The Most Hardworking SEO Expert in Washington, DC & Maryland

How this started

A while back I came across an SEO consultant in Amsterdam who ranked his own website for "hardest working SEO expert in Amsterdam." It was half a joke and half a demonstration. Anyone who doubted he could get a business found on Google only had to search the phrase.

I liked the idea enough to try it here. AmeriAd Solutions started in Washington, DC, and most of the business owners I talk to are in DC and Maryland, so this is the phrase I picked.

What it takes to rank for anything

The method is the same whether the phrase is a joke or "brick repointing in Washington DC":

• One page for one phrase, instead of a paragraph bolted onto the homepage.
• The phrase goes in the title tag, the main heading, the URL and the meta description.
• The page carries real proof, not filler, and the photo is named after the phrase.
• A few lines of structured data tell Google who the page is about, what he does and where.

The difference is competition. Nobody else is chasing the phrase on this page, so ranking it is easy. A contractor going after "masonry contractor DC" is up against businesses with hundreds of reviews, virtual office addresses and sometimes outright spam listings. That's where the real work is, and it's where I spend most of my time.

Why "most hardworking"

Because "best" is something every agency says and nobody can check. Work is something you can check. Here's mine.

A client result with dates on it. Venus Spa Nail Salon in Florence, KY was 16th among the nail salons in their area. I rebuilt their Google Business Profile, fixed their listings across directories, set up review requests and targeted the searches their customers type. 33 days later they were 2nd, and Google Search sent them 230 clicks from 9,410 impressions over 30 days. The scans are below, and the full case study has the rest.

Homework before sales calls. Before I pitched anyone around DC, I ran geo-grid scans on seven trade and city combinations between Washington, Baltimore and Northern Virginia and scored 154 local businesses one at a time. I found DC map pack leaders using virtual office suites as their address, a Baltimore map pack where eight listings look like one operator, and trades so locked up by private-equity-backed companies that I tell small owners not to pay for SEO there. I'd rather lose a sale than take money for a fight you can't win.

No hand-offs. I do the audit, the fixes and the monthly report myself, in plain English.

Untouched numbers. Every screenshot I publish keeps its date, keyword and tool. I don't list client counts I can't back up, and I don't use stock testimonials.

So, is it true?

You'll have to decide that yourself. I'd just rather be judged on work you can check than on adjectives. And if someone else around here wants the title of most hardworking SEO expert in Washington, DC & Maryland, they're welcome to come and take it.