- service@eliteseoconsulting.com
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
Over his career, he has owned, built and sold multiple agencies. He has built SEO teams for other agencies and held senior roles including Director of SEO, Marketing Director, VP of Digital, and COO. His leadership has helped teams win prestigious honors such as the U.S. Search Awards, the Landy Awards, and the Global Search Awards.
Featured in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Business in Motion” (2011), Mike was among the first to predict the rise of mobile-first SEO strategies, years before they became industry standard. Backed by 22+ certifications from Google, SEMrush, Bing, and HubSpot. He has advanced training from Cornell University in Marketing Strategy, Integrated Marketing 360, Data-Driven Marketing, and Digital Marketing. In 2026, Hodgdon began the Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning offered through Texas McCombs, with coursework spanning machine learning, generative AI, LLMs, RAG, agentic AI and applied AI systems.
Mike leads with a culture of trust, transparency, and results — making him a trusted partner for businesses determined to grow.
Michael Hodgdon is a recognized voice in the search industry, regularly featured on podcasts, in books, and in case studies. He joined the eCoffee with the Experts podcast to share practical SEO frameworks and outcomes (watch the interview). In 2025, his agency’s early momentum was profiled in WebCEO’s case study, “New SEO Agency’s Rapid Growth” (read the feature) and highlighted by ColoradoBiz Magazine in “Championing Ethical AI Visibility for Financial Advisor.”. Earlier in his career, he was featured in Matt Chiera’s 2018 book Digital Marketers Sound Off (view on Amazon), and a 2017 Semrush case study highlighted his leadership in growing Infront Webworks’ SEO team’s revenue by 704% in under four years (case study). Throughout his career, going back to 2004, his teams have won over 21 awards for Digital Marketing and SEO. Elite SEO Consulting’s latest accolades are being a 2025 U.S Agency Awards Winner for Best New Agency and Finalist in the 2025 US Search Awards
Hodgdon’s “Quickest Path to ROI” methodology, paired with a fluid Strategize → Implement → Analyze → Report operating cadence, has proven highly effective both at his own agencies and while building teams for others. Now at Elite SEO Consulting, he has layered advanced AI into every campaign. Clients not only continue to see exceptional SEO gains, but they’re also acquiring customers through AI-driven channels, positioning Elite at the forefront of how search and AI converge.
With 27+ years in search, Michael Hodgdon is the Founder and Senior SEO Strategist at Elite SEO Consulting, where he leads a national team focused on measurable outcomes and an ROI-first playbook. His approach centers on the Quickest Path to ROI model and a disciplined Strategize → Implement → Analyze → Report cadence—frameworks he’s used to help hundreds of businesses win in competitive markets.
Before launching Elite, Hodgdon served as COO (2019–2024) and previously SEO/Marketing Director (2013–2019) at Infront Webworks, scaling high-performing teams and operations. Under his leadership, the organization earned major industry recognition, including the U.S. Search Awards and Global Search Awards, and posted standout growth metrics.
Across his tenure, Hodgdon has scaled SEO teams from 1 to 19 specialists, guided departments to triple-digit growth early on, and led a digital marketing division that achieved 938% revenue growth over four years—all while navigating algorithm changes with a focus on technical excellence, quality content, and user experience.
A recognized voice in the field, he’s been featured by Entrepreneur Magazine and other major publications, and today integrates AI across research, optimization, QA, and reporting—expanding client visibility beyond Google into LLM surfaces such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Grok.
Hodgdon’s roots in digital stretch back to the late 1990s, including early leadership in e-commerce and advertising operations. At First Light Net, he helped run a network reaching 3.4M monthly uniques and serving up to 30M ads monthly; earlier, as Director of SEO at BigFishTackle, he drove brand development, traffic growth, and revenue from performance advertising.
He has completed advanced programs at Cornell University (Marketing Strategy, Digital Marketing, Data-Driven Marketing, Integrated Marketing 360), reinforcing a leadership style built on trust, transparency, and results.
More than 27 years across the evolution of digital marketing, search, mobile, SEO, and AI-assisted discovery.
Michael Hodgdon’s career spans more than 27 years across several major shifts in digital marketing and search—from the early commercial web and online advertising to mobile, SEO, local search, and today’s AI-assisted discovery.
His experience includes building and leading award-winning SEO teams, growing online communities, developing digital advertising platforms, being featured in national media and industry publications, and founding Elite SEO Consulting. The timeline below highlights several documented milestones along that path.
THE BOOK BY MICHAEL HODGDON
A Business-First System for Turning Search Visibility Into Revenue Sooner.
Where should your SEO effort go first? Michael Hodgdon shares practical frameworks and lessons from client work to help you evaluate search opportunities, prioritize valuable pages, and connect SEO decisions with qualified leads, customers, and business results.
For business owners, marketing leaders, SEO professionals, and content teams.
Identify searches tied to relevant customer needs.
Focus improvements on pages that support valuable offers.
Connect search performance with inquiries, customers, and revenue.
