Obviously, no business can build in-house expertise in every area. The need for external experts is only growing. I’m planning a series of interviews about specialists across different industries and the companies they represent.

Today’s interview is about SEO and search engine promotion. My guest—Maxim Konovalov—has 17 years of hands-on SEO experience, and his company, RocketSEO, just turned 13.

This interview may interest both companies that are actively investing in Google promotion (at the very least, RocketSEO can audit your current efforts), and those just thinking about getting started.

How it all started

Hi Maxim. When a business chooses an expert or outsources a service, the person behind the expertise—the face of the company—is just as important as the experience itself. You want to know who you’re starting a relationship with. So let’s start from the beginning. Tell us about yourself. How would you begin your professional CV?

I’m originally from Briceni. Back in school, I started earning money by traveling to Ukraine to buy computers. I’d bring them back, assemble and sell them, install operating systems and the software people needed. That was my first taste of entrepreneurship.

Later, I moved to Chișinău and in 2007 landed an internship at a company that promoted websites selling cigarettes to the U.S. market. I had zero SEO knowledge at the time. But after eight months of training and persistence, I started getting real results. I got sites to rank at the top for keywords like "cheap cigarettes" and "Marlboro cigarettes," even though the competition was insane. And it wasn’t just rankings—we saw conversions. On some days, the sites I promoted brought in up to 50 orders. Eventually, they offered me the position of SEO department head...

Not bad for a 19-year-old...

But I turned it down.

First steps in business

Why did you leave a job that paid so well?

Yeah, I was making $600–800 a month there, which was solid money for a 19-year-old back then. But I realized I wanted to go out on my own. I borrowed €1,500 from my mom, bought more gear, and started freelancing. My “IT garage” was actually a rented apartment on the 13th floor. And like you'd expect at the beginning—I was glued to my computer day and night.

Did you stick with SEO?

For three years I explored different niches, tested ideas, experimented. In my second year, I started building a team—I couldn’t keep up alone. We built a network of 800 satellite websites focused on medical content. That was enough to generate serious traffic and solid profits from affiliate sales—we earned a commission from every sale driven by our traffic.

RocketSEO: crisis and growth

When did you “officially” start the company?

In 2011. Back then it was trendy to have “SEO” in the company name. We landed on “RocketSEO” and the slogan “Are you ready to rocket beyond everyone?”

And the company took off too?

From 2011 to 2017, things were flying high. We kept climbing. The team grew, and in 2017 we bought a building for our own office. Everything looked incredibly promising.

But judging by your tone, something went wrong?

At the end of 2017, and again in 2018, Google rolled out the Google Medic Update, which hit our projects hard. We lost 90% of our traffic and revenue. We had to painfully cut the team almost in half. For those who stayed, salaries were delayed for a long time. And to top it off, we had just started a massive renovation in the new office.

How did you handle it?

That crisis taught me a key lesson: never put all your eggs in one basket. We reworked our strategy, focused on client projects, and shifted into more stable niches. Most importantly—we decided to build an SEO service agency alongside our own projects. We had a ton of experience, and it would’ve been a waste not to turn that into a scalable service. And it worked, even though services aren’t always easy to scale. We’re not limiting ourselves to the Moldovan market either. Countries like Romania and the U.S., where we’ve already gained long-term clients, have huge growth potential.

Why Do Clients Choose RocketSEO?

Let’s go through a typical scenario for you. A potential client reaches out to RocketSEO. Why would they choose to work with you?

Look, the first thing we do is a mini audit of their niche. We assess the market potential based on search volume. We analyze how competitors are positioned—who’s grabbing how much of the traffic. We identify key queries and pinpoint where competitors are falling short.

How much does that kind of audit cost, and how long does it take?

We spent over six months gathering and analyzing traffic data across all niches in Moldova. We now know exactly how much traffic companies are getting in each niche—specifically those with annual turnovers of over 100 million MDL. We publish our findings on our blog. For example: eCommerce and SEO in Moldova: Who's on Top in Google?

Starting in December, we’ll be publishing weekly research articles covering every niche in Moldova—from private medical clinics to real estate.

For Western markets, the niche analysis is free. We used to charge €500 for this, but decided it makes more sense to start off the relationship by giving the client valuable information—rather than asking them for money upfront.

Fair enough. Is the preliminary audit enough to win a client over?

It’s a strong card, but not the only one. I believe what matters more is the forecast and strategy we prepare afterward.

What kind of forecast?

For most clients, SEO feels like a black box. You can pour money in and still get no results. And usually, no one guarantees anything.

Do you guarantee results?

We provide a one-year forecast and clearly define—right at the start—how much traffic we plan to bring in based on the client’s budget. We build a promotion strategy around that forecast and revise it every three months. And we deliver—more or less within margin of error—what we planned.

And if you don’t?

Honestly, that’s never happened. But if it ever did, I’d be ready to refund the client.

So to sum it up: niche audit, performance forecast, and a strategy. Solid set of advantages.

There’s one more.

What’s that?

Exclusivity. It might be shooting ourselves in the foot, but we only work with one client per niche. Yes, exclusivity comes at a cost, but in return, the client knows we won’t be using the insights or data we gain to promote their competitors. We’re all-in on one client. That focus helps us build trust and deliver a high ROI.

The Personal Side & Inspiration

We haven’t talked much about your life today. What do you still have time and energy for besides work?

I’m into running—I even completed a marathon. Running teaches patience and strategic thinking. That’s important in both sports and SEO. A marathon is all about long-term perspective, not quick wins. SEO works the same way. You shouldn’t expect instant results, but if you trust the data and the process, you’ll see real impact. The key is trusting the professionals and being open to honest analytics.

You’ve steered it back to work again :) How do you actually relax?

I love spending time with my family—I have three kids. I also enjoy video games. Fallout 4 is a favorite. Games help me unwind and also keep my strategic thinking sharp.

How should we wrap up the interview?

Would you mind if I shared a link to my Telegram blog? I talk about my entrepreneurial journey there—how to optimize processes, plan better, and manage teams effectively.

Of course—go for it. Here’s the link: https://t.me/konovalovmm_blog

And by the way, if you’ve got any fresh market niche audits coming up, I’d be more than happy to chat about those too.