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Hudgens grew a one-person consultancy into an agency of more than 120 people by betting that content people want to read and cite holds up when search engines change their rules.
Ross Hudgens is the founder and chief executive of Siege Media, an Austin, Texas, content marketing agency that now sells its work as generative engine optimization, or GEO. He started the firm by himself in 2012, and it has grown to more than 120 employees with offices in Austin, New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
Starting Out Under Sujan Patel
He studied business administration with an emphasis in marketing at Chapman University in Orange County, California. His first job out of college was scanning documents at a pharmaceutical company, and his first SEO job was with Sujan Patel, whom he told Mixergy he joined as an early employee working on accounts such as CafePress. "It makes you feel that, yes, you can do anything," he said of that job.
Patel later helped him find work in Seattle, Washington, building insurance and mortgage lead-generation websites from scratch for an investor. On nights and weekends Hudgens blogged and spoke at conferences to build a personal following, and he picked up clients on the side.
Quitting After the 2012 Penguin Update
In 2012 Google released Penguin, an algorithm update aimed at manipulative link building. Hudgens told Mixergy he had done a lot of that kind of link building, and the update hurt the lead-generation sites he worked on, which made him doubt how long that business could last. A new manager who started micromanaging him pushed him the rest of the way, so he quit, posted on his personal site that he was taking clients, and started Siege Media.
Moving the Agency to San Diego, California
He and his wife, whom he met in Seattle, first moved to Long Beach, California, where Siege hired its first two employees. They moved on to San Diego for the quality of life and the recruiting, and Siege later opened a second office in Austin, Texas, for its talent pool and taxes. Austin eventually became home for Hudgens and the company headquarters.
Growing Siege Media into a GEO Agency
Siege built its name on content assets that earn links and search traffic, for clients that have included Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Shutterfly, Zillow, Intuit and Audible, according to Inspired Insider. The agency has made the Inc. 5000 six years in a row, and Inc. has also listed it among its Best Workplaces.
Hudgens now writes and speaks mostly about AI search. His book, Generative Engine Optimization: The Definitive Guide to AI SEO, was published by Wiley, and he speaks at BrightonSEO, Ahrefs Evolve and Tech SEO Connect, according to his Siege Media bio. He also hosts the Content & Conversation podcast.
Personal Life
Hudgens lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and their two young children. He is a multi-year member of YPO, the global network for chief executives.
