Today’s Q&A Wednesday is with Bill Leake, the CEO of Apogee Search. Apogee is doing some great work in the mysitcal world of search engine optimization.
Q: How did you first come up with the idea of starting Apogee?
Coming out of my last engagement (1998-2002), I’d been the President and "business executive" (the other execs were technical founder types) at one of the 500 largest software companies in the U.S. The vast bulk of our growth had come from internet marketing techniques that I had implemented and supervised. After leaving that company, I saw an opportunity to share that knowledge base more broadly with other firms, to help them grow as well. Back in 2002, the search engine marketing industry was very primitive, and it remains surprisingly primitive even today (though their sales powerpoints are definitely a lot snazzier), with most firms either being full of techies (and thus not understanding marketing), full of advertising fluffies (and thus not understanding data and numbers), or full of pirates (not caring about helping clients). We’ve managed to grow by building a different kind of firm, one that puts clients first, and puts our reputation on line (literally) every month based on provable performance. If we don’t make our clients money, we get fired fast.
Q: Give us the company elevator pitch on what you do.
We help our client make money with their websites, through a combination of Paid Search (pay per click & Google AdWords), Natural Search (Search Engine Optimization, and other online media buys.
Q: You were recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Are customers beating your door down now?
We were busy before the article (which probably helped lead to the article). However, we are even busier now. I’ve always been a believer in PR, when it’s well done, and the Wall Street Journal is certainly a great place to be mentioned.
Q: What are some of the best SEO blogs out there?
I’m partial to ours, of course, at http://apogee-search.com/Blog/
But, there are a bunch of good ones. Rand Fishkin has a great one, as does Aaron Wall. Austin’s own Brett Tabke (WebmasterWorld) is always worth a looksee as well.
Q: Was there a certain moment when the lightbulb went on, and you knew you were really on to something?
Yes, and it goes on again every time I visit another prospective client, and see what their previous SEO firm has done to them. There are plenty of good people in this industry, but there is more chaff than wheat, and there is lots of work yet to do in terms of helping guide clients past all the malpractice.
Q: What can we expect to see in the future from Apogee?
Hopefully continued thought leadership, continued growth, and continued ravingly happy clients. If we don’t see that, someone needs to come by and fire me fast!!
