Online marketing since 2006

About us – two people, one agency that works differently.

Yves Brunner and the experienced associates he works with – in online marketing since 2006, 200+ web projects of their own, senior roles in agency life and solo practice. And the decision, in 2024, to build something small and hands-on in Limassol – properly.

Meet Yves & Alex Our story

In online marketing since 2006 200+ websites built Thousands of top rankings

Our story

How two marketing nerds became Brandboutique

The short version: in 2006, one of us put his first website online. Twenty years later we had 200+ projects between us and had seen agency life from the inside – and in 2024 we decided to do it one more time. Properly.

01

2006 · The first keyword

Yves types HTML into Windows Notepad, uploads it via FTP and lands at #1 for a niche keyword three weeks later. From then on: no exit strategy.

02

2008–2022 · Agency and solo practice

Both bring deep, hands-on experience from different angles – Yves as Head of SEO at an e-commerce agency, Alex running his own web design agency single-handedly for years and later working at an international remote agency for SEO & content. Plus a steady stream of their own referral clients. They see from every angle what works and what's broken.

03

2015–2023 · Our own test lab

Alongside agency and solo work: our own niche portals, comparison sites, content projects. 200+ in total. Every tactic is learned here first – before it ever reaches a client.

04

2023 · The AI wave

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Most agencies hesitate or sell AI as a buzzword. We spend months testing in a structured way – and settle on a sober, practical approach to the whole topic.

05

2024 · Brandboutique

The realisation: what we want – experienced, hands-on work, few clients, real local roots, AI in moderation – doesn't exist here. So we built it ourselves. Deliberately small. Deliberately in Limassol.

The people behind it

Yves & Alex

No managing directors three rows back, no project managers as a buffer layer. When you talk to Brandboutique, you talk to one of us – and that same person sits at the keyboard afterwards.

Yves Brunner
Yves Brunner
Founder · Strategy & clients

Yves has been in online marketing since 2006 – back when 'SEO' was a foreign word to most people and Google AdWords had only just left beta. For years he ranked his own web projects – 100+ sites, from niche magazines to comparison portals – while looking after selected referral clients on the side. Most recently, several years as Head of SEO at an e-commerce agency. The result: broad hands-on knowledge across almost every discipline of online marketing – from SEO and analytics to CRO and content.

20 yrs
Online marketing
100+
Web projects
10 yrs
hands-on

Focus areas

  • Strategy & positioning
  • Local SEO
  • GEO / LLMO
  • Lead generation
  • Analysis
  • CRM
  • Analytics & measurement
"A good plan beats ten tactics. And a plan that truly fits the client beats any clever framework."
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Alexander Joannou
Senior associate · Technical SEO & AI

Alex got into online marketing through projects of his own – in 2008, while studying for his M.A. in communication science, with affiliate websites in fiercely competitive niches. Out of that grew his own web design agency with an SEO focus, which he ran single-handedly for many years – from strategy to keyboard. Most recently, several years at a larger international remote agency in SEO & content. His own projects keep running in parallel: 100+ websites, from affiliate niches with millions of visits to small SaaS experiments.

18 yrs
Online marketing
100+
Web projects
10 yrs
hands-on

Focus areas

  • Technical SEO
  • Content architecture
  • Entity optimisation
  • Link building
  • AI workflows
  • Automation
  • Core Web Vitals
"If AI does something better than I can, I use it. If it does it worse, I leave it out. That's basically the only rule."
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20

Years in online marketing since 2006

200+

Websites built our own + clients'

1,000+

#1 rankings earned over the years

18

Client spots maximum capped on purpose

What drives us

What we believe

Six principles we didn't dream up – they grew out of twenty years of work, our own mistakes and the patterns we see at clients again and again.

Real experience – not a fancy title

When we say someone experienced looks after you, we mean two people with 35+ combined years of hands-on practice at the keyboard — not a junior with a fancy title on a business card.

Test it ourselves first, then recommend it

We've built 200+ websites of our own. Every tactic we recommend to a client, we've tried on ourselves first – or seen through to the end with a previous client.

AI as a tool, not a buzzword

We use AI where it genuinely speeds things up – keyword clustering, outline drafting, raw report copy. And never where listening, strategy or honest client knowledge counts.

Breadth beats silo thinking

SEO without an understanding of ads is blind. Web design without a CRO lens is decoration. We think in complete funnels – not in separate trades running side by side.

Local, because we live here

We live in Limassol – our favourite coffee roastery is just around the corner from the old town. We know the audiences here from everyday life – not from a market research PDF.

Honest, even when it hurts

We'd rather say 'this won't work' at the start than after six months of burning budget. Even if it costs us a project. That's rarely easy – but always right.

We spent years watching big agencies promise experience and deliver juniors. At Brandboutique, the person you talk to is the one working on your project. No handing off, no third row. That's not romantic – it's the only way we can deliver the work clients pay us for.

Alexander Joannou · Senior associate, Technical SEO & AI
The third in the trio

Who else weighs in

Small doesn't mean lone wolf. For performance campaigns, we bring in someone who's been doing this as long as we have.

Martin Keller
Martin Keller
Associate · Performance ads

"Every euro of ad spend has to pay off. Otherwise we're doing something wrong."

Martin has run our performance ads since 2024. Before that: eight years at a big performance agency, always juggling 28+ clients at once. With us: a maximum of 9 accounts at a time – so the work can go deep, not just wide.

More reinforcements? Currently two open freelance roles in ads – for people who want to work the way we do.

Sound like your style?

Then let's talk.

Thirty minutes, open, no pitch. We get to grips with your situation, tell you honestly whether we're the right partner – and if so, where we'd start.

Request your free analysis Go to the contact page

Prefer email? hello@brandboutique.cy