An admirer of people who aren’t afraid to experiment, Michael has piloted his SEO career with the same attitude. Michael Gray, aka Graywolf began his SEO career in 1998 while working for a jewelry and home furnishings business. He was hired as their in-house developer and stumbled into search and SEO by trying to solve issues with their online store. Through his experience with online retail, Michael took his engineering background and turned himself into a self-taught programmer and SEO expert.
Eventually Michael went out on his own to do SEO consulting and wishes that he would have done it sooner. His SEO blog, wolf-howl.com was an experiment to gain knowledge and understanding about blogs. Michael’s business, Atlas Web Service now specializes in blog and social media marketing consulting.
Most known for his relentless “calling-out” of Google, Michael says it is nothing personal and that he and Matt Cutts email every-so-often and talk at conferences. He thinks Google is just like everyone else, they are going to make mistakes and he isn’t afraid to tell them about it. Michael does admit that he goes to extremes sometimes because it is entertaining and that makes everyone happier than saying things in an unexciting way.
Although a late comer to the conference circuit, Michael is now a frequent SEO conference speaker. He wishes that he would have started going sooner because of the educational value and the relationships he has built with people in the industry.
Today, Michael Gray lives and works in Long Island, New York. Between consulting and speaking engagements, he never gets done what he thinks he can accomplish in a day. But that is what he enjoys most about SEO; things are constantly moving and changing, people are trying new things and it’s always interesting.