Eyeflow: The Search Engine Company That Could

It started out as a joke - a reaction to the Daily Show's pre-G20 razzing of Pittsburgh as a bit player on the world stage.  But it ended up driving the city of Pittsburgh Web site to a number two Google ranking for "The Best City in the World."

Phil LaBoon, owner of Eyeflow, a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) firm on the South Side, and his partners, without access or permission, used their link-building chops to raise Pittsburgh's Google ranking, finishing at a wildly impressive number two. (Do a search  and you will see it now ranked number four but with a beautiful skyline photo of Pittsburgh.)

"We knew it would be controversial, which is always awesome," LaBoon, 28, recalls. "The next thing you know, we're getting hate mail accusing us of 'tricking' Google."  

Accusations aside, LaBoon and Eyeflow have helped put Pittsburgh on the SEO map nationally, and, soon, internationally.

His firm generated between $1.5 and 2 million in sales in 2009, and now consults and partners with 50 different companies including Fortune 500 and national franchises located all over the U.S., including Giant Eagle, EDMC, and GeoSolutions. LaBoon was among 18 regional business leaders nominated for the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Eyeflow's online SEO analysis tool, SEOzio Beta, which gives instant feedback to help boost site ranking, was recently launched as a free iPhone application.

I Flow with Eyeflow
With an associates' degree in multimedia technology from Pittsburgh Technical Institute (PTI),  LaBoon knew instinctively his time would be better spent establishing an SEO firm than pursuing a college degree.  "No school teaches this stuff," he asserts.  "And no school could teach me what I wanted to learn."

A Baldwin native, LaBoon started Eyeflow in 2001, while living at his parent's house. His breakout business was the Legal Limit Breathalyzer Key Chain, which the company distributed in 2003, when LaBoon himself was barely legal, and working as webmaster for another company.  The key chains, sold to stores, at nightclubs and trade shows, contained a single-use alcohol detector in a vial where users could measure their blood-alcohol level before driving home.   The product got great buzz: calls from Jay Leno, Fox News, and print coverage in the Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette, all while he was assembling the chains at his parent's house.  It was "a good learning experience," reflects LaBoon. "I sold a lot of breathalyzers, but the profit margins weren't huge," The business eventually dried up.
 
At 23, he entered a Florida investment real estate partnership that generated $1.4 million in less than a year, then fell apart.

LaBoon then took a year off to explore website consulting. As a consultant, he found that most companies who try to do their own Internet marketing and SEO projects fail. "They try to hire from outside, or from within, and they don't know what they're doing," he explains. "I hear it over and over. 'We tried it; it didn't work. ' So they hire us to do it for them."

 Eyeflow, one of the first companies to do Internet marketing, he says, is one of the highest ranked SEO companies in Pittsburgh on Google.  "We don't step on any toes; we don't do web design, or marketing, just SEO. Because of that, we have so many partners who love working with us." LaBoon is Eyeflow's only sales person, with 17 employees and contractors backing him up.

Eyeflow shares its SEO expertise with the world, including its competitors, by sponsoring the Pittsburgh SEO Group's free, open workshops, held at the Pittsburgh Technology Council. On the Eyeflow website, there's an SEO Tips and Tricks blog.  Laboon, who has also lectured on SEO in four states,  also serves as a mentor to PTI students.  "We're unique in that we give away a lot of knowledge for free," he says. " It's tough to hate the guy who helps you out."

During the winter, he heads down to Costa Rica to volunteer at a beachfront hostel community working on local projects - building a playground and an animal shelter - and helping business owners with their websites, while managing his own business from a distance.  He recently returned from several weeks in Europe, exploring partnerships and opportunities outside the U.S.

Located at 23rd and Carson Street, Eyeflow will soon be moving into new offices close to the 10th Street bridge.  Laboon lives four blocks down with his two Pomeranians, Lando and Anakin (as in General Calrissian and Skywalker).

Phil LaBoon could have easily taken his talents elsewhere, but is happy to keep Eyeflow in his hometown, where he maintains that its attributes only add to his bottom line. "Here, you can buy a nice house you can afford in a safe area, and the schools are good.  It makes it easier for me to find and keep new talent."

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Group picture, from top to bottom: Jeffrey Majcher, Lauralynn Schueckler, Kathy Laboon, Lando (no last name), Phil Laboon, Anakin (also no last name), Chris Hornak.

Photographs copyright Brian Cohen