About

Jesse Smith

Search Visibility Consultant · Portland, ME

I work with service businesses in Portland and across Maine who are serious about being found: in traditional search, local search, and the AI tools their customers are starting to use every day to make decisions.

JS
Background

Built on real experience, not a course.

I've spent years doing SEO at the agency level, working across a wide range of clients, industries, and challenges. Before that, I worked with large national brands where the standards were high and the margin for error was low. That experience shaped how I think about search: not as a checklist exercise, but as a system that has to work across technical structure, local presence, content, and increasingly, how AI systems understand and trust a business.

JSEO is what I'm building to do this right, based in Portland and focused on local service businesses in Maine. Fewer clients, more attention, real outcomes. No junior employees running your account while a senior signs off once a month. Just direct work, honest reporting, and a clear focus on what actually moves the needle.

Technical SEO Local SEO & GBP AI Search / AEO Schema Markup Core Web Vitals Screaming Frog Google Search Console GA4 & GTM Perplexity & ChatGPT Monitoring
How I Work

The way a good engagement should run.

1
It starts with an audit, not a sales pitch.
Every new client gets a 10-point visibility audit before we talk about working together. You see exactly what's broken and why it matters before any commitment is made. If there's no real opportunity, I'll tell you that too.
2
I do the work.
No handoffs, no subcontractors, no account managers reading from a brief. When you hire JSEO, you're working directly with me — from the initial audit through execution and reporting.
3
Reporting that means something.
One page, month over month, focused on visibility and conversions — not a 40-slide deck full of impressions and keyword counts that don't connect to your phone ringing. You'll always know what's changing and why.
4
Small client list, intentionally.
I'm not trying to manage 40 accounts. I take on clients I can actually serve well, which means your business gets real attention, not a template applied to your situation and called a strategy.
Other Engagements

The right client is the right client.

Most of what I do is ongoing work with local service businesses in Maine. But I'm open to other situations when the fit is there. Fractional SEO director engagements for companies that need senior-level thinking without a full-time hire. Intensive one-time audits and projects for businesses that need real depth on a specific problem. If you're not a service business but you're looking at search as a serious growth lever and want someone who'll actually do the work, it's worth a conversation.

Let's see what's there.

The free audit is the starting point. No commitment, no pitch — just a clear picture of where you stand and what's worth fixing.

Request a Free Audit →