Sean Markey

Senior SEO strategist with specialization in content strategy/production, creative link building, and domains.

Quick summary of my skills:

I learn through building, reverse engineering successful sites, and trying stupid things no one would dare to do that sometimes turn out to be brilliant. I’m obsessed with what it takes to build a strong brand, and have been neck-deep in exploring how to use LLMs to rank better–including how to build valuable links and how to write content that will rank.

Highlights

7-figure Affiliate Site Exits

Built and sold a CBD affiliate site for a big exit that I cannot go into detail about (for NDA reasons)

Time period: 2017 – 2019

  • Built on an aged domain. Grabbed another aged domain to 301.
  • Hired medical experts to write most of the posts
  • Optimized the posts using Clearscope
  • Built a few links but mostly leveraged existing authority.

A sample of the keywords I was ranking for (note: the keywords with the crown = featured snippet)

Here is the traffic from near the start to when I sold the website:

Around this time I also:

  • built a site on an aged domain in the cannabis seeds niche that went from $0 – $15k/mo in affiliate revenue, and was sold for $150k
  • built up an Amazon affiliate site that also got up to $15k/mo before it got swept up in a Google update (too many “best of” articles, not enough info content to balance it out).
  • built and sold several smaller sites during this open window of smaller affiliate sites being able to compete in the SERPs

parasite SEO

Built a parasite page that did $50k in affiliate revenue over the course of a year and a half

  • Created the 4,000 word optimized parasite article
  • Bought a $1500 placement on the Observer
  • Redirected a relevant site I had acquired
  • That’s it

viral website

Captured viral traffic and created a site that reached one million pageviews over the course of one week.

At the start of Covid-19 in the US I registered and partnered with a medical professional to create FlattenTheCurve.com. I have a full write-up of the story here.

recent client work

Started working with a health-focused ecom store in late 2024 to help them fix a site riddled with errors and a terrible structure (each product with different doses had a separate page, and the canonicals were all… wrong or non-existent).

Worked with their dev team to tackle the issues and smooth everything out.

The site did really well in response and organic traffic soared…

according to Ahrefs

and according to Search Console

previous work experience

Local SEO Agency – 2013

For 2013 I worked at a local Salt Lake City SEO agency as a junior SEO. Prior to this I had been doing SEO on the side in afternoons while working as a special education high school teacher.

Smash Digital – 2014 to 2019

From 2014 to 2019 I was in charge of link building, sales, and customer service at Smash Digital. I worked here until my CBD affiliate site earnings hit the stratosphere.

2019 – 2025

Built and sold affiliate sites and parasite pages (as indicated above).

Client work and SEO strategy consultations for clients like:

  • DevSquad
  • SmithCorona
  • Castos
  • Semrush
  • Carry

Writing SEO/Marketing posts at my site Ranks.com

Writing the monthly-ish SEO newsletter Rank Theory

Co-founded a paid marketing community of over 350 members with Jacky Chou (Advise.so)

testimonials

Sean is one of the few people I keep in touch with privately about all things SEO. There aren’t as many people obsessed about staying on top of what’s working as him. — Glen Allsopp, Detailed.com

If you have a small to medium sized business with the capability to take his ideas and put them into action, Sean is as good as gold. — S. Kam, SmithCarona.com

Sean delivers some of the best resources and advice in the SEO industry. — Nick LeRoy, SEO For Lunch

Sean knows his shit. — Nick Eubanks, Ex VP of Owned Media, Semrush / CMO Digistore24

get in touch

send me an email: sem @ seanmarkey.com

or send me a chat on telegram: @ThisGuyRanks

Scroll to Top