About Landmark SEO

I'm Matt Caramenico, founder of Landmark SEO, and I help business owners turn their websites into their best revenue stream through ethical and technically sound search engine optimization.

My SEO journey started back in 2013 after I graduated from college with a  Biology and Chemistry degree. Immediately I started my first job in chemical characterization & engineering at Johnson Matthey and quickly realized that the lab was not for me.

You see, I'm addicted to learning, and I figured my job would scratch that itch, but it became a pit of monotony. I began looking for an alternative, something that could fill the void. I'd always known that others thought I knew more about the internet and computers than I actually did. I was a member of 'whatDOTcd' and familiar with torrenting. I downloaded so much media that my university identified my room as sucking up a 3rd of their bandwidth at the time. But that's where my expertise ended. So I chose to dig in further and learn more about the internet.

I started with HTML, and that quickly led to CSS. From there, I jumped into Javascript, and that's when it hit me: People can directly influence what appears on search engines like Google and Bing. Up until that point, I hadn't considered it an option. I figured the ranking algorithm was walled off and far removed from any external impact. I didn't know there was an entire sub-culture of people learning, sharing, and testing for that next edge, peaking behind the curtain at what makes a specific search engine tick. And ultimately, how to leverage that knowledge and rank websites, and drive massive traffic and revenue for businesses around the world.

I was insatiable. Convinced this was my future as opposed to a master's in Chemistry to further my career in Chemical Engineering. I spent the majority of my time either working or learning about SEO.

Fast forward! I run Landmark SEO, an SEO agency in Raleigh, North Carolina. A resource for business owners to learn more about search engines and how they can optimize their digital footprint for more positive traffic and revenue outcomes.

Why Landmark SEO?

Most sites aren't set up for success on search engines and will never be that revenue driver you once dreamed of unless something changes.

You have a great business, and you're looking to expand or plant your flag in the market. It feels like everyone has a site, and you're ready to make that investment. Unfortunately, most developers don't care about what search engines want and ultimately don't honestly care about customer experience. They're focused on building something visually that matches what you think you want.

That's almost where the excitement ends. Maybe you're locked into a monthly ad spend, with recurring management fees and a monthly SEO service fee, a Social Media Marketing service fee, more Ad spend, plus content creation fees on a monthly basis as well...

You begin to see the site as a liability, and you wonder what it's really doing for you. Every time you ask, it's words you're unsure of and data that's a bit confusing. And if we're being honest, you've got a lot on your plate already, so you say, 'I'll dive in and learn more about this another day.'

It ends up being an unfortunate cycle. You work with an agency that claims to do it all. They'll walk your dog for the right price if you sign up for a 6-12 month contract. So you sign up, but you're confused due to the lack of clarity, and you don't see the results they spoke about. Then one day, you move on to another digital marketing agency because you have to have one, and the cycle starts All. Over. Again.

Sound familiar?

Yet, despite the fact that you've gone through multiple digital marketing agencies and you're not happy with the results, you still keep going to these one-stop shops.

How can this be if everyone is buying online? How can this be if the majority of customers are using their smartphones to find the local business that solves their needs, and then they visit within 24hrs?

Why haven't you found this same windfall? What's different about other solutions?

Well, some of it comes down to the fact that a lot of these one-stop shops don't have a clue about what they are doing when it comes to SEO. They deliver an audit and throw some jargon at you, outsource the content, and the results fall short of the goals.

I came up with the idea for Landmark SEO due to the nature of landmarks. A point of interest that is highly recognizable and well-known - I believe this sums up what I aim to do for each and every business that I partner with. This was the brand that I landed my first client with, the company I leveraged for my first SEO agency role, and ultimately what I used to land my in-house position at Advance Auto Parts. Landmark SEO has been at the core of my career since the beginning, and that's why I've revived it.

There are so many business owners out there that feel like e-commerce or the online space still isn't the beneficial asset everyone makes it out to be. They spend money with digital marketing agencies that over-promise and under-deliver continuously.

The website ends up feeling like a money pit and a headache rather than a high-performance revenue-generation engine. It feels like the only time they get any traction is when they're spending money on ads (and PPC and Remarketing certainly have their place in any holistic/integrated digital marketing plan), but very little revenue flows through organic.

I spent the last five+ years growing the SEO team and organic channel for Advance Auto Parts, a national aftermarket auto parts retailer. From a one-person team with no budget and minimal impact to the largest traffic and revenue-driving channel for the site. From 340,000 organic users a week to millions each week. I strategically deployed and built their Local SEO program from the ground up for more than 6000 stores across three banners and multiple business models. In addition, I've charted a course well into the future that makes it clear. We're not done. There is plenty more left in the tank. Over these past years, the team and I have driven over $3b in omnichannel revenue, and we are just getting started.

That's where Landmark SEO comes into play. We're committed to helping your business cut through the noise and dominate the landscape. I've done the due diligence, and I've dealt with the enterprise-grade scale and problem sets. Now, I want to share these strategies and perspectives with you.

That's why I created Landmark SEO.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read a bit more about why we do what we do.

-Matt