Search Guru going great guns

Sometimes an entrepreneur appears seemingly out of nowhere and makes a big mark right away. Such a person is Leslie Carruthers, president of one of Cleveland's busily successful search engine optimization firms, and she graciously took a lot of time to tell us how things are going.

Leslie worked for nearly 5 years with SuccessWorks, where she learned search engine optimization (SEO) from the ground up. When the owner considered accepting an offer from a large publicly traded firm to do SEO training, Leslie decided it was time to start her own group.

It's always a pleasure to see someone give credit to their mentors. Leslie says the people she worked with at SuccessWorks taught her to approach SEO from the business perspective (what’s going to help this client grow their business?), not just for high rankings. "Heather Lloyd-Martin was a pioneer in (SEO) copywriting, and Detlev Johnson is one of the top SEO technologists. I’m fortunate to have had such prominent mentors--and they were also amazing teachers."

When asked why she chose to do business in Cleveland, Leslie demurs. "Why wouldn’t we? It’s a great city. My husband is from Mentor, and my family is in Ohio." She says while they serve businesses across North America, nearly half of their client base is right here in Cleveland.

What's the outlook for SEO? "It’s a great time to be in search," she says. "Companies really get how important the search engines are. The company recently enjoyed training in-house writers at Brookstone.com, the gift and hard-to-find tool catalog folks. Most of The Search Guru's business so far has been by referral, but now Leslie says they're looking to be more proactive and approach companies they want to help. "Anyone know anyone at Levengers.com?" she says.

Their biggest challenges include balancing resources--a common issue with young, growing companies--and finding experienced SEO practitioners. "We end up taking on strong marketers who write really well, then teach them search."

For the immediate future, the company is focusing on helping large direct marketing catalog firms. But we all know how fast things change in our world today--especially with the Internet and with search engine. We'll talk with Leslie again next year and find out how it's going.

About her Cleveland entrepreneurial adventure, Leslie finds the local community supportive and especially enjoys having idea-bouncing coffee klatches with local entrepreneurs (newbies and veterans). "And I so appreciate resources like Capitalist Cleveland and The Gorilla Group--they're great shots in the arm when I need it and introduce me to who’s who locally."

As an aside, Leslie mentioned she's also involved with a new group called the Red Room Revolution, local players who are out to transform the technology community. We'll have to talk to the Thompson Hine and Panzica folks about that one.

Congratulations, Leslie, on your NEO success! Read more about The Search Guru here.