Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio • 2016
We started Helium because the SEO industry was broken. It still is. Except for us.
The story of why we started Helium, what we believe, and the values that drive every decision we make for our clients.
2016
Year Founded
Inc. 5000
Fastest Growing Company
400%+
Average Client ROI
200+
Businesses Served
Our Founding Story
Why We Started Helium
The story of how Helium was founded is the classic entrepreneurial journey of seeing a big problem in the world and wanting to start a business to solve it. When Tim and Paul began this company with three other friends, they kept coming back to the same question: why does the SEO industry keep failing its clients?
Every day, businesses across the country were signing up with new SEO providers and being told they could rank on page one in three months, that they would receive top-level service, and that the team had inside knowledge on Google’s algorithm. Those businesses would pay their bills month after month and receive slow, unresponsive service, little to no results, and ultimately fire their SEO firm and start the cycle all over again.
I worked for a $2 billion company that assigned 40 to 50 accounts per account manager. One told me he never logged in to half his clients ever in their entire contract. He simply didn’t have the time. I quit soon after. I didn’t want to take clients’ money and not do any work for them.”
That experience, and the realization that it wasn’t unique, is what drove Tim and Paul to build something different. A company that deeply cared about its clients. That truly understood SEO and had the tools to drive real results. That would treat every client the way they deserved to be treated.
That mission has never changed. It is, and always will be, to make the world of SEO a better place for businesses.
Our Mission:
To make the world of SEO a better place for businesses
We knew that to achieve this mission, we had to build around three uncompromising commitments. These three pillars drive every decision we make, from who we hire, to how we build technology, to how we treat our clients.
Three Pillars
What We're Built On
Proprietary Technology
If we don't have technology our competitors don't have, how will we drive better results? AI-driven SEO isn't a buzzword at Helium. It's been our foundation since day one.
World-Class Service
People don't remember what you tell them. They remember how you make them feel. Even the best technology falls without a relationship built on trust, responsiveness, and care.
The Gold Standard
There are 18,000 digital marketing agencies in the US. About 150 actually know how to rank keywords. We are building the Deloitte of SEO, the name businesses trust above all others.
Core Values
The values that drive everything we do
These aren’t words on a wall. They’re the behaviors we hire for, promote for, and hold each other accountable to every single day.
Extraordinary Service
We go above and beyond for every client, picking up the phone, remembering the details, and doing more than we are asked on a routine basis. Zappos-level service is our standard.
Responsive Communication
We respond to all clients within 2 hours. Not end of day. Not tomorrow. 2 hours. Because so much of success in life comes down to how often and how well you communicate.
If It Is to Be, It's Up to Me
When we see a problem, we don't wait for someone else to solve it. We take ownership and get it done. Leaders step up. At Helium, every team member is a leader.
Problem Solver
It's easy to spot problems. It's difficult to solve them. We are problem solvers, for our clients and for each other. We don't come with problems. We come with solutions.
Proactive
Clients hate reactive agencies. We stay ahead of problems, ahead of algorithm changes, and ahead of our clients' questions before they even know to ask them.
Underpromise, Overdeliver
Tell the client the report will take 5 days and send it tomorrow. Promise 7 deliverables and deliver 10. Always promise less than you know you can deliver, then exceed it every time.
Achieve the Northstar
Every client has a northstar goal, the metric that actually matters to their business. Not rankings. Not traffic. Revenue. Qualified leads. Real growth. We ask every month: are we hitting it? Are we winning for you? If the answer is yes and the relationship is strong, that client stays for years. That's what we are building toward, every day, for every client.
A Letter From Our Founder
Direct From Tim Warren
If we are going to achieve our mission to make the world of SEO a better place for businesses, it will take both our best service and our unique technology to win in today’s marketplace.
My encouragement to each member of our team, and to every client who reads this, is to understand that these values are not aspirational. They are operational. They are the standard we hold ourselves to every single day, with every single client, on every single campaign.
We started Helium because we believed the industry was broken and could be fixed if one company would stand up and do it the right way. That belief has never changed. And as long as I am leading this company, it never will.
To our clients’ success, always.
With gratitude,
Timothy Warren
President & CEO, Helium SEO
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