Ethical, transparent and respected, the awards are judged by esteemed industry experts who follow a robust two-step judging process that includes pre-scoring to establish a shortlist and judge discussion to determine winners and in some cases silver awards.
None of our award judges can take part in the competition and any conflicts of interest must be declared.
The US Search Awards have been accredited ‘Outstanding’ by the Independent Awards Standards Council – Awards Trust Mark.
To apply to become a judge, fill out the form at the bottom of this page.
Alex is the Founder of PixelChefs.com, an award-winning SEO-focused web design firm in business since 2009. He specializes in the latest digital design infused with SEO strategy, Alex and his team work with companies such as CabinetSelect.com, Westgate Resorts, DrinkAGame.com, and many others across the globe. In the past, Alex worked in user interface design (UI) and served as Digital Marketing Manager for one of the world’s largest hospitality companies. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Ringling College and is a frequent speaker at search conferences and contributor to digital marketing publications. Until recently, Alex participated in and was the Founder of the largest SEO Meetup group in Florida. When Alex is not working, he is either chasing his kids around, thinking about work, or both. Find Alex on Twitter @Pixelchefs.
Andor Palau | International SEO Consultant | ANDORPALAU.COM
Andor is an independent international SEO consultant based in Berlin, Germany, and has started his online career back in 2009. Having worked both in-house, as well as on the agency side, he is currently advising online shops, classifiers, marketplaces, and other companies regarding international organic growth strategies as well as technical SEO issues as an independent SEO consultant. He is former Head of SEO at Peak Ace, where he was responsible for SEO and managed a 20+ people team of SEO consultants and editors. Before joining the agency side, Andor was In-house SEO for a top-3 comparison portal in highly competitive verticals such as insurance, power, and telco. Andor’s core expertise is strategic SEO as well as technical SEO, covering topics such as crawlability, indexing management, migrations, and site structure optimization. He is a lecturer at the afs Akademie in Germany, which has made it its mission to offer quality education and training in the field of SEO
Ash Nallawalla | SEO Consultant | CRM911 Digital
Ash Nallawalla is an Australian SEO consultant and the author of three SEO books (the first, "Accidental SEO Manager," is in its Second Edition). He has worked for major household brands and multinational, multilingual websites. He specialised in Finance, ecommerce, banking, and High-tech industries. He is a regular conference speaker and podcast guest. He is the Local Search forum moderator on Webmasterworld.
Bill Hartzer | SEO Consultant |
Bill Hartzer is an independent SEO Consultant. He relies on his 20 years of direct SEO experience to provide technical SEO audits of websites, as well as technical link audits and link cleanups of websites. Mr. Hartzer is known worldwide for his research on the topic of search engine optimization and the New gTLD domain names, as well as Dot Brand domain names. He provides research and marketing of white papers and case studies related to the New gTLDs, as well as consulting related to domain migrations.
Dan Saunders | Director of Digital | Evergreen Finance
For nearly two decades, I've thrived in the dynamic world of digital marketing, fuelled by an unwavering passion for data-driven strategies. My expertise lies in leveraging data insights to unlock new business opportunities and propel success. My approach is anchored in a deep understanding of different markets and competitors. This data-centric foundation allows me to identify trends, anticipate challenges, and establish a competitive edge. I actively collaborate with directors and heads of service, translating business goals into actionable plans informed by data-driven insights.
Dateme Tamuno | Head of Digital Marketing | Londonist DMC
Davina Lines | Managing Director | Mixing Digital
Davina Lines is Managing Director of Mixing Digital and the Ecommerce Club. She brings a wealth of knowledge and a big black book of digital contacts to ensure Mixing Digital’s event management services are of the highest standard. Davina co-founded Netimperative in 1999 and became Managing Director in 2002, stewarding the brand into new product launches and creating one of the most successful events programmes in the digital marketing industry. In the mid 90s Davina cut her digital teeth on New Media Age (now Econsultancy), forming part of the founding team and was responsible for the commercial development of the magazine and its early events from launch in May 1995 to 1999. In recent years Davina launched an ecommerce peer-to-peer community, the Ecommerce Club, which runs regular events in London and Manchester on topics relevant to the retail community.
Dawn Anderson | Founder | Bertey
Dawn Anderson lectures on search and digital marketing strategy at Manchester Metropolitan University, is an international conference speaker (UK, US, AUS, IT), a trainer, and runs a digital marketing and international SEO consultancy agency, Bertey based in Manchester, UK. Dawn has spoken at some of the leading UK and global search marketing conferences, including Pubcon (Las Vegas and Florida), SASCON (Manchester, UK), European Search Conference (Liverpool, UK), Search Leeds (Leeds, UK), Brighton SEO (Brighton, UK), SMX London (London, UK), SMX East (San Jose, US), Ungagged London (London, UK), Ungagged Las Vegas (Las Vegas, US), MozCon (Seattle, US) and State of Search (Dallas, US). Dawn has also spoken at conference across Europe and as far afield as Australia. Dawn has been in digital marketing and SEO for 12+ years and works with leading brands providing digital marketing and SEO strategy and consultancy across a number of sectors. She is a Northern Digital, UK, EU and US Search Awards Judge. Dawn also contributes to leading search marketing industry publications such as Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, The SEMPost, State of Digital and Smart Insights. Dawn also supervises Masters dissertation students undertaking their MSc in digital marketing strategy at Manchester Metropolitan University and also lectures and undertakes workshops on search and marketing analytics teaching International Fashion Promotion students at Manchester Fashion Institute
Deborah Norton | Founder | BRAVO! Interactive Media
Deborah Norton, Internet Strategy Consultant and founder of BRAVO! Interactive Media - creating, optimizing and marketing website since 1997. Formerly Deborah headed up business development for a then tech start up, Catalyst globally acquired by the WPP Group. From print advertising, television marketing to the Internet, Deborah is passionate about media. Presently consulting with her company BRAVO! Interactive Media, a collaborative boutique internet marketing agency established in 2008. Deborah focuses on working with businesses, non-profits & B-corporations on creation and implantation of large-scale complex Internet projects, Internet strategy services, SEO, PPC, web development, content creation & online marketing services. Additionally Deborah is a digital business advisor & instructor at the University of Hartford, Entrepreneurial Center & Barney School of business where she both teaches and advises on digital marketing.
Ethan Lazuk | SEO Director | InvenTel
Ethan Lazuk is an SEO director based in Orlando, Florida. Prior, he co-owned Ethan Lazuk Consulting, LLC, along with his lovely wife, Dania Lazuk. Ethan has worked for 10+ years in digital marketing, including as a senior strategist and an SEO manager. He also publishes weekly SEO and AI news recaps called Hamsterdam, a place to showcase authoritative and innovative voices in the SEO industry, where all are welcome. Outside of SEO life, Ethan enjoys riding his 50cc scooter around downtown Orlando and going on walks or hikes with Dania and their rescue dog, Wuffiyah.
Humby Chu | Growth Marketer | Home Organizers, Inc
With over 15 years of experience in growth and performance marketing, Humby Chu currently serves as the Director of Growth Marketing at Home Organizers, Inc. He previously led a digital marketing team at Amazon, focusing on paid search, paid social, programmatic advertising, organic social, and SEO. At The Walt Disney Company, he specialized in acquisition and engagement marketing. Early in his career, he was one of the first employees at BigCommerce, playing a key role in the early days of the ecommerce industry. His expertise spans growth strategies, brand strategy, and competitive strategies.
Janna Pugh | SEO Manager | Five9
Janna Pugh is a SEO Specialist with a history of agency and in-house work. She has recently been nationally recognized as the Industry Rising Star in Conductor's 2022 C2 Summit and regularly speaks with college classes about the essentials of organic marketing. With her passion for SEO, she knows firsthand how to make the smallest and largest websites succeed organically. Her areas of focus specialize in enterprise SEO, with scalability and automation for both small and large SEO teams. Her varied approach to SEO combines on-site content with off-site brand management. In her free time, she loves trying out new recipes and reading mystery novels.
Jessica Dee | Head of Paid Search | Taskrabbit
Jessica brings over 14 years of PPC expertise and has held leadership roles as a director of marketing in automotive for a decade. With a remarkable academic background of five college degrees and prior experience at Amazon Music managing global marketing efforts, she actively mentors for Women in PPC and contributes as a member of Google Ads' advisory panel to provide valuable feedback on various Google products and services. Jessica prides herself on innovation and strategic marketing tactics to yield the best results for clients cross-vertical and cross-channel.
Jim Banks | CEO | Spades Media
Jim is one of the original paid media experts, buying his first paid traffic back in 1999. Since then he has worked with over 1000 companies around the world and spent in excess of £250 million on traffic, generating in excess of £1 billion in ecommerce sales and more than 2 million leads for inbound marketing companies. Jim is a well-travelled and sought after keynote speaker.
Judith Lewis | Founder | Decabbit Consultancy
Judith is a renowned international speaker, writer, trainer, blogger and digital media consultant specialising in applying strategic understanding of digital technologies to help businesses innovate and optimise their effectiveness within the new, networked communications environment. She is a regular speaker around the world on SEO, content strategy, link building, paid media, and digital strategy, and has been recognised by her peers as one of the most influential people in the UK digital industry. Judith judges the industry leading Search Awards around the world, and has every year since their inception. She has worked with market-leading global businesses including Google, NatWest/RBS, National Gallery, Fidelity, GalaCoral, NBC Universal, Readers Digest, Bayer, Family Search, Amadeus, AMD, AmEx , Virgin.com, Virgin Startup & more. She has over 23 years of experience, predating Google in her entry into the market, and now runs her own consultancy. She has worked both in-house and agency-side. Judith also blogs about chocolate, has contributed to the book “Pimp My Site” and the Econsultancy guide to Paid Search and rewrote the large foundational Econsultancy Best Practice Guide to SEO.
Kyle Reeves | Digital Marketing Consultant |
Kyle Reeves is a Digital Marketing Consultant and founder of Kyle Reeves Consulting, a small agency focused primarily on creative strategy and paid advertising for mostly B2B clients. Kyle’s journey started over 20 years ago at a small Denver agency before a stop at a Fortune 500 technology manufacturer and then running the PPC team at a Boston-area agency before striking out on his own in 2015. Kyle is a regular participant at BWG Strategy SEM Roundtable Events, a past presenter at Newport Interactive Marketers (NIM) & other local events and has guest author several articles on emerging PPC trends, how-to’s and best practices. Outside of work, Kyle attempts to visit all of the breweries in New England and going for Jeep adventures with my 2 daughters (7 & 11)…although not on the same day.
Lisa Williams-Scott | Founder and Consultant | When Everybody Clicks
Lisa Williams-Scott is a 28-year veteran of digital marketing and the author of "When Everybody Clicks: Sustainable Digital Marketing". She has been featured in Kiplinger Magazine, Glamour Magazine, Boston Globe, and The Oregonian. Lisa is on the SEMpdx (Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland Oregon) Advisory Board. She judges the US Search Awards and Business Tech Awards. She speaks at conferences on the topics of healthcare, digital strategy, marketing integration, team development, and leadership.
Michael Bonfils | GLOBAL MANAGING DIRECTOR | INTL MEDIA MANAGEMENT CORP (SEM INTERNATIONAL)
Michael Bonfils is the CEO and Founder of Int’t Media Management with the trade name of SEM International specializing in International SEO/SEM, multilingual content marketing and display solutions. With over 30 network offices around the world, Michael has been critical to the global digital marketing successes of many of the world’s largest corporations. Michael often speaks and writes on the latest trends in global search marketing and has contributed his time to many major national publications and events. In addition to being the founder of his global advertising agency, he is currently a board member of a number of organizations in technology and advertising as well as a former judge for the US Search Awards.
Michael Emiliani | Marketing Director | Freight Right Global Logistics
Mike is a seasoned digital marketing expert with a decade of experience in PPC and digital media. His passion lies in developing and growing businesses through comprehensive, integrated digital media campaigns. His ability to draw on knowledge and experiences from a wide range of challenges from his time in-house, agency-side and as a consultant has given him a unique depth and breadth to solving complex problems in PPC and broadly digital marketing. Mike has shared insights as a contributing writer and speaker at events. His extensive knowledge has also earned her the distinction of being a featured subject matter expert at Endicott College in Massachusetts, a contributor to industry blogs and recipient of the 2018 Interactive Marketing Award.
Motoko Hunt | President | AJPR
Since establishing AJPR in 1998, Motoko Hunt has been providing online marketing services to various companies around the world. Her extensive knowledge of Asia and Japanese markets proves to be highly valuable as her consulting services have made a significant impact on global marketing campaigns for some of the world’s most popular multinational brands. Besides being published in industry websites and printed media, Motoko is a frequent speaker at global search marketing conferences, giving seminars and training about topics on International Search Marketing.
Olesia Korobka | SEO entrepreneur | Fajela
Olesia Korobka is SEO entrepreneur from Ukraine. She runs a few businesses most related to SEO and a small localization service. When not doing SEO, Olesia usually studies hows and whys of SEO, testing and researching. And now also helping other SEOs from Ukraine to adapt during the ongoing war.
Rejoice Ojiaku | SEO Manager | Nelson Bostock UNLIMITED
Rejoice Ojiaku is an SEO Specialist & Content Strategist, as well as the Co-Founder of B-DigitalUK – a platform for showcasing and empowering black talent in the UK digital marketing scene. Her expertise lies in SEO, Diversity and inclusion, all bolstered by strong personal branding both online and offline.
Kristine Schachinger | SEO & Online Marketing Consultant |
Kristine Schachinger is a leading technical SEO with over two decades experience working with digital media. Kristine began her career as a front-end developer and website designer. She has helped a wide range of clients from small and medium sized businesses to Reba McEntire, AOL, Superpages.com, and USA.gov. As her digital media experience expanded Kristine incorporated accessibility, marketing, and user experience into her work which naturally drew her to learn and practice search engine optimization in order to help her clients gain greater website visibility. She is now a well known and respected in her field as a regular speaker at industry conferences in the US and around the world. She is also a Subject Matter Expert with columns in Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, the SEM Post, Search Engine Watch, and State of Digital.
Scott Hendison | PRESIDENT | SEARCH COMMANDER INC
Scott Hendison is the founder of Search Commander, Inc., an internet consultancy with multiple services and brands. He began selling software online in 1999, attended his first Pubcon in 2004, and is a founding board member of SEMpdx, hosting monthly events and an annual conference in Portland Oregon since 2007.
Sunny Bal | Paid Social Media & Digital Advertising Manager, Global | ARUP
Sunny Bal is a dynamic Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategist with a knack for driving global campaigns that captivate audiences and boost brand visibility. With rich experience from roles at Arup and HDR, Sunny excels in crafting innovative content strategies and leading high-performing teams to success. A proud alumnus of California State University, Fresno, Sunny holds a BSc in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing. Known for blending creativity with data-driven insights, Sunny's work has garnered significant recognition in the industry. When not strategizing the next big campaign, Sunny enjoys mentoring children through Solidarity Sports, sharing both patience and positivity.
Vânia Marques | Head of PPC | Minty Lab - Minty Square
With an unusual path, my career in digital marketing began in 2018, 2 years after completing my Degree in Philosophy. After a course in digital marketing with an internship, I ended up working at the agency where I interned. With 5 years of experience and dozens of clients, I worked as a PPC manager and content manager. 3 years on I decided to focus exclusively on paid campaigns. Throughout this time I developed experience in lead gen in the B2B market and later in brand development, traffic increase, and purchase generation in the B2C market. I am currently responsible for the PPC department at MintySquare, where I develop marketing strategies for several fashion brands and campaigns that aim to increase brand awareness and generate purchases.
"This is an extraordinary honor for the company as the U.S. Search Awards, held annually to recognize the ever-expanding world of search marketing, is known for being the premier celebration of SEO, PPC, and content marketing in various territories across the globe." beMarketing
"The US Search Awards ceremony is a momentous event in the digital marketing industry, celebrating outstanding achievements and innovation within the sector. Block & Tam’s multiple nominations underscore their dedication to excellence and their ability to consistently exceed client expectations." Block & Tam
"These nominations are confirmation that we have created an excellent software offering that agencies are finding essential to their client work and strategic planning."Manick Bhan, CTO LinkGraph
"Report Builder 2.0 is the best reporting tool on the market and deserves to be recognized as such. Plus, it has the power to change the industry, so reaching the final of the US Search Awards and getting the thumbs up from the expert judges helps take us one step further towards the change the industry needs when it comes to reporting." Dragon Metrics
“As a company that has submitted to the US Search Awards in the past, we're thrilled to say that the US Search Awards is a platform that celebrates excellence and innovation in the search industry. Participating in this prestigious event not only provided us with unparalleled recognition but also offered us an invaluable opportunity to connect with the best in the field. The US Search Awards is a beacon of inspiration, pushing us to strive for higher standards and achieve greater success in our digital endeavours.”Ryan Edwards Tombras
“Winning these awards is a huge deal for our business, it encourages the team members to know that what they do is verifiably excellent, and it encourages the clients who see the value in our offerings when it comes to generating business and brand awareness on their behalf.”Tobias La Cour Somebody Digital
