We are talking with Oneupweb, a digital marketing company that specializes in building relationships and businesses through integrated online marketing and applied creative thinking. Founded in 1996 by Lisa Wehr, the company’s original mission was a simple one: to design websites. When clients began to want their sites to be seen by more people, Lisa gradually phased out the company’s design services and set out to uncover the secrets to improving a website’s position on major search engines. The rest is history.

Hile Design: Can you share a bit more about Lisa’s background, and tell us more specifically about what your company does today?

Oneupweb: Prior to Oneupweb, Lisa attended college with a focus on commercial advertising photography, worked as a forensic photographer, a mounted policewoman in Florida, and was a pretty serious musher with her own sled-dog team in Alaska. When she stopped racing competitively, she started a guided tour business. People would visit Alaska to learn how to mush dogs, and Lisa would act as their guide. In 1996, she wanted to bring in more business, so she went to Wal-Mart, bought a computer and taught herself how to use it. Word spread that she knew how to design websites, and the customers started pouring in. But they wanted their websites seen by more people, so Lisa methodically went about figuring out how to make that happen. The result was Oneupweb, a search marketing company. A few years ago the company moved to Traverse City, and just last year we moved into our new 23,000 square foot global headquarters on Grand Traverse Bay.

Today, Oneupweb is a recognized leader in digital marketing, providing services that include: natural search engine optimization (SEO), paid search marketing (PPC), conversion improvement and analytics, podcast production, online media planning and placement, social media marketing and search marketing consultation for in-house marketing teams.

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