The Senior Minds Behind Your Brand's
Search & Paid Growth
Every person below works directly on client accounts: writing the content, tuning the campaigns, and fixing the site. There are no interns or layers of account managers between you and the people doing the work.
Who Runs Your Account
Each lead below works inside your accounts every week: reviewing logs, shipping fixes, adjusting campaigns, and reporting what changed.
Steven Franzken
Founder & CEO
Steve Franzken is an entrepreneur, digital marketing strategist, and Founder & CEO of Mid-Hudson Web & Rank First Digital. He helps businesses build a powerful online presence through SEO, content strategy, and AI-driven digital marketing, with a hands-on approach that has made him a trusted growth partner across the Hudson Valley.
Nehal Malvi
Co-Founder & Head of Digital Growth
Great websites don't grow a business alone. Growth comes when SEO, content and ads work together. That's been my focus for 13+ years and 500+ brands helped, and it's what I bring to Rank First Digital.
Why Senior-Only Teams Work Better
Most agencies spread work across juniors and coordinators. We keep the team small and senior, so the people you meet are the people doing the work.
How Most Agencies Run
- closeJunior Staff on the Work: Keyword mapping, schema, and ad setups get handed to people still learning, on your budget.
- closeLayers of Account Management: Questions pass through non-technical coordinators, so simple fixes take weeks of ticket cycles.
- closeSame Playbook for Everyone: Monthly PDF exports, generic articles, and static keyword spreadsheets with no context.
- closeFrequent Staff Changes: Account managers rotate often, knowledge gets lost, and campaigns start over from scratch.
Direct Senior Execution
- check_circleTalk to the People Doing the Work: Shared Slack and email with the senior person running your account, with no coordinators in between.
- check_circleWork Every Two Weeks: Prioritized sprints that ship real changes: code, ad variants, and fixes every 14 days.
- check_circleReal Deliverables: Schema, code commits on your site or theme, and server-side tracking set up in your own accounts.
- check_circleMeasured on Your Results: We report on pipeline and cost per customer, and the team stays accountable to those numbers.
Want to Build with Veteran Practitioners?
We are always looking for experienced search, engineering, and paid media people who like doing the work directly with clients.
Questions About the Team
Who does the work, how you reach them, and what happens before you sign.
Who will be working on our account?
Do you outsource any work?
How do we talk to the person doing the work?
Can we get a plan before hiring anyone?
Case Studies From Live Client Sites
Each study is a client site as it runs today: what the business sells, what the site had to solve, and how search, content and social work together on the same pages.
E-Commerce and SEOFox Valley Paint
A specialty marking paint manufacturer with a wide catalog and several very different buyers. How a clear product journey, helpful content and search visibility work together for a specialty e-commerce brand.
Read the case studyarrow_forward
Web Design and SEOGEO-US
A geothermal contractor with related services and an unfamiliar technology to explain. How a clear structure and plain-language education lead to one consultation path for a technical home-services brand.
Read the case studyarrow_forward
Web Design and SEOHVRub-R-Wall
A Hudson Valley waterproofing franchise with a broad service catalog and a product that is invisible once applied. How one index keeps the catalog clear and plain answers build trust before an estimate.
Read the case studyarrow_forward
Website Design and SEOJMR Custom Homes
A photography-first homepage for a family-run Hudson Valley builder. How the services stay easy to find and the published guides answer what buyers search first.
Read the case studyarrow_forwardNotes on Search, AI Answers and Paid Media
What we are working through on live accounts, written up as it happens: how answer engines pick citations, how tracking holds up, and what we change first.
How to Rank in ChatGPT: How Answer Engines Pick What to Cite
ChatGPT has no separate ranking system to game. How answer engines pick what to cite, which crawler controls your appearance, and what to change on the page.
10 min read
Rank First Digital: From 25 Years of Mid-Hudson Web to AI Search Visibility
How a senior-led New York agency grew out of 25 years of web work, why it split from Mid-Hudson Web, and how it is built so businesses rank on Google and get named by AI.
9 min readReady to Talk to the People Who Would Run Your Account?
Skip the sales deck. Send your site and goals and get a written plan back from a senior strategist within 8 hours, or book a 45-minute call to talk it through.
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