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Yes, that's probably fair to say, although, in a lot of niches, you'll need more than just some of one or the other--it can take a lot of both.

NEVER go on whats in the SERPs. Get recommendations - so MOz is a good place to start. Why not look for the really technical SEO posts on moz and then approach those companies? I can recommend Distilled You could look at the http://moz.com/community/users users board and pick someone from London that has a ton of points - this indicates they have been helpful to the SEO community over a number of years. I'm at 21 and I am based in London. Marcus Miller is at 12 and he is based in Birmingham There is also a MOZ recommended list http://moz.com/community/recommended Stephen

Not quite London, but not too far down in Brighton: GlobalMaxer - they're a pretty boutique agency with a good MVT that you can use by yourself with relative ease, or combine it with their CRO/MVT consultancy. Worth giving them a call as they're often in London and can run through a demo with you.

I use wheregoes.com to see where a shortened link goes without clicking it.

Hello S_Curtis, Has this issue been resolved or is it still an open question?