Houston Barnett Gearhart Director of SEO

Houston Barnett-Gearhart

Houston leads the Victorious SEO team to maximize our customers' ROI through data-driven and innovative SEO strategies. Particularly skilled at translating data analytics into actionable insights, Houston is committed to elevating his team’s performance through ongoing professional development. When not diving deep into SEO metrics or streamlining processes, Houston is likely enjoying quality time with his family or is immersed in a good book (usually about marketing).

Recent Posts

7 m read
Blog

When you ask, “How much does SEO cost?” you usually get the answer, “it depends.” Sure, there are as many ways to pay for SEO as there are service providers. But I want to pull back the curtain and look at what you’re paying for and how your investment impacts results.

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7 m read
Blog

Between the Q4 rush, the short weeks, and juggling a litany of “real world” celebration prep, the holidays can often leave us feeling like we have more to do than we can accomplish in a 24-hour day. Use these tips for your 2023 holiday search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to ease the overwhelm and improve your search visibility.

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5 m read
Blog

If you haven’t started exploring Google Analytics 4, now is the time. But never fear! Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of the best GA4 reports to check your search performance. You might want to bookmark this post!

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9 m read
Blog

Have duplicate content on your website? Use canonical tags and canonical URLS as part of your technical SEO best practices to protect and improve your Google search rankings.

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5 m read
Blog

Concerned about how quickly your web pages are loading? Not sure how to best measure page speed? Read on to learn more about two important page speed tools: Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Lighthouse. I’ll share how they gather data, what you’ll learn from each, and which tool you should use to monitor your site’s page speed.

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4 m read
Blog

The March core and spam updates are rolling out — need help finding the signal in the noise? Here's my short take on these updates as an SEO actively responsible for ensuring the organic performance of hundreds of customers.

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9 m read
Blog

By now, you probably know that link building is one of the (many) critical factors to improving your visibility in search results. But did you know the clickable text pointing to your linked page matters just as much as the link itself? Link anchor text is a key factor in determining page rank. Welcome to my complete guide to anchor text SEO.

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7 m read
Blog

If you’ve heard Google has devalued backlinks — you need to read this article. Here’s the thing: while some link-building techniques will lead to low-value backlinks, a link-building campaign is still critical for ranking well and driving referral traffic from other websites. Just remember — not all links provide value.

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9 m read
Blog

JavaScript can enhance your user experience — but you need to implement it in a way that won’t affect Google’s ability to index your site. Otherwise, the JS elements that make your site attractive and easy to use could lead to poor rankings. Pay attention to the following to safeguard your SEO.

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7 m read
Blog

You’ve probably heard a lot about domain authority, but maybe you’re not sure exactly what domain ranking is and how page authority compares to website domain authority. If you’re wondering why it matters for SEO, read on to learn more about DA Scores.

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5 m read
Blog

Whether you’re running a national SEO campaign or implementing a local SEO strategy, an SEO consultant can provide additional support and guidance to your team, reimagine your strategy, and identify new opportunities for increasing search visibility. Learn more about why companies with internal search engine optimization resources may want to hire an SEO consultant!

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6 m read
Blog

Now and then, a customer will ask us to employ an SEO tactic or pursue a keyword theme that, in our experience, won’t be effective in supporting their business goals. Worse than just not working, it might rob them of great results by diverting valuable resources — time, energy, and money  — from more impactful SEO activities.

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