This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
Greg Gifford is 45 years old and lives in Allen, Texas with his wife, sons ages 13 and 8, and daughter age 4. They have 4 dogs and have a passion for Disney World, not the dogs, the whole family.
Greg in the SEM community is probably most well known for his local SEO expertise and his super speedy sharing of ideas and tidbits on social media. He is a speed tweeter (if that is a word) and he is super wicked smart when it comes to local SEO. He is always super active tweeting information from conferences and he is always very generous with his time. Greg speaks, writes, shares and mentors in the space. He shares not only in short form on Twitter but also in long form by contributing content on industry sites and on his own.
Greg is a true veteran in our industry in every sense of the word and it is a true honor for me to write this on behalf of the SEO community honoring Greg.
Eli Schwartz nominated Greg and wrote:
He has written the playbook on how to do local SEO and he is tireless about sharing local SEO strategies everywhere he can!
Greg Gifford Bio: Greg Gifford is the Vice President of Search at DealerOn, a software company that provides websites and online marketing to new car dealers all over the country. He's got over 16 years of online marketing and web design experience, and he speaks internationally at both automotive and SEO conferences, teaching thousands of small business owners and marketers how to get their sites to show up higher in local search rankings.
Greg also spends his time doing freelance website design and SEO for local businesses. He graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BA in Cinema and Communications, and has an obscure movie quote for just about any situation.
Favorite thing about the SEO community? My favorite thing is definitely all of the amazing people and wonderful friends I’ve made. I’ve been incredibly blessed to be able to speak at so many conferences, so I’ve met people and developed friendships with people all over the world. It’s so great getting to grab dinner (and drink amazing wine) with my semi-regular dinner crew, but it’s even more awesome to see and catch up with people that I haven’t seen since last year...
One piece of advice to the SEOs out there? Test everything for yourself! Don’t take what you hear at conferences or what you read online as gospel… SEO is so incredibly complicated, especially when you do Local – what works for someone else won’t necessarily work for you. Test everything for yourself – you’ll find out what works for yourself, and you’ll learn more and be better at marketing!
Favorite things in general? I’m definitely a burger guy and a breakfast guy. I’m obsessed with movies (which is obvious if you’ve seen me present), so I spend a lot of time watching movies. I love snowboarding and I’m obsessed with Star Wars.
What you want to be known for in the SEO space? I want to be known as someone who shares helpful, actionable knowledge about Local SEO. Basically, I want to be like Mike Blumenthal or David Mihm... I don’t care so much about being recognized for my work as much as I’d like to be known as someone who’s dedicated to helping people be better at Local SEO.
To learn more about Greg, you can check out his company bio, his Search Engine Land articles, connect with him on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter.
This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
