June, 2026 | Contributed by Dærick Gröss

Dear Diæreses…

This isn't the article I had planned to write today, but it is the one I need to.

Bruce Clay was a giant in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) community, often referred to as the "Father of SEO". He was in the weeds in the earliest days of search engines (basically just Alta Vista) and would analyze everything about how they worked, what ranking changes one could affect, and how the algorithms evolved with each update. Bruce built a company from scratch around what he learned in those earliest days on his own, a legacy that now outlives him 30 years on.

I met Bruce in the spring of 2005. I was in desperate need of a job, and had just walked in to the office of Bruce Clay, Inc. (BCI) based solely on the logo on the window because it "looked like the kind of place that could use a project manager". I met Cindy in the front office, introduced myself and handed her a résumé, and later that afternoon I got a call to come back the next day for an interview. That interview changed the course of my career (thank you, Jayme!), and the five+ years that followed laid the groundwork for everything I have done professionally for the next two decades.

When I walked in that day, I had no idea who Bruce was, what "SEO" meant, or what anyone there even did. In short order I was the company's second Account/Project Manager, and by the time I left I was the director of a small team of Account Managers. I standardized the role there, defined what we did, and made it scalable so that the team could grow as the company grew and took on more and more accounts. As BCI began to go international, I also partnered with all of the newly opened offices to help them get their first accounts up and running with their teams.

Bruce was a mentor for me. He gave me room to try things, provided advice where needed, and gave me the space and encouragement to find my leadership voice. We didn't agree on everything, but he gave me room to speak and made sure I was heard. I learned how to work directly with clients as the company liaison. I learned how to work with analysts and engineers and support their needs while also minding the project clock. And I learned how to speak directly and confidently to company leadership, even when delivering less than optimal news (and receiving less than optimal feedback). To this day, I still model portions of my project status reports after what I developed at BCI.

Of all the places I have worked, BCI stands out as the most colorful as well. The mix of oddballs and no-filter characters was just this side of an HR nightmare, and frankly it was perfect. We all gelled and the cohesion felt real, like people just being people. It's hard to describe, but the years I was there cemented some really great friendships outside of just being good colleagues. There was something human about working with Bruce, which I have endeavored to carry with me everywhere I work since.

Many of the people I worked with then are still there, helping to steer the company forward into new territory without Bruce to man the helm. To them, and everyone else at Bruce Clay, Inc., I offer my deepest condolences and my sincere wish for continued success at the forefront of SEO in this changing landscape of the AI Age.

Godspeed, Bruce. Thank you for everything.