For the SEO King, business is good, life is good!

When it comes to building high-performance websites, along with creating and implementing ground-up search optimization strategies, these days, successful businesses all over the country are turning to George Chaney (and it’s no surprise that Chaney is known as "The SEO King").

Who Is George Chaney?

The brief bio goes something like this: As founder and President of SEO King, Inc., George Chaney is the quintessential example of a hard-working entrepreneur who’s found ongoing success on many levels in life. Developer and owner of 5 A-List websites, 4 with a national audience along with 1 that’s regional, George has managed to build what many would consider to be a "golden web empire."

Of course, like many entrepreneurial success stories, the road to success didn’t exactly reveal itself without the expected speed bumps and obstacles along the way. Choosing to get right to work after high school, Chaney is actually quite educated – both in the school of hard knocks and with real life, hands on professional experience that’s as varied as it is remarkable.

Prior to getting into the growing field of web development and optimization, Chaney prospered through a series of fast paced professional employment experiences. With 8 years in the banking industry (3 of those years specializing in the field of mortgages) preceded by 8 years in B2B commodity sales (mostly within the manufacturing industry), professional career highlights easy to come by.

Enter the web business. Like any "Generation X’er," Chaney didn’t have the good fortune of growing up with the internet or learning it from a young age. For this generation, even having a couple of computers in school was a luxury. Internet and web experience had to be something that was learned step-by-step from scratch – with passion.

Chaney began his foray into where he’d ultimately find his most enduring successes not unlike many in the early days of the web. He was very impressed with the potential of the web and built his first web presence more than 10 years ago – an AOL personal web page. Naturally, it didn’t take long for things to progress from there.

Just a brief couple of years later, Chaney was rapidly progressing full speed ahead with his very own web business. Today, with more than 7 years of professional web marketing experience, his own portfolio of sites has netted more than 12.6 million pages served over just 4 years and on pace to serve nearly 1,000,000 unique visitors this year alone.

Keep reading for the complete interview with George…

What got you into the web business anyway?

George Chaney: Well that is kind of a long story and it really plays into how so many entrepreneurs get started. Here’s how it all happened for me.

I was with a regional bank for 3 years and worked my way up to a bank officer position. I saved them a ton of money – I’m confident it was millions – and was rewarded accordingly by the VP I worked for.

Anyway, I applied for an Assistant VP position, which I had more than enough experience for. I really felt that my proven performance as the third in charge of a moderately sized operation justified the promotion.

I was called up to the Senior VP’s office and I will never forget him pointing to his degree posted on his office wall and saying, "Until you get one of these, as long as I am here, you won’t go any further in this bank." Now, I think he was really trying to get me to actually better myself. I was young then…had the time to do it.

For me, that was the end of my banking career as far as I was concerned. From that point forward, I just kind of lost all interest.

Fast forward 8 years. I had done a stint with a regional manufacturing company and had become fairly well-known in our industry due to the role I had with turning them around. Within about 2 or 3 days after leaving that post to further my career, I was contacted by a similar operation that was in buyout negotiations with a very well known major national company.

The director of the company looking to sell out had a lot of capital tied to the profitability of the Florida operations. I got a phone call from him out of the blue, and was asked to meet for lunch. Long story short, I was offered the job about 3 minutes into lunch, and of course, I accepted the opportunity. I felt like I was on top of the world!

My first day at the new job, I reviewed operations revenue reports – the month prior, the division had done about $25K in revenue. Things were a real mess. I led a staff that was – let’s say, reluctant at best – to $450K a month in just less than 11 months. I was doing really well as the guy in charge for this regional company.

Then, as the company’s sale was finalized, the new corporate regional Senior Vice President flew in. During my "interview" with him, he said that I was "grossly unqualified" for my position. Grossly Unqualified? My accomplishments meant nothing! Once again, it was all about that degree – not the proven profitable results I’d produced.

Two weeks later, they flew in a "corporate guy" from another state to take over the regional operations and put me out of work. And to boot, the new guy even got my $20K performance bonus that I was due the next month. Guess it was what they used to entice him to move down!

With the money I made, and my lack of advanced education, corporate America was not going to hire me, and they didn’t. So I took the only job I could get that would give me a chance to make a good living. A friend of mine worked for a mortgage division for a bank out of New York and got me a job. It turned out to be a really great gig because I got to work from my home; as a single dad, that was a huge plus.

I built a mortgage lead website to help generate leads for myself that did exactly what it was supposed to do. I quickly became the highest producer in Tampa the first year I worked for that bank, and by the second year, things were really rocking. Then, I received an attractive offer from another mortgage firm and the bank made me an offer for my mortgage website that I couldn’t refuse.

This was the true "ah-ha" moment for me, when I realized I could make a living from home without having to deal with the politics and bureaucracy of corporate America any longer.

Enter, building websites for myself. After having finally received my advanced degree, from the school of hard knocks, I had truly found my calling!

Today, who do your websites serve?

George Chaney: I own and operate 3 websites that serve consumers and 2 that aim to serve entrepreneurs. Each site has its own unique niche focus and market (with the exception of the SEO King, Inc. corporate website).

How many top ten search engine rankings have you earned?

George Chaney: Based upon keyword traffic logs, I would estimate multiple tens of thousands. It’s really tough to gauge across any website that gets significant traffic within its niche, as you’re just pulling from everywhere when relevance factors come into play.

Once you start ranking a quality resource that really has value, it’s going to pick up citations naturally and your keyword relevance (authority) expands and grows without a lot of work. Frankly, watching keywords is kind of like watching paint dry; when you first roll it on, you’re all excited and can’t wait – but by the time you get one wall painted, you just can’t wait to get it done!

Who is your most successful client?

George Chaney: I think I am. But since I can’t nominate myself, I would have to say Your Direct Source, Inc. Three and a half years ago, the company CEO came to me with a dream and a respectable amount of capital he was willing to invest. It was six months before we closed the deal, but once we did, it was full steam ahead.

During the course of three years, his firm went from a startup to being one of the most well known names in his niche industry (and doing incredible sales last year). Over that time period, the founder never wavered and stuck with the program each step of the way, making all the investments recommended. It certainly helps when a company has a very savvy, driven leader to make a company go – one who is willing to empower the company they are paying to help them succeed. Since that time, we’ve developed four new websites under three different companies for that very same owner.

So many clients will try to micro-manage or quit way too early – ultimately wasting their investment. When that happens, I do tend to get frustrated – losing is not acceptable for me personally, and the only way to win in the "online business game" is delivering traffic and sales.

What project are you most proud of?

George Chaney: This one is easy. It would be Lifestyle Mortgage. The owners of a mortgage brokerage house had all of the citation elements in place to have a very popular and successful website, but through the course of 3 or 4 years couldn’t point to one phone call or application that originated from the website.

We redesigned and rebuilt the entire site from the ground up – including the content. It was a huge project that started small and expanded nearly every week. About 5 months after launch of the newly designed and SEO’d site, I got a phone call. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that phone call either…it was just one of those unexpected moments that stands out.

So it was a Saturday and the guy calls and basically says he quits. When I asked him why, he said he was getting so many phone calls and applications from his website that he couldn’t get anything done and was just tired of dealing with it. Seriously, he quit his business because he had received so much business that he couldn’t get anything done.

I like to say be careful about what you ask for – too much, too fast can mean big trouble. What’s amazing is the fact this site has a less than 3% bounce rate! Absolutely incredible for its industry. That’s like 97%-plus of all visitors that stick around to read more about the company’s mortgage services.

This isn’t an informational site either, it’s selling a service. To make sure these numbers weren’t a fluke, we monitored his site for over a year, tracking monthly data. Just amazing results. Based upon the applications we were monitoring for performance, he was getting at least a 15% conversion rate on some pretty decent traffic numbers.

This is on top of who knows how many phone calls that were being received (our metrics on this project didn’t allow us to track that). It really is just a phenomenal site – a once in a lifetime build out where performance is concerned.

And what was your worst project?

George Chaney: Oh, now that’s tricky to answer. I don’t really have a worst project, but the one I got most aggravated with was a site that ultimately turned out to be really great. It was a retail site with a spectacular niche product. The site turned out just beautifully; however, it took a full year to launch.

That was actually the frustrating part, just getting it done. We never did do the SEO on it, simply because from where it started to where it finished, it was just too large to do within the budget available.

Can you tell a little about your business philosophy?

George Chaney: I am a firm believer in treating people how you would want to be treated. Always. Be honest, be up front, and don’t sell to what someone wants to hear – tell them what they need to hear. I go out of my way to go the extra mile to help every client achieve exactly what they asked for.

In fact, I can’t think of a single client that doesn’t actually like or our firm. Now I am a realist, and while there are probably one or two out there that I don’t know about, it’s just going to be a very small number regardless.

My philosophy on it is simple. I will go out of my way to deliver exactly what the client asks for, to a point of what is fair. My results are proven over and over. It’s not a one-off result; it is something I can duplicate regardless of the industry, time and again.

However, if you expect those results in 90 days, 6 months, or 12 months, in a competitive market, that’s probably unreasonable. The days of fast money in organic results are long gone. As I tell every client, we operate on an 18 to 36 month program, and if your budget is too low, it could be longer.

I always explain to my clients before beginning that it’s important to be able to make the investment recommended. The fact is, not everyone has what it takes to be successful. Not everyone is willing to make the financial sacrifices that sometimes have to be made in order be better off financially in several years.

What is it that makes the SEO King brand go?

George Chaney: It’s unique. Let’s face it – SEO sets the foundation for a successful web project. Building your internet brand is what having a successful online website is all about!

When it comes to the SEO King name, I was fortunate enough to lock it in early, trademark it and develop a trusted name. I came up with the concept because I understand what it takes to do it right from personal experience, and I absolutely understand what entrepreneurs and business owners are trying to accomplish.

It’s really important for entrepreneurs and business owners to understand how important a brand is to the success of a venture. It not only adds value to your bottom line, but adds significant value to your company when it comes time to sell.

What are the consequences for using someone else’s brand to make money? They’re actually quite hefty. I know the owner of a pool guard company who hired an SEO firm to do web marketing for their company. Guess what…that SEO Firm marketed that website using another company’s trademarked name. It ended up costing them half a million dollars to settle out of court and nearly put them out of business.

What’s the lesson to be learned here? Well, if you plan on making money online, you definitely have to be extremely careful about whom you deal with and how you rollout an online marketing strategy. And, you must make absolutely sure not to do it by making money on another company’s brand without their permission.

Ever consider selling SEO King, Inc.?

George Chaney: I’m an entrepreneur! The fact is, there isn’t a web asset I own that I wouldn’t sell for the right price. I actually just sold a brand I was developing for another venture to one of my web design competitors (of all people). It was such a cool name and was a fantastic concept. Why would I sell something with so much potential? I think the real question is, "why wouldn’t I sell…if the price is right?"

You are well known in the SEO forum community – do you have a favorite SEO forum?

George Chaney: I rarely participate in forums anymore as I just get weary of all the speculation and misinformation spread around out there. Back in the day, Rand Fishkin (of SEOmoz.org) and I, along with some other shakers at the time, taught and shared in what was one the best forums to actually learn something. That group in that forum ultimately produced and taught some of today’s most well known and respected SEO industry leaders.

It’s actually where I first posted my article on pattern linking – a more specific approach to what people today call "targeting the long tail." The intent of the article on pattern linking was to teach people how to build into more difficult terms while gathering the traffic you need to actually make some money.

What are your growth plans for SEO King, Inc. in the future?

George Chaney: Really, I don’t have any right now. SEO King is a great concept – a fantastic brand – but running this company takes a huge amount of my time and energy, and sometimes takes away from the things I personally want to be doing – like spending quality time with my daughter and enjoying sunny Florida, the place I’ve called home for 40 years now.

Over the past 3 years, our growth has been fantastic. If I hadn’t controlled it, it would have definitely been out of control! With unchecked growth comes employees, overhead, difficult clients, and a huge assortment of hassles that can just make doing what you love not so much fun anymore.

Are you planning any new projects outside of SEO King?

George Chaney: I’m in process of developing two online stores and getting really excited about the opportunity to get back into turning over commodities again. We just wrapped up the incorporation for one – have to head over to the old trademark office before I can actually make the name public. We’ll then start prepping the shopping cart for launch.

The reality is, selling a product is so much easier than selling an intangible service like SEO or internet marketing where results take an investment of both capital and time to really appreciate. Many times, people just don’t have the patience they need to see the results they want, and I’m not into selling someone on just what they want to hear.

From my experience over the last 4 years, I’ve found that honesty and integrity are a hard sell to business owners.

Shouldn’t those be the things that matter the most?

Interviewer: Scott Stadler
Mr. Stadler is a professional copywriter with more than 10 years of experience. He is, in fact, my favorite freelance copywriter to use for my own personal project development. He can be reached via his company website at scottstadler.com.