical lessons on booking systems for tattoo studios, covering deposits, artist calendars, consent forms and reminders, drawn from direct client and multi-location experience.
How people choose a tattoo studio
The real sequence customers go through when choosing a tattoo studio, from first search to booked consultation, and what that means for the site.
Brand equity does not travel
Opening in a new town makes you the new name locally, however established your brand is elsewhere, and reputation there has to be built from scratch.
Practitioner-level booking: why location should be an attribute, not the entity
Why a multi-location booking system has to treat the practitioner as the primary entity and location as an attribute of the appointment, not the reverse.
One website or several: what decides it
Why the answer is almost always one website for a growing multi-location business, the genuine exceptions, and why even those end in a migration plan.
What twelve locations taught us about multi-location SEO
Technical SEO lessons from running search across a 12-location UK studio chain: duplicate content, redirects, and visibility that doesn't cannibalise itself.
What breaks at a second location
Hardcoded details, a booking system that defaults to the wrong site, a second Google Business Profile, and an enquiry routing problem you've never had before.
Going from one site to three: what changes
What changes when a service business grows from one site to three, and why the digital side needs deciding on purpose, not absorbed by whoever is nearest.
Free SEO tips for small businesses
Ten free, practical SEO improvements for small businesses, covering Google Business Profile, technical basics, backlinks and keyword research.