How do customers find you on Google, in ads and, increasingly, in AI search? That is what SEO LICK does: a growth marketing agency working with businesses that live on enquiries and bookings, from charters and travel agencies to webshops and polyclinics.

We talked to Ivan Radica, co-founder of SEO LICK and the newest member of our community, about how it all started over beans and sausages on Sljeme, the projects they are most proud of and why the whole agency works with AI. And if you want to learn how to set up an “AI brain” for your own business, they are running a free online webinar, “Postavi AI mozak” (Set Up Your AI Brain), this Wednesday, 28 October at 18:00.

Tell us briefly about the company – what do you do and how did it all start?

It all started with beans and sausages on Sljeme, when my university colleague and friend Marko Smolčić Uzunović and I first said we wanted to start a company together.

That spark from 2019 slowly grew, and by summer 2020 we had our first joint project, running advertising for a company that organises tours on the Cetina river.

Back then we were called IMagency, and we did it on the side while both of us worked at agencies and companies, including Rinzo, Degordian, GetByBus and Croatia Yachting Charter.

It went on like that until the end of 2024, and in 2025 SEO LICK was officially born.

In short, SEO LICK is a growth marketing agency.

LICK is an acronym for our internal framework, our four-pillar methodology: Links, Infrastructure, Content, Keywords. And our slogan is “We LICK websites. For organic growth.”

More broadly, we help businesses that live on enquiries and bookings get found by customers. On Google, in ads and increasingly in AI search.

We do SEO, AEO (visibility in AI search engines), Google and Meta ads, web development and measurement. Lately we are also doing more and more AI implementation for businesses, because we noticed strong demand for the solutions we had implemented in our own agency.

How would you describe the entrepreneurial climate in Split and the surrounding area?

I think Split has moved forward significantly in recent years, for the better. There is a community where people really get to know each other: Split Tech City, the Technology Park, RaST, meetups like Unicorn Marketing Meetup.

Five years ago there wasn’t this much of it, and people talk about entrepreneurship much more now, whereas before it was looked down on a bit.

The challenge is that a large part of the local economy is seasonal, so companies often see marketing as a summer cost rather than a year-round investment.

Which projects and collaborations are you most proud of?

I would single out Nutricionisti.hr, our in-house project and the first directory of verified nutritionists in Croatia. Purely through SEO, it brought us the first enquiries and more than 1,000 clicks in just a few months.

A collaboration close to my heart is Alpha Air Ambulance, because they provide a truly noble and unique service – intercontinental medical flights with patients.

With a local charter platform we achieved strong organic results. Organic traffic grew from 738 to 2,880 visits a month in eight months. Over 16 months the site got 62,100 clicks from Google Search, all from content and site structure.

We have also often worked with webshops, and here I would single out the Quad webshop, which we saved from a disastrous migration to Shopify and then positioned as an authority on Google in its niche.

Every agency in Split works with some “rent a boat” company, and so do we, but we are especially pleased that our client has stood out with a large number of online bookings compared to others for the past 4–5 years.

There has been all sorts of other work, from cosmetics and clothing to polyclinics and real estate. For now we don’t want to specialise in a narrow niche because this suits us. We like challenges and interesting projects, and what matters most is that both sides are happy with the collaboration.

What technologies do you use in your work?

For SEO, Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog and Google Search Console; for measurement, GA4 and Google Tag Manager; for ads, Google Ads and Meta. We build websites on WordPress as a CMS and with modern headless solutions.

We run projects and sales in ClickUp.

What sets us apart is AI: the whole agency works with Claude and Claude Code, and keeps knowledge about clients, decisions and processes in an “AI brain”, a structured knowledge base that the AI reads before every task.

Do you have offices?

We don’t have a traditional office. The team works remotely from all over Croatia (and beyond). We meet clients online or in person by arrangement. Even though we are a remote agency, we like meeting in person because that is how trust is built.

Are you planning to grow the team? How many of you are there now?

The core is Marko and me as founders. And just this week we hired Marija Pavlović, our project manager. Alongside that core, we have a network of about ten specialists in SEO, ads, email marketing, design, web development and tracking whom we work with on a project basis.

That way every project gets someone who specialises in exactly what the client needs.

We do want to grow, but we grow gradually – when the work calls for it, not in advance.

Why did you join the Split Tech City community?

There are a lot of good tech companies in Split, and we want to be part of that community, learn from others and share what we know.

Anything else you would like to highlight?

On Wednesday, 28 October at 18:00 we are running a free online aiprobaj.com webinar, “Postavi AI mozak” (Set Up Your AI Brain), with Marko and Ivan Bobanović from Fraviz Studio. We will show live how to set up an AI that knows your business, from an empty folder to an AI that knows who you are, what you are working on and how you write.

Registration at aiprobaj.com/ai-mozak.