Alex C. Bonesteel
Current Title: Director of Customer Acquisition & Retention
Desired Title: Director of SEO
Introduction
SEO is a complex and competitive space, but it doesn’t have to be hard to understand. SEO is like a sport. There are rules, there are players, and there are teams.
The internet is our field of play, and the rules are constantly changing. For those that win, the reward is nearly unlimited growth potential. But the cost of losing is near invisibility and irrelevancy online.
As a 15-year veteran in the field of SEO, I’ve seen a lot. Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird & more have come and gone. From the days of link farms and PBNs, to the keyword stuffing and Black Hat era, SEO has time-and-again proven to be the most challenging, competitive, and unpredictable field of digital marketing. I’ve seen players win for a year or two, then fall off spectacularly, victim of an entrenched strategy they thought would work forever. They search for the reasons why they failed, and come up empty. The truth is that the industry evolved and they didn’t.
Teams that achieve durable, long-term success in SEO have 3 things in common: We plan ahead, we see what’s coming, and we know what needs to be done.
A new era has begun. A.I. is changing the game yet again. Those who saw it coming know what needs to be done, and those that didn’t will soon be left in the dust.
The greatest opportunity in SEO history is now upon us, and I want to be part of an organization that is ready to move quickly, activate my talents, and set the new standard for enterprise SEO strategy & execution.
Recent Projects
2022
Lume.com
Project Overview
In March of 2022, I was hired by Lume Cannabis Co., the largest single state dispensary operator in the U.S.
My mandate was simple: Acquire more customers and increase sales. The way I was to achieve these goals was left up to me.
I quickly identified major opportunities for improvement, including:
- Technical SEO
- Domain Authority
- Website Content
- Website UX
- Loyalty Program
- D2C Marketing
- Customer Experience
- Online Reviews (Social Proof)
By quickly building working relationships with longer-term corporate team members, I was able to get my SEO strategy approved and ready for implementation within 20 days of being hired.
The next 90 days were a whirlwind of effort as my team and I completely transformed Lume.com.
Beginning in July of 2022, we saw immediate and sustained positive results, which were amplified as we continued to optimize our ecommerce strategy. The improvements we made fueled a strong 2nd half of the year, and ultimately netted a successful year for Lume (32% Growth of Total Revenue, 145m in sales)
Awards
Pioneer Intelligence awarded Lume the title of “Hottest Cannabis Brand for Web Activities in 2022.” The award pitted Lume against other cannabis brands operating in 3 states or less. Pioneer’s methodology evaluated each brand’s online presence and key metrics, including website traffic, domain authority, and online engagement. After reviewing online performance for the entire 2022 calendar year, they placed Lume #1 out of 687 total competitors.
This award is a testament to Lume’s forward-thinking website strategy in 2022. By continuously enhancing the Lume.com visitor experience and optimizing traffic acquisition strategy and execution, Lume was able to set the gold-standard for how a cannabis company should operate online.
I am extremely proud of what we accomplished in such a short time. Review the slides below to see our results.
Dec 2021 – March 2022
Wienerandlambka.com
Project Overview
As a Senior SEO Specialist for Logic Inbound, I was tasked with growing high-intent organic traffic for a personal injury law firm that was a long-time client.
No one at the agency had been able to deliver positive results for the previous 9 months, and the client relationship was tenuous at best.
I dove in and immediately recognized several improvement opportunities, including:
- Local Search
- NAP Consistency
- Business Directory Listings
- On-Page Optimization
- Internal Linking
- Domain Authority
- UX Optimization
I got to work beginning in Dec, 2021. Over the next 90 days, I executed my strategy, optimizing at every opportunity and leaving no stone unturned.
In March of 2022, we began to see positive results, with organic traffic jumping almost 100% M/M. Shortly after this, I left my agency position to begin working at Lume. An uncoordinated project hand off would have resulted in minimal gains for the client, but that is something I would never accept. I worked diligently to develop documentation on next steps and ongoing strategy, then spent extra time outside of my billable hours to train the Junior SEO specialist that was taking over the project.
The extra effort paid off big time for the client, with them achieving 300% monthly organic traffic gains over the next 6 months and more high-quality cases than the client could handle. I love this story because it shows the impact an effective SEO strategy can have when executed correctly, even when the project may change hands. Ultimately, this project resulted in the Junior SEO Specialist being promoted near the end of the year.
Review the slides below to see our results.
Sep 2021 – March 2022
Caspio.com
Project Overview
I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Caspio during my time as a Senior Marketing Consultant at Logic Inbound. Caspio is the world’s leading cloud platform for building online database applications without coding. They tasked me with rewriting 18 of their web pages, with an emphasis on content optimization. However, they didn’t just want to attract more organic traffic with these pages, they also needed the pages to convert visitors into customers.
It was not an easy task. Caspio is a technical software product and it can be difficult to communicate its value to the non-technical crowd. However, with an abundance of background research, I was able to craft the voice they wanted, bridging the gap between search optimized content and accessible language, while maintaining a technical and knowledgeable tone.
While I was never privy to Caspio’s internal analytics data, I was told that 10 of the web pages I wrote made it into the top-15 revenue generating pages on their website.
After finishing the new web content, I was asked to develop a keynote concept and write a keynote speech for Caspio’s founder and CEO, Frank Zamani. Frank delivered the speech at the 2022 SD Times LC/NC Dev Day, and it is available online to watch here.
While I am not privy to many of the results I drove with this project, my contacts at Caspio assured me the results were very impactful. I found this project immensely enjoyable and personally feel that it is some of my best work.
Professional Profile
For the past 17 years, digital marketing has been my livelihood. From my 10 year stint as an SEO agency director, to my time as an independent SEO consultant, and my leap into Enterprize SEO strategy & execution, one thing has been consistent: I get results in extremely competitive industries.
Work History
2021 – Now
Director of Customer Acquisition & Retention
In 12 months at Lume, my team and I have completely restored a faltering ecommerce platform, going from non-indexable Javascript disaster, to streamlined SEO powerhouse.
This transformation of Lume’s ecommerce platform, paired with new strategies in SEO, loyalty, D2C marketing, referral programs, and UX optimization has resulted in significant positive outcomes, including:
- 70% YoY organic web traffic gains.
- 96% Growth of active loyalty members.
- 68% Growth of revenue from D2C marketing tactics.
- 24% Increase to avg. customer LTV.
- 15% Improvement of avg. online review score.
- 612% Growth of online review quantity.
- 32% YOY growth of online revenue.
I take immense pride in being a part of these achievements, especially considering the rapidly falling prices and extreme competition in our MI market.
2021-2022
Senior SEO Manager
My primary responsibilities included:
– In-Depth SEO Analysis
– SEO Strategy & Execution
– Competitor Research
– Digital Marketing Strategy & Execution
– Report & Proposal Authoring & Presentation
– SOP Creation
– Training & Knowledge Sharing
My extensive agency experience allowed to me to seamlessly blend the sales/strategy/execution processes into one unified client journey. This resulted in increased client acquisition & retention rates and superior observable campaign results.
As a top-performing SEO Expert, I was often gifted the opportunity to tackle our toughest projects, including projects where many previous SEO Specialists had failed to achieve results, or where there was no clear path forward for continued positive results. I developed a reputation for being able to generate spectacular results with simple, but innovative SEO strategies in the areas of content generation, technical optimization, and domain authority building.
With each successful project, I built upon and evolved a large knowledge base of effective SEO strategies and tactics and built an in-house training program to help elevate our Junior SEO Team performance.
2013 – 2020
President
References
Contacts at these companies have offered to provide a recommendation for my work and character on request.
Software Skills
I possess power-user skills on the software listed, but I am also always excited to learn a new piece of software.
SEO Tools
- Google Search Console
- SEMRush
- Ahrefs
- Similarweb
- Moz
- DeepCrawl
- Screaming Frog
- POP (Page Optimizer Pro)
- Spyfu
- Google Trends
- ChatGPT
Analytics/Data
- Google Analytics
- Adobe Analytics
- Tableau
- BigQuery
- PowerBI
- Excel
General
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Google Office Suite
- Adobe Creative Cloud
Project Management
- Asana
- Jira
- Monday
- Basecamp
- Microsoft PM
- Teamwork
UX
- Figma
- Optimizely
- Google Optimize
- AEM
- Hotjar
CMS
- WordPress
- ContentStack
- CommerceTools
- GCP
- Shopify
Foundational Skills
These are the foundational skills that have allowed me to achieve success in the SEO industry.
Education
2009 – 2010
Walla Walla Community College
A.A. Design & Visual Communications
2011 – 2012
Portland State University
B.A. Communications