Atlanta SEO Consultant & Marketing Strategist
Hey! I'm Joel
I’m Joel McRae and I’m a Marketing & SEO consultant in Atlanta, Georgia. I help small businesses and global brands grow their organic traffic by fixing the things that hold websites back in search. With a decade of hands-on SEO experience, I’ve worked across industries to boost visibility, improve rankings, and build real results.
Whether it’s a local real estate agent or a national brand, the goal is always the same: make it easier for the right customers to find you in Google.
Numbers that I'm proud of
My SEO career in numbers
I’ve spent the last ten years building and executing SEO strategies that drive results. From launching blogs to optimizing enterprise websites, I’ve seen what works, and what doesn’t. These stats aren’t just vanity metrics. They reflect the trust my clients place in me, and the real impact I’ve helped deliver: more traffic, stronger rankings, and measurable growth.
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Years of SEO experience
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12-month average search traffic increase
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Successful campaigns
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Client satisfaction
Why work with me?
A short intro
You could work with another consultant or agency, so why pick me?
Aside from delivering results that speak for themselves, here’s what I bring to the table:
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You'll work with me directly — I'm the person doing the work, not just selling it.
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I never overload my schedule. If I take you on, you get my full attention.
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My background spans web design, marketing, and content strategy, giving me range most SEOs don’t have.
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I hit deadlines and stay consistent, every step of the way.
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I’m easy to work with and communicate clearly (no jargon-filled chaos).
Transparency
You’ll always know what I’m working on and why. It’s your business, after all.
Honesty
If I don’t think SEO will work for your goals, I’ll tell you upfront and suggest alternatives.
Experience
With nearly a decade in SEO, I’ve seen what works (and what doesn’t) across a variety of industries.
Trusted by businesses of all sizes
I’ve worked with everyone from neighborhood shops to national brands, helping them grow their online visibility and bring in more search traffic. Over the years, I’ve taken on SEO roles in just about every setup, including in-house, and freelance.
That range lets me adapt quickly and deliver exactly what each client needs, no matter their size or structure.
A little bit more about me
I’m Joel McRae, an SEO consultant based in Atlanta, Georgia.
My path into SEO didn’t start in marketing. It started with music.
Back in 2012, I launched an independent music blog called This Sound Goes Around. Music blogs were exploding at the time, and I taught myself how to build the site, publish content, and get people to actually find it through Google. What started as a side project grew into something much bigger. Within a few years the site had a small editorial team, thousands of monthly readers, artist interviews, and exclusive premieres.
That project taught me something that stuck with me: if you understand how people search, and you structure your content the right way, a website can grow quickly.
That curiosity pulled me deeper into digital marketing.
Soon after, I worked with Top Shelf Records helping secure press coverage for artists. Around the same time I became an Associate Editor for Do Androids Dance, an EDM publication owned by Complex Magazine, and took on a Web Director role at Kennesaw State University. There I rebuilt the websites for the university’s online radio station and student newspaper.
Those roles forced me to learn everything at once. Writing. Website structure. Design. SEO. Analytics.
Somewhere in the middle of all that, things started to click.
Search wasn’t just about keywords. It was about how websites are built, how people navigate them, and how information is organized.
From Music to Marketing
Eventually I stepped into a larger digital marketing role as Director of Digital Marketing at AMAS, where I handled SEO and marketing strategy for multiple REALTOR® associations across the country. I led several website redesigns and focused heavily on improving search visibility and organic traffic.
That work pushed me deeper into technical SEO and large site architecture.
After that, I joined Harry Norman, REALTORS® (a Berkshire Hathaway company) in Atlanta as a Marketing and SEO Specialist. There I managed SEO strategy, technical audits, content development, and digital campaigns for one of the region’s largest luxury real estate brokerages.
Today, I work as a Senior SEO Analyst at The Home Depot, where I focus on enterprise ecommerce SEO. My work centers on large-scale site architecture, product taxonomy, and search performance across high-traffic product categories.
Alongside my full-time role, I still run my own SEO consulting practice where I help businesses improve search visibility through technical SEO, content strategy, and local search optimization.
Outside the Office
Music is still a big part of my life.
If I’m not working on a site audit or digging through search data, there’s a good chance I’m at a concert somewhere in Atlanta. My taste runs all over the place. Indie rock, jam bands, hip-hop, electronic music, weird experimental stuff.
I collect records, read a lot of fiction, and watch an unhealthy amount of hockey.
Aside from writing about SEO, I’ve been working on a passion project called Coffee Shop Selection, a digital crate-digging hub for people who love music and espresso in equal measure. More on that coming soon.