With a Masters Degree in Hypermedia Studies (yes, that really is a thing!), he started building websites way back in 1995. This was before most people even knew what the internet was and very few people had it at home. It was mostly restricted to universities and research institutes.
But despite it’s slow (and by slow, we’re talking 10 minute page loads) performance, he could see the potential that existed. It’s safe to say that things have change quite a lot since then, but those early years still serve him well when approaching projects, as he’s seen most mistakes made and learnt how to avoid them happening again.
Job title: Managing Director
Education:
History: Chris started totalsurf back in 2004. In 1997, Chris worked as a Webmaster for Europe’s leading credit card payment provider, NetBanx (now rebranded as PaySafe). He went on to work for Zygon System, again as a Webmaster. Zygon were heavily invested in by Intel and 3i, and Chris led the multimedia department, working with large retail customers like Argos, Great Universal and RS Components. He worked on everything from website development to interactive touch screen TVs. Zygon were sold around the turn of the century. Chris then went on to work with Advantage London as Head of New Media, heading up the team and working with customer facing websites and internal marcoms (interactive CD-ROMs, PDFs and intranets) for large brands such as Linklaters and Credit Suisse.
In 2004, he started totalsurf.
Code: Chris has worked with a large range of code bases, including Adobe Director’s Lingo, ASP and PHP. He’s deeply versed in SEO; since starting totalsurf he has been running SEO campaigns for all sizes of companies, from startups through to BAA.
SEO: This is what really gets Chris excited now. He is passionate about building websites that will rank high on Google. He believes that if you’re investing thousands in your website it needs to give you a strong return on investment, rather than be seen as a cost. Sites need to pay their way. It’s as simple as that. If you’re not getting the right visitors to your site and they are not converting once they visit, then you have your strategy wrong. His deep passion for metrics and data boils down to simply knowing what will get your ranked and attract clicks, clicks that convert.
Chillies: He’s mad about chillies. Really mad! Not only does he grow the world’s (current) hottest chilli, but he eats them as well! Every couple of weeks, he’ll cook up a batch of Chili con carne or Chicken Acapulco (a dish similar to Chili con carne, but without the beef or peppers) and will pop about 10-12 of these hots little peppers in. How hot are they? Well, chillies are measured in Scovilles, and a jalapeno is about 7,000 units. His chillies are the Carolina Reaper, which can hit as high as 2.2 million units! That’s hot!
Music: He’s a huge music fan, and when he gets time from being a dad to two young boys, he can be found in his recording studio, putting his music degree qualification to some use. While not exactly famous, he has had some minor success with several singles played on national radio. His last release was the song All Fired Up, featuring Tina Barrett from S Club 7.
Feel free to damage your hearing listening to his catalogue under his stage name Chris Keen. Someone else took the Brown name!
Cars: He’s a petrol head. He loves driving, really loves it, and he’ll leap at any chance to jump behind the wheel. Having had his car remapped by the brilliant CMS Garages in Reading, it’s now enjoying an amazing performance boost. Chris, while respecting speed limits, enjoys accelerating to his target speed as quickly a possible. If you see a souped up, grey Audi on the roads, watch out
“I want to light a fire under every website we work with. Well planned fires attract visitors. They want to feel the warmth of your fire, bask in it’s glow and once they’re there, you can open a dialogue with them.”
