SEOblog Interview: Rochester SEO Expert Antonio Calabrese from GHAX Marketing

We’re excited to have interviewed Rochester SEO expert Antonio Calabrese from GHAX Marketing for the next installment of our Featured SEO Expert Series!

GHAX Marketing is one of SEOblog’s Top SEO companies in Rochester.

Antonio Calabrese is the founder and head of growth at GHAX — a digital growth marketing agency based in Rochester, New York. With more than 10 years in the digital marketing business, GHAX focuses on building custom search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, targeted pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and content marketing strategies to dramatically boost inbound leads.

What would you say is unique and/or challenging about the Rochester SEO industry?

“The city of Rochester itself isn’t massive and there’s quite a bit of agency competition. However, from a client perspective, you can become the ‘go-to’ in your industry for the entire city and surrounding areas if you market yourself right.“

How does your agency stand out in a crowded market like Rochester?

“The relationships that we form with our clients are unmatched. We also pride ourselves on the level of service that we provide, from onboarding to post-delivery.”

Can you share a success story from a local SEO campaign centered around the Rochester area?

“We helped Greece Chiropractic rank in the number one spot in the Google Map Pack, as well as take the number one spot organically for key terms relating to Greece, N.Y., and Chiropractor when they opened in April 2012. These rankings alone helped build the business to where one doctor now has over 7,000 patients.“

What is the best advice you ever received in business?

“Trying to perfect something before taking action is the best way to guarantee that you will never take action. Although this can be applied to many aspects of business, it’s particularly relevant to freelancers, agencies and those who hire freelancers or agencies. Think about and plan the action that you’re going to take, but then take it and adjust along the way.”

What do you think is the most important quality that makes an agency truly great?

“Not hiring and trying to train inexperienced marketers ensures our team won’t be filled by junior marketers teaching junior marketers. This is a huge issue with most agencies today. Only hiring talented professionals who have achieved success on their own, ensures our agency team doesn’t fall into the trap of being a bunch of ‘yes men’ who forget about innovation for their clients.”

Any predictions for the future of SEO?

“I recently wrote a post on the future of local SEO. In it, I briefly discuss artificial intelligence (AI), attribution, live inventory feeds for online retailers and voice search. We already see a lot of voice coming into play. The problem we may run into is that although you may secure the top spot and provide the best answer, click throughs to your website will likely decline, resulting in less opportunities for sites to generate new customers. In some cases, such as when you ask virtual assistants such as Alexa, Siri or Hey Google through home devices, you don’t even get the opportunity to visit a site.”

What is your reaction when you hear that “SEO is dying”?

“It’s not dying, but it is changing and people will need to adapt or face the possibility of dropping off of organic search and a sizeable decrease in organic traffic . Doing the same old thing may work in the short-term, but you’ll either be left behind or playing catch up when big changes are made.”

What do you think is the most important contributor to keeping clients happy?

“Transparency. Too often do I speak with new clients or potential clients who complain about the lack of transparency the last agency provided them. Be up-front and truthful. Provide proper expectations of an SEO campaign and give access to detailed reports. Retaining clients is much cheaper than going out and trying to acquire new clients.”

Interested in being considered as an SEOblog “Featured SEO Expert”? Reach out to our team at [email protected]! We’d love to hear from you and give you a high-traffic platform to share your SEO agency’s story and insights.