Louis Riat-Bonello, 27, built Optisearch to get local firms found online; now he is up for Emerging Leader of the Year, with the winner named on 19 November.
A Croydon plumber, care home or accountant can do excellent work and still lose the job before the phone rings, because the customer searched, scrolled and called whoever turned up first. More and more of that searching now happens in AI tools such as ChatGPT as well as on Google, and the question for a small firm is the same in both: do you show up at all?
That problem is the reason Louis Riat-Bonello, a 27-year-old business owner from neighbouring Beckenham, set up his agency, and it has now put him in the final of a national award. He is one of the finalists for Emerging Leader of the Year at the National Young Business Leader Awards 2026.
In his words
“I started Optisearch because I saw how many good local businesses were invisible online, losing customers to bigger brands simply because they weren’t showing up.”
He founded Optisearch in 2022. Its work is search advertising and SEO: paying for a business to appear among the adverts at the top of Google, or getting it into the ordinary results beneath them. The agency’s own website describes it as a Google Ads and SEO agency helping UK businesses win more customers from search.
The numbers the agency puts on it
Optisearch says it counts enquiries rather than clicks. For September 2026, across all of its 60-plus clients, the agency says it helped small businesses “generate, track and attribute 3554 new enquiries from Google marketing”.
It says those enquiries produced around £5 million in quoted work and between £1 million and £2 million in sales so far. They are the agency’s own totals across its client list; we have not seen the figures behind them.
Who it works for
The agency says it now works with businesses across the UK and internationally, including tradespeople, care homes and professional services firms, the kind of business found on any Croydon high street or trading estate. Its team has grown to six.
The final in Milton Keynes
The National Young Business Leader Awards, according to Optisearch’s announcement, celebrate the next generation of business leaders driving innovation and making a difference in the business community. The winners will be announced at the final on Thursday 19 November 2026 at Unity Place, Milton Keynes.
He is quick to pass the credit on:
“Being shortlisted is a real honour, and it belongs to my team and the clients who’ve trusted us to help them grow.”
Talking to him
Louis Riat-Bonello says he is available to talk about the shortlisting. His own site, louisriatbonello.com, lists his Google Ads and Google Analytics certifications and leads with a case study from a psychiatric clinic in Florida. The agency’s number is 020 4572 2042.
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