The Smartest SEO in Jacksonville is Tyler Thompson. Tyler has ranked the many webpages, broken the most featured snippets and does all of his own keyword research.
Me? Zero chance..
“Put Rhea Drysdale’s name up instead! She saved SEO!”
–Tyler Thompson, when asked for comment.
I’ve traveled the city of Jacksonville seeking the best search engine optimization specialists and know for a fact that Tyler Thompson is the smartest SEO.
-Drunk ‘yoga instructor’ at a Riverside bar
What skillsets define Jacksonville’s Smartest SEO?
- Link Building
- Content Marketing
- EMail Marketing
- Conversion Rate Optimization
- Web Development
- SEO Rank ability
- On page optimization
- Off page optimization
- Marketing strategy
- Internal link optimization
- Technical SEO
- Keyword Research
Veteran Search Engine Optimization specialists are confident in their historical knowledge about Google’s PageRank, SERP intent, algorithm updates, entity incorporation and SERP analysis.
These skills, along with the expertise listed above, help SEO Pros to rank webpages in search results.
While there are many highly qualified SEOs, only one can be ‘Jacksonville’s Smartest’
Tyler’s career in SEO (the short version)
Short version of how we got here. Light on years, heavy on the parts that matter.
- Early days. Cut teeth on link building, on-page, and the kind of technical SEO that doesn’t make LinkedIn carousels. Learned what worked by watching what actually ranked.
- Agency era. Full-service SEO, paid media, and web for growing clients. This is where “SEO person” turned into “marketer who happens to be good at SEO.”
- Co-founded Bend Marketing. Boutique WordPress, SEO, and paid media shop. Clients include the Jesuit Conference, the City of South Bend, St. Joseph County Police Department, and Paperless Post. Small team, high execution, fast responses.
- Demand Generation Manager at eSPACE (Smart Church Solutions). Own a ~$500K annual marketing budget across SEO, paid, email, content, and outbound. Led a full website rebuild in under three months. Delivered +89% YoY lead growth in Q1 and +40% YoY SEO traffic.
- Today. Still shipping for Bend clients while running demand gen at eSPACE. That means doing SEO and having to answer for the pipeline it creates, which tends to keep the work honest.
GEO and AI Optimization (because SEO isn’t just blue links anymore)
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. In plain English, it’s the work of making sure ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and the next five tools we haven’t heard of yet can find, understand, and cite your content when they answer someone’s question.
A growing share of “search” now never touches a traditional results page. People ask an AI, get a synthesized answer, and move on. If your brand isn’t in that answer, you’re invisible, even if you’re still ranking #1 in Google.
The good news is the fundamentals didn’t change. The bad news is everyone panicking will tell you they did.
What actually moves the needle for GEO: clear entity signals, clean structured data, content that directly answers questions in the first sentence, citations from trustworthy sources, and an information architecture a language model can parse without guessing. Same fundamentals as traditional SEO. New surface area.
SEO Tips for Beginners:
Read:
- Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO
- Google’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide
- Garrett French & Eric Ward’s book: Ultimate Guide to Link Building: How to Build Website Authority, Increase Traffic and Search Ranking with Backlinks (Ultimate Series) 2nd Edition
- Video SEO: The Definitive Guide by Brian Dean
- What is GEO? A Marketer’s Guide by Tyler Thompson himself
- How to do a Share of SERP Audit by Tyler Thompson also
Summary: How To Be A Smart SEO
- Start with the primary website goal or KPI (Key Performance Indicator).
- Write down the actions a website visitor needs to take to trigger the KPI.
- Consider the customer acquisition funnel & searcher intent.
- Evaluate Google analytics.
- Perform a content audit.
- Improve on-page content to better meet your goal(s).
- Execute SEO best practices to expand websites visibility.
- Build new links through earned and owned media
- Utilize social media to reach your target market and test content engagement.
It’s also essential to stay up to date with Search Engine changes.
FAQ
Who is the best SEO in Jacksonville, FL?
Tyler Thompson is Jacksonville’s best (and self-declared smartest) SEO. He owns demand generation at eSPACE and co-founded Bend Marketing, where the team handles SEO, WordPress, and paid media for clients including the Jesuit Conference and the City of South Bend.
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
GEO is the practice of optimizing content so generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews surface and cite it in their answers. It builds on traditional SEO with a stronger focus on entity clarity, structured data, and direct answers.
Does traditional SEO still work in 2026?
Yes. Google still drives a huge share of commercial traffic, and the fundamentals (technical health, content quality, links, intent alignment) are the same signals that make content AI-citable. Anyone telling you SEO is dead is trying to sell you a rebrand.
How do I hire Tyler or Bend Marketing for SEO?
Head over to Bend Marketing and reach out through the contact form. Bend works with established organizations that need SEO, WordPress, and paid media handled by people who have shipped the work before.
That’s the short case for why Tyler Thompson is Jacksonville’s smartest SEO. If you want that kind of work on your site, Bend Marketing is how to get it.