Steve Wiideman
Consultant, Small Business Owner, and Teacher in La Mirada, CA
Specializing in strategic planning for multi-location and franchise SEO campaigns, Steve Wiideman of Wiideman Consulting Group considers himself a scientist and practitioner of local, e-commerce, and AI-driven search optimization. He is the co-author of SEO: Search Strategy for the AI Era (1st Edition) with Professor Scott Cowley of Western Michigan University, the modern successor to the four-edition SEO: Strategy & Skills textbook published by Stukent and used by more than 45 colleges and universities. Wiideman has played a role in the inbound successes of brands that have included Disney, Linksys, Belkin, Public Storage, Honda, Skechers, Applebee's, IHOP, Dole, Jollibee, Meineke, Dave's Hot Chicken, and Qdoba, with emphasis on strategy, planning, and campaign oversight.
In 2018, Wiideman was named Industry MVP at Conductor's Searchies Awards, and helped Meineke earn the NatLo Top 30 in Local Marketing by Placeable. He has been recognized with the Career College Association's G.R.E.A.T. Award (2006), a Congressional Recognition Award (2004), FORTUNE GAMEChangers honors (2016), and the Web Excellence Award (2021).
Wiideman and his team have worked with Fortune 500 companies and small start-ups alike for more than 25 years. His personal experience ranges from managing large sponsored-ads budgets to turning brick-and-mortar businesses into Internet profit machines using SEO best practices learned while studying under the world's leading organic and paid-search specialists.
Wiideman conducts online and in-person presentations at conferences and tradeshows across the U.S. and abroad, including Pubcon, DigiMarCon, ProfCon, DMO Advanced Napa, RD Summit Brazil, Innovate Summit, and Amaze Conference. Topics include the history of SEO, link-earning, multi-location ranking factors, pay-per-click advertising, responding to search engine updates, and the future of AI in search.
He designed and teaches the Website Optimization and Strategic Search Engine Marketing course at California State University Fullerton, and, beginning this year, the AI-Driven SEO and Digital Marketing course at the University of California San Diego. He previously taught multiple digital marketing courses at Fullerton College between 2019 and 2023.
As a consultant, Wiideman develops creative strategies that earn organic links and citations to web properties, in addition to leading website migrations, taxonomy rebuilds, schema and data-management programs for local search, and AI-search visibility (AEO/GEO). Wiideman has been mentioned and featured in CNN Money, CNBC, Entrepreneur, Fortune, Search Engine Journal, Marketing Sherpa, National Journal, Response Magazine, BrightLocal, BirdEye, and VoyageLA, among others.