SEO STRATEGIST | FOUNDER | CTO
I’m the founder and CTO of LinkGraph, a full-service digital marketing agency that provides SEO services and growth marketing to hundreds of brands. I’m also the creator of the SearchAtlas SEO software suite. Growing brands through SEO is my greatest passion and life’s work.
As a skilled programmer, I bring a unique perspective to my SEO practice and thought leadership. With the right data-driven SEO strategy, I believe any brand can break into a market with ease and outrank their biggest competitors.
We’re making some big moves at LinkGraph which has been an exciting adventure. At the end of the day it’s all about the impact I want to have on the search space, in my philanthropy and activism. If you feel similarly, I’d love to connect.
How do I balance being a CEO, CTO, running businesses, AND making time for family? 😅
Firstly, at work, I focus on what only I can bring to the table. Delegation is key.
If I’m overwhelmed, it’s usually because I’m taking on too much. My job is to keep building a team that can handle responsibilities so I can stay balanced.
I set clear boundaries between work and personal life:
→ By 6 PM every day, I stop working to focus on family.
→ I avoid working on weekends. (Early in my career that wasn’t easy) But now, weekends are mostly unplugged. I turn off my phone or keep it out of reach
→ Evenings are for family—if you text me, I might not reply. I’m focused on being present with my daughter and wife.
This keeps me happy, balanced, and ready to tackle the chaos of building a business while enjoying life along the way.
A billion-dollar deal… all thanks to pizza.
This was our last-slice move after months of dead ends and silent calls. We needed a breakthrough.
Our GOAL? Partner with a company controlling 10% of all U.S. live event tickets and bring their inventory onto our platform.
That was a potential goldmine.
We tried every tactic to get their attention: emails, calls, meetings —but nothing worked.
We just weren’t a priority on their radar.
So, we knew we needed something 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱, something impossible to ignore.
We asked ourselves, “What does everyone like?”
The answer: Pizza. No one says ‘no’ to a slice, am I right?
So, we sent $𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐢𝐳𝐳𝐚 boxes straight to their office.
And… it worked.
Within hours, the CEO himself called me, laughing.
That phone call unlocked a partnership, bringing their best tickets to concerts, sports, and theater events across the U.S.
It changed our business forever.
Sometimes, breaking through means ditching the usual tactics.
You need creativity, a touch of humor, and, yes, sometimes… a LOT of pizza.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve done to win a deal? 👇🏼
One of my biggest business lessons came from a setback.
While launching my first startup ruckus.com, we hit a wall:
Ranking in search results.
We were up against giants like StubHub and Ticketmaster —who invested thousands into building up their authority.
We were outspent and outmatched, it seemed impossible.
But from this roadblock I saw a great opportunity.
We weren’t the only ones struggling for visibility.
Thousands of companies faced the same problem.
That insight sparked a multimillion-dollar idea.
Years later, it led to Search Atlas and LinkGraph —where we help businesses rank through authority publications and digital PR.
The lesson?
When you hit a wall, don’t stop.
Look at it again. From a new angle.
That roadblock might be your next big breakthrough.
AI CAN Rank: Here’s the real deal on AI content and SEO
If you’ve been told AI content doesn’t rank, it’s time for a reality check.
The truth? AI can absolutely rank on Google—and rank well—when done right.
Here’s the deal: if you’re just copying & pasting from a basic prompt, you’re missing out on what AI can actually do.
When you know how to prompt, refine, and optimize, AI can produce content that stands out on Page 1.
Think AI can transform your SEO? Drop a “💡” and let’s talk!
From ranking #20 to #2 in local search. That’s not growth—it’s DOMINATION.
We used NLP terms with OTTO SEO to turn this law firm’s local rankings around in just 4 weeks. Now they’re ranking top 3 on Google Maps for 88% of their searches.
Want results like this? Hit the comments for an exclusive 14-day trial!
1,180% traffic growth in one of the toughest industries out there!
Yes, you read that right—OVER a thousand percent.
In a competitive market like rehab treatment, starting from scratch isn’t easy. But with OTTO and our Holistic SEO approach, we leveled the playing field: technicals, on-page, authority, UX—you name it, we optimized it.
Ready to leave your competitors in the dust? Head to SearchAtlas.com and see what we can do for you! Could you be our next success story?
The hard truth: your business can only grow to the level that YOU’RE at.
Don’t be the bottle neck on your own success story.
Personal plateau for founders: A phase when you feel stuck. You’re not achieving significant progress in your business or personal development.
It’s one of the toughest challenges founders face.
If you’re experiencing personal plateau then your business isn’t growing.
So here’s some tips to get outta of that phase:
↳Maintain that beginners mind
☑️Stay curious
☑️Be open to learning
☑️Never stop seeking new knowledge and skills
↳Invest in your own development
☑️Get coaches
☑️Surround yourself with people you want to be more alike
☑️Attend workshops or seminars to gain fresh insights
↳ Practice reflection
☑️ Regularly evaluate your progress
☑️ Identify what’s working and what needs adjustment
Overcoming the personal plateau is an ongoing process.
By focusing on your growth your not just becoming a better leader you’re driving your business to new heights.
The bottom line:
Your personal development is key to unlocking your business potential.
Don’t stand in the way of your own success.
Cloud Stack Experiment! Here’s how we boosted keyword rankings by 23 positions 🤯
Ever tried using cloud stacks to boost your site authority? We ran an experiment, and the results are wild. Here’s the breakdown:
We crafted mini sites across AWS, Azure, GitHub, and Google Cloud, each loaded with powerful SEO elements—smart anchor text, images, and FAQ sections.
The outcome? A 23-position jump in keyword rankings for our target page. And with 6 sites rocking a DR over 90, it’s safe to say cloud stacks work.
Curious to see the full impact? Head to searchatlas.com and find out what cloud stacks can do for you.
I’ve been managing fully remote teams for over a decade, and I’ve found that the right tools and approach make all the difference.
Here’s how we keep things running smoothly:
1) No Email: We don’t like email for internal communication. Slack is our go-to tool—the lifeblood of our team’s communication. Quick, organized, and keeps everyone in sync.
2) Project Management: We rely on Asana for tracking project tasks, while Notion and ClickUp keep our agency and product workflows on point. These tools help us stay organized and focused.
3) Asynchronous Collaboration with Loom: With a team spanning multiple time zones, Loom is a game-changer. It lets us record and share ideas, updates, and instructions asynchronously. A video often says more than an email or message.
4) Accountability with Hubstaff: Managing 150+ people across time zones takes serious organization. Hubstaff helps us track time without micromanaging. We don’t deep-dive into the data unless performance concerns arise, but it gives us peace of mind that everyone’s on track.
With this setup, we’ve built a remote team that’s not just efficient but also deeply connected and aligned, no matter where in the world we’re working from.
Prioritize clear communication and accountability.
Even when everyone is miles apart.
Let’s cut some BS about SEO!
GeoCircles and social signals? Total myth and hype!
We tested it ALL—creating profiles, chasing social shares—and guess what? It didn’t move the needle.
Want REAL results? We’ve got the strategies that actually work.
Curious about what we’ve learned? Check out our case studies at LinkGraph.com
932% more traffic in just 9 months 🤯
Want to know how? We didn’t just boost clicks—we helped a leading restaurant supplier go from local player to global leader.
But here’s the kicker… it wasn’t just about numbers. It was about REAL revenue growth—millions of dollars in new sales.
Is your business ready for a transformation like this?
Let’s make it happen. Visit searchatlas.com today!
We moved to Medellin for growth.
Our team needed a fresh start.
The decision paid off.
Living in Medellin has been incredible. The city is lush and green, and the food is fresh and delicious. Moving here from Palm Beach and Las Vegas was a big change, but it was necessary for our company, @searchatlasseo .
We needed to build a team of product specialists who truly understood our product. Medellín, seemed like the perfect place. We spent two weeks in boot camps, training and teaching them about SEO and Search Atlas. This intense training helped us ramp up quickly.
As our company grows, we will likely move to different places. But Medellin has a special magic that will always draw us back. Even though we will be spending more time in San Francisco next year, we won’t leave completely.
Our lifestyle involves a lot of traveling. Over the next two months, we will be hopping from city to city, presenting at big conferences. It’s a busy schedule, but it’s fun and exciting. We wouldn’t change a thing.
Medellin has become a significant part of our journey, and it will always hold a special place in our hearts.
We helped an online casino, one of the toughest niches on Google, go from zero to hero in just a few months.
1.57 million clicks. 7.8 million impressions. 93,000 monthly organic visitors.
166 keywords ranking in position one on Google.
The online casino world is no joke. It’s like building a sand castle in a hurricane. Massive established giants dominate the game.
They have deep pockets and killer strategies.
They don’t play nice with newcomers.
But here’s where it gets exciting.
We didn’t just level the playing field. We crushed them. Our holistic SEO approach left no stone unturned.
Before the project started, we helped the newcomer with technical optimization, content strategy, authority building, and improving the user experience. The whole nine yards.
This was a David and Goliath story for the digital age.
Even the underdogs can come out on top.
From 3,162 to 140K monthly visitors—here’s how we did it.
We took a B2B security underdog and turned them into a multibillion-dollar IPO candidate. How did we do it? A holistic SEO strategy—technical optimization, killer content, authority links, and seamless UX.
Want to see how this can work for YOUR business? Comment “OTTO” and I’ll send you a 14-day trial to see for yourself!
We took the biggest risk in our 7 years of building Search Atlas.
—one that could’ve changed everything
For months, this year, we poured all our engineering efforts into building OTTO.
We bet the house on SEO automation and dynamic SEO.
We stopped working on all other products and focused solely on this.
It was a gamble. We spent three or four months working non-stop to create this technology.
And it paid off big time.
In just 3 months since launch, over 10,000 businesses are using OTTO.
They are seeing their SEO rankings improve every day.
We took a chance in a market that was unsure about SEO automation.
This was a huge victory for us.
Search Atlas is having a banner year.
Trusting our instincts led us to a major success.
As a business owner, sometimes you have to go with your gut.
Trust your intuition. It can lead you to the right path.
I helped companies like Facebook go public.
Then I quit to learn coding.
From finance to live entertainment tech, and eventually to digital marketing and SEO.
Here’s my story,
and how I built multiple companies and found my passion in SEO...
I actually started my career in finance at Goldman Sachs.
Worked in investment banking, helping companies like Facebook with IPOs.
But I quit.
Spent a year teaching myself to code,
and became proficient.
Why?
I realized there was another path.
A risky one.
But one I will forever be so grateful I took.
↳ Soon after, I became CTO of my first tech company in live entertainment ticketing.
↳ Moved into real estate, using tech to find vacation rental investments.
↳ Shifted to digital marketing.
↳ My first company, Ruckus, focused on getting products in front of people.
Some things worked, others didn’t, but I found my passion in SEO.
That led to building LinkGraph and Search Atlas, where we explore how Google ranks information and how to stay ahead.
It was not a linear journey. At all.
But your journey shapes who you are,
just as mine has brought me to where I am today,
teaching me valuable lessons along the way.
Takeaways?
• Always remain open to new paths.
• Self-learning can open doors to unexpected opportunities.
• Building a strong network is just as important as any technical skill.
Here’s a LESSON: Always give more than you take.
My dad taught me that the last piece isn’t about pizza—it’s about value. In business, if you’re always grabbing for the last piece, it shows. Want long-term partnerships? Give more, take less.
What’s your approach—are you a giver or a taker in business?
It’s not about more content—it’s about BETTER content.
Update your existing content. Google loves refreshed pages, and a few smart tweaks can push you to the top. Why wait months for new posts to rank when your old ones can rise today?
Ready for a content overhaul? Comment “OTTO” for a FREE trial today!
Had a blast speaking at the Holistic SEO Mastermind Event in Kusadasi Turkiye, organized by @koraytugberkgubur
It was eye-opening. The industry is evolving fast.
This event wasn`t just about SEO.
It was about a holistic approach to digital success.
Content + Technical + On-Page + Off-Page + User Experience = Holistic SEO
SEO is not just about keywords.
Instead, it’s about a comprehensive approach that covers every aspect of a website.
All 5 components will boost your rankings.
But ignore one of them, and your SEO efforts may falter.
↳ Without Content:
Without high-quality content, your website will struggle to provide value,
Leading to poor engagement and high bounce rates.
↳ Without Technical:
Without a well-optimized technical foundation,
Your website may suffer from slow load times, poor mobile performance, and security issues.
↳ Without On-Page:
Without proper on-page optimization,
Your individual pages may fail to rank for relevant keywords.
↳ Without Off-Page:
Without building authority through external factors,
Your website may lack credibility and struggle to compete.
↳ Without User Experience:
Without a focus on user experience,
Visitors may leave your site quickly, reducing engagement and conversions.
So it`s crucial to support all 5 parts of this formula:
1. Content:
Create content that meets the needs of your audience and is optimized for search engines.
2. Technical:
Ensure your website is fast, secure, and easy to navigate.
3. On-Page:
Optimize each page with relevant keywords, meta tags, and internal links.
4. Off-Page:
Build your website’s authority through backlinks, reviews, and citations.
5. User Experience:
Focus on creating a seamless, enjoyable experience for your visitors.
Holistic SEO is not just about quick fixes.
It’s a long-term strategy.
It’s about building a high-quality website that stands the test of time.
This is the future of SEO!
Some webpages can change lives.
They’re called YMYL content.
And they matter a lot in SEO.
YMYL stands for “Your Money or Your Life.”
Since it started, YMYL has reshaped SEO. Google focuses on delivering the most relevant, trustworthy results for important queries.
What falls under YMYL? News, government info, finance, shopping, health, safety, and content about various groups of people.
But it’s not limited to these.
Any page offering advice or helping with decisions can be YMYL.
But it’s important to take into account that Google ranks YMYL content differently.
They look at expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness, and credibility.
They hold YMYL content to the highest standards of quality and accuracy.
Ranking for YMYL queries is tough but rewarding.
Choose your topics wisely.
Think about your brand, industry, and goals.
Want to EXPAND into new markets? Here’s how to master international SEO.
1️⃣ Backlinks matter: Want to rank in a new country? Get links from local sites to boost authority.
2️⃣ Speak their language: English isn’t enough. Create content in your audience’s native language.
3️⃣ Technical fix: Use hreflang tags to guide Google to the right content for the right users.
Ready to expand? Let OTTO handle the heavy lifting. Visit searchatlas.com
Myopic SEO is KILLING your growth.
Focusing on ONE aspect of SEO? Been there, lost $500k.
SEO isn’t just about backlinks or technicals—it’s about BALANCE: authority, content, technicals and UX.
Is your SEO strategy too one-dimensional? Try searchatlas.com for a Holistic SEO approach.
Is your keyword OBSESSION holding you back?
SEO isn’t about stuffing keywords anymore—it’s about TOPICAL AUTHORITY. If you want to own the conversation and dominate search, you need a strategy built on depth and expertise.
Are you ready to rethink your SEO game? Drop a 🔥 if you’re with us!
Keeping up used to be tough, but OTTO changes EVERYTHING.
Google’s updates keep changing and changing—here’s Part 2 with five more updates that have made a huge impact.
RankBrain transformed how Google reads intent. Possum reshaped local SEO, making proximity more important. The Medic update emphasized trust and expertise, while BERT focused on understanding natural language. And now, AI Overviews bring generative responses to the forefront.
Curious? Comment ‘OTTO’ below, and I’ll fill you in!
“If you’re hosting a conference or event and are looking for speakers on the topics of marketing, entrepreneurship, software engineering, or philanthropy, I’d love to talk. My goal is to bring excitement, fun, and practical application to my talks so your audience leaves with actionable advice and a ton of energy.”
At LinkGraph, you’ll work with team members that value one another’s skills and expertise. Our philosophy is simple – hire diverse, driven individuals who foster a culture that empowers great work for our clients.
