My search engine marketing career follows several diverse but interconnected paths, all of which converged around the growth of the World Wide Web.
As an early adopter and pioneer in the development of Search, today I continue to build and contribute to the advancement of online marketing and more specifically to Search.
At present, I am a founder and partner of one of the fastest growing and most successful interactive agencies in the country and a premier provider of Search Marketing solutions to some of the world’s largest and most respected brands.
My career in Search began in 1992 when I authored the guide “Taste of The Net”.
Taste of the Net was an early resource for navigating information available primarily on educational and institutional networks.
Presently, Taste of the Net reads as an historical look at the early days of Search when Gopher, Launchpad, NASA and USA Today provided pathways to information on the Web.
My passion for solving problems through analytical investigation and critical information interpretation lead me to a career in the Market Research field.
I spent six years in the Market Research discipline before returning to the Web, this time with an eye towards analytics and at a time when online and interactive marketers were just beginning to explore this brand new,
unspoiled marketing medium—Search.
In 2001, I joined SharpLink, an interactive marketing firm, which early on understood that Web design was about more than just building Web sites—it was about helping clients connect with customers.
In the following years as Search began to evolve at a breakneck pace, providing these connections became more and more complex.
Borrowing from my days as a market researcher, I began to apply the analytical approaches and methodologies of market research to help understand how people thought and acted as they sat down to query a search engine.
Since that time my professional life has been devoted to inventing, refining and reinventing strategies to help my clients find success marketing daily on the Internet.
Currently, I am a Partner and Director of Search Strategies at Faction Media, a full-service interactive and unified marketing solutions agency.
The progressive ideas and strategies that my team at Faction create day in and day out have helped us build a record of success, partnering with some of the most innovative business marketers at some of the largest companies in the world.
I love Search—when you know how people search, you know how they think, and as a professional marketer, researcher and psychologist
(ok, maybe an amateur psychologist) what could be better? What lies ahead? Everyone in our business has big ideas about what may or may not be coming next for this dynamic medium as it approaches it’s 20th birthday since the invention of Archie—all
I can say is that wherever it goes and whatever it becomes, I plan to be there.
Thanks for the memories!
Stephen Riegel!
Faction Media!