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The people behind SEOD

A small, senior team built to stay close to the work.

You should know who is making decisions about your business. At SEOD you work directly with a dedicated US based core team across strategy, search, design, development, advertising, and operations. There are no layers of account management between the conversation and the work.

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The story

Marketing without operations is filling a leaky bucket.

Eric started SEOD in 2016 after sixteen years running operations: restaurants, retail, distribution, nonprofits, multi-unit F&B. More than $54 million in annual P&L across BCD Tofu House, Gen Korean Barbecue, Sake2Me Sushi, and Obaba Fresh.

Every year he watched owners buy marketing and get back reports full of impressions and brand lift while rent came due and payroll taxes stacked up. The gap was never marketing talent. It was that nobody was reading the business underneath it. A campaign cannot tell you your labor cost is six points too high, or see the walk-outs happening at the hostess station.

So he built the agency he wished he could hire when he was in the chair. One that can run your Google Ads and audit your COGS. That knows what a 6% variance on food cost means to your month.

Read Eric's full biography and the documented operating record.

How an engagement actually runs, from the first call to month six.

Meet the core team

The people you meet are the people doing the work.

Our specialists work together, share context, and stay close enough to see how one decision affects everything else. Search informs the site. Design supports conversion. Development protects performance. Advertising is measured against what the business can actually deliver.

Leadership

Eric Lee, founder of SEOD

Eric Lee

Founder and Operator

Eric built SEOD after 16 years inside operations, leading restaurants, retail, distribution, nonprofits, and multi-unit businesses. Having managed more than $54 million in annual P&L, he understands that every marketing decision eventually has to prove itself in customers, labor, margin, and delivery.

Eric leads strategy, client relationships, and the difficult decisions that keep the work connected to business reality. Based in San Mateo and fluent in English, Korean, and Spanish, he remains directly involved from the first conversation through ongoing review.

Read the full biography

Karina Zhang, Director of Sales and Operations at SEOD

Karina Zhang

Director of Sales and Operations

Karina connects what SEOD promises with what the team delivers. She leads client conversations, coordinates execution, and keeps timelines, priorities, and responsibilities clear from the beginning.

Her role sits at the intersection of relationships and operations, which means clients receive thoughtful guidance without losing momentum once the work begins. Karina brings structure to complex projects, keeps communication moving, and makes sure the details behind a strong client experience are handled with care.

The core team

The specialists your engagement draws on. Expand any profile to read it in full.

Illustration of Nia, Senior SEO Specialist at SEOD

Nia

Senior SEO Specialist

Core team

Turns search behavior into a practical growth plan.

Read Nia’s full biography

Nia turns search behavior into a practical growth plan, studying how customers look for information, where a business is being overlooked, and what must change across content, site structure, local visibility, and technical search signals.

The work spans traditional SEO, answer engines, and the evolving ways people discover businesses through AI. Nia brings patience to the research and precision to the recommendations, helping clients build visibility that is useful, credible, and designed to compound over time.

Illustration of Jen, Web Designer at SEOD

Jen

Web Designer, Front End and UX/UI

Core team

Designs experiences that make a business easier to understand, trust, and choose.

Read Jen’s full biography

Jen designs digital experiences that make businesses easier to understand, trust, and choose, leading user experience, interface design, and front end presentation, translating strategy into pages that feel distinctive without becoming difficult to use.

Every visual decision has a job, from typography and movement to hierarchy, accessibility, and the path toward conversion. Jen protects the character of the brand while making sure the final experience remains clear, responsive, and intuitive on every screen.

Illustration of Mateo, Backend Developer at SEOD

Mateo

Backend Developer, Systems and Integrations

Core team

Builds the systems beneath the interface.

Read Mateo’s full biography

Mateo builds the systems beneath the interface, working across content management, data flows, application logic, integrations, and the technical connections that allow a website to function as part of the business rather than as an isolated brochure.

The approach is practical and durable. The goal is not complexity for its own sake, but a clean foundation that performs reliably, supports future growth, and makes everyday work easier for the client and the team maintaining it.

Illustration of Rowan, Backend Developer at SEOD

Rowan

Backend Developer, Infrastructure and Reliability

Core team

The parts of a digital system clients should never have to worry about.

Read Rowan’s full biography

Rowan focuses on the parts of a digital system clients should never have to worry about, supporting infrastructure, deployment, security, monitoring, and performance so websites and applications remain stable as traffic, features, and operational demands grow.

Rowan brings a reliability mindset to every build, anticipating failure points before they become client problems. That work helps SEOD launch confidently, recover quickly, and maintain the technical health that strong digital experiences depend on.

Illustration of Vivian, Marketing Assistant and PPC Specialist at SEOD

Vivian

Marketing Assistant and PPC Specialist

Core team

The day to day precision behind paid campaigns.

Read Vivian’s full biography

Vivian supports the day to day precision behind paid campaigns, working across campaign structure, keyword and audience research, landing page alignment, tracking, testing, and reporting, making sure the small details support the larger strategy.

Vivian is quick to spot inconsistencies and careful about what the numbers actually say. Vivian helps keep campaigns responsive, organized, and focused on meaningful action rather than activity that looks impressive in a dashboard but does little for the business.

Illustration of Erica, Research and Development Specialist at SEOD

Erica

Research and Development Specialist

Core team

Explores what is changing before it becomes ordinary.

Read Erica’s full biography

Erica explores what is changing before it becomes ordinary, researching emerging search behavior, AI tools, technical platforms, and new approaches to digital work, then testing which ideas are genuinely useful and which are mostly noise.

That role gives SEOD room to experiment without turning client projects into experiments. Erica develops prototypes, documents findings, and helps the core team adopt new capabilities thoughtfully, so innovation strengthens the work instead of distracting from it.

The network behind the core

The right specialist, exactly when the project needs one.

No small team can honestly claim to be the best at every narrow discipline. SEOD does not pretend otherwise.

The core

A dedicated US based team

Strategy, search, design, development, advertising, and operations. No offshore handoffs. No junior drop. The person you meet on the intro call is the person doing the work.

The network

Specialists brought in by name

A trusted network of photographers, videographers, animators, designers, multilingual writers, and technical specialists who join a project when their exact craft is required. Selected for the work, not added to fill a seat.

The campus

Supervised emerging talent

Each semester, standouts from Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cal Poly, SJSU, USC and SF State rotate through SEOD. They handle research, monitoring, and first drafts under direct supervision from a core team lead. Never solo on your account.

One line of responsibility. The US based core team defines the brief, manages the collaboration, reviews the output, and remains accountable to you throughout. The network expands what we can do. The core team remains responsible for how well it is done.

Documented

Receipts. By the numbers.

Ours and our clients'. Every data point is documented. Ask on the call and we will show you. How we count client impact.

  • Since 2016Year founded10 years operating
  • 100+Clients servedBay Area and beyond
  • $5.8M+Client impactRevenue gained plus costs saved, documented
  • 40+ yrsCombined team experienceAcross ops, SEO, ads, web
  • 6Top schoolsIntern pipeline and recruiting
  • 3LanguagesEnglish, Korean, Spanish, native

Verified and partnered

Operating beliefs

What SEOD believes.

  • Small and mid-size businesses deserve agency-quality help.The $3K to $8K a month firms carry the overhead of a much larger operation. We run lean. You get the savings.
  • Marketing and operations are the same job.We will not run your ads without auditing your cost structure first. If the business is not ready to receive customers, we do not take your money.
  • One contact, forever.You get a direct line, 7 AM to 11 PM Pacific. You do not get passed to a success team. If the ball drops, there is nobody to blame but me, and I do not drop balls.
  • Bilingual service is table stakes in the Bay Area.Your vendors, your BOH, your customers, they do not all speak English. Neither do we. We bridge that.
  • If we are not the right fit, we will say so.I would rather lose the deal than waste six months of your life. Honest first, always.

The engagement

How a typical engagement runs.

  1. Week 0: The honest call

    A no-cost call. You tell me what is broken; I tell you whether I can fix it and what it will cost. No pitch deck, no discovery workshop.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2: Onsite walkthrough

    I come to your business. I observe a shift, review your P&L, look at your current marketing, meet your team. Every leak is documented.

  3. Weeks 3 to 4: Build phase

    Website, Google Business Profile, ad accounts, SOPs, whatever your package covers gets built, launched and tested live.

  4. Months 2 to 6: Compound growth

    Monthly reports in plain English. Ad spend gets optimized weekly. Onsite visits as needed. Your calendar starts filling up.

"We went from 2 to 3 calls a week to 25 potentials a week in just a year. We started seeing results in 3 months of SEO."

NorCal Shiba Rescue · Read the case study

Questions

Common questions about SEOD and how we work.

Ask Eric is a free, public Q&A if your question is not answered below.

What does SEOD actually do?

SEOD ships search visibility, advertising, web development, operations consulting and AI technology for Bay Area small and mid-size businesses. Four public relationships: Foundation, Growth, Care and Operations. Foundation starts at $3,500 and Care is $250 a month; Growth and Operations are quoted after a no-cost Business Growth Review.

Who is Eric Lee?

Eric Lee is the founder of SEOD. Sixteen years running restaurant, retail, and nonprofit operations. $54M+ in annual P&L managed across BCD Tofu House, Gen Korean Barbecue, Sake2Me Sushi, and Obaba Fresh. Bay Area based. He took every client call personally for the first three years; he still takes most of them. Read the full biography.

Who actually works on my account?

A dedicated US based core team across strategy, search, design, development, advertising and operations, led by Eric and coordinated by Karina. When a project needs an uncommon craft, we bring in a specialist from our network. The core team defines the brief, reviews the output and stays accountable throughout.

Does Eric still take client calls personally?

Yes. First call, kickoff, quarterly review, every escalation. Stateside team, no offshore handoffs. The team around Eric runs the day-to-day execution; Eric runs the relationship.

Why does SEOD publish prices when most agencies hide them?

Hidden pricing usually means the price is the result of a sales conversation, not a deliverable. SEOD prices are anchored to the work, not the perceived budget of the prospect. We publish them because we want the right-fit clients calling and the wrong-fit clients self-selecting out before anyone wastes a call.

What is the SEOD pricing philosophy?

Published prices. Month-to-month on retainers. Flat-fee on projects. No annual contracts. No generic setup, activation, or onboarding fee. The price the website shows is the price on the invoice.

How long has SEOD been around?

SEOD launched in 2016 and has served 100+ Bay Area clients across restaurants, nonprofits, and small to mid-size businesses since then. $5.8M+ documented client impact.

Is SEOD trilingual?

Yes. English, Korean, Spanish. Native, not translated. Useful for Bay Area kitchen teams, family-owned restaurants, and immigrant-founded businesses where the front-of-house language and the back-of-house language are not the same.

What industries does SEOD specialize in?

Eighteen productized Bay Area industry verticals: restaurant, dental, med spa, remodeling and ADU, home care, auto repair, HVAC/plumbing/electrical, veterinary, real estate, fitness studio, salon, CPA, optometry, tutoring, dog care, movers, nonprofit, and wedding photography. Each is written for that industry, with the starting point decided by the Business Growth Review.

Does SEOD work outside the Bay Area?

SEOD is Bay Area based, with a strong focus on California and Hawaii, and works with businesses across the United States. The onsite component is a Bay Area offer. Restaurants, dental practices, med spas, contractors, and other local-search dependent businesses get the most value because local search, Google Business Profile depth and onsite work suit that profile.

Where to go next.

SEOD FoundationBrand and website, from $3,500 SEOD GrowthSearch, advertising and conversion SEOD CareOngoing upkeep, $250 a month SEOD OperationsCustom scope after a review IndustriesEighteen Bay Area verticals PricingEvery published price in one place

SEOD's transparency model is grounded in published guidance from the Better Business Bureau on small business marketing trust signals and the FTC's advertising and marketing guidance.

Start with a real conversation.

Tell us what you are trying to improve. You will speak with the people responsible for deciding what should happen next, what it should cost, and whether SEOD is the right team to do it.

Book My Review Find My Starting Point

See how an engagement actually runs, week by week.

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