Radiant Elephant SEO: Our Process, Philosophy, and What Makes Us Different
Written by Gabriel Bertolo
Published on January 14, 2026
Search engine optimization can be confusing for most business owners. There’s a bit of a learning curve to understand how it works and the importance of the different elements.
It can almost seem like magic. You pay someone every month, and trust that results will come. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. Few SEO companies explain what they’re doing and why. This is what leads to companies getting ripped off and the proliferation of “SEO” companies that charge clients but do little to no work.
When SEO is done correctly, it has the highest ROI of any marketing service. Unfortunately, 70% of businesses working with an SEO company don’t see a clear ROI. Part of this is the failure of the SEO company to set up the correct tracking that allows ROI calculations. The other part are the companies that charge and don’t do any work.
Often, when unscrupulous SEO’s are confronted with a lack of results, they rely on jargon to confuse you, or they use vague statements like “SEO takes time” (which it does), or “we’re building authority” (which is a thing).
When the reality is that they either don’t do the work, they have junior staff learning to do SEO on your site, or they rely on outdated, cookie-cutter strategies that don’t work anymore.
I’m going to pull back the curtain a little more. I’ve been in this space for over 13 years. And I lost count of the number of times a client came to me for web design or digital marketing, and when SEO is brought up, they tell me that they have an SEO person they pay monthly. Then I take a look at the state of their on-page SEO and their backlinks and see huge SEO issues. Missing metadata, poorly optimized headers and structure, very few links, and/or really low-quality ones.
Every time, it left me scratching my head. What are these SEOs doing for the client who’s spending $1,000+ a month? The conclusion is often nothing. They take their money and don’t do a damn thing.
So what leads to this kind of scamming? They are taking advantage of the business owners’ trust and the fact that they don’t understand SEO. Instead of informing and educating, they obfuscate and confuse.
There are a number of red flags to look out for. A big one is when SEO companies charge by keyword. This was a thing 10+ years ago, but it isn’t relevant in the current SEO landscape. One webpage can rank for hundreds of keywords. And you WANT pages to rank for more than 1 keyword. People search differently.
Another red flag is when a company relies on long, confusing, jargon-filled proposals that actually don’t reveal much about the strategy.
On the flip side are proposals that are short and rely on vague phrasing that sounds impressive, such as:
“We’ll work on your technical SEO.”
What will you do? What are the current technical SEO issues?
“We’ll submit your site to 100 directories.”
What directories? Are they directories that actually matter?
“We will build backlinks.”
Ok, backlinks from what kinds of sites? Are they geographically or topically relevant? Are they high quality?
You might start off talking to the owner or a senior strategist to sell you, then once you’re locked in, a junior staff member or intern does the work. Basically, learning SEO through trial and error on your dime and with your livelihood at stake. Or worse yet, they sell you and then have someone in another country handle your SEO for dirt cheap while they pocket a huge margin. This is one of the main reasons SEO companies have a high churn rate. Because these outsourced workers or junior staff don’t know what they’re doing. SEO is complex when done right. It’s not something you can learn without some real trial and error.
Many SEOs still rely on tactics that worked 10 Google Core Updates ago. SEO is not static. It is constantly changing. To be successful, an SEO must constantly be learning and testing. Unfortunately, many grow complacent and don’t put in the time to become true experts.
Every business is different. Every location and industry is different. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. A new business requires a different strategy than an established company. A local service business requires a different SEO strategy than a national E-commerce brand. There’s a lot of nuance within SEO.
Even your position in the market will guide the strategy.
You might get a report each month showing ranking improvements and traffic data, but there’s no breakdown of what they did. And did those results lead to new revenue? Some SEO companies cherry-pick vanity metrics so the client feels good about paying that next invoice. And some excuse their lack of transparency by saying they have a proprietary system that’s secret. Yeah, so we all do. You can still share your strategies without giving away your special sauce.
SEO has the potential to completely transform your lead generation. People are always searching, and the highest-ranking businesses get the majority of the business.
91% of marketers say that SEO improved website performance. Source – https://searchatlas.com/blog/seo-statistics/
SEO delivers a median ROI of 748%. Source – https://firstpagesage.com/reports/seo-roi-statistics-fc/
SEO leads close at a rate of 14.6% compared to 1.7% for outbound leads. Source – https://seoprofy.com/blog/seo-roi-statistics/
Radiant Elephant has a very different approach to SEO. I believe that an informed client is the best client. Over the years, I have learned how to explain a lot of complicated SEO concepts in a way that is easy to understand. SEO is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Your industry, your local market, and your positioning and goals dictate the strategy.
I personally handle all SEO strategy and oversight. No junior staff, no interns. My SEO insights have been featured in Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Forbes, Hubspot, and more. Not bragging, but I know what I’m talking about.
I take a business-first approach to SEO. The search landscape is complicated these days. Organic search, Google AI Overview, and Google Maps are all factors now. Some SEO’s will increase the ranking on some keywords and call it success. If those rankings don’t lead to more revenue, then I consider it a failure. My number 1 goal in every SEO campaign is to get you a return on your investment as quickly as possible.
During the onboarding, I do a number of audits and use the data to design a custom SEO strategy for your business. I look at competition, your geographic area, your market positioning, your technical SEO, on-page SEO, and backlink profile. Only then do I get to work crafting a custom SEO plan that is designed to drive revenue as quickly as possible.
Whether you read it or not, I let you know exactly what the issues are, what I am doing to fix them, and why they are important. Again, an informed client is the best client. I am very transparent about the processes and the mechanics of why. Over the years I’ve gotten good at explaining things without a ton of jargon because I want you to understand it.
There are 3 aspects of SEO. White Hat, Black Hat, and Grey Hat. White Hat is when everything is above board and follows Google’s Terms of Service.
Black Hat SEO utilizes tactics that are against Google’s TOS and, at times, ventures into immoral, if not illegal tactics.
Gray Hat rides the line between them.
I focus on purely White Hat tactics for clients’ sites. This removes the risk of a Google penalty. One algorithm change can completely de-index a website using Black Hat tactics.
I have been doing SEO for over 13 years. The very first website I optimized for search completely transformed the revenue for the business owner. That was Radiant Elephant’s first client, and we did such a great job that they are still a client 13 years later.
Over the years, I have gotten amazing results for my SEO clients. This is part of the reason why Radiant Elephant has a retention rate of over 90%. Clients stay with us for over 5 years.
I know some of these seem too good to be true. But rest assured, we have proof of everything and will be happy to show you the actual screenshots from Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Google Analytics.
If you’re ready to jump into SEO services for your business, feel free to reach out. Our first call will be to connect and learn about your business. Then I provide you with a custom, jargon-free SEO proposal and we take it from there. Click here to get in touch.
We offer SEO services nationally, but also specialize in Massachusetts SEO and New Jersey SEO.
