Meet Josh Eliseuson
Josh serves clients with his search engine marketing expertise. His focus is making sure you get found online. Meet Josh Eliseuson.
At Fervor, Josh is: A search engine marketing manager.
What brought him to KC: Josh and his family moved from Seattle to Mission, KS, when he was 10 — and Kansas City has been home ever since.
What and where he studied: Josh received his degree in Advertising from KU’s School of Journalism.
Internships meet impact: Josh interned with Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and FreightQuote.com, among others, during college. While he had anticipated a career in traditional media planning, these experiences as an intern spurred him to shift his career goal towards digital media planning. These internships led him to full-time roles in paid search, search engine marketing and SEO serving many clients with a variety of agencies.
The part he plays today: He serves Fervor clients as a search engine marketing manager — which actually isn’t as complicated as it seems. “I work with clients to figure out what their goals are, then what the best tactic is to get found on search engines,” Josh says. Although he plays in the digital space, “it all ties back to Marketing 101.”
Digs Fervor because: “Everybody is so nice,” Josh says. “Everyone is so open to working with me and really integrating me into the organization.”
What SEO is: Josh can demystify SEO, once and for all. SEO (that stands for search engine optimization) simply makes a website more search engine friendly. Fundamentally, “it’s all about getting your site found on Google.”
Why SEO matters: It’s simple, he says. “If you’re not appearing on Google, you won’t be found.” Many misconceptions surround SEO, but “you can’t trick Google anymore,” he says. Tactics like spam comments and paid blog networks no longer bring a top-tier rank. “Google has gotten a lot smarter and the marketing basics matter more than ever. Today, it’s all about representing yourself well online.”
Family: Josh is married to Molly, and much of his extended family lives in the Kansas City area too.
A community he loves: He has a good group of advertising buddies, and they meet for a regular happy hour. Plus, his mom, sister-in-law and in-laws all live in Kansas City, so he enjoys spending time with family.
Cause for celebration: For the past two years, Josh’s mom has fought ovarian cancer. “I’ve been really involved in helping her with that — it was a tough two years, but she recently went into remission,” he says. “When she was in the ICU, I promised her that when she was out, I’d take her to the rodeo.” So they commemorated her remission with a trip to the Cheyenne Rodeo in Wyoming. “It was a great celebration,” he says.
Outside Fervor, you’ll find Josh: Probably at Shawnee Mission Park. “I love to go mountain biking there,” he says. And he also loves camping and hiking, particularly at Clinton Lake and Wilson State Park. “There’s a mountain bike trail there called Switchgrass that’s the 28th best mountain bike trail in the world.”
Where he heads for happy hour and what he orders for beer tests: A new favorite is the Grinders in Lenexa, where he orders either Boulevard Wheat or Free State’s Copperhead Pale Ale.
Favorite KC restaurant: For a special occasion, Josh heads to Marina Grog & Galley at Lake Lotawana. “It’s this little restaurant right on the lake and you can sit on the patio and have a drink by the water,” Josh says. “It’s our go-to special event place.” And he highly recommends the filet mignon.
Favorite place for a cup of coffee: Black Dog Coffeehouse in Lenexa.
Favorite read: “When I read, I want to have fun,” Josh says, and so he enjoys fiction, particularly fantasy and sci-fi. “I loved all the Game of Thrones books and I just finished reading the Ender’s Game series.”
The daily paper: Josh still prefers to get his news the old-fashioned way. “Even though I’m in digital marketing, I still get the KC Star every day,” he says, and he subscribes to the hard-copy version of Time magazine and the KC Business Journal as well. “Since I’m on the computer all day long, it’s nice to sit on the couch and read something and rest my eyes.”
TV favorites: He enjoyed Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones is his favorite show right now. “It’s been a great season.”
What drives Josh up a wall: Rudeness in general. “You’re judged by the company you keep,” he adds.
Business reads that had an impact: Because the SEO field evolves constantly, Josh relies on blogs to stay at the top of the digital marketing game. SEO is, he says, “changing all the time, and so it’s up to me to present what’s valuable to my clients.” He regularly reads Matt Cutts, SEO Moz and Search Engine Watch.
Fervor wouldn’t be Fervor without . . . Josh’s search engine expertise: “I’ve probably had 300 clients over the years, so being able to bring that expertise to the table is helpful.”
Josh, in a few words: “I care about everybody and want to make everyone happy, from clients to family.”