Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Wiideman.
Hi Steve, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In the 90s, I fell in love with technology and found myself part of the Vital Link program in high school, touring Boeing and Disney and playing with the newest computers and laptops in 1993-1994.
This passion followed me into the Army Infantry as I taught fellow infantrymen how to navigate equipment such as helmet-attached cameras tied to computers within M3 Bradley vehicles allowing for extremely accurate distance weapon-targeting. It was then that I fell in love with the World Wide Web and started creating websites of my own.
When my tour was up, I jumped head first into Information Technology for PacifiCare Health Systems, which would later become United Health, all the while freelancing for friends and local businesses building and optimizing websites. I earned a position with IBM Global Services, migrating printed and mailed reports to the Web profiling report templates and saving one of our clients nearly $1.3 million in materials, printing, and shipping costs.
In 2001, I went back to school and earned a degree in E-Business Management, cultivating my love for digital with courses in graphic design, web database administration, hosting, programming, and project management.
An ultimatum about career advancement to my boss at IBM (after receiving my degree) became the conduit to opportunities at Paciolan and soon after Disney Parks and Resorts as Production Coordinator. On a daily basis, I’d try to convince the person in charge of Search Marketing that I would be an incredible fit for the role.
Eventually, not giving up paid off, and I found myself running SEO and SEM for Disneyland, Disneyland Spanish, and Adventures By Disney. The challenge to get the position was to appear in the search results for the keyword “SEO Expert”, which I held for nearly 12 years before removing the ranking content after receiving advice from a peer who said the industry saw it as “bragging.” During this same period, I wrote and sold multiple information products, ran the largest SEO Meetup Group in the area, and began to make a name for myself as “SEO Steve”. I even had an embarrassing moment where a fan asked me to sign a printed copy of my eBook (seriously).
Despite the incredible corporate culture at Disney, the commute eventually became too much to bear right at a time when an offer came in at nearly twice the salary. It was a small agency funded by investors with stakeholdings in several of the digital marketing projects I was involved with.
Having two baby girls at home and nearly 90 minutes from the rest of our family, I eventually left the corporate world behind me and set off on my own as “Steve Wiideman, SEO Expert”, with help from friends and acquaintances who recommended me to brands such as Skechers, U-Store-It (now CubeSmart), automotive dealerships, Marketo, RingCentral, and others.
By 2014 my sole proprietorship was at its peak, and I found myself training, even incubating at times, agencies, in-house teams, and other entrepreneurs. That is when we decided to incorporate and change the brand to simply “Wiideman”, opening three offices on the 4th floor of a small building in La Mirada, CA (only 2 miles from home).
As I began speaking at conferences and industry events, our name started to get around as the people who can help large brands scale with multi-location search engine optimization. We found ourselves working with some of the top attorneys in the legal industry. We brought in Applebee’s and, soon after, IHOP. Through our partner agencies, we built and guided clients such as Public Storage, Bosley, Meineke Car Care Centers, Dunn Edwards Paint, and others.
I began teaching in 2017, first guest speaking and workshops, and later as an Adjunct Professor for CSUF and then Fullerton College. Not long after, I was recruited by UCSD to teach SEO Tools & Analytics. Today, I teach 9 classes between the three institutions. It wasn’t long before I realized the online marketing curriculum lacked up-to-date textbook content. So I pitched the idea to Stukent and last year published SEO: Strategy & Skills with a co-author, Professor Scott Cowley of the University of Michigan. Being a published author and teacher was definitely a milestone for me.
In 2018, I was recognized as the Industry MVP at Conductor’s Searchies Awards, which was incredibly rewarding. In 2021, we won a Web Excellence Award for this crazy idea. I had to study over 300 location pages for multi-location brands to discover what makes some brands perform better in Google than others.
Today, my team and I work with clients, include Applebee’s, IHOP, Martha Stewart, Jollibee Foods, and others, while running a small podcast where we interview other digital marketers. I balance the consultancy and teaching needs with the needs of my family while doing my best to develop habits that foster continued growth and a healthy lifestyle. I consider myself extremely lucky and am super grateful for what destiny has provided over the course of my career.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As a digital marketer, I had no idea how to run a business. Nearly everything we brought in went back to employees, taxes, and impulsive business decisions. We’ve had to take business loans, borrow from family, and work rediculous hours to survive in our earlier days.
Hiring someone as passionate and experienced as I’ve been in digital marketing was also super challenging. There was never enough time in the day to train a new person when there was always a flood of work coming in. It took some incredibly patient and resilient people to develop the team we have today.
Not being home for dinner consistently was also a trade-off of being an entrepreneur. So when I did take time off, we played HARD with our Disney-loving family.
We’ve been impressed with Wiideman Consulting Group, Inc., but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My team is literally addicted to digital marketing, specifically Search Engine Optimization. Clients come to us because they see the competition more times than they see their brand in Google searches. Our job is research, audit, and build a strategy for webmasters, writers, and digital PR teams to boost keyword rankings at scale.
What makes us different is our ability to take thousands of keywords customers use to find our clients and organize them into a content roadmap that will enable them to appear at all stages of their customer’s journey, from interest to intent. Many agencies “do” SEO; our consultancy builds an inclusive roadmap prioritized to own the top of the search results for years to come.
Our vision is a world where brilliant people, products, and presence are rewarded through search. Our mission is simply to help businesses grow through search. Our values include innovation, mastery, accountability, passion, and humor. We’re a goofy but incredibly intelligent team of search marketers with casual and friendly bedside manner unlike anything else in our industry (which makes working with micromanaging clients an immediate non-fit for us).
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Bring in people smarter than you. Our new company president is Will Pemble, Founder of Web.com and most recognizable as “Coaster Dad” on YouTube. There’s always someone smarter than you out there, don’t be threatened by them, hire them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wiideman.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wiideman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wiideman
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wiideman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WiidemanConsultingGroupLaMirada
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wiideman-consulting-group-la-mirada
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seoexpert
Image Credits
Bryan Fernandez, Director of Marketing at Wiideman Consulting Group.
