RUDY DE LA GARZA, JR.

Rudy De La Garza, Jr. is the owner and SEO / Digital Expert for SEOMarketing.com and has been specializing in search engine optimization and performance conversion since 1997.

Graduating from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1995 with a BBA in Marketing and General Business, Rudy knew his career would be in technology. The Internet was “booming” and everybody was scrambling to get a web site and make it effective. Rudy opened Cityscape Marketing, Inc. with the stated goal of ushering the way for start-ups and newcomers to the Internet. The term “E-commerce” had not been defined yet, but in 1997, Rudy was implementing nationwide drop-shipping models and demonstrating the basic tenants of gaining organic traffic from search.

Back then, Yahoo was the dominant search engine using human reviewers and WebCrawler was a serious player. Google had not launched yet. It was during this time that Rudy recognized the power of search and began his passion to engage this new mechanism and devise strategies to help business acquire organic traffic.

Having a natural understanding of web technology, the study and application of SEO and conversions became Rudy’s focus. In 1998, Google burst on the scene and changed everything. By having deep domain knowledge of how search effected web site traffic, he began studying Google documentation closely. From there the path was clear. Rudy recognized the impact of this new algorithm and the change it would impose on the business landscape.

By 2000, Rudy was developing methods to gain inbound links from authority sources on the web. This realization proved to be the catalyst for sustaining success. In 2006, Rudy was asked to be the only SEO resource for Bankrate.com until he left in 2013.  In that time, Bankrate.com went from being a $140 million cap company to $1.8 billion and gaining over 75% of its traffic from organic sources.  Rudy was instrumental in that success by transforming the culture to an SEO focused execution of content and technology.

As another decade goes by, Rudy De La Garza, Jr. is leveraging machine learning audience creation as a service for Fortune 1000 companies and private firms.

These days, Rudy spends most of his time focusing on his passion; machine learning / AI and its overlap in business strategy while also helping companies with other digital execution.

Raising Your Profile : Beyond the Basics
Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118702961428196173.html

LinkedIn Profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/rudydelagarza