Leslie Rohde
Leslie is internationally recognized for his advancement of SEO, he has mentored and trained thousands of Internet entrepreneurs, his teachings and products are actively promoted by a who’s-who of search engine marketing and he has been the “man behind the curtain” defining the SEO strategies for a number of successful web businesses.
An Internet marketer himself since 1998, Leslie continues to operate a number of profitable ecommerce web sites while also teaching and mentoring both budding and highly successful business owners alike.
What attracts people to Leslie’s unique brand is the combination of great technical depth, broad business experience and a zero tolerance from B.S. from both himself and his students or clients.
Career SEO Highlights
May 2002 — Released OptiLink, the first program to perform analysis of inbound link text. Popularized the use of keyword rich link text as a means to high ranking at Google, arguably the greatest advance in SEO since the birth of Google, and coined the term “Link Reputation” to describe this new type of analysis.
April 2003 — Invented “Dynamic Linking”, a method of controlling the allocation of PageRank by means of selective use of Javascript (subsequently updated to employ the nofollow attribute). This technique is now called “PageRank Sculpting” and is widely used and taught by advanced SEOs throughout the world.
November 2004 — Released OptiSpider, a program to check websites for the most common causes of SEO problems, which are commonly self-induced by webmasters themselves.
November 2006 — Partnered with the founders of StomperNet and led the development of new teaching programs while helping grow and manage the staff and operations in Atlanta.
October 2009 — Joined forces with Dan Thies (an equally noted search marketing authority) to and founded The SEO BrainTrust to create the next level in training programs and methods.
Widely published and quoted, Leslie popularized the use of a number of “trick” searches as a way to research and explain search engine algorithms, notably “home” and “click here”. Today, Leslie is widely regarded as the “SEO to the SEO’s” for his skill in providing understandable and actionable advice for the most challenging SEO problems.
Life Before SEO
In his ten years prior to the web, Leslie was a business owner delivering technology consulting, business process improvement and custom shrink-wrapped desktop software, employed in a variety of companies both large and small. Highlights include:
- For Tektronix he created a ten person development group from scratch, completed purchase and acceptance testing of third party source code and managed on-going development. Also mentored and trained the rest of the organization in the application area.
- Under contract for the Department of Defense he served as program manager for development of a repair depot for the first man portable geodetic GPS receiver. His duties included budget responsibility, system hardware and software design and management of the development team.
But the most unusual career highlight of all is the 12 months Leslie spent manning a satellite tracking station in Antarctica while pursuing an engineering degree at the University of Texas.
Personal
“I was born in 1956, the son of an engineer, and developed early in life a passion for all things technical. I am widely read in numerous technical fields and technology remains my burning avocation today.
“I began my education in electrical engineering at the University of Texas, but have worked as a software engineer since 1974 in a wide range of technical industries and in government research and development. My last “real job” was with Tektronix where I managed software development for a large computer-aided engineering application.
“I began working for myself in 1988 building custom applications for technical firms such as Intel, did technical business process consulting in partnership with a national consulting firm where I delivered business improvement consulting to the top 80 Aerospace and Defense firms, and developed a “shrink-wrapped” Windows-based application marketed through a joint venture partnership.
“I started trying to figure out web business in early 1998 and ran several small informational and ecommerce sites until I finally “got serious” about search engine research in late 2001 with the intention of developing the next generation of SEO tools, a process that ultimately led to OptiLink.”