Technical SEO
The under-the-hood stuff: site speed, clean code, and fixing the performance issues keeping you out of results.
SEO and AI Search Consulting
Search marketing
to actually
grow your brand.
to actually
grow your brand.
I help brands get found in search, and it’d be cool if yours is next! If you’d like to work together, you’ll get no-B.S. guidance from someone who’s seen search evolve from “10 blue links” to LLMs and AI agents.
- You work with me, not a junior or an account manager juggling 20 clients
- Straight talk on what’ll move revenue and what won’t
- SEO, content & AI search strategy with an eye on the full brand
Based in Salem, MA 👻 Working everywhere 🌎
Get a free consultation.
Start with a 15-minute call and let’s see if I can help. I usually respond within a day, and I’ll never spam your inbox.
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Want to add anything? Just reply straight to hello@danciardi.com.
Cheers,
Dan
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Cheers,
Dan
SEO & AI Search Consulting Services
How I can help.
I offer boutique SEO services customized to your unique needs. Here’s some of what I do:
Content Marketing
Content that’s matched to how your customers actually search, in your brand’s voice, and structured for max visibility.
AI Search Optimization
Getting your brand recommended by AI assistants and shopping agents, not just ranked by search engines.
Conversion & UX
Finding the friction points in your funnel. Getting more value out of the traffic you already have.
Analytics & Tracking
Tracking and reporting done right, so you can tell what’s working, what’s not, and what’s just noise.
Local Search
Google Business Profiles and beyond. When someone nearby wants what you make, you’re the one they find.
How I Work
Your partner, not your vendor.
After years of doing the in-house and agency things, I went independent to better serve my clients and work with brands that resonate with me. My favorite client relationships are more like partnerships, where I get the chance to work closely with leadership to develop a long-term growth strategy and see it through to the finish.
I can do execution as well as strategy, and I won’t recommend things just to create billable hours or to juice up vanity metrics.
If that sounds better than some vendor experiences you’ve had, say hi!
More on my approach →This stuff is no good:
- ✕SEO “audits” full of low-priority busywork
- ✕Recommendations detached from revenue
- ✕AI hype (or AI doom) to upsell you
Client Results & Case Studies
Numbers that actually mattered.
A few highlights from past client work:
Sporting goods retailer with a national brick-and-mortar presence.
#2 → #1in their search category in three years
- +105% organic revenue
- +75% organic traffic
- +265% more Google Top 3 rankings
Luxury student travel company with destinations in 30+ countries.
3× → $1MM+boost in estimated organic lead revenue in three years
- +80% organic traffic
- +750% paid search lead revenue (multi-channel engagement)
- +150% paid search traffic
About Your SEO Consultant
Hi! I’m Dan.
I’ve worked in SEO and digital marketing for 20+ years, which started as an unhealthy obsession with search back in the pre-Google, Web 1.0 days, when I was a high school kid making really stupid websites.
SEO is my focus, now along with AI search, but I’ve worn a lot of different hats: analytics & reporting, paid ad campaigns, conversion optimization, and whatever else my clients need.
The upshot: I understand the whole funnel, and I know the difference between traffic that looks good in a report and traffic that actually makes you money.
I’ll be upfront about what SEO can realistically achieve for your business, even if it means SEO isn’t where your budget should go right now. Let’s talk!
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions People Ask I made up.
“SEO?” Isn’t that the stuff that’s ruining search results? +
Oh boy. You’re not entirely wrong. A lot of cynical, spammy tactics have flooded the web with cheap, generic content that buries the actual results you’re looking for. (If you’ve ever added ‘reddit’ to a Google search, you know exactly what I mean.)
That’s a real problem, but that’s SEO at its worst. Good SEO is mostly invisible to the average user, and that’s what you’re not noticing when you have a genuinely positive experience in search: fast sites, easy to find, easy to navigate, providing exactly the answer or the product/service you want. That’s the kind of SEO worth doing.
That’s a real problem, but that’s SEO at its worst. Good SEO is mostly invisible to the average user, and that’s what you’re not noticing when you have a genuinely positive experience in search: fast sites, easy to find, easy to navigate, providing exactly the answer or the product/service you want. That’s the kind of SEO worth doing.
What’s the deal with AI search? Do I actually need to worry about it? +
More and more people are using LLMs and AI agents to search and shop for them, not just Googling. Showing up in AI results is a slightly different ballgame than traditional organic search, and not every model or agent behaves the same.
One of the key differences with AI search is the importance of your brand presence beyond your own website in getting picked by AI assistants. Optimizing for AI requires a bigger focus on brand/product positioning, PR, customer reputation, etc. than traditional SEO really needs.
A modern search strategy has to account for AI, but a smart AI search strategy is grounded in what we legitimately know. There’s a lot of hearsay and FUD about AI these days, but also plenty of known mechanisms we can figure out by reading patents and industry research. It’s a fast-moving space, but I try to focus on what we know or what we can prove so I can best serve my clients.
One of the key differences with AI search is the importance of your brand presence beyond your own website in getting picked by AI assistants. Optimizing for AI requires a bigger focus on brand/product positioning, PR, customer reputation, etc. than traditional SEO really needs.
A modern search strategy has to account for AI, but a smart AI search strategy is grounded in what we legitimately know. There’s a lot of hearsay and FUD about AI these days, but also plenty of known mechanisms we can figure out by reading patents and industry research. It’s a fast-moving space, but I try to focus on what we know or what we can prove so I can best serve my clients.
Do you work with my kind of business? +
I’ve worked with a ton of different businesses, from B2C to B2B, e-commerce to lead gen, SaaS to local services. I love fun, product-forward consumer brands, but if you’ve got a real product and a point of view, let’s talk.
Do you do the work, or just tell me what to do? +
Either. I can run it hands-on or work alongside your team as a strategist — whatever’s best for you.
How much do you charge? What does an engagement look like? +
I’m comfortable working on a monthly retainer or on a project basis. An exact quote depends on how much support you’re looking for, but my rates are generally going to be lower than hiring an agency for comparable work (and none of the work gets offloaded to a junior). Let’s talk and figure out what arrangement makes sense for your needs and your budget.
How long until I see results? +
Honestly, it depends. SEO is a compounding game, not a switch, and not every brand has the same definition of success. I’ll be straight with you about what’s realistic for your situation and timeline.
Let’s make your brand
easy to find.
Book a 15-minute call to talk about your business and see if I can help. Worst case, you get some honest advice for free!
Start a Conversation →