Leslie Rohde

A programmer since 1974 and a webmaster since 1999, Leslie is currently focused on providing webmasters with leading edge technology to advance their online businesses. Leslie's teachings and tools are actively promoted by a varitable who's-who of search engine marketing and has been the "man behind the curtain" defining the SEO strategies for a number of successful web businesses.

SEO

May 2002
Released OptiLink, the first program to perform analysis of inbound link text.
Popularized the use of keyword rich link text as a means to high ranking at Google, arguably the greatest advance in SEO since the birth of Google, and coined the term "Link Reputation" to describe this new type of analysis.

April 2003
Invented "Dynamic Linking", a method of controlling the allocation of PageRank by means of selective use of Javascript (subsequently updated to employ the nofollow attribute).

November 2004
Released OptiSpider, a program to check websites for the most common causes of SEO problems, which are commonly self-induced by webmasters themselves.

Widely published and quoted, Leslie popularized the use of a number of "trick" searches as a way to research and explain search engine algorithms, notably "home" and "click here".

Today, Leslie is widely regarded as the "SEO to the SEO's" for his skill in providing understandable and actionable advice for the most challenging SEO problems.

Personal

"I was born in 1956, the son of an engineer, and developed early in life a passion for all things technical. I am widely read in numerous technical fields and technology remains my burning avocation today.

"I began my education in electrical engineering at the University of Texas, but have worked as a software engineer since 1974 in a wide range of technical industries and in government research and development. My last "real job" was with Tektronix where I managed software development for a large computer-aided engineering application.

"I began working for myself in 1988 building custom applications for technical firms such as Intel, did technical business process consulting in partnership with a national consulting firm where I delivered business improvement consulting to the top 80 Aerospace and Defense firms, and developed a "shrinked-wrapped" Windows-based application marketed through a joint venture partnership.

"I started trying to figure out web business in early 1999 and ran several small informational and ecommerce sites until I finally "got serious" about search engine research in late 2001 with the intention of developing the next generation of SEO tools, a process that ultimately led to OptiLink."

Leslie also (infrequently) maintains a personal blog at leslierohde.com