Joe Devine

Company: The Search Engine Guys, LLC

Joe Devine CEO of The Search Engine Guys, LLC
Prior to founding The Search Engine Guys, Joe Devine managed several business units within the legal services industry and served as V.P. of Sales for one of the largest privately held legal directories on the web. Over the course of his career, he has consulted with hundreds of law firms, small businesses and major corporations with respect to website architecture, search engine optimization and marketing strategy. In addition, Joe conducted SEO audits, consulted with business start-ups, and has been used as an expert consultant in internet-based lawsuits.  Joe spends most of his time-off with his wonderful wife and their two children (third on the way). When he is not chasing the kids around the house, he loves to play basketball, workout, and read. 

Tell us about your role in the company
In my role as CEO, I am responsible for the strategic vision, overall growth, and direction of the company. A wise mentor once told me that the job of a CEO is to move the organization one step forward every single day. However, I don't think my job stops there. One of the most important action items on my plate is fostering our unique culture. We are a family. In fact, it doesn't feel right to call our TSEG family members “employees”. I believe with every bone in my body that if we value, respect, and give our people an opportunity to grow, this will translate into strong results for our clients. To date, this philosophy has proven to be true and we hope this continues in the future.

What are your main services? Because web marketing is an ever-evolving process, TSEG is constantly developing our service offerings to make sure we stay on the cutting edge. Along with natural search engine optimization, we also offer our clients the following services: web design, pay-per-click marketing, social media optimization, local search optimization, online reputation management, mobile application development, offline identity packages, custom photography, and video optimization.

What makes your firm different from other companies competing in your industry?
I think what makes us unique is our approach to client generation and client service. We truly value relationships. We want to make sure every partnership is a good fit, for both parties. Many people think we are crazy because we turn down business when we feel like there will be a problem with the relationship. To us, it is not about how many clients we have; it's about how strong our relationship is with each client.

We are not “yes folks”. We are very knowledgeable in growing a variety of businesses and will always fight for what we think is the right course of action for our clients. As long as we have our clients' best interests at heart, we believe it is an incredible disservice not to do so.  We don't tell them what they want to hear or sell them a dream; we tell them what we think is right. Along with our honest relationships with clients, TSEG offers 100% exclusivity for our clients' targeted keywords. Because of this, our clients understand that we will never optimize for their competitors and our success is directly proportionate to their success. If they grow, we grow.

In addition, I understand that search engine marketing is hard, arduous work and that is why I value our unique company culture so much. After all, we spend most of our lives together. We have video games and arcade machines in our office, company outings (like “TSEG The Masters”, the mini-golf tournament, and “The TSEG Pins of Glory Bowling Tournament”) and “Friday movie nights”, which are held in the afternoon, but don't tell anyone about that. We try to create a fun environment that will motivate everyone at TSEG and keep us loving what we do day after day.

Tell us more about your firm’s success story.
Our company has grown steadily since we started in 2007, from 2 employees to over 50. We have recently outgrown our third office in three years, as well as adding our office in Chicago. But I think the real story of the success of TSEG is the growth of our employees. The real joy of my job comes from watching these talented individuals learn, grow, come up with their own ideas and gain leadership skills along the way. I think the main reason TSEG has come as far as it has is because of the great people that work here. I am blessed to work with dedicated, hard-working, extremely intelligent individuals who are just as passionate about SEO as I am. On the same note, I enjoy watching our clients grow their own businesses, as well. Our clients have incredible success stories due to their relationships with TSEG. We never tout these stories to potential clients since we never sell a dream and there are risks and limitations in SEO, but these types of stories (like our client who started out working from his house as a one-man shop, to actually acquiring property on A1A Avenue in Boca Raton) are what drive us.

According to you, what are the most important questions a potential customer should ask a company before choosing a vendor like you?
When deciding how to approach potential customers, there is one thing that TSEG simply does not do: offer a sales pitch. We cannot guarantee results, but we can guarantee hard work and dedication to the success of every client we serve. I would recommend that companies who are looking for an SEO company ask, “Am I getting the straight story from this company or am I just being sold a dream?” If the latter is your answer, run. We value our prospective clients and speak to them openly and honestly. I also think that past results are a strong indicator of future success. I would tell potential customers to ask for references. Can they give you three references? How about 20? Make sure you do your due diligence, because selecting the right SEO firm is an extremely critical decision. If you make the wrong decision, you may not only waste money, but more importantly, you waste time.

What are some of the myths in your field?
I believe the biggest myth in SEO is that there is one magic, “silver-bullet” method for getting good search results. I want to be clear, this is something we think is a myth, but there might be one person out there who has the magic bullet. Since we don’t, we hang our hat on out-working our competition.

How do you develop your skills in this continuously changing environment?
We are constantly monitoring the results of the search engines. We reverse-engineer the sites that show up and look for new trends in that manner. In addition, I try to encourage new ideas from everyone at the company. In fact, we have a standing meeting called “Idea Friday” where all of the TSEG family members, whether they have been with us one day or all three years, come and share ideas on how to improve our client success. We try to minimize red tape they have to go through in order to discuss topics with me. In addition, there are so many valuable resources on and offline these days. We subscribe to SEO-focused publications, attend industry conferences and trade shows, and research our tails off to make sure we are always offering our clients the best we can do in search engine marketing.

What do you see as the future of the industry? What will be the challenges? Do you anticipate any drastic changes?
Recently, there has been a lot of buzz going around about us becoming an “app-based society”. This could really affect search marketing as we know it. If the shift does happen, we want to be as prepared as possible, and that is why we have launched our mobile application division.

For the first time in my career, I can see folks moving away from Google. Google became popular because of its non-biased approach and uncluttered appearance. However, this model is     decreasing every day, as Google shows sponsorships on top of listings, sponsorships on the     sides of lists, map listings, and even highlights on map listings. I have not read stats that support my theory, but it's the first time my gut is telling me that it might happen. Due to this, we are also making sure to focus on the app market and other search engines in order to prepare for a time when Google is no longer the dominant player. This does not mean that Google is not our primary focus right now, because it is, but if the shift does happen, we want to be prepared.

Where do you see your firm in the next 5 years? What about you personally?
That's simple. I would like TSEG to be known as the web marketing company to call when a company needs the straight story. Whether it is apps, video, social media, or techniques we haven't even seen yet, we want our clients to trust us to make the right choices for them. Five years down the road, it is my hope that we have never taken our focus off of doing the right things for our clients. For me personally, I hope I will be doing the exact same thing I am doing today; loving what I do and loving the people I work with.