Dearringer helps lead fast-growing SEO company
Written by TechPurdue // August 29, 2011 // Alumni, Alumni & Friends, Current Students, Faculty & Staff, Pro Files, Technology Leadership and Innovation // 10 Comments
Slingshot SEO, an Indianapolis-based company co-founded by alumnus Jeremy Dearringer, received the TechPoint Mira Award for Information Technology Company this spring.
“It’s one of the biggest awards they give,” said Dearringer, a 2003 graduate in organizational leadership and supervision (OLS). “It is an immense achievement. It made us realize that Slingshot SEO is at a point where we are taken seriously.”
The five-year-old company has been growing rapidly in revenue, in client base, and in employees. In fact, Slingshot SEO was named No. 58 on Inc. Magazine’s annual list of 500 Fastest Growing Companies (released Aug. 23). In May of this year, they announced plans for an expansion that could create 114 jobs by 2013. Slingshot SEO currently employs 75.
“Out of the three co-founders, I guess I’m the geek of the bunch,” Dearringer said. “I’m the one going to conferences, I am well-read and I’ve practiced search engine optimization for a long time. It was natural for me to move into the role of manager of the research and development department. I need to understand everything we need to know in a fast-moving space so that we are able to reverse engineer Google.”
By reverse engineer, Dearringer means keeping up with the search engine’s search algorithms so that his clients are able to optimize their online presence to show up higher in keyword searches.
When search engines first started, webmasters were able to affect searches by including meta tags and specific key words within a page’s source code. When Google came on the scene, links to a specific page became relevant. Now, the search algorithms can include social signals, brand mentions and other internet chatter.
“Google makes about 600 algorithmic changes per year,” Dearringer said. “Our advantage is having a really strong network. We listen really carefully, we pay attention to thought-leadership blogs and we run our own studies.”
A study Slingshot SEO released July 25, 2011, shows the importance of having a web page appear on the first page of search results. The top two search results have 18 percent and 10 percent clickthrough rates (CTR). Lower links on the results page had about a 4 percent CTR.
To impact these results, Slingshot SEO works with its clients to address a variety of topics, including web site architecture, load times, and social media.
Dearringer is thankful for the education he received at Purdue. Because OLS is within the College of Technology, he was able to “dabble in technology” while he pursued his degree, he said. Now, as an executive of a fast-growing company, he uses lessons learned in his OLS classes every day.
“It’s about how you leverage people to do amazing things,” he said. “Purdue helped me define my leadership philosophies and understand personality types. If it weren’t for that, there’s no way we would be the size we are today.”
With that educational foundation, he was able to focus on creating a strong culture of success within the company. In the spring of 2011, he was invited to a Purdue entrepreneurship class to share lessons from Purdue and beyond.
“I tell students, ‘when you graduate, it’s only the beginning of your education. You need to be extremely hungry. You need to be self-motivated and explore information at your fingertips. There’s opportunity everywhere,’” he said.
Slingshot SEO
Slingshot SEO study (this links to a summary; a full version of the results can be downloaded after providing some information)
(Photo: Slingshot SEO Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer Jeremy Dearringer, left, meets with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in May prior to the announcement that the interactive marketing company will expand its operations in Indianapolis, creating up to 114 new jobs by 2013. (Courtesy photo))
10 Comments on "Dearringer helps lead fast-growing SEO company"
great artice!
One of the key factors in the success of this company is having someone who knows the industry well and how search engine optimization operates. As SEO is an ever-changing technology, it pays well to keep up to date with latest trends and innovations in the business. And this is one thing the new CEO knows.
As a dynamic and pioneering company, Slingshot SEO, has found a young and knowledgeable research officer in the person of Jeremy Dearringer. Under his leadership, the company will surely find its rightful place in the SEO field.
Wow, i wish i got get him to help increase the seo standard of my sites but these days it would take millions of dollars to hire him
Great leadership! It’s great to see growing SEO companies in a declining economy. The fact that they have plans to create 114 jobs is a great contribution to both the industry and economy!
Running your own studies is highly important these days. As an SEO Pro it is important to keep your ear to the ground and see what the numbers say. It sounds like Dearringer is doing just that with Slingshot.
“It’s about how you leverage people to do amazing things,” he said. “Purdue helped me define my leadership philosophies and understand personality types. If it weren’t for that, there’s no way we would be the size we are today.”
-This is such a great quote because learning how to manage different personality types as well as different generations is what makes a great business leader. Every person within a team has their own querks, and knowing how to deal with those querks and get the best out of people is very important in business today!
I really appreciate Dearringer’s contribution to the success of Slingshot SEO and his humility when he attributes his success to Purdue. Wish him more success in life.
Congratulations, Dearringer and Slingshot SEO! Check out another great Search Engine Optimization startup at http://www.seo-legion.com
SEO is a Recession-proof business if you know how to do it ethically. Slingshot does an outstanding job at staying ahead of the ‘Google curve’ so to speak and, therefore, gives their clients great results.
I wish them the best of luck in all their future endeavors.
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