Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in advertising services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Koray Tugberk Gubur, CEO of Holistic SEO & Digital, located in Pendik, İstanbul, Turkey.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Holistic SEO & Digital is a holistic SEO company that leverages technical, local, semantic, image, video, and user experience verticals of search engine optimization for higher organic search visibility and growth. Holistic SEO uses web design, development, data science, and machine learning to stay ahead of the curve instead of following the mainstream SEO media and learning everything new together with others. The customers of Holistic SEO involve people from the Cayman Islands, Czech Republic, Israel, United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, Poland, Turkey, and even Taiwan and Hong Kong. The company's customers are from affiliate marketing, e-commerce, Business to Business, and Direct to Consumer profiles. The industries vary from dentists, lawyers, pool construction to 3D Printing, pet foods, relationships, personality tests, and visa industries. I created Holistic SEO to do limitless SEO without any barriers for languages, industries, topics, regions, or JS libraries.
Tell us about yourself
I was a soldier in the Turkish Armed Forces. The high level of pressure you get every day makes you realize that you waste your time heavily on things that aren't worth it. Standing for 3 hours with 30+ kilograms of weight, and also a heavy machine gun while watching the wild emptiness without a sign from a single soul... Sometimes, you see someone from far away, walking and going. You do not know the person, whether a terrorist or a stranger, but still, you might want to be that person because the person can walk away, but you have to wait. Thinking all day long and obeying rules makes you more disciplined while realizing life's worth. Why shall I waste my seconds? Why shall I wait? Why shall I not work for my own purposes? I know what will make me happy. I love search engine optimization from a scientific point of view. And everything I perform is to create new concepts, methods, and principles for search engines. I want someone to read my case studies and stories 100 years later and be able to do proper research on today's search ecosystem. Besides that, thanks to SEO, I became friends with people from different geographies, languages, and backgrounds. I promised myself not to waste time and walk into my dream.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
In 7 years, I have managed more than 600 SEO Campaigns from every vertical. And my biggest accomplishment is realizing patterns of these projects not just from an SEO point of view but also "organizational structure problems" or "business management efficiency." When you do SEO for a long time, you start to see competitors from every angle, and you get a bigger network and a faster learning curve for business. Thus, business consultancy and SEO consultancy go side-by-side in my business model.
During my career, I have invented concepts like "Topical Authority," "Topical Map," "Topical Coverage," and more. These concepts changed how the SEO industry thinks and approaches the field, which makes me proud.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Time - there is not enough time to do everything; thus, hiring more people than you actually need is the most important thing. Hire more, structure better, and scale the business rather than solve every individual problem by yourself. And do not hang on to every project's problem like it is the last thing you need to solve on that day. Problems never end; the important thing is protecting a healthy mindset for better efficiency.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Be unique. Do not expect that people will favor you just because of your network. If you do not have a unique value proposition, it will be harder for them to suggest you.
- Be a hardworking person. If you do not work harder than your competitor, it will be really hard to stand out among them.
- Understand how to motivate people. If you can motivate your teammates, they will follow you everywhere.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.holisticseo.digital/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/koraytugberk.gubur.948/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/koraytugberkgubur/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KorayGubur
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/koray-tugberk-gubur/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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