If you know me and my company, Flyway Media, you will know how much I eat, sleep, and breathe SEO.  It’s virtually all I’ve done since I learned back in 2002.  Usually when you think SEO, you don’t think North Dakota…but that’s the beauty of the Internet in general. Your physical location simply doesn’t matter when it comes to ranking.  And that’s a good thing from this ol’ North Dakota SEO veteran.

Now, if you don’t already know what SEO means, I will spell it out for ya.  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  It really should say “GO”, meaning, Google Optimization because Google still owns the market still today.  The most recent statistic is that Google dominates the search market with over 89% of the searches. With that being said, let’s just focus on Google for this one…

But since I started learning Internet Marketing back in 2002, I’ve been a constant study of the Google algorithm, since. I started my journey in the outdoor world. I am passionate about the outdoors, hunting & fishing mostly, so it was a fun side project to do when I had free time. I created “virtual online magazines” with forum communities to back it up. My first website, NodakOutdoors.com, became quite popular back in the day. Soon after I built DuckHuntingChat.com and bunch of others in similar niches. It was a fun ride, honestly, as it exploded for over a decade. At one point, the outdoor websites at my control averaged over 115,000 visitors/day overall. And they averaged over 11 pages/visit, meaning, people clicked around a lot. Do the math, it was a beast.

Fast forward to 2013, and I sold all of my outdoor network sites to a company out of Toronto, Canada. The timing was right as Social Media platforms, such as Facebook, were fast taking over where people spent their time online.

Web Design & Search Engine Optimization in North Dakota for Small Businesses

After I sold my websites, I converted Flyway Media into a North Dakota SEO consulting firm and web design company for small to medium-sized businesses. But as I quickly learned through my own Internet Marketing, my client base went beyond North Dakota pretty fast. So we now do Search Engine Optimization for companies all over North America, as well as SEO in North Dakota.

But even though we do web design & SEO all over the country, I still have a soft spot for my fellow North Dakotans. This is going to sound extremely arrogant, and it’s not, but it’s pretty rare to find a niche in North Dakota that I’d have a problem dominating, with any given customer’s website as the target. The web designers in North Dakota overall don’t have a solid understanding of Google marketing. Usually the real competitors are firms from out of state that came into a local market for a business. And again, I’m not trying to sound all-knowing here, but I’m stating simple facts I deal with on the regular.

For example, I have some customers in various niches across the country that are EXTREMELY competitive. I have a fishing charter client on the coast of California that has over 500 competing boats just in that one harbor alone (there are 3 others that are heavily used in the area, too). So this ol’ North Dakota boy gets to jump in the ring with some big firms out in California and let’s just say, I hold my own. ;-) The client is still with Flyway Media after many years, and has a constant stream of bookings with his online marketing.

What ND Businesses Can Benefit from Google Marketing?

If you’re a North Dakota business and you rely on phone calls, sales, emails, etc…aka LEADS to your business; you can benefit from SEO.

Search Engine Optimization, when done right, can essentially encompass ALL of your marketing efforts. If you’re a service industry business, for example, you know how many people search Google to find your business (or your competitors) on a regular basis. It’s A LOT, and the statistics simply back it up. And it’s not just your website that needs Google Marketing, you need a well-optimized Google Business Profile too.

Now you’re probably thinking to yourself, does my business have a listing? All you have to do is type in your business name (probably include city and state, too), and you’ll find out real quick. Google will often auto-create a generic listing of certain businesses. If the owner doesn’t take any action, people who interact with it can still make it relevant. With a restaurant, for example, you’ll probably notice people posting reviews, pictures or videos, etc.

What’s the Goal for Any ND Search Engine Marketing Client?

This is an interesting answer and that is “make your phone ring”. It’s symbolic and also a generic saying because obviously not every business relies on the phone. But for the service industry, for example, it’s virtually everything. If you’re a small business who does work for the general public, whether or not your phone rings enough can literally make or break you, at times.

Now with that being said, I say that because I try not to overcomplicate what I’m trying to accomplish with SEO.



Everything revolves around the conversion at the end of the day online. You not only need people to come to your website, and often, but you need the potential customers searching to actually ENGAGE with your website. That means scrolling, clicking, hitting the call button, etc…ANYTHING besides having them hit the back button. 

Example Factor in the Google Rankings

When a person comes to your website, and decides to leave, that’s called a bounce. And in your website’s analytics, we can track the bounce rate very closely. If it’s a high number, that’s bad…and the lower it is, the more people are using the website. And if your bounce rate for your website is really high, it’s more than likely a result of poor web design practices on your site. And you guessed it, Google knows your bounce rate, too. And while it’s often thrown around that it’s not a ranking factor, let me ask you this. Do you think Google wants to rank websites high in the rankings for keywords when most people are hitting the back button?

After all, the goal of Google is to provide your answer as quickly and efficiently as possible…NOT making your life harder searching on Google. And let’s also be clear, this is just ONE small piece of a REALLY large puzzle.

North Dakota SEO in a Nutshell

SEO, as stated earlier, is really applying a strategy for each and every client that’ll help them grow and excel in their industry. It’s long-term, a marathon if you will and not a sprint. Solid results take time, as Google doesn’t update their results dramatically overnight. We set up each and every client with what we feel is the best chance at success. Sure, we’re not perfect and we may have to make some adjustments along the way. That’s normal and a common practice in Search Engine Optimization itself. We constantly analyze our client’s analytics. What’s working? What’s not working? It’s really that simple (except on my end where it requires A LOT of various reports).

If you want someone local to handle your Google Marketing, I don’t blame you. And in an industry that’s over saturated with “pretenders”, especially. If you need a quality website built with SEO in mind, from a North Dakota SEO company, then give Flyway Media a shout. We don’t push the sale on consultations, what we really do sells itself.



Give us an opportunity to show you why!