David Portney

David’s fascination with the internet and world wide web – and eventually Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – started in 2001, creating websites from scratch as a hobby using notepad, later with DreamWeaver, and eventually settling on WordPress.

In July 2008, David’s hobby expanded to SEO, and became unexpectedly obsessed with SEO, finding himself researching and experimenting with SEO techniques after work in the evenings and weekends.

In November 2009, David relocated to the Pacific Northwest and on January 18 started his first SEO job at a local agency in Vancouver, Washington. David later moved on to enterprise SEO working for Ian Lurie’s Portent Interactive in Seattle, stumbling into what would soon be commonly known as “remote work”. In 2011 David was lured away to 3Q Digital, which eventually was purchased by DEPT. In January 2025, David joined the Team at Upgrow.

David’s agency SEO experience is primarily working with SaaS and Tech companies, with a minor in other aspects of SEO, and also has a strong passion for analytics and has been Google Analytics GAIQ Certified since 2011.

David’s longtime hobby is playing guitar, saying “I’ve always wanted to play guitar so badly, and dreams really do come true, because I can play guitar so badly”.