Cover Story
Richard Hagerty
founder and CEO, IMPAQT
Smart Business Pittsburgh | October 2008
Few industries evolve as quickly and
relentlessly as search engine marketing.
Search engines are becoming the fastest-growing forums for advertising since television’s heyday. If your trade is search
engine optimization, then just trying to
keep up with the business is a full-time
job.
Nobody knows that better than Richard
Hagerty, founder and CEO of IMPAQT. As
corporations begin realizing the advertising possibilities that search engines offer,
they start seeking companies like IMPAQT
to help them get their name out in cyberspace. The result: competing optimization
firms vying for clients’ business. And, like
the industry in general, the number of competitors keeps growing.
To stay on top of his game, Hagerty has
boldly taken his company where no other
search marketing company has gone
before, time and time again. He started
IMPAQT in 1999, and every year since then has been a year of change and innovation.
While many of his competitors offer mostly consulting services, Hagerty insisted that
IMPAQT own the technology side of business, as well. That way, clients get a more
customized product.
In doing so, Hagerty put his company on
a path of constant development. In 2000,
his team developed the first search visibility metric, allowing clients to see how their
keywords perform. A year later, IMPAQT
became the first search market company
to offer a collaborative extranet, providing
clients better access to their data. Then, a
year after that, the extranet was replaced
by the new-and-improved ExstoNet.
And on and on like that, culminating
last year with “Search Day,” the first-ofits-kind search marketing training event.
IMPAQT hosted the affair to give clients
an opportunity to learn more about the
benefits of search engine marketing
through seminars, topic-specific sessions and even an opportunity to meet
with representatives from Google,
Yahoo! and MSN.
Hagerty’s background in teaching —
he has a bachelor’s degree in education
— is evident in his business approach.
In addition to sponsoring “Search Day,”
IMPAQT partners with organizations,
such as the Pittsburgh chapter of the
American Marketing Association, to
imbed the company and its message
about the possibilities of search engine
optimization in the local business
scene.
HOW TO REACH: IMPAQT, (888) 949-4672 or www.impaqt.com
