Welcome back to the Beyond Rankings series on SEOTalk, where we spotlight practitioners navigating the real-world shifts in search engine optimization and the newer AEO/GEO space.
This month, we highlight Apurva Bose, VP of Operations & Strategy at Overtake Digital and a member of the SEOTalk community. From running search for multi-location automotive and home services brands to building AI-powered workflows with Claude and Codex, we look at what it takes to make SEO scale across a whole agency and tie it back to real business outcomes.
Interview With Apurva Bose on Scaling SEO Operations & AI
Q1. What does your current SEO work look like: role, company type, what you’re focused on?
I’m currently the VP of Operations & Strategy at Overtake Digital, where I oversee digital marketing operations across SEO, paid media, content, web development, and broader client strategy for a team of 20+.
A lot of my focus is on local and multi-location businesses, especially automotive, along with home services and other lead-gen brands. I’m heavily involved in:
- Technical strategy and site migrations
- Local search
- Content and brand/entity signals
- AI search visibility
- Reporting and building better processes across the agency
On the operations side, I’m focused on making our work more efficient, scalable, and consistent across teams and clients.
Q2. What’s a win you’re most proud of in the last year? (Doesn’t have to be a huge number, any breakthrough counts.)
One win I’m especially proud of over the last year has been helping build a stronger operational structure at Overtake Digital while still staying close to strategy and client work. We’ve:
- Improved how teams collaborate
- Tightened up reporting and processes
- Started building more scalable workflows around areas like SEO, analytics, and automation
For me, the biggest win is that the improvements haven’t just made things more efficient internally. They’ve also made it easier for the team to move faster, make better decisions, and deliver more consistently for clients.
Q3. What is that one SEO thing you used to believe that you’ve since changed your mind on?
I used to think rankings were the clearest measure of SEO success. I still care about them, but I’ve shifted more toward:
- Visibility
- Conversions
- Brand presence
More inclined towards whether search is actually influencing business outcomes.
Q4. What is a tool, resource, or habit that’s genuinely made your work better recently?
Using Claude and Codex to build out workflows and automate some of the repetitive parts of our work.
It’s helped with everything from research and QA to reporting and development tasks, and it’s freed up more time to focus on strategy and decision-making.
Q5. What is one piece of advice you’d give a mid-level SEO who wants to get to the next level?
Learn how the business actually makes money. The SEOs who stand out are the ones who can:
- Connect search strategy to revenue
- Explain the why behind their recommendations
- Communicate well with people outside of SEO
Key Takeaways
- Build Operations That Scale: Better collaboration, reporting and workflows help teams move faster and deliver more consistently for clients.
- Look Beyond Rankings: Visibility, conversions and brand presence give a truer picture of whether search is influencing business outcomes.
- Use AI to Buy Back Strategy Time: Tools like Claude and Codex can take on repetitive research, QA, reporting and development work.
- Speak the Language of the Business: The SEOs who stand out connect search to revenue, explain their reasoning and communicate well outside SEO.
Connect with Apurva on: Twitter/X link, LinkedIn
Beyond Rankings is SEOTalk’s monthly series celebrating the practitioners shaping modern search.
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