Why I still do this.
I'm Eric Lander, and I've been helping businesses get found and grow since 1999, for corner shops and Fortune 500 brands alike. It's what I chose then, and after years bouncing between agency and in-house roles chasing the next interesting problem, it's still what I choose now, around a full-time role, because helping people succeed at this is the part I love most.
SEO isn't a dark art. It's a long-term professional discipline.
Honesty and shared understanding win over secrets and jargon, every time. I'd rather teach you what's actually happening than gatekeep it, whether you're a global brand or a nonprofit with almost nothing to spend.
I started in search in 1999, back when getting found meant meta tags and a little patience. Since then I've been an in-house director, an agency partner, and the person teams call when something in their numbers stops adding up. Somewhere along the way I traded a busy stretch of Massachusetts for the North Carolina coast, and I've never looked back.
What I kept noticing is that most visibility problems aren't really search problems. They're clarity problems. The data can't be trusted yet, or the site and the content tell two different stories, or nobody can say what the numbers are supposed to prove. So that's the work I do best: getting to what's actually happening, deciding what matters, and building a practical plan you can act on.
I've done this for Fortune 500 brands and for the corner shop down the road, and the approach barely changes between them. The best part, honestly, is the teaching, working through it together so you come away understanding your own visibility and able to run with it yourself. I'd rather leave you self-sufficient than dependent on me.
These days a lot of that curiosity points at analytics and how AI is reshaping digital discovery, because that's where the real signal is getting buried under the noise. I do this work deliberately, around a full-time role, because I genuinely love it, and I take on a handful of projects at a time so each one gets my full attention.
The part that's on the record.
Associate Editor, Search Engine Journal Past
Edited and published industry coverage for one of the field's most-read publications.
Published & contributing author
Bylined work in Search Engine Journal and ISEDB, and contributions to Search Engine Guide.
Conference speaker
Presented at SMX, Affiliate Summit, and SEMNE on search and audience development.
Google Search Relevancy Summit
Invited to Google's Mountain View headquarters in 2008 as a Search Relevancy Summit participant, weighing in on search, website composition, and how Google surfaces relevance.
Where the experience comes from.
The Haskell Company · Current
My full-time role. This consulting is the work I choose to do around it, carefully and selectively.
Teal Media · Present
Search and measurement for mission-driven organizations, through Teal Media. Client specifics stay private.
d50 Media
Led all organic and owned digital media for the agency and its clients, as part of the executive team. Along the way, took first place overall in Google's Measurement Lab (M-Lab) speed competition at their Cambridge, MA offices.
TechnologyAdvice
Led organic growth and audience strategy for a large B2B media and demand-generation business.
Vizion Interactive
Led SEO strategy and delivery across a portfolio of agency clients.
ADP, Dealer Services
Ran SEO across 170+ automotive dealer sites, including national names like AutoNation and Herb Chambers, at the scale where process and measurement have to be airtight.
Earlier
Director and VP roles across agencies and in-house, including co-owning a web design firm in the early days.
Teams I'm proud of.
Haskell, Corporate Marketing
My day-to-day team at The Haskell Company. Big, ambitious marketing work, done alongside people who are genuinely good at it.
Teal Media
Since 2016, my partners for mission-driven work: nonprofits and civic causes doing real good. If that's your world, they're who you want.
The U10 Jaguars
A dozen co-ed rec-league soccer players who run the full gamut of skill, desire, and attention span, and who keep me grounded on what actually matters.
What people I've worked with say.
"Eric is a true expert in SEO and a highly supportive leader. He's incredibly focused on delivering quality work and building an engaged digital culture."
"Eric's strategic brain, empathy, and care make him one of the most well-rounded digital leaders I've worked with in 20+ years."
A dozen more recommendations live on LinkedIn. More to be added here, verbatim.
Straight about fit, time, and conflicts.
Selective, mostly fixed-scope.
I take on a small number of engagements at a time, most at a fixed price so you know the cost up front. Larger work is scoped after a short fit check. If the thing you asked for isn't the thing you need, I'll say so before you spend a dollar.
Your work stays yours.
I hold a full-time role at The Haskell Company and take on this work around it. That means I'm careful: I keep client work private, and I steer clear of anything that would conflict with my employer or another client.
New England born, Carolina coast by choice.
I traded a busy life in Massachusetts for the North Carolina coast, and I've got the family to match: a wife and four kids. When I'm not in someone's analytics, you'll usually find me outdoors, on the trails, at a campsite, or on the water with a rod (I've been fishing for forty-plus years). I coach a rec-league soccer team, and put real energy into keeping life simple in a noisy, modern world.
Let's figure out your next step.
Tell me what you're working on, or what's gone sideways, and I'll point you to the smallest thing that helps. If we're a fit, we'll go from there.