Mike Stewart is a 25+ year media and marketing veteran whose career began at age 13, hauling hay for his grandmother’s feed store in Hunt County, Texas. That early exposure to small business operations shaped everything that followed.

At 19, he started in telecommunications sales at U.S. Wireless Communications in Mesquite, TX. In 2000, he joined GTE—which became Verizon Information Services / Superpages.com—as a New Business Sales Strategist in premise sales. Over 9 years with Verizon, Mike earned the President’s Award four times, working directly with hundreds of Dallas-area businesses and witnessing firsthand the shift from print Yellow Pages to digital search.

In 2009, Mike joined the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM) and became a board member shortly after. He later served as Chapter Chair for SEMPO North Texas (2013–2014). He is one of the founding organizers of the State of Search conference (stateofsearch.org), a nationally recognized digital marketing conference held annually at the Grapevine Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, which he continues to actively run. The 2026 conference is scheduled for October 19–20, partnering with Local U.

In 2010, Mike launched his own agency—originally operating as smbSEO—dedicated to transparent, accountable local search marketing. In 2015, he and John O’Grady formalized their partnership under Status26 Inc., which became the parent company of Rise Local.

Mike has spoken at national SEO conferences including Pubcon and State of Search, and has been called as an expert witness in Northern District Court cases involving local SEO geotargeting disputes. Industry peers have publicly described him as one of the premier local SEO specialists in the country.

Outside of work, Mike and his wife Mary are longtime Great Dane rescue advocates, fostering dogs through DaneRescue.net since 2006—typically housing 2–5 fosters at any given time.