I got into SEO to help local businesses make money.

I started with SEO and paid search for my dad’s print-broker firm. The business needed leads, so I judged the work by the calls and inquiries it brought in. That experience is why I went into search: I wanted smaller businesses to have a chance against larger competitors.

Since 2008, I’ve led hundreds of campaigns and built thousands of websites. I’ve worked in travel, law, home services, healthcare, dentistry, restaurants, franchises, e-commerce, social media, and sports. A location program for a franchise and lead generation for a law firm call for different pages, data, and ways to measure success.

I built local pages for thousands of locations

Early in my career, I worked on search programs for large businesses with more than 5,000 locations. I built feeds from CRM data and formulas that combined store details with search terms to write a distinct description for each location.

That work led me to help a team build LocalV. A restaurant or multi-location business could import a feed and generate hundreds of landing pages. We also built a way to close pages and redirect them when a location changed or a campaign ended. Building LocalV taught me to plan for the data, page creation, and ongoing maintenance before launching a large program.

I learn by studying, building, and testing

I’ve studied SEO and web design, read widely, and tested ideas in campaigns. I’ve run conversion audits and A/B tests, tried different link strategies and vendors, and used tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, BrightLocal, Whitespark, and Yext. I’ve also built software and dashboards with teams to help us do and measure the work.

I’ve tested ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and several Chinese AI models. I compare their answers, look at the sources they use, and test ways to improve how businesses appear in those answers.

I’ve built teams and the systems behind the work

I’ve talked with hundreds of business owners, hired and trained team members, and worked with colleagues and partners around the world. I’ve learned to explain complicated SEO decisions in plain language, work through disagreements, and find solutions people can carry out.

I’ve built internal SEO, sales, and operations systems and trained teams to use them. The goal is to help people make better decisions and get the work done consistently.

How I decide what belongs in a campaign

Search and customer habits change, so I keep studying and testing. I use what performs in campaigns, adapt it to each business, and drop tactics that fail to earn their place.

The companies and projects I lead

I lead Firestarter SEO and several search projects. On the Work I Lead page, I explain what each one does and how it relates to my work.