Burkan Bur
With over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and agency work, I’ve led projects for major clients like Amazon, Hilton, Doordash, OWN, SC Johnson, Sharp Healthcare, Intel, American Express, and Experian.
As the Managing Director and Head of SEO at The Ad Firm, my role involves leading client relationships, managing project deliverables, and expanding accounts to provide an exceptional customer experience. I’m responsible for setting strategic direction in various aspects of digital marketing, including SEO, content marketing, digital PR, social networking, and keeping up with the latest trends and algorithm changes.
What I like most about my role
I love collaborating with businesses to help them achieve their sales goals. My role allows me to work closely with my team, focusing on mentoring, training, and running a department that promotes efficiency and value. I enjoy the challenge of communicating complex strategies to technical teams and executives alike, ensuring that everyone is aligned toward our common goals.
Additionally, I take pride in effectively bridging communication between technical development teams and top-level executives, including CMOs and CEOs, which is crucial for cohesive strategy and execution across all levels.
Past Work Experience
Starting my career as a programmer and developer, I have a unique perspective combining technical expertise and strategic acumen. I hold an MBA from Bilgi University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Istanbul, and proud to have started and taught the first-ever SEO and analytics courses at UCSD.Â
My extensive experience includes leading and developing teams. I’ve been in this industry since the early days of Internet marketing, witnessing its evolution and the emergence of new trends firsthand.
Certifications:
- Business Management in Marketing, UCSD
- Web Development, UCSD
- Project Management, UCSD
- Google AdWords certification, Google
- Google Analytics certification, Google
- Advanced Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Workshops
Hobbies outside work
Outside of my professional life, I’m an avid world traveler, martial artist, basketball player, and dancer. These activities not only keep me physically active but also foster a sense of creativity and balance in my life.
Articles Written by Burkan Bur
Google’s August 2026 Spam Update
Google finished rolling out its August 2026 spam update on August 21. The enforcement window ran four days, starting August 18. It’s the third spam update of the year. No new spam policies were introduced,
Will SEO Traffic Decline in 2027?
SEO traffic could decline for some websites in 2027, but a drop in organic visits will not necessarily mean SEO is failing. AI-generated answers, zero-click searches, and changing search behavior are likely to reduce clicks
Case Studies as a Local SEO Asset: How to Turn Client Wins Into Content
A well-written case study does more than document a project. It names the city where the work happened, describes the specific problem that client faced in that market, and shows the outcome in numbers. That
Writing for Humans and AI at the Same Time: A Practical Framework
Content that reads well for people and gets cited by AI isn’t two separate things. It’s one thing done well. Clear structure, direct answers, and genuine depth serve human readers and AI retrieval systems through
A Beginner’s Guide to Crawlability: Why Search Engines and AI Can’t Find Some Pages
Crawlability is a page’s ability to be found and read by a bot, like Googlebot or ClaudeBot, in the first place. A page a crawler can’t reach never gets indexed, and a page that’s never
Why Your Business Needs a Monitoring System for What AI Says About You
A potential client asks ChatGPT which SEO agencies in San Diego specialize in local search for small businesses. The response names three firms. Yours isn’t one of them, not because you don’t do the work,
The Local Business Readiness Checklist for 2027: 12 Assets You Need Before AI-First Search Fully Arrives
AI search isn’t replacing traditional local search gradually. It’s replacing it in chunks, category by category, query by query. Restaurants in major markets are already being surfaced by AI assistants before Google’s local pack. Home
Why the Businesses Winning in AI Search All Have One Thing in Common: Consistent, Cross-Channel Brand Signals
Ask any brand why they’re not showing up in AI-generated answers, and the answer is rarely a single missing tactic. It’s usually fragmentation. Inconsistent business descriptions. Different service lists across directories. Executive bios that contradict
Why Search Intent Matters More Than Traffic
Search intent matters more than traffic because visitors who find the right answer, service, or product are more likely to engage and convert than visitors who arrive without a clear reason to act. A thousand
Multimodal SEO: Why Images, Video, and Text All Need to Work Together
Multimodal SEO focuses on making different types of website content work together so search engines and AI-powered systems can better understand a business, its expertise, and the information it provides. Instead of treating written content,
Why Video Content Is Becoming Non-Negotiable for SEO
Search behavior has shifted toward video, and search platforms have adapted by giving video more visibility across search results and their own properties. For businesses, this creates opportunities to appear in places where written content
Google AI Mode Has Changed the SERP Forever: What Your Business Loses If You Only Track Rankings
A business can hold a top-three ranking for its primary keyword and lose 40 percent of its organic traffic in the same quarter. That’s not a hypothetical. It’s the reality for sites that relied on