SEO Experience

More than 25 years building, leading and operating in search

I started building websites as a teenager in the 1990s and moved into full-time search in 2001. Since then I’ve worked across independent publishing, affiliate businesses, agencies, global travel companies, consulting, software and industry events.

This is the longer version of how those experiences connect.

1990s–2006: Learning search by building

I began developing websites as a teenager in the 1990s, when both the web and search industry were still taking shape. By 2001, I was working full-time on organic acquisition for my own sites, initially in online gaming.

In 2003 I launched a poker and casino publishing business under the MOG Media name. Building, ranking and monetizing those properties gave me direct experience with content, communities, CMS platforms, technical infrastructure and the rapidly changing relationship between publishers and search engines.

Like many practitioners working before modern search-quality systems existed, I experimented with large content networks, CMS automation and link distribution. That period gave me an unusually direct view of how search engines—and the risks surrounding manipulation—evolved.

2007–2010: Seatwave and the move in-house

After relocating to London in 2007, I joined Seatwave to run paid and organic search for its European ticketing marketplace. Moving from my own portfolio of sites into a fast-growing product company changed the scale and shape of the work: SEO now depended on engineering, product decisions, marketplaces, inventory and teams with competing priorities.

That experience became the foundation for the product-led approach I use today.

2010–2017: Omnicom, Orbitz and Expedia

Over the following seven years I held senior search and digital marketing roles across Omnicom, the Expedia Affiliate Network, Orbitz and Expedia’s international brands.

The work ranged from agency leadership and partner marketing to global technical SEO, content, landing-page products and international search operations. It also meant working across large engineering and product organizations, managing distributed teams and making search understandable to stakeholders far beyond the SEO function.

This is where enterprise SEO became, for me, an operating-system problem: the quality of the recommendation matters, but so do prioritization, specifications, ownership, release processes and measurement.

2017–present: Consulting, software, content and community

In 2017 I left Expedia and returned to founder life, relaunching MOG Media as an enterprise SEO consultancy. Consulting across complex organizations revealed the same recurring problem: established SEO tools could identify issues, but they did not adequately connect diagnosis to prioritization, implementation and measurable outcomes.

That led to Metricular. It began as a proprietary toolset for consulting work and developed into an SEO platform built around the workflow from finding a problem to shipping and validating the fix.

I have since expanded that founder portfolio with Curated Content, focused on scaled content production, and BarbadosSEO, an advanced search and digital marketing conference based in the Caribbean.

Today, the four companies let me work on the same underlying challenge from different directions: consulting, software, production systems and community.

2020–present: Building from Barbados

I moved from California to Barbados in 2020 and have operated internationally from the Caribbean since then. Barbados became more than a base: it is also where I founded BarbadosSEO and began building a local and international community around search, digital work and the island.

More about my life and work in Barbados

What connects it all

Across affiliate sites, global travel platforms, consulting engagements and software products, the useful lesson has stayed remarkably consistent: search works best when it becomes part of dependable product, engineering and content systems.

Recommendations

What people say about working with me

These recommendations describe working with Martin. Roles and companies are shown as they applied at the time of the recommendation.

Martin redefines the term "subject matter expert". He is extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the filed of search engine marketing; inspirational with a remarkable can-do attitude. Martin is energetic, hands-on with a strong take-charge attitude. He is a hard worker and one of the best client-facing professionals I have met. It is a true pleasure and honor to work alongside Martin.

Benoit Jolin Senior Vice President, Expedia

Martin is a true force of nature. A whirlwind of energy & smarts, he is possibly one of the most knowledgeable people you'll ever meet on all things SEO/Inbound. With a great entrepreneurial spirit, he's a mine of ideas and inspiration and he taught me bucketloads. Oh, and customers LOVE him! It was a true privilege to bring Martin in, and I'd hire him again in a heartbeat.

John Watton Marketing Director, Adobe

Martin's one of the top operators in the organic search marketing sphere. I've been consistently impressed by his knowledge, creativity and ability to apply himself to generate impressive returns. He's also a terrific presenter.

Rand Fishkin Founder, SparkToro, Moz

I've worked with Martin in a couple of projects and found him to be one of the most resourceful SEOs I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Next to that he's an awesome guy to hang out with, doubling the total pleasure!

Joost de Valk Founder, Yoast, Emilia Capital

I worked for Martin for >2 years and during that time he proved to be an exceptionally skilled SEO and very tech savvy all round search manager. Apart from being a top guy, Martin's got a unique skill set and with his extensive experience in digital he'd make a fantastic asset to any company.

Bob Meijer Head of Data, Measurement & Analytics, Google

Martin is a SEO professional with the ability to translate jargon into clear business value for companies. Based on his experience from client, agency and consultant Martin can take a business challenge and deliver a solution fast. Really enjoyed working with Martin on projects for major e-commerce companies.

Richard Hollidge Head of EMEA Online Retail, Apple