About Darnell Media

About Darnell Media.

A Sydney SEO agency founded on the Northern Beaches. We specialise exclusively in trade businesses and home services — not everything to everyone.

Belrose NSW

Based in

8 industries

Industries served

No lock-in

Contracts

Where we come from

Darnell Media was founded by Garehn Kalloghlian, Founder & Lead SEO Strategist, from Belrose on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The business was built around a straightforward observation: trade businesses and home service operators are being badly served by generic SEO agencies that don't understand how local search actually works for their industry.

We work with plumbers, electricians, builders, landscapers, pest control operators, solar installers, and veterinary practices — industries where the phone call matters more than the pageview, and where ranking in the right suburb beats ranking nationally every time.

No lock-in contracts. No account managers between you and the work. No offshore content farms. Direct specialist access, every engagement.

The short version

Sydney-based, Northern Beaches-founded

Specialist in trades and home services

Direct access to the specialist doing the work

Month-to-month — no lock-in

Reporting on leads and calls, not just traffic

Why trade businesses specifically?

Most SEO agencies treat a plumber the same as an e-commerce store or a law firm. They shouldn't. Trade businesses operate with specific constraints that change how search strategy should work:

Local, not national

A plumber in Manly doesn't compete with a plumber in Penrith. The keyword universe is suburb-level — 'emergency plumber Manly', 'plumber Dee Why', 'blocked drain Brookvale'. Generic agency keyword research misses most of these.

Emergency intent is different

Someone searching 'plumber near me at 10pm' is not browsing. They need someone in the next 20 minutes. The content, speed, and conversion path for emergency searches is completely different to research-phase content.

Map pack matters more than blog traffic

For most trade searches, the three businesses in the Google map pack get the majority of calls. Getting you into that pack — and keeping you there — is a different discipline to chasing blog traffic.

Reviews are a ranking signal

In local SEO, your review count, recency, and rating directly affect where you appear. We build review generation systems, not just web pages.

How we work

Every engagement follows the same structure. No surprises, no scope creep, no going dark for weeks.

01

Discovery call

30 minutes. We learn about your business, your service areas, your competitors, and what a good month looks like for you. No obligation, no pitch deck.

02

Free audit

We review your site, your Google Business Profile, your current rankings, and your competitors. You get a clear picture of where you stand before spending a dollar.

03

90-day roadmap

A prioritised action plan: technical fixes first, then on-page, then local signals, then content. Every action tied to a target outcome.

04

Monthly retainer

Month-to-month. We execute the roadmap, report on progress, and adjust based on what we see in the data. No lock-in means we earn your business every month.

05

Reporting on what matters

Monthly reports cover ranking movements, lead volume from organic, call tracking data, and GBP insights. Not a vanity traffic PDF — actual business metrics.

When not to work with us

We'd rather be upfront than sign an engagement that's wrong for both parties. Here's when we're probably not the right fit:

You want 50 blog posts a month: If your strategy depends on high-volume content production from an offshore content farm, we're not it. We write fewer, better pieces — substantive pages that answer real questions and hold rankings.
You want to rank nationally before establishing locally: For trade businesses, this is the wrong order. We'll tell you that directly. Suburb-level authority comes first. National visibility follows from a strong local foundation, not the other way around.
You need quick wins only: SEO is a compounding channel. If your business needs leads in the next two weeks and you have no existing rankings, Google Ads is the right answer right now. We can discuss both honestly.
You want an agency that says yes to everything: We'll tell you when your expectations are unrealistic, when a keyword isn't worth chasing, or when the budget doesn't match the competition level of what you want to rank for. That's not comfortable to hear — but it saves money.

If Darnell Media sounds like the right fit, the next step is a free 30-minute call.

Book a free consultation

No obligation. No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation.

Ready to work with a specialist?

Book a free 30-minute consultation. We'll audit your current SEO, show you where your competitors are beating you, and give you a clear roadmap — no obligation.

Book your free consultation

No lock-in contracts · Free audit included