About
About Simon Bayliss & Creative Orbit
I am an AI-first digital strategist with more than 15 years of experience helping businesses make practical sense of search, websites and commercial content. From Wollongong, I work with people across the Illawarra, Sydney and regional NSW, drawing on my project experience with the AFR, Australian Traveller, Tourism NSW and Destination NSW.
What I do
I make you more findable, understandable, and preferable. That could be dedicated AI SEO and SEO Wollongong strategies, a faster and more useful website, an e-commerce plan that removes friction, or commercial photography that gives your brand a real perspective.
Today, the job is not simply to chase top Google rankings. Your business needs clear facts, strong evidence, and useful content that works for people and search and answer engines alike. I assemble those parts and measure what changes.
Today, the job is not simply to chase a Google job. Your business needs clear facts, strong evidence, and useful content that works for people and search and answer engines alike. I assemble those parts and then measure what changes.
Generalist agencies can provide a broad menu. I have first-hand experience of regional markets, local tourism, independent operators and the realities of getting a business properly online. That local knowledge counts when the audience is in Wollongong, the Illawarra, Sydney or a town well beyond the expressway.
I’m comfortable with the detail, whether it's a tricky technical issue, a poor site structure, or a question a customer asks before they commit. The work is more practical than dramatic, on all hands. Small improvements, in the right order, can change what people find and what they do next.
How I got here
My first real online business was one of Australia’s first web based nurseries, and was launched in 2000. It gave me a lesson I still use: the website is not a brochure. It has to support the business from discovery to a confident decision.”
In 2003 I went on a motorcycle trip through Europe and picked up the camera again. Photography gave me another way to see a place, a person, and a story. It made me more patient, too. Beautiful light can't be hurried. A useful perspective can't be faked.
Work has taken me all over regional NSW, Australia, and Sweden, where I learned just how much context changes how people buy, travel, and search. That period produced Red Dust on Snow, a publishing and photography project focused on regional stories. The work then grew to include digital strategy, web design, SEO and e-commerce, and Creative Orbit followed. I had no desire to create a faceless agency. I wanted a practice that was close to people and places and commercial decisions that inform every project. The tools have evolved a great deal. The principle hasn’t. Clarify things. Make them act useful. Give people a reason to believe in you.
“Don’t look at what is, ask ‘why,’ look at what isn’t, and ask ‘why not?’”
A personal mantra
Experience and credentials
My experience sits at the intersection of technology, content, tourism, local business and commercial problem-solving. It is broad enough to see the connections, and practical enough to act on them.
- 15+ years in SEO, web design and digital strategy
- Former digital lead for Visit Outback NSW, an eight-year engagement
- Built and ranked 100+ websites for Australian businesses
- Published in the Australian Financial Review and Australian Traveller
- Project credits with Tourism NSW and Destination NSW
- Specialist in AI SEO: AEO, GEO, LLMO and Agentic Optimisation
- Commercial photographer with work across Australia and Sweden
- Based in Keiraville, Wollongong, serving the Illawarra, Sydney and regional NSW
Who I’ve worked with
I have worked with tourism bodies, publishers and regional organisations that need both a clear story and a workable digital programme.
- Tourism NSW
- Destination NSW
- Tourism Victoria
- Outback NSW Tourism
- Australian Financial Review
- Australian Traveller Magazine
- Outback Magazine
- Regional newspapers and publishers across NSW
Case studies and results
Good work should leave a trail of evidence. These two projects show different parts of my practice: commercial growth for a specialist e-commerce business, and sustained digital work for a major regional destination.
AMF Magnetics: e-commerce revenue growth
I helped turn a specialist product catalogueue into a stronger e-commerce channel, combining technical SEO, clearer category architecture and commercial content that supports buying decisions.
Visit Outback NSW: eight years of digital transformation
Over eight years, I supported a regional destination through website strategy, content, search, photography and the steady work of making a vast area easier to explore online.
More at Latest Research.
What I help with
Each engagement starts with the business problem, not a pre-set package.
AI SEO
I prepare your site and evidence so answer engines can understand and cite your business with confidence.
Local SEO for Wollongong and Sydney
I help local customers find the right service, location and proof when they are ready to act.
AI Commerce
I make product, pricing and trust information easier for people and AI-led shopping journeys to use.
Growth Services
I connect website, search, content and conversion work into a focused programme built around the next useful move.
Commercial Photography
I create considered imagery that shows the people, place and detail behind your business.
Why work with me
Direct delivery
There are no account managers and no handoffs. You work with me, from the first conversation through to the reporting and next decision.
Evidence-based
I show you the data: Search Console, GA4, rankings, conversion signals and AI citations. No vibes, no vague reporting.
Local knowledge
After more than 20 years working across regional NSW, I understand the differences between Wollongong, the Illawarra, Sydney and the markets in between.
The AI-era approach
Search changed quickly through 2025 and 2026. Zero-click behaviour became more common, AI Overviews changed the path between question and website, and AI-led search made brand clarity more important than ever. A high ranking still has value, but it is no longer the only consideration.
My response is not to abandon conventional SEO. It is to make the underlying work stronger: technically sound pages, clear entities, first-hand evidence and answers that do not make a machine guess. My AI SEO Paradox case study explores the tension plainly. Visibility can rise while clicks change shape, so measurement has to look beyond a single traffic line.
That means I track the complete picture: search demand, rankings, qualified traffic, conversions, inclusion in AI answers, and the quality of the information that surfaces. The goal is not a fashionable label. It is a business that remains discoverable and credible as the search interface changes.
There is no single trick for this environment. The businesses that travel well across search surfaces are specific about what they do, consistent wherever they appear and useful when a customer needs an answer. That is the standard I aim for.
- AI-optimised web development with strong Core Web Vitals
- Answer Engine Optimisation for AI Overviews and featured snippets
- Entity SEO and structured data
- Multi-modal content across text, image and video
- Google AI ecosystem management: Business Profile, Analytics, Search Console and Ads
- Transparent reporting and agile strategy
Let’s work together
If you are ready for a clearer website, stronger search visibility and direct advice from someone who will do the work, I would like to hear what you are building.